Please note: The following feature is available as part of Birdie’s Starter, Core, Advanced and Plus packages (Also known as Care Management, Rostering & Finance, Premium, Entry and Essentials) Please get in touch if interested in more information on this feature!

This is a rate that is used if you charge or pay a flat fee for certain time bands, with time-banded rates associated with visit lengths. For example, you may have time bands for 15 minutes 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes and so on. See more information here - How to create and assign pay rate cards

During the configuration of travel rates, you have the option to set up breaks. This 'break' is a way of defining whether or not travel time & mileage should be paid after a specific period of time, i.e. after a break. This is to help differentiate between what is considered ‘travel between visits’, or whether the journey that the Care Professional is doing is actually considered 'commuting time'.

For example, the set-up could be, the Care Professional leaves the current visit at 12 pm and the next visit is scheduled at 1 pm. This leaves 1 hour between the current and the next visit. A break is set for anything above 30 minutes. Because the time between visits is higher than the break, this is determined to be ‘commuting time’ therefore the Care Professional will not be paid for this time, unless you pay for ‘commuting time.’

Commuting time is the time spent travelling from home to the first visit and back home from the last visit. It can be the first and the last journey in a Care Professional’s day, but it can also take place during the day, if the gap between visits is above a defined break, for example. Some agencies choose to pay for commuting time, and this can be accommodated and set up in Birdie. See more information here.

Mileage is the distance between visits that is travelled by a Care Professional. We use a mapping API to identify the miles travelled. If you pay for mileage, in the case your care professional is a driver, you can set up a rate for this in Birdie. Our system will calculate what to pay your care professional by multiplying the mileage travelled by the mileage rate you have set up.

Commuting mileage is the distance travelled from home to the first visit and back home from the last visit. It can be the miles travelled to/from the first and last journeys in a care professional’s day, but commuting mileage can also take place during the day, if the gap between visits is above a defined break, for example. Some agencies choose to pay for commuting mileage, and this can be accommodated and set up in Birdie.

This is where you can save pre-set invoice details. This can be found on the Finance tab. Here you can set your payment, billing and prefix details to be included on the invoices that you send out. This is useful as this will then be saved on the system for all future invoices. See more information here - How to use the pre-set invoice formatting

A contract in the Birdie Platform mirrors the physical contract you have in place with your funders, whether it is a private, Local Authority, or CCG funder. This can be found in the Contracts tab within The Finance tab. The contract ensures that the information (rates, service types, etc) needed to correctly invoice is associated with the correct payer, service types, and funding details. To set up your funding and invoicing infrastructure, we recommend starting by creating a contract.

Please note: a contract in Birdie does not replace the contract or agreement you have in place and should not be used as such. See more information here - How to create a contract

A CSV is a type of file that can be exported from within Birdie. You can find and download these from various places in the Finance tab. When you download this you can then use this information from one application to another, for example from Birdie to your accounting software, as needed.

When creating pay and invoice rates, it is best practice to account for all the hours you deliver care, we recommend setting up rates to account for 24/7 hours worth of care. You can do this by selecting the day type which will indicate what day the rate will apply such as weekdays, weekends or custom. You can do this when creating a rate on the Pay rates tab. see more information here.

Deductions can be used to record any sums that should be taken off a pay sheet or invoice. You can find this option on a Care Professional’s Pay sheet and in a Care Recipient’s invoice for those with access to this feature. These are helpful if you need to issue a credit note against an invoice or provide a discount to a specific funder.

These are also helpful if you need to make an adjustment to a pay sheet, i.e. if someone requested an advance as part of their last pay and you need to account for that this month. These deductions will then appear on the invoice or pay sheet. See more information here.

Extra charges will add an additional amount of money to an invoice. These can be used when you need to record any additional payment on the invoice that isn’t associated with a specific visit. This may be items such as additional fuel, NMW top-up, groceries, prescriptions etc. These extra charges will then appear on the invoice. See more information here - How to add extra charges to an invoice

You can find this tool on the invoice dashboard, this breaks down the visit data so you can see the start and end time of a visit, the service type, the linked contract, invoicing rate card, applied rates and visit planning. If there is a discrepancy when looking at the visit you can use this information to see what might need updating.

An export is what you will download within any individual invoice or pay run, you will be able to export this as a CSV or PDF file (only a CSV on pay runs). You can then use these downloaded exports to upload to your accounting software as needed or issue your exports to a payer.

This would be used if you need to set up rates for a fixed visit length. You may have an overnight visit length for their fixed visits - i.e. 10 hours for sleeping nights, and 10 hours for waking nights. See information here.

A payer or funder is the authority or person responsible for funding and paying for the care provided. This can be a Private Funder or a Local Authority.

Your care company may pay and/or charge different rates for bank holidays. If you pay extra for holidays like Christmas and New Year, or if you are in Scotland and have different bank holidays than the rest of the UK, you can make sure to set up rates for those particular days.

You can choose to use a multiplier for Bank Holiday rates or you can use a specific or set enhanced rate for Bank Holidays (no multiplier). See more information here - How to customise holiday rates

HRMC guidance stipulates that Holiday Pay must be calculated to ensure Care Professionals are able to take the holiday they are entitled to or are paid for it in lieu. The Holiday Pay reports in Birdie will allow you to accurately pay your care professionals for the holiday that they have accrued while logging time via the Birdie app. You can read about our Holiday Pay reports here.

You may have a different invoice cycle depending on who you have a contract with. For instance, you may have a set schedule where you generate invoices for private Care Recipients (2 weeks for instance) or for local authority invoices (maybe 1 month) - depending on your SLAs and agreed-upon cycles. See ‘Invoice groups’ below, which can save you time when generating multiple invoices at once as part of the same invoice cycle.

