How to review and manage your provider agreements

An agreement is the rulebook for your working relationship with a provider. Every job you fill for that provider, every invoice raised and every cancellation fee applied is worked out from the terms held here. It is worth being familiar with your agreements before you start bidding on jobs, so there are no surprises when the first invoice lands.

The Agreements area has two parts:

• Overview — a summary of all your agreements and which providers they sit with
• View — the full detail of a single agreement

Hover over Agreements in the left-hand menu to see both options.

Getting an overview of your agreements

Select Agreements in the left-hand menu, then Overview.

Two summary cards sit at the top of the page:

• Total Agreements — how many agreements you hold in total, broken down into Active, Suspended, Draft and Marketplace agreements
• Bids Won – Awaiting Agreement — jobs you have won that cannot proceed until an agreement is in place

Tip: Keep an eye on the Bids Won – Awaiting Agreement figure. Anything sitting here is work you have already won but cannot yet be paid for, so it is worth chasing.

Total Agreements with Provider

Underneath, the Total Agreements with Provider table lists every provider you work with, along with their provider reference number. For each one you can see how many agreements you hold and what state they are in:

• Total Agreements — every agreement with that provider
• Pending — waiting to be agreed or signed
• Active — currently in force
• Inactive — no longer in force
• Draft — started but not yet complete

To find a particular provider, type their name into the Search box. Select Clear to see the full list again, and use the page numbers at the bottom if you work with a lot of providers.

Opening a single agreement

Select Agreements, then View.

The panel on the right lists your agreements, each shown as your agency against the provider, with the agreement reference number underneath. Select the one you want to open, or use Search Text and the filter icon to narrow the list down.

At the top of the page you will see the agreement's name, its reference number, the date it was created and its current status, such as ACTIVE.

Reading the Agreement Information panel

This is the summary of who the agreement is between and how it works day to day.

• Agreement Name / Agreement No — the parties and the reference number to quote in any correspondence
• Billing Cycle / Credit Term — how often you invoice and how long the provider has to pay, for example Weekly and 14 Days
• Created By / Created on — who set the agreement up, and when
• Applicable Sites — the provider sites this agreement covers, shown as tags. Select more Sites to see the full list where there are too many to display
• Agency Location — which of your own locations the agreement applies to

Look at the colour of each site tag and the key beside it. The two colours tell you whether that site is treated as Vat or Non Vat, which affects the figures you will be paid.

The Worker Rates table shows what has been agreed for each type of worker you supply.

Each row shows:

• Resource ID / Effective Date — the rate's reference and the date it took effect, with a tag showing whether it is an Hourly Rate or a Fixed Rate
• Worker Type — for example Support Worker or Healthcare Assistant
• Skill — any skills the rate is tied to, such as NVQ L2 or NVQ L3
• Worker Rate — the basic hourly rate for the worker
• Final Agency Cost — the total charged to the provider, shown both VAT and Non VAT
• Special Rate — whether enhanced rates such as night and weekend rates apply to this row
• Authoriser Approval — whether an additional approval step applies

Select the eye icon at the end of a row to open the rate in full.

The Add/Edit Worker Hourly Rate tab

The rate opens on this tab, which shows how the figures are built up.

1. Worker Type and Skills confirm who the rate covers. These are fixed once the rate has been created.
2. Do you want to enable authoriser approval for this rate? turns the extra approval step on or off. If you are not sure what this means, select Click to learn more in the yellow box for a full explanation.
3. Rate Type sets whether the rate is charged by the hour (Hourly Rate) or as a single Fixed Rate.
4. The rate table then shows, for each rate type:
• Hourly Rate — the base rate
• Agency Margin — your margin on top of it
• Agency VAT — the VAT calculated on the total
• Agency Cost — the final figure, given both with Vat and with No Vat
5. Rows are included for the Normal Rate, the Special Holiday Rate and the Bank Holiday Rate, so you can see at a glance what each occasion is worth.
6. Underneath, Applicable Sites shows exactly which of the provider's sites this rate applies to.

