Farm Financial Assessment (FFA) supplement and voucher 002-02070020

If the customer, financial assessor or prescribed adviser has contacted about:

• delay in the processing or non-payment of a voucher, go to Step 2
• reassessment of a voucher which was rejected due to insufficient supporting documentation, go to Step 3
• a request for explanation or an application for a formal review of the decision to reject a voucher, go to Step 4

Contact may be from a:

• customer for an urgent assessment of a supplied voucher, due to:
• waiting for reimbursement, which is causing hardship, or
• receiving repeat requests from the financial assessor or prescribed adviser for payment
• financial assessor or prescribed adviser seeking information on the status of an invoice and voucher made out to Services Australia

Use the information on the customer's record to advise on the status of the payment. Note: if the financial assessor or prescribed adviser does not have a Person Permitted to Enquire authority recorded, any information provided must be in line with Disclosing information to third parties.

Do not advise the provider to contact the Accounting Operations Accounts Payable team if there is:

• a Voucher Accepted DOC recorded, and
• the financial assessor/prescribed adviser have not received payment

To assess the voucher or status of the payment:

• Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Rural > Voucher > FFA Follow up - assess or payment status. Include:
• financial assessors/prescribed advisers’ name
• business and contact number
• the additional keyword A2554 is automatically added and transferred to region code FHH

For urgent assessment of an outstanding voucher, see Table 3.

If there is a Voucher Accepted DOC on record and the financial assessor/prescribed adviser advises payment has not been received:

• email the Financial Shared Services Accounts Payable Team to determine if the request to pay spreadsheet has been received, include:
• the invoice number
• Service Provider name and ABN
• Customer name and CRN
• the date the record states the voucher was accepted
• the name of the person who completed the processing
• complete the required action based on the response from Accounts Payable Team

Procedure ends here.

Where a voucher was previously rejected 'insufficient supporting documentation' because the customer did not respond to a request for information and all requested information has since been supplied:

• Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Rural > Voucher > FFA voucher reassessment from rejection
• the additional keyword A2554 is automatically added and transferred to region code FHH

Procedure ends here.

If the customer requests an explanation or applies for a formal review of the decision to reject a voucher, see Request for an explanation, quality check or review.

If the customer is:

• applying for a formal review, the application for formal review is referred directly to an ARO
• requesting an explanation:
• add the additional keyword of A2554 to the appeal DOC
• transfer the open DOC on record to region code FHH

Procedure ends here.

After the FHA claim has been granted and the customer is assigned to an FHCO, the FHCO must contact the customer before a request for an FFA is generated. The farm financial assessment supplement voucher (A2554m) is sent with the FFA request letter. The voucher should be completed during the appointment with the financial assessor where the:

• customer completes Part A
• financial assessor completes Part B to D

The financial assessor will provide an invoice to the customer for the cost of preparing the FFA.

The voucher, invoice and evidence can be submitted:

• using the Upload documents online
• by post to the address given on the voucher
• in person

Time limit

For the supplement to be paid, the voucher must be submitted within 2 months beginning on the day the invoice is received by the customer.

Where the date on the invoice is outside 2 months from the voucher lodgement date, but inside of 3 months, processing staff are to make 2 genuine attempts to contact the customer and verbally confirm the date the invoice was received.

Where the received date is different to the invoice date, it must be included on the DOC to support any approval or rejection decision.

If submitted in person, check the voucher has been completed correctly and all associated documentation, as listed above has been provided.

Scan the voucher, invoice and supporting documents to the customer's record under Document Tools.

A follow-up work item automatically generates.

If the customer provides additional documentation for a voucher which was previously rejected due to supporting documents, the voucher and invoice can be reassessed.

The voucher and evidence must meet the criteria as listed in Step 2 of Table 2.

Go to Table 3 to accept or reject the voucher with additional documents.

Vouchers rejected for any other reason cannot be reassessed unless an error was made in the initial decision.

