We are very excited about this release and the enhancements it brings to eCaring.
View Staff Utilization and Desired Hours on the Calendar
We've enhanced the Staff Calendars to display the Staff Member's desired hours as well as their Actual Hours on the calendar similar to how a client's Authorization would display. Clicking on the Calendar will display detailed insights into their utilization for the week. If you aren't currently using the "Desired Hours", go to a staff profile and in the widget on the left side, click where it says "Desired Hours" to add or edit the desired hours for that user.
Reporting Enhancements
This release includes a number of new feature for Reporting. Most notably we've added our new Filtering Tool, previously only available on Authorization reporting to the Visits and Dates and Docs reports. These pages will no longer pre-load a set of data, you will now be able to specify the filters you want to return a more targeted set of data.
Visits Report:
On "Visits" you'll see that 2 filters are selected by default, Scheduled Start Date and Status, you can add other filters by clicking "Add New Filter", choose your values or ranges and click "Run".
Dates & Docs Report:
The "Dates & Docs" report is similar, but only has one Filter selected by default, this is a new filter called "Doc Status" and has two options, "Active" and "Inactive".
- Active means that the document has no expiration date or an expiration date in the future AND a Document status of "Complete".
- Inactive means that the document is either "Expired" or has no expiration date/a date in the future but a Document Status of "In Progress" or no Status at all.
Client and Staff Reports Updates:
We've added "Tags" as a reportable field to both the Staff and Client reports, you'll see your color coded tags displayed in the reports now as well! This will allow you to run client and staff reports and view the custom parameters that you've added. "Last Visit" has also been added to the Staff reports so you can easily report on caregivers based on when they last worked (or didn't).
New "Save" options:
We've also added new options to "Saving" reports, you'll now have the option to "Update" or "Save As" when creating a report. This will make it easier to re-create existing reports with new variables or filters. For example, if you want to save a report customized for each of your "Primary Schedulers" you are able to build it once and then save it multiple times using the "Saved" option to create different versions with their own filters.
We also fixed an issue that caused customizations to column ordering to not be respected when you re-run a saved report.
Bill and Pay Other Mileage
While technically released several weeks ago, we haven't yet announced the new functionality related to Billing and Paying Other Mileage. You can read the full article on configuring other mileage here: How to Set Up Other Mileage
Enhancements Include:
- Ability to configure Billable mileage and rates at the Payor level with overrides existing on authorizations and in shift details.
- Ability to configure a custom bill rate for Other Mileage on Private Pay clients.
- Updates to Payroll Formats and Billing Files as needed to support displaying Other Mileage items.
Travel Time Settings Enhancement
We've updated the Travel Time settings configuration with a new setting called "Reset on Calendar Day". If you check this box (and click "Save Settings" at the top of the page), visits that are conducted on different calendar days will NOT be evaluated for travel time, even if they fall within your Shift Reset Gap. As always, please reference local labor laws in configuring these settings as requirements vary state to state.
New Auto Verification Settings
With this release we have a new Auto Verification setting available and one more coming soon!
Available Now: You can configure eCaring to only Auto-Verify visits that have a Client Signature on the Activity Record.
Coming Soon: Require that both the Clock-In and Clock-Out are done from within the configured Geofence when the Clock-In method is "Mobile".
Note that when enabling the "Captured Client Signature" option - by default "IVR/Telephony" visits will be excluded from this check (meaning they will still be Auto Verified as long as other checks are met). "Manual" clock-ins and outs are NOT excluded from this check by default but can be by adding them to the drop down list.
New "Service" level Configurations
We've added new configuration options to "Services" at your Organization level. You can now exclude services from Overtime, Travel Time, and Client to Client Mileage settings. These settings should be used carefully and they cannot be overridden at the Payor level. The most common use case would be if you are logging paid training or other items that are completed virtually and you do not want to pay any travel time or mileage that would typically be calculated by scheduling these events.
Note - If you change these settings on existing services, you will not see the TT and CTCM estimates removed from the schedules for existing scheduled events. They will be removed when they are set to "Complete" and should not be included in Payroll. If you would like to remove them from the estimates. You'll need to make an edit to your Travel Time settings Save, and then Re-Save which will trigger eCaring's tool to re-calculate all scheduled travel time events.
Updates to Shift Details View
We've made some small enhancements to improve the User Experience on the Shift Details view. This includes indicating the "Cancellation Reason" for Cancelled Visits so it's easier to understand why they are displaying in Shift Verification or may be Billable and Payable (depending on your configuration). We've also updated the "Verified" icon to always display the "Verification Date", hovering over this icon will display the username of the person who verified the visit.
New Payroll ID Check
For agencies who have configured their payroll to use the "Payroll ID" field, we've added a check when payroll preview is generated to identify any staff members who will be included in that payroll run but have a missing Payroll ID. You can click their name to go to their profile and add the Payroll ID. This is a soft warning, if you continue with processing payroll it will process and you will have staff members with missing payroll ID's.
Warning when Adding an Authorization for a Client in a Non-Active Status
When a Client is made inactive in eCaring, we remove the Scheduled Shifts and Authorizations, Re-Activating the Client allows users to go through a workflow to Re-Start the schedule and Authorizations if desired. However, we do allow users to add new authorizations and new schedules while a client is inactive in case their services are going to change, this allows you to be prepared and start staffing those shifts to resume care. Now, when you add a new authorization and the client status is anything other than "Active" you'll see this warning, letting you know that the client's status is currently inactive and your new schedules could conflict with existing schedules once they are made active.
Duplicate Profile Check
We've implemented a new check when a Client or Staff Profile is created to search existing profiles to try and find any duplicates. If a duplicate is found, the profile will be displayed. You can still create a duplicate record, if you need to, but this should avoid any accidental creation of duplicate profiles.
We will use a combination of the variables below to attempt to identify potential matches:
- Name
- Email Address
- Date of Birth
Other Updates and Enhancements
- Staff "Last Visit" Date is now based on the date with the most recent Completed visit instead of Verified visit. Last Visit Date has also been added to Reports > Staff to allow users to quickly focus on Staff that have not worked recently. This also updates the value displayed on the Staff Roster page.
- Staff Termination workflow - When a Staff Status = Terminated, the Termination Reason will now be displayed if you hover over the Status on the Staff Widget on their Profile Dashboard or under the Status History. Additionally, the termination date will be populated within Staff report.
- We have made some updates to eCaring to force users of VERY outdated versions of the Mobile app to update. There are very few users overall still on these versions, but they will be forced to update to continue using the app. Although we recommend that all users update to the current version, all versions released since Spring 2025 will still work.
- Private Pay Billing Exports will now be Grouped by Invoice Number and sorted within their invoice by Date of Service.
- We've made improvements to the performance of the "Notifications" page to support users with large amounts of notifications.
- We've made improvements to the site performance, supporting the loading of the Dashboard, Client and Staff profiles for users.
- We've added additional columns to the Verification page to assist your team in making decisions regarding Verifying visits, these new, Optional, columns will display the Clock-In/Out Method with geofence adherence as well as the Client Signature status.
Bug Fixes
- We resolved a bug which impacted Weekend Differentials and Overnight visits
- We resolved a bug where, when an Overnight visit was cancelled and the user selected the option to create a new visit, it was being displayed as a "Recurrence" when it was actually only a single visit.
- We resolved a Search issue in "Activities" reporting.
- Ending a Service excludes Deleted visits from the check to determine the end-date.
- Visits will be included in Billing Batches based on their Start of Service date, not their End of Service date.
- Staff "Job Title" will now display correctly on the Staff Summary Widget