Collated Documents

Executive Summary

Collated Documents builds, for each billing period, a single combined PDF for every client invoice or claim and then sends it to the people who need it. Billing staff start a new period for a branch, billing cycle and billing period, choose whether the period is made up of Invoices or Claims, and then work through the period in a fixed order: import the invoices or claims from AlayaCare, add the extra attachments that each client's tag calls for (visit notes, a letter of authorization, a mileage spreadsheet), merge everything into one PDF per client, and queue the result for delivery by email, fax or printed mail. Each period keeps a count of how many documents sit at each step, a full history of every action taken, and the list of distribution jobs, so staff can see what is waiting, what has failed and what has been sent.

Key Features

• Start a new period for a branch, billing cycle, year and billing period, as either an Invoices or a Claims period
• Import invoices or claims for the period from AlayaCare, together with each client's group, tag and state, and keep the invoice or claim PDF
• Flag documents that cannot continue (no group, no tag, more than one group or tag, missing state, missing PDF) and re-check them after the data is corrected in AlayaCare
• Add the attachments required by the client's tag: a notes PDF listing the completed interventions for each visit, the client's letter of authorization (LOA) for the period, and the client's mileage spreadsheet for the period
• Merge the invoice or claim and its attachments into one collated PDF per document, either for all documents at once or for a single document
• Queue distributions by email (secure, insecure or standard), fax and mail, based on the funder's distribution settings and the distribution fields on the client's contacts in AlayaCare, then send the queued emails and faxes
• Build one combined print document of all mail distributions for printing and posting
• Download all collated PDFs for a period as a single zip file
• Review every distribution job and every individual distribution, with their status and last message
• Review the history of every action run on the period, with who ran it, when, and how long it took
• Filter and sort the documents in a period, and export the list to Excel
• Open the client in AlayaCare from a document
• Configure the email and fax accounts used for distribution, the secure email subject, the email body, the LOA and mileage folder names, and the contact fields that switch on fax, mail and email distribution in the page settings

Typical Workflow

1. Select the Branch and click Start A New Period. Choose the Billing Cycle, Year, Billing Cycle Period and Primary File Type (Invoices or Claims), then click Ok. The new period opens automatically.
2. On the All Documents tab, click Check For New Invoices (or Check For New Claims) to import the documents for the period from AlayaCare.
3. Review any documents in Import Errors, correct the client in AlayaCare (group, tag or state), and click Refresh Document Errors.
4. Click Process Tags to add the notes, LOA and mileage attachments and to check that fax numbers and email addresses exist. Correct anything that ends in Tag Processing Errors and click Refresh Document Errors.
5. Click Collate Files to merge each document and its attachments into a single PDF.
6. Click Distribute Collated Files and confirm. This queues the email, fax and mail distributions.
7. Open the Distributions tab and click Send Email and Send Fax to send what is queued. For mail, use the Download Print Document icon on the distribution job to get the combined print file.
8. Use Download Collated Files at any time to save all collated PDFs as a zip file, and use the History tab to review what was done.

Configurable Settings

Open View Settings or Edit Settings from this screen (when permitted) to change these options. The setting names themselves are held in a configuration table and are not shown here; the descriptions below follow the control shown for each setting.

Settings that also affect this screen but are maintained elsewhere: the agency name, address, phone and logo that appear on the notes PDF; the options on each tag (whether to include notes, LOA and mileage); the funder's fax, mail and email distribution settings and its fax number, address and email addresses; and the fax, mail and email fields on each client contact in AlayaCare. The three contact fields named above are only the field names; the values are kept on the contacts themselves.

Available Permissions

The following permissions are available to be assigned to AlayaCare Roles:

Main Grid

The grid lists the collated document periods that have been started for the selected branch, newest first (14 rows per page). The first six columns stay in view when scrolling sideways. The counts show how many documents in the period are currently at each step.

Main Grid Filters

Actions

Dialog Components

Start A New Period

Opens from Start A New Period. It defines the period to work on.

Click Ok to create the period. A warning is shown if the branch, billing cycle, period or primary file type is missing. When the period is created it opens straight away for processing, and the page switches to the period's branch if it differs from the current filter.

Collated Period

Opens from the Edit icon or right-click Edit on a period, and automatically after a new period is created. The title reads Collated Invoices (or Collated Claims) followed by the cycle, year, period number and the From and To dates.

