A Day in Their Shoes: How Home Care Software Supports Everyone in the Care Journey (Back-Office Staff)

In this two-part blog, we are taking a look at the significant impact the right home care software can have on the day-to-day lives of your agency’s caregivers, clients, families, and back-office staff.

In part one, we followed a day in the life of a caregiver, client, and a client’s family member to showcase how the Aaniie home care platform’s innovative features support and simplify their unique daily challenges.

In this article, we’ll uncover how the daily workflows of your agency’s back-office team can be streamlined and transformed with the right home care software, increasing efficiency and productivity and boosting job satisfaction and retention. 

Startups and smaller agencies will have staff who double-up on some of these roles or, as the owner, you may currently be performing all the roles yourself! In these cases, the time and cost savings of streamlining operations will be magnified, not only helping you to run your business more efficiently but also providing opportunities for scalability and growth. 

Mateo: Care Coordinator/Scheduler

Mateo has been with our agency since we first set up eight years ago. He was originally one of our caregivers but reskilled in 2023 to become a scheduler. It’s great to have someone in this role who understands the challenges from both sides and was already familiar with our agency culture when joining the office team.

Mateo is the essential first line of contact for our caregivers, clients, and families. His role is critical to the successful daily operations and reputation of our agency, so having the right tools in place to support him is paramount.

Let’s learn more about a day in the life of Mateo using Aaniie Care’s scheduling system.

• My work day starts at 7 am. The first thing I do is check that our custom alerts and automatic notifications have gone out to all our caregivers and clients so they each have their shift schedules for the day ahead. This is a two-minute job and isn’t really necessary as there has never been a day when it hasn’t worked – but I’m a stickler for detail!

• Next, I check to see if any open shifts need to be filled or scheduling changes need to be made. The scheduling alerts automatically notify me of these, and they’re color-coded on the dashboard so I can see if it’s a cancellation, double-booking, caregiver absence, client request for extra shifts, etc. 
  
  Before we had the Aaniie Care system, I had to call and text the caregivers and clients individually, which took up half my day, but now it only takes about 10 minutes. For any shifts that need to be covered, I just send an alert to all suitable caregivers, they pick up the shifts quickly via the mobile app, and we’re good to go!

• I generally don’t have to spend time setting up weekly/monthly schedules for existing clients, as we use Aaniie Care’s auto-scheduling tool. This means that once the client and caregiver have agreed on recurring shifts, I set them up and input the scheduling rules, and it automatically runs until I need to make any changes later down the line or have to fill shifts for caregiver PTO.

• On the weeks when new clients are being onboarded, it’s my job to find compatible caregiver matches as well as set up their schedules. I used to do this manually with a spreadsheet, but now Aaniie’s automation takes care of it for me – and never fails to find the best matches. This saves me SO much time, and both the clients and caregivers are much happier too.

• Throughout the day, I keep an eye on any late check-ins or missed shifts so I can quickly jump in and resolve them. The system ensures all caregivers are accounted for at each visit and immediately alerts me if there’s a problem with a color-coded system on the dashboard. This means I can pretty much cover shifts instantly and let the client know of any changes via the family portal.

• I’ll typically get a couple of client or family queries about scheduling or care plans in a day. With the Aaniie Care dashboard, I can click on any shift to see the details, which means I can quickly resolve any queries or make any changes. With all the information I need at my fingertips, I’m able to give great customer service every time.

• Some days (and weekends), I’m on-call after-hours, which is never an issue as I can securely manage everything I usually do in the office from my mobile phone or tablet. It’s generally finding caregivers to fill last-minute shift changes, and I still have access to alerts and message blasts to get these sorted out in minutes so I can get back to spending time with my family.

• With all the hours Aaniie Care saves in my scheduling role, I now have time to take on other responsibilities within the agency, which I love. One of these is helping HR oversee caregivers’ documentation to ensure all our training and certifications are up-to-date. I do this via the KPI dashboard, which shows me when renewals are due so I can prompt the relevant caregivers – and keep us all compliant.  

“As the agency’s grown, I’ve found coordinating and maintaining schedules for over 50 remote caregivers really manageable, and I’m still loving my job. This is largely due to the agency investing in Aaniie software, which makes my role so much easier and hassle-free. And, rather than constantly fighting scheduling fires, I get to focus on higher value activities that help keep all our caregivers and clients happy.”

Ava: Human Resources

As head of Human Resources (HR), Ava wears many hats and is responsible for a wide range of staffing activities at our home care agency, including recruitment, training and development, compliance, and promoting caregiver engagement and well-being. 