Please note: Change the base hourly rate or your margin and every other figure recalculates automatically, including VAT and the holiday rates. Always check the Agency Cost column afterwards to confirm the result is what you expected.

Care work is rarely nine to five, so agreements include enhanced rates for unsociable hours. Select the SPECIAL RATE BREAKDOWN tab to see how these are defined. There are three sections, each of which can be expanded or collapsed.

Global Configurations

Plain-English definitions of every enhanced rate, and how each is calculated. These typically include:

• Special Holiday Rate and Bank Holiday Rate — higher rates for working on a special or bank holiday
• Day Rate – Weekday and Day Rate – Weekend — daytime hours, split between weekdays and weekends
• Night Rate – Weekday, Night Rate – Weekend and Friday Night Rate — night hours, again split by day of the week
• Weekend Rate and Night Rate — the general weekend and night enhancements

Each definition gives the hours it covers and explains that the rate is worked out by multiplying the final hourly charge rate by an agreed multiplier.

Note the reminder that night shifts falling on a weekend are treated as weekend shifts.

Custom Configurations

Some sites run to their own timetable. This table lists those sites and the exact Start and End times each enhanced rate applies from at that site. If a provider's site appears here, its hours take precedence over the general definitions above, so check this before quoting on a shift.

Holidays

This lists the dates that count as holidays, along with whether each one is treated as a Bank Holiday or a Special Holiday. Use the year dropdown to look ahead or back.

The Cancellation Policy table sets out what happens when a booked shift is cancelled.

• Policy ID / Effective Date — the policy reference and when it took effect
• Cancellation Hours — how much notice must be given for the shift to be cancelled without a fee
• Cancellation Fee Percentage — the proportion of the shift's value charged when notice is shorter than that
• Carehires Split and Agency Split — how that fee is divided between Care Hires and your agency

It is worth knowing these figures by heart, as they are the terms most often queried when a shift falls through at short notice.

Checking your sleep-in rates

Where an agreement covers sleep-in shifts, the Sleep In Request table lists them, showing the policy reference and effective date, the worker type, the charge rate and the final agency cost with and without VAT, along with whether special rates and authoriser approval apply.

Select the eye icon to open the Sleep In Rates window. It works exactly like the worker rates window described above: the ADD/EDIT SLEEP IN HOURLY RATE tab holds the worker type, the authoriser approval setting, the rate type, the rate table and the applicable sites, and the SPECIAL RATE BREAKDOWN tab explains the enhanced rates.

Timesheet approval cut-off times

Scroll down the agreement to find Time Sheet approval cut off time information. This is one of the most practical parts of the agreement, because missing a deadline here delays your payment. It confirms three things:

• Weekly Payment Cycle — the days the cycle covers and when it closes, and which completed jobs are included in the invoice
• Cut off time for Agencies — the deadline for submitting your timesheets each week. Miss it and that shift rolls over to the following week's invoice rather than the current one
• Weekly Invoice — the day invoices are generated and raised

Tip: Put the timesheet cut-off in your team's calendar as a weekly reminder. It is the simplest way to avoid payments slipping a week.

Signatories and downloading the agreement

At the bottom of the page, the Signatories section shows who signed on behalf of each party. For each signatory you will see the organisation and the sites or location covered, along with the person's name, designation and email address. A green tick confirms that party has signed.

To keep a copy for your own records, select Download Agreement.

If something is incorrect

Agreements are binding on both your agency and the provider, so they are not something to amend lightly.

If you spot something that does not match what you agreed — the wrong rate, a missing site, an incorrect cancellation split, a signatory who has since left, or an agreement showing the wrong status — please contact our Support Team, quoting the agreement reference number. We will check it against the signed agreement and arrange any correction with the provider.

Similarly, if a job appears under Bids Won – Awaiting Agreement and has been sitting there for some time, get in touch and we will help move it along.