Across the top are read-only counts for the period: Import Errors, Waiting For Tag Processing, Tag Processing Errors, Waiting For Collation, Collation Errors, Waiting For Distribution and Distributed. They refresh after every action.

Tabs

All Documents — Grid

Status values, in the order a document moves through them:

All Documents — Grid Filters

Click Apply Filter to apply the filters and Clear Filter to reset them.

All Documents — Grid Actions

Distributions — Grid

Each row is one distribution job, created the first time documents are queued for distribution.

Distributions — Grid Actions

History — Grid

Collated Document

Opens from Edit on a document in the All Documents tab. The title reads Collated Document followed by the client's name. The top of the dialog shows these read-only details: ID, Status, Primary File Type, Posting Date, EBP Claim Type, Client, Client Tag, Client Group, Billing Contact, Billing Contact Is Client, Funder, Funder ID, Invoice Number, Claim Number, Added and Added By. Use Close to return to the period.

Tabs

Document Files — Grid

Document Files — Grid Actions

Distributions — Grid

Distribution Job

Opens from Edit on a distribution job. The title reads Distribution Job followed by the job ID. It lists every individual distribution in the job. Above the grid, a summary shows the number Waiting To Send, in Error and Sent. Use Close to return to the period.

Grid

Grid Filters

Dependencies

The following tables must be configured for lookups on this view to work:

Processing Overviews

This section describes what happens after you confirm a processing action. Each action adds an entry to the History tab and refreshes the counts when it finishes. Each one shows a progress panel with a Cancel option, and stops at the next document if cancelled.

Ok (Start A New Period)

1. Requires a branch, billing cycle, period and primary file type.
2. Creates the period with the chosen cycle, year, period dates and file type, recorded as added by the current user.
3. Refreshes the grid, switching the branch filter to the new period's branch if needed.
4. Opens the new period.

Check For New Invoices / Check For New Claims

1. Requires the LOA folder name and mileage spreadsheet folder name to be set in the settings, and a successful AlayaCare sign-in.
2. Loads the tags and groups of type Collated Documents.
3. Downloads the invoices (or claims) for the period from AlayaCare. Only those that have a PDF are used.
4. Skips any invoice or claim already imported for this period.
5. For each new one, loads the client from AlayaCare and checks the client has exactly one Collated Documents group, exactly one matching Collated Documents tag, and a state. The first two checks set the status to Import Errors with the reasons No RCM Group found for client, Multiple RCM Groups found for client, No RCM Tag found for client or Multiple Tags found for client; a blank state sets Import Errors with State Missing. When more than one check fails, the last one is the reason shown.
6. Saves the document with client, tag, group, state, funder, billing contact (invoices), posting date and the funder's EBP claim type.
7. Downloads the invoice or claim PDF and saves it as the primary file. If the download fails, the document is set to Import Errors with File Import Failed.
8. When all are imported, every document still Pending moves to Waiting For Tag Processing.

Process Tags

1. Takes every document that is Waiting For Tag Processing.
2. Looks up the document's client tag. If the tag has Include Notes on, builds a notes PDF listing, for each visit on the invoice, the scheduled start and end, the client, the employee and the completed interventions, and saves it as a Notes attachment. Notes never cause an error.
3. If the tag has Include LOA on, looks in the client's LOA folder in AlayaCare for a file named like LOA-2026_08_31-2026_09_06 whose date range contains the period's end date, and saves it as the LOA attachment. If none is found, the document gets LOA Document not found for period.
4. If the tag has Include Mileage Spreadsheet on, does the same in the mileage folder for a file named like Mileage-2026_08_31-2026_09_06. PDF files are kept as they are and Word files are converted to PDF. If none is found, or the file is not a PDF or Word file, the document gets Mileage Spreadsheet not found for period.
5. Works out where the document will be sent (see How the distribution destinations are chosen below). If fax distribution is switched on but no fax number can be found, the document gets Fax number not found.
6. If email distribution is switched on but no email address can be found, the document gets Email address not found. A missing mailing address is not treated as an error at this step.
7. Documents with a problem move to Tag Processing Errors; the others move to Waiting For Collation.

Refresh Document Errors

1. Takes every document in Import Errors or Tag Processing Errors (or only the one selected, when started from the right-click menu).
2. Reloads the invoice or claim and the client from AlayaCare and repeats the group, tag and state checks, updating the status and reason. Documents that now pass move to Waiting For Tag Processing.
3. Documents that had been in Tag Processing Errors and no longer have import errors then have their tags processed again, as described under Process Tags.
4. A warning is shown if the invoice or claim cannot be found in AlayaCare for the period.

