How to Unlock Attendance Times in ElderSuite

📝 Overview

When you open Attendance & Transportation Records to fix a time and the cells on a client’s row won’t accept anything, ElderSuite is protecting a claim. Attendance times drive the units and the amount on that client’s claim for the day. Once the claim moves on, ElderSuite keeps the times from drifting out of step with what was billed.

The lock depends on the claim status. You can enter or change a client’s times for a day only while that day’s attendance is Pending or has no status yet. Any status other than Pending makes the time cells on that row read-only, and no message appears. To unlock the times, you set the claim back to Pending in the Claim Center, make your correction, and then work the claim through again.

⚙ How It Works

Know Which Statuses Lock Attendance

Pending is the only status that leaves attendance open for editing. Every other status locks the row, including Acknowledged, Denied, and Rejected. Those can look harmless, but they lock the times just the same. Statuses your center adds in Manage Claim Status Types lock attendance too. See How to Manage Claim Status Types in ElderSuite.

A few things don’t cause the lock:

• Scrubbing a claim doesn’t change its status, so it doesn’t lock anything.
• A newly built attendance record starts as Pending or with no status, which is what keeps it editable.
• The age of a record isn’t the reason either. An old day that won’t accept changes is sitting on a status other than Pending.

Expect Some Rows to Lock and Others to Stay Open

The status lives on each attendance record, and each record is one client on one service date. Locking works per client, per day. It doesn’t lock a whole date.

On a single day’s screen, some clients’ rows can be fully editable while others are locked, depending on which clients’ attendance has been claimed. That mix is expected behavior.

See What Else Skips a Locked Row

Anything that writes times leaves a locked row alone, without a warning:

• Use Scheduled Times fills in every client on screen except those whose attendance has moved past Pending.
• A Scan Times import writes times only for clients whose attendance is still Pending. Before importing, ElderSuite counts the clients whose attendance is no longer Pending. When nothing at all can be imported, the message ends with “Attendance that has been claimed cannot be changed here.”

Removing a day works the same way. On Attendance & Transportation Records, you remove a client’s day by clearing their times, and that’s only possible while the day is Pending.

The Missing Times review also lists only days that are Pending or have no status, so a locked day with an incomplete time won’t appear there. For working through that list, see How to Fix Days With Missing Attendance Times in ElderSuite.

Set One Claim Back to Pending

The claim status is stored on the attendance record itself. Changing it in the Claim Center is what releases the row on the attendance screen.

For a single client and day, open Claim Center and then Scrub Claims. Set the date range to cover the service date and click Find. Scrub Claims lists claims of every status, so a claim that is no longer Pending still shows up. Open the claim with Edit Claim, or double-click it, and it opens in the Health Insurance Claim Form. Set the Claim Status dropdown, at the top right above the claim form, to Pending and click Save & Close.

Pending is a built-in status that can’t be renamed or retired, so you’ll find it in the list. For more on this screen, see How to Scrub Claims in ElderSuite and How to Edit a Claim on the Health Insurance Claim Form in ElderSuite.

Set Several Claims Back to Pending

To unlock a batch, open Claim Center and then Reconcile Claims. Set the date range, click Find, and narrow the list with Filter by Claim Status if it helps. Check the claims to change. Click Change to..., select Pending in the Select New Claim Status list, and click Change. Then click Save & Close.

Two habits keep the batch on track:

• Set your filters before you check rows. Changing a filter clears every check mark.
• Click Save & Close before you leave. Change updates the window only, and nothing is saved until you close with Save & Close.

For Limited Access users, the Reconcile Claims button needs the Reconcile permission. See How to Reconcile Claims in ElderSuite for the full screen.

Correct the Times and Work the Claim Again

With the claim back on Pending, return to Client Center and open Attendance & Transportation Records. Set the Date to the service date, and correct the client’s times. For entering and saving times, see How to Record Attendance and Transportation Times in ElderSuite. If you scan route sheets, see How to Scan Attendance & Transportation Times in ElderSuite.

After the times are right, the claim has to be worked through again: scrubbed, then resubmitted or adjusted as appropriate. A claim set back to Pending will be picked up by the next scrub. Reverting a claim isn’t a way to hide a problem. Get the times right first, then let the claim be rebuilt from them.

Know That Meal Counts Aren’t Locked

Only attendance times lock. ElderSuite has no meal locking feature, because it has no way of knowing which meals were billed. You can edit meal counts for a period even after that period’s attendance has locked, without unlocking anything first.

⚠ Reverting a Paid Claim Doesn’t Change Anything at the Payer

Setting a claim back to Pending in ElderSuite doesn’t undo anything on the payer’s side. If the payer has already accepted or paid that claim, correct the times and then send it as a corrected claim with the right resubmission code. Sending the same claim again risks a duplicate. For the steps, see How to Adjust a Submitted Claim in ElderSuite.

💡 Need More Help?

For step-by-step instructions, click Ask Eddie from within ElderSuite.