If you charge for your travel costs, you can add travel as a fee to your Fees List, allowing you to add travel fees to any existing invoice. Travel can be set up as a flat fee or dynamic fee (based on time/distance).
Halaxy features a number of preset travel fees that you can import from our database. This includes travel fees for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), and various traffic and workers' compensation schemes in different states. You may be able to claim a rebate for these fees.
Note
For travel related to DVA claims, you should import the DVA fee titled KM Travelled from Halaxy's database. When you use this fee, Halaxy will automatically deduct 10 kilometres from the DVA claim. Medicare does not pay a rebate for the first 10 kilometres for DVA travel.
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Click Finances > Fees.
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On the top right, click New Fee.
GIF: Example of adding a travel fee
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In the New Fee page, for Lookup, type the fee name or item code.
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If the fee is in Halaxy's database, select it from the dropdown to import it, then click Save.
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If the fee is not in the list, proceed to step 4 to manually add the fee.
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If you are manually adding a travel fee, configure the following fields:
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Funder: Enter the name of the funding body. Halaxy has some preset funders, which you can select in the dropdown. If the funding body is not available, you can add it as a new funder. (Tip: If you are generally charging travel to patients or private organisations, you can select Private as the funder.)
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Fee Name: Enter a name for the travel fee. (Examples: Travel - 20 to 30 kms, KMs travelled)
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Item Number: Enter the item number as reference to the fee in the invoice. This is used by the funder to identify the fee in their fee schedule or schedule of benefits.
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Fee Type: Select the fee type for this travel fee. Use one of the following options:
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Item: Allows you to set a flat fee for time or distance travelled. (Example: Your travel fee is set to $25, which you charge for every 10 kms. When added to the invoice, you can then set the quantity of the travel fee.)
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Pro Rata: Allows you to set a dynamic fee, to be based on the appointment duration. (Example: Your travel fee has a duration of 30 minutes and an amount of $50. If you add the travel fee to an appointment of 60 minutes, the total travel fee automatically calculates to $100.)
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Category: Select Travel. This is a recommended step as this appears in your financial reports.
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Pricing: Enter the Amount, Tax Rule and Rebate. (Note: If the fee is not claimable, leave the Rebate blank.)
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Fee Visibility: Select Hidden to hide this fee from your online bookings page.
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Fee Details: Keep this section blank as this fee will not be used for online bookings.
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Click Save Fee.
The fee is now added to your Fees List and can be added to any invoice or appointment.
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Open the invoice.
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Under the Fees & Charges section, click Add another fee.
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In the pop-up:
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Fee: Select the travel fee you added.
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Quantity: Enter the correct quantity for the appointment, depending on how you set up the travel fee (according to distance or time). (For pro rata travel fees, this field is unavailable.)
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Click Save.
The fee has now been added to the invoice and is billed according to the quantity you set.
NDIS travel fees are charged by the minute, based on the same hourly rate as the service you are providing and agreed with by the participant for the primary support (or a lower hourly rate for travel if agreed with by the participant for the primary support).
Because of this, the Amount field for NDIS travel fees in Halaxy's database is set to $0.00; you will need to set the amount on an invoice-by-invoice basis or create multiple travel fees with different amounts based on the different services you charge. The easiest way to do this is to create a fee with the type set to "Item", charged by the minute - this will allow you to easily enter the time spent traveling as a quantity.
To claim for travel expenses, you must show the travel fee as a separate line item on the invoice used to bill for the service.
To claim for travel expenses, you must submit the claim for travel along with the claim for the service you provided. Medicare and DVA will not accept a claim for travel expenses on their own.
If you try to submit a claim for travel expenses without an associated service, you will receive error 238 on the Medicare report.
I have an appointment for a DVA client. The appointment is 10 kilometres from the office. Can I claim this expense?
No, you will not be able to claim this travel expense. Medicare does not pay a rebate for the first 10 kilometres for DVA travel.
If you travelled more than 10 kilometres, Medicare will pay a reduced benefit for the claim, deducting the first 10 kilometres of travel (denoted by code 298 on the Medicare report). If you import the DVA fee titled KM Travelled from Halaxy's database, Halaxy will automatically deduct this from your claim.
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