Scroll down to the bottom of this page for a link to view the most recent version of the Sprout Invoicing Document. 

An important note about this document:

This document is intended to be used as a reference for providers who contract with and invoice the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families for Family Time visit supervision services.  Sections will be replaced or updated to reflect any changes to the Sprout platform affecting billing and invoicing. Rather than downloading this document, providers should bookmark its location in their web browser to ensure they always have access to the latest, most accurate version.

Invoicing with Sprout - An Overview

Working in partnership with Washington State’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), the University of Washington’s Center for Social Sector Analytics and Technology (CSSAT) designed and maintains the web-based software platform Sprout.  The platform supports two separate service lines for DCYF – Family Time (parent-child visitation) and Combined In Home Services.  This guide covers how individual visit supervising workers (VSW) and administrators working in agencies providing Family Time visit supervision should use Sprout to enter billable items and invoice DCYF for payment.

The Parent-Child Visit Supervision or “Family Time” portion of the Sprout application serves three key functions. 

1. It is the place of record for Family Time Visit reports entered by contracted providers and accessed by state child welfare workers, and;
2. It serves as a tool for DCYF to monitor the performance of the contractors who use the platform, and;
3. It calculates data that is entered by Family Time contractors to generate a downloadable billing file and send a monthly invoice to DCYF for time, mileage and other reimbursable expenses.  

While each of these functions is important, the 1.) capture and timely sharing of information on Family Time visits should always be prioritized.  The 2.)  performance monitoring  and 3.) invoicing capacity of Sprout have both been designed to take visit data entered in Sprout to generate reports.  The formulas that generate both performance and billing data will calculate the proper measures and compensation levels for each activity using actual data. 

Sprout users should always capture what happened during a visit and when and where it happened as accurately as possible.  Users should not alter, adjust or manipulate any information entered into Sprout in order to impact performance or invoicing data.