The Invoice Dashboard is where you will generate your invoices. Here, you will see all confirmed visits following the visit confirmation process. You can select the contract or contracts and care recipients you’d like to generate an invoice for, depending on your preferred invoice cycles or payer needs. You can generate a one-off invoice or in bulk within this dashboard. See information here.

When you create a contract you have the option to add an Invoice Group. You can filter by invoice groups on the Invoices tab. These groups are particularly helpful if you have different invoice cycles for different types of care or for different funders and need to quickly filter down to a specific group. See information here.

The rate at which a funder will be charged/invoiced for a visit. E.g. Invoice rates can be hourly, banded, fixed. They can apply to any care delivered or be specific to certain services like personal care and waking nights. They can apply 24/7 or vary across the week and times of the day.

You can set up invoice rate cards and associate them with a specific contract and payer. See information here.

You may need to split an invoice between multiple funders. You would use this if a contract involves a mix of funders, i.e. a combination of local authority and private, and you need to account for the different client contributions. See information here.

The Invoices tab gives you access to all the invoices you have generated. Here, you will be able to search for and click on any invoice. You will then be able to add any extra charges (such as an admin fee, for instance) and export them into your preferred format. See information here.

Certain Local authorities have preferred formats in which they receive Invoices. An example of this is that the NHS have a no-name policy on their invoices. Birdie offers a few invoice templates that you can choose to use. You will have the choice to export your invoice in your preferred format so it can then be sent to the payer of the contract. The three formats available include:

This is a tag that will surface in the Pay runs tab. The tag lets you know if a care professional is at risk of being paid less than NMW. Hover over the question mark icon to get more information including Current Pay, what that breaks out to for hourly pay, and what the minimum total pay would be for this carer. Additionally, you’ll see the top-up amount needed. If you need to add a top-up, see Extra charges. See information here.

Once you have confirmed visits, the Pay dashboard will show you the timesheets of all of the Care Professionals who have done any work during the period of time you have selected. It will also show what pay they have accrued, how much time they have spent delivering care in the Care Recipient's home; as well as how much travel and mileage they have accrued. From here, you will be able to generate their pay sheets by creating clicking create pay run.

On the Birdie Platform, a purchase order is what creates the link between a care recipient and a contract. A purchase order will outline the service type, payer, and contract this is funded for this care recipient. You should then link this Purchase Order to a particular visit, by selecting the funding information when setting up a visit schedule. See information here.

These are the rates at which a Care Professional will be paid for a visit or time. E.g. pay rates can be hourly, banded, or fixed. They can apply to any care delivered or be specific to certain services like personal care and waking nights. They can apply 24/7 or vary across the week and times of the day. You can set up pay rate cards and assign them to specific care professionals. See more information here.

Any pay run you have created will be located under the Pay runs tab. From here you will be able to click into the date range you need and view a Care Professional’s Pay sheet. Here you can add an extra charge such as a NMW top-up or you can make a deduction. You cannot edit any information at this point, but if you have spotted a mistake you can delete the pay run and generate it again once you have fixed the errors.

You can export a CSV pay run by Care Professional or by rate to upload to your accounting software as needed.

This is a rate that is paid or charged for in regards to a specific service, for example, personal care, waking night, sleeping night etc. You can create Banded, Single and Fixed rates that are specific to a Service type.

You would use a service type rate if you have a Care Recipient that you charge for Personal Care during the day but you charge a different rate for Sleeping Nights, for example. You can set up an invoicing rate that reflects this and ensure you are charging the appropriate rate for the specific service type. You can do the same for pay rates if you pay Care Professionals differently based on the type of service they provide.

This is a rate that is used if you charge or pay on an hourly basis for your care. Single rates are hourly, pro-rated rates, meaning they will apply on a pro-rated basis depending on the length of your visit. See more information here.

This is the estimated amount of time required for travel between visits. You can view travel time by toggling on the travel time feature in the Display options tab and when hovering over a visit on the Roster page. This information will also be surfaced in the Find alternative care modal.

This can be used to identify if there is enough time to travel between visits and help ensure all scheduled visits can be delivered on time and as planned. This can also be used to identify if there are any inefficiencies, such as large waiting gaps, in your rota. Please note: travel time is calculated using a mapping API, which surfaces the latest traffic information.

This is an additional payment added to a care recipient’s pay within Birdie. Care companies can add a top-up to a paysheet to meet National Minimum wage for instance. You can record a payment and select the ‘Top up’ category on any Care Professional’s pay sheet within the Pay runs tab. See more information here.

This is how you review the visits that have occurred for a particular time period, confirm their details and indicate if they should be paid and charged for. This can be found in the Finance tab. This is a useful tool to review any discrepancies and edit the planned time and funding - before confirming. See more information here - How to reconcile and confirm visits

You can attach an expense such as shopping or an additional mileage charge to a specific visit, which allows you to easily see where you are adding extra charges. This ensures your care professionals are not out of pocket for that visit and that you are charging the funder for the correct expense where necessary. See information here.

Funding for a visit is how you will charge the payer for a visit that takes place. Once you have set up a contract and a purchase order you will need to add the funding to the visit schedule for each Care Recipient. Once you have saved the funding information, this funding will be set for this visit and all future visits in the schedule. This means you only need to set funding once per visit schedule and you do not have to update this again unless the funding changes. See more information here.

Waiting time is the period, after travel, where there is a gap between arriving at a visit’s location and when that visit starts. For example, if a care professional travels to their visit, but there is 10 minutes until the visit starts, that 10-minute period is considered waiting time. You can choose whether waiting time is included in travel payments when setting up a travel rate card.