In the customer's record, go to Document tools and locate the scanned images of the:

• voucher (A2554m)
• invoice from the financial assessor. The invoice must:
• be addressed to the person who the Service Provider is claiming payment from (such as the customer or Services Australia) and one invoice must be supplied per customer
• include the customer's name only in the description of services provided
• be itemised detailing what has been completed for the customer
• be received by the customer less than 2 months before the date the customer submitted the voucher. If the voucher was not submitted within 2 months from the date the invoice was received by the customer, the claim must be rejected. If the voucher is to be rejected, go to Step 3
• evidence the customer has paid the financial assessor/prescribed adviser if the customer is seeking to be reimbursed

For partnered customers, check Document Tools in the partner's record, as the documents may have been scanned/uploaded to the incorrect record.

Have all the required documents to assess the voucher been provided?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, go to Step 3

To view the status of the Farm Financial Assessment (FFA), in Process Direct:

• go to the Farm Financial Assessment (FFA) screen
• Select the ‘twisty’ to view FFA activities
• check the status of the FFA activity

Accepted (Closed) means all parts of the FFA have been submitted and accepted by the FHCO.

Is the status of the FFA activity Accepted (Closed)?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, attempt to contact the customer's regular FHCO to accept the FFA. If the FHCO is unable to be contacted request an alternate FHCO accept the FFA. See Farm Household Case Officer (FHCO) cases to request this action. Procedure ends here

The outstanding documentation must be requested from the customer:

• if the customer is subscribed to Electronic messaging, send a pre-call notification (SMS only) using Electronic Message
• make genuine attempts to contact the customer to advise of missing documentation. See also - Privacy concerns when calling customers, returning calls or leaving messages on answering machines
• send Q062 to customer requesting invoice or other required information within 14 days. See Q062 FHA Voucher RFI
• record the details using Fast Note > select Auto text, use > Rural > Vouchers > FFA Voucher Progress
• place the DOC on hold awaiting return of the letter, allow extra time for mail delivery
• complete the scanned image activity

When the activity falls due it is allocated via Workload Manager for assessment.

To continue processing a work item that has come off hold and is now allocated, go to Step 2.

Confirm there have been no payments made before processing the voucher.

Go to the FHA FFA/FIA Invoice Details (FINV) screen, check:

• Invoices Activities and
• Historical Invoice activities

Check the status of any invoice activity. If the status is:

• Accepted (closed), the voucher has been processed. Procedure ends here
• Rejected (closed), where the voucher is rejected and:
• no other outstanding voucher for assessment, there is no further action needed. Procedure ends here
• another voucher to assess as a new claim or a re-assessment, go to Step 5
• New or In Process
• select the edit icon to enter Change of Circumstance (CoC)
• go to Step 5

If there is no invoice activity on the record:

• select Add to commence a new invoice
• go to Step 5

To stop any error messages, complete all mandatory fields:

• Activity Reason, Farm Financial Assessment Supplement
• Invoice Number, where there is no invoice number listed key the date of issue in the Invoice Number field using the format DDMMYY
• Invoice Date, if the customer has a different received date, record the details on a DOC
• Date of Service
• Reimbursed to
• ABN
• Service Provider
• Service Provided, for FFA use: Advice
• Total Charged
• Amount to pay, an FFA payment cannot be more than $1500

For Invoice Activity Status coding, Go to step 6

The voucher and invoice can be accepted where:

• the FFA has been accepted by the FHCO
• the assessment was completed by a financial assessor (for all assessments after 11 June 2020)
• all required documentation has been supplied as indicated in Step 2, either initially or following a request for information which is not due
• the customer is seeking reimbursement and there is evidence they have already paid the invoice

Can the voucher and invoice be accepted?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 8

To accept the voucher:

• Code the Invoice Activity Status as: Accepted (Closed)
• Review the invoice details making sure the amount to be paid and invoice number are correct
• Select Save
• Key Receipt Date and Channel details
• Go to the SWE screen
• Select Assess to finalise the activity
• Record details on a DOC. Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Rural > Vouchers > FFA Voucher Accepted
• Manually complete a Request to Pay, see Step 1 in Table 4

For work items selected for QMA send a spreadsheet to the QMO. See Table 4.