Collate Files

1. Takes every document that is Waiting For Collation (or only the one selected from the right-click menu).
2. Collects the document's files that have a PDF, placing the invoice or claim first and the attachments after it.
3. If there is only one file it is used as it is; otherwise the files are merged. A file that cannot be merged is skipped with a warning.
4. Saves the result as the document's collated PDF, named with the client's last name and the invoice or claim number.
5. Documents that were collated move to Waiting For Distribution; documents with no usable PDF move to Collation Errors.

Download Collated Files

1. Takes every document that has a collated PDF.
2. Adds each PDF to a zip file, giving duplicate file names a numeric suffix.
3. Downloads the file, named like CollatedDocuments_{cycle}{year}{period}.zip, and shows how many PDFs were included.

How the distribution destinations are chosen

The destinations for each document depend on its type:

• Claims: the funder only.
• Invoices with no billing contact: the funder and all of the client's active contacts.
• Invoices with a billing contact: the client's active contacts only (contacts that are enabled in AlayaCare).

For the funder, fax, mail and email are each used only when the funder is set up to distribute collated documents that way. Fax uses the funder's fax number, mail uses the funder's address, and email uses the funder's email addresses in order (email, email 2, email 3).

For each client contact, fax, mail and email are each used only when the matching contact field (named in the page settings) is switched on for that contact. Fax uses the contact's fax number, mail uses the contact's street address (with suite), city, state and zip, and email uses the contact's email address followed by their preferred email address.

For email, the value held in the field (or the funder's email setting) also chooses how the email is sent. If it contains Insecure the email is sent as Email Insecure; if it contains Secure it is sent as Email Secure; otherwise it is sent as plain Email. If it contains Single (and not Multiple) only the first address found is used; otherwise every address found is used. Duplicate fax numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses are used once only.

Distribute Collated Files

1. Asks for confirmation, then takes every document that is Waiting For Distribution.
2. For each document, works out the destinations as described above. A fax is queued for each fax number found, and an email for each address found, marked secure, insecure or standard. A distribution already queued for the same destination is not queued again.
3. Creates a distribution job the first time something is queued.
4. Moves a document to Distributed when at least one fax or email was queued for it.
5. Documents that have at least one mailing address are combined, in client name order, into a single print PDF stored on the distribution job. A Mail entry with status Mail Created is added for each address, or with the message Mail address not found when the address is blank. These documents move to Distributed. A document with no collated PDF is skipped with a warning.
6. A document that has no fax, email or mail destination at all stays in Waiting For Distribution. A message reports how many distributions and whether a mail PDF were queued, or that no destinations were queued.

Send Email

1. Asks for confirmation. Requires the email account for distribution to be set in the settings; an Office 365 account must also have a valid sign-in.
2. Takes every email distribution that is Waiting To Send in jobs that are Waiting To Send.
3. Sends each email with the document's collated PDF attached. The subject reads Invoices For {client name} For The Week Ending {date} (or Claims, and Month for monthly billing cycles); secure emails start with the secure subject text. The body is the email body from the settings, or a standard sentence.
4. Marks each distribution Sent, or Not Sent with the reason (for example Email address not found or Collated PDF not found).
5. Marks a job Sent once every distribution in it is Sent or Mail Created.
6. Reports how many were sent, skipped and failed.

Send Fax

1. Asks for confirmation. Requires the fax account for distribution to be set in the settings.
2. Takes every fax distribution that is Waiting To Send.
3. Sends the collated PDF to the fax number. Marks each distribution Sent (with the fax reference when one is returned) or Not Sent with the reason.
4. Marks a job Sent once every distribution in it is complete, and reports how many were sent, skipped and failed.

Export

1. Requires at least one document in the list after filters.
2. Builds an Excel sheet named Documents with: ID, Client Name, Client Tag, Client Group, Client State, Status, Reason, Billing Contact, Funder, Invoice Number, Claim Number, Posting Date, Primary File Type, Invoice/Claim Filename, LOA Filename, Mileage Spreadsheet Filename and Notes Filename.
3. Downloads the file, named like CollatedInvoices_{year}{period}{date and time}.xlsx, and shows "Exported Successfully".