Her ability to balance the needs of our employees with our business objectives is crucial, especially with the industry facing so many staffing challenges.

Let’s follow a day in Ava’s life using Aaniie Care’s embedded recruitment and hiring platform:

• Today is the beginning of a busy week for me, so I’m starting it with a strong coffee as I check and respond to any emails or messages that have come in over the weekend. 

• Next, I review last week’s employee numbers on the KPI dashboard. This includes on-time client visits, absenteeism, training completion rates, turnover rate, etc. 

• I also review the caregiver-to-client and client-to-caregiver satisfaction scores, address any issues that haven’t been resolved, and send a quick text to any of our caregivers who’ve had especially positive ratings or feedback. 
  
  At the end of each quarter, I prepare reports from this data to review with management. This is a 10-minute job as the Aaniie Care platform runs the reports for me. We use these to identify trends and develop strategies to improve HR practices in the months ahead. 

• At 11 am, we have a team briefing to clarify the week’s objectives and address any immediate HR challenges or concerns. As my main priority for this week will be hiring new caregiver talent, I need to delegate tasks to my team to manage current employee engagement, including setting up two new training courses as part of the agency’s retention strategy.
  
  Thankfully, with the Aaniie Care retention toolset, engaging and retaining caregivers isn’t a problem at this agency, as it includes everything we need to manage, motivate, and maintain a full team with relative ease.

• The rest of the day, I’m focused on hiring new caregivers, as we have ten clients onboarding in a few weeks, and we don’t want to overload our existing team. I started this process a couple of weeks ago, writing and posting job descriptions, reviewing resumes, and background screening – so this week, I just need to set up and conduct interviews and then select the best-fit candidates.

• Since we started using Aaniie Care’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS), the hiring process has been reduced to, on average, 21 days. It does so much of the heavy lifting for me, and the quality of applicants we’ve been able to attract is far superior than before. It also integrates seamlessly with the platform’s caregiver management and retention toolset, so once I’ve signed up the new recruits, they’ll automatically be in the system and ready to go.

“What I love most about my job is that no two days are the same… I’m most proud of the fact that since the agency implemented Aaniie, the HR team has been able to hire and hold on to an amazing, talented team of caregivers. Our annual turnover rate is just 25% (well below the industry average of 79.2%), which means the agency can keep adding new clients, and my team can continue to take great care of its caregivers.”

Aaron: Payroll Administrator

Aaron is part of our accounting team and manages the payroll system. His job is to ensure our caregivers are paid accurately and on time. He also supports the billing team and stays in the loop with labor laws, tax codes, and regulatory changes.

Last year, Aaron needed to drastically reduce his work hours for health-related reasons, but as this coincided with our agency adopting the Aaniie Care platform he’s been able to fulfill his role in less time – and we’re delighted he remains part of the team.

Let’s take a look at a day in the life of Aaron using Aaniie Care’s payroll software.

• I work one day a week for the agency since they implemented the Aaniie platform. Payroll processing is super quick and easy now, which frees up time for me to keep abreast of labor laws, regulatory changes, and so on. I also work remotely, as Aaniie allows me to access everything I need securely from home.

• There are constant deadlines with payroll as this agency has differing pay frequencies, for example, weekly, biweekly, and monthly – with the added complication of multiple pay rates per employee. However, with Aaniie’s automated shift differentials, I can easily set up and manage payroll and be confident that all employees are paid correctly and on time. 
  
  Having configured the system to meet the agency’s needs, all I need to do is check all the mileage is in the system and all the shifts are verified (and locked), then click a button. The system then automatically runs the payments for me. It takes about 15 minutes each week and has eliminated all payroll discrepancies and disputes!

• Another key feature worth mentioning is that Aaniie Care’s payroll is directly linked to the scheduling system, so all caregiver hours are automatically and accurately logged as they clock in and out of shifts on their phones. The removal of paper-based time sheets and all the hassle they used to bring me is, thankfully, gone!

• Once a month, I run a full payroll report for my manager to analyze and help with decision-making around staffing costs. They can get a bird’s eye view of all staffing costs at any time in the KPI dashboard, but the reports help us gain valuable insights to improve financial forecasting with precise labor tracking. 

• We also run periodic audits to make sure processes and documentation are in order. It’s essential that we comply with data protection when collecting, storing, and sharing employee information and Aaniie makes sure of that.  