To reject the voucher:

• Code the Invoice Activity Status as: Rejected (Closed)
• Review the invoice details making sure the amount to be paid and invoice number are correct
• Select Save
• Key Receipt Date and Channel details
• Go to the SWE screen
• Select Assess to finalise the activity
• Record details on a DOC. Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Rural > Vouchers > FFA Voucher Rejected

The customer:

• is automatically sent an FFA supplement voucher rejection letter
• has 13 weeks to:
• supply any missing documents for vouchers rejected ‘Insufficient supporting documents’
• apply for a formal review of the decision for all other rejection reasons

Procedure ends here.

Make sure the voucher, invoice and any supporting documents used in the decision to release payment are scanned to the customer's record.

Place all hard copies of the claim documents into the secure bins for destruction.

To Complete the Request to Pay, go to Step 2.

To avoid duplication thoroughly check the referral before sending through the Request to pay.

Complete the request to pay spreadsheet to ensure payment is made to a customer or Service Provider.

Access a new copy of the spreadsheet for each request to prevent including previous customer data and duplicating activity supplement payments. See the Resources page for a link.

Add details of the invoice to the 'FHA Upload Template' spreadsheet.

When using this spreadsheet, the:

• file must remain as an Excel workbook (xlsx file)
• Example line must be deleted before saving

When updating the columns:

• Do not use:
• spaces between rows of data supplied
• colons, commas
• All information for each payment:
• must be on one data line, and
• the Line Item text field cannot exceed 50 characters (including spaces)

Key the following mandatory columns:

• Vendor: Leave this field blank
• INV Date: Invoice date - format must be DD.MM.YYYY
• Reference: Invoice number (If no invoice number use invoice date)
• GL Account: GL Account Code for Farm Financial Assessment Supplement is 74565
• Cost Centre: 1000301
• Tax Code:
• for payment to service providers where the invoice includes GST: P1
• for payment to service providers where the invoice does not include GST: P5
• for payment to customers (for example, reimbursements): P5
• Amount: Amount to be paid, do not use $ sign. Only numerical dollars and cents. For example, 123.45
• Bline Date: Date original invoice received by the agency - use DD.MM.YYYY format
• Line Item Text:
• for a customer to be reimbursed, include:
  FHA
  Name of customer (first and last names only)
  Customer Reference Number (CRN) (do not include spaces)
• for a Service Provider to be reimbursed, include:
  FHA
  Name of customer (first and last names only)
  CRN (do not include spaces)
  Unique invoice identifier. For example, client number, client codes, reference number (even if it replicates the invoice number)
• Vendor Name: Who is seeking payment of the invoice for example Customer or Service Provider
• ABN Number: As presented on invoice. Leave the field blank for customer reimbursement
• BSB Number for EFT Payment. Do not enter any dashes in the number
• Account Number for EFT Payment. Do not enter any dashes in the number

For Customer Reimbursements only:

• Column T - Street Address of Customer
• Column U - Suburb of Customer
• Column V - Post Code of Customer

See the Guide to completing the FHA Upload Template.

Was the voucher activity selected for QMA?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

To send the Request to Pay to a QMO:

• Save the 'Request to Pay' to the secure Customer Information folder on your zone’s secure drive
• Email the completed 'Request to Pay' to the QMO mailbox using the Protective Marking Official Sensitive - Personal Privacy
• In the Subject line include Transaction number and 'Request to Pay for Quality Checking'. For example, 23210846 Request to Pay for Quality checking
• After sending the email, delete the template document from the secure Customer Information folder

When the quality check is complete, the QMO will send to Financial Shared Services, see step 4.

Service Officers must forward the request to pay spreadsheet and Authorising Officer Approval template to Financial Shared Services Accounts Payable Team for payment to be released.

The email classification will need to be set (Official).

Once the Accounting Operations Accounts Payable Team receive the form, payment is made for a:

• customer, within one day
• Service Provider, within 30 days of Services Australia receiving the invoice

Confirm that the voucher status has been updated to Accepted.