Funding & invoicing

Track funding. Prevent overspend

Funding is tracked in real time, so you always know what has been used and what remains. Bookings that exceed a family’s entitlement are stopped before they create an overspend, while costs can be split across multiple funders and invoiced correctly.

Ameryst · FundingElla Marsh

Allocations for these dates

Listed automatically when the booking is created

ICB agreement — respite7 of 10 nights

Personal budget — health9 of 20 sessions

Charity-funded nights16 of 16 used

This booking would take the ICB agreement past 10 nights. Blocked.

At month end, each funder is invoiced for the nights it actually covered.

How it works

Three funding routes, one countdown.

External agreements, personal budgets and charity-funded allocations, used individually or together.

1The pot is defined

A total, a validity period, and who is eligible.

Restricted to the booking types it should cover.

2It counts down as care is delivered

Nights, days, visits deducted as they are confirmed.

Each allocation specified for use in one or more

3It stops before you overspend

A booking beyond entitlement is blocked.

Rather than found in a reconciliation months later.

Allocations are set in nights, hours or sessions — so a counselling appointment can take half a session, and a bonus night can take nothing at all.

Where it stops

Ameryst produces the invoice data. Your finance system does the rest.

At month end the invoice report pulls the funder, the invoicing address, the negotiated cost and the number of nights, and exports as CSV.

This is a deliberate boundary. Ameryst makes sure the numbers are right. You can track them in your finance system of choice
Negotiated costs are supported. A standard cost per night sits in admin, and can be overridden per booking where somebody’s needs are genuinely more complex.

In the module

What our care funding management software covers

Three funding routes

Agreements, personal budgets, charity funds

Countdown

Allocated, used and remaining, always current

Overspend blocked

Bookings monitor how much is left and prevent overspend

Validity periods

Funds are only available when the booking is within that period

Part consumption

Each reason deducts its own percentage

Eligibility lists

Assign the funding to the people who are eligible to receive it

Funding address book

Named contacts and invoicing addresses

Month-end export

CSV built to load into your finance system

Why it matters

What a funding pot that counts down is worth

Income & funding

Money handed back is as bad as money overspent

An untracked pot fails in both directions. Overspend it and you raid the reserves, which wrecks next year’s budget as well as this one. Underspend it and you hand funding back you could have used, and weaken the case for the same money next time. A pot that counts down in front of the person making the booking prevents both.

Cost & financial control

No reconciliation surprises

Because entitlement is enforced when the booking is made, month end is a report rather than an investigation.

Compliance & governance

Defensible to a commissioner

Every night is attributed to the agreement that funded it, with the reason for visit and the cost recorded against it.

Capacity, equity & mission

Use the whole allocation

Seeing what is left, per person, lets you hlep the family use the care they are entitled to.

From pot to invoice

Four steps, and no spreadsheet in between.

The agreement is set up

Total, dates, booking types, eligibility

An allocation is drawn

Per person, in nights, hours or sessions

Bookings deduct from it

By the percentage each reason carries

Month end exports

Grouped by funder, ready for finance

Ameryst stops at the invoice data on purpose — no paid or unpaid tracking, no ledger. That belongs in your finance system.

Questions services ask about funding

What happens if a booking would go over the allocation?

It is blocked. That is the whole point of the module — the moment to find out is when someone is making the booking, not when finance reconciles the month. The person booking sees which allocation is short and by how much, so the conversation with the funder or the family happens before a date is promised rather than after.

Can one stay be funded by more than one source?

Yes. A long stay can be split across a personal budget, a local authority agreement and hospice-funded nights, and month-end invoicing bills each funder for the nights it actually covered. Every allocation valid for those dates is listed when the booking is created, with what is left in each, so the split is decided at the point of booking rather than reconstructed at month end.

Do bookings always consume a full night?

Not necessarily, An allocation is set in nights, hours or sessions, and each reason for visit deducts its own percentage — a respite night may takes 100%, a counselling session might take 50%, and a bonus or emergency night can take nothing at all. Your decision, your choice.

Does Ameryst help us to produce invoices?

Yes, the invoicing module produces the invoice data, and can generate a PDF invoice. In practice most customers use the detail export, which is built to load into Sage, QuickBooks or equivalent, and raise the invoice there.

We are largely charity funded. Does this still apply?

Yes. There is no obligation to set a funding allocation. Visits can be charity funded and this is specfied when making the booking. It is worth telling us how you are funded before a demonstration, so we can set the demonstration up around your model.

Can we hold different costs for different people?

A standard cost per night sits in admin and can be overridden with a negotiated cost on an individual allocation or booking where the care required is more complex. Because the cost travels with the allocation rather than with the price list, the month-end invoice picks up what was actually agreed for that person and not the headline rate.

Can we restrict a pot to certain times of year?

Yes. Allocations can be restricted to peak or off-peak periods, using your own bank and school holiday dates rather than a fixed calendar, which matters because term dates differ by nation and between state and private schools. A pot set for off-peak only cannot be drawn on in a peak week.

Explore other functionality

Booking diaries Reporting Referrals Care plans Whole-family record

See it working with your own service in mind.

Half an hour or an hour, whichever suits. We’ll spend it on the parts that matter to your service.