“My job is super easy with Aaniie Care. The functionality means I don’t have to manually gather information about each employee’s hours, mileage, etc., or staffing costs over fixed periods. I look at the schedule to check everything is navy blue. If it is, I know the payroll will be correct. What used to take me several days a week now takes minutes.”

Kaitlyn: Billing Coordinator 

Our billing coordinator, Kaitlyn, plays a vital back-end role in managing the end-to-end billing cycle, including invoicing, payment processing, and reconciliation of accounts.

Let’s look at a day in the life of Kaitlyn, using Aaniie’s all-in-one billing and payment processing suite.

• My day always begins with checking emails and messages and resolving client, caregiver, and office staff queries around billing, payment, and payroll discrepancies. Since we’ve been using the Aaniie platform, I hardly get any messages, so this has become a 15-minute rather than a 3-hour job!

• Next up for me today is generating invoices for all billable services. We bill nearly 1200 home care visits per week, which involves invoicing for multiple sources like Medicaid, VA, clients, and family members. It’s complex, but with Aaniie Care’s invoice-splitting feature, the process is automated and ensures everyone is billed accurately – and in a fraction of the time it would take to do it all manually. 
  
  From a cost-saving aspect, I also love that Aaniie doesn’t charge us any extra for generating and sending invoices – it’s all included. 

• My biggest time saver is Aaniie’s EVV services, which help create a CMS-1500 to be converted by their clearing house to an 837p, which is then transmitted to a specified payer for processing. This agency’s payers include Medicaid and the Veterans Affairs (VA). These electronic claims submissions are a godsend and mean we typically get paid by insurers within 10 days – unheard of!

• For the last hour of my day, I’ll review client and insurer balances. We receive electronic payments from everyone now, so processing payments and viewing outstanding balances are both a one-click job. 
  
  I’ll message clients via the portal to notify them of past due balances with a statement reminder and call any insurers to resolve claim denials or chase late payments. However, since using the Aaniie system, claims denials are extremely rare.

• Each week, I run reports with Aaniie to identify trends, discrepancies, and opportunities for process improvements. I can also use reports to support audits and provide documentation for insurers as required.

“In my last job, the biggest headache was insurance claims. I had to key in every single claim manually – and there were a lot of them! Now, I just click a button, and the claims get sent right over without a hitch. The Aaniie team also gave us great tips on how to avoid claims being denied, which has made all the difference.”

Darlene: Sales and Marketing Manager

Darlene and her team play a vital role in helping to attract and win more clients for our agency, nurturing referral relationships, and managing our online reputation.

Let’s learn more about a day in Darlene’s life as she uses Aaniie’s Home Care Marketing and CRM tools to keep our agency ahead of the competition.

• We’re a small team of three, and as our agency is rapidly growing we certainly have our work cut out to keep on top of things. So, we start every day with a team meeting to review what needs to be done and allocate tasks.

• The most time-consuming part of my job is ensuring we’re promoting services, growing reach, establishing brand, and keeping the pipeline full. We mostly do this through a strong online presence, our client referral program, and building a reliable network of professional referrals. We also keep an eye on what our competitors are up to!

• Once we’ve had an initial inquiry, things get a whole lot easier! With Aaniie Care’s CRM and marketing database, we can track and manage every lead and referral through the sales funnel so no one gets lost or left behind in the process.
  
  Regular communication and the right messaging are key. We do some of this through newsletters, follow-up calls, etc., but we also utilize the marketing automation within the Aaniie CRM system to send follow-up messages, personalized campaigns, and so on, which has halved our response time and keeps our agency top-of-mind.

• The insights and metrics report the ROI for all our marketing activity, and we regularly run reports to see which marketing strategies and channels are working best, where our main referrals are coming from, and client acquisition costs. This year, we’ve been tasked with focusing on revenue drivers, so this data is essential to keep us on track.

“I’ve been with this agency for four years, and the growth we’ve achieved in the last two years (since implementing Aaniie Care software) has been astonishing. It’s so easy and intuitive to use and has given me and my team all the tools we need to achieve our sales targets – without needing to add more staff.”

Transform the lives of your home care agency’s back-office staff with Aaniie’s all-in-one platform

Aaniie Care delivers all the operational tools your home care business needs for optimal scheduling, billing and payroll, recruitment and retention, sales and marketing, data insights (and much more), and includes countless ‘hidden treasures’ that guarantee a superior experience for all users.

If your agency is ready to explore the advantages of Aaniie’s comprehensive software solution, designed specifically for home care providers, schedule a demo or give our team a call today. 

Your back-office staff will thank you!