5.3 Schedule admin and non-billable time

Last updated: August 10, 2026

What This Covers

Not everything your team does is a billable therapy session. Training, drive time, clinical programming, team meetings, and general admin work are all non-billable time. Insurance doesn't pay for it, but Alpaca still tracks it so it flows to payroll and shows up on the schedule. This article covers how to schedule non-billable time and how it gets approved.

(Time off / PTO is handled separately — see the Time Off articles.)

📄 How to Use the Time Off Feature in Alpaca Health

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How to Schedule Non-Billable Time

  1. Go to the Schedule page and click Schedule Event (or click/drag directly on the time slot you want).

  2. In the Appointment Type dropdown, choose Non-Billable. (The three options are Billable, Non-Billable, and Leave Time.)

  3. A Type picker appears. Choose the category that fits the work:

  • Training

  • Travel (drive time)

  • Admin

  • Non-Billable Appointment

  • Materials Management

  • Clinical Programming

  • Staff Engagement

  • Client/Family Engagement

  • Internal Meetings

  1. Set the date and time (or set it to repeat if it's recurring). For non-billable time, Client and Location are optional.

  2. Optionally add a note in Request Context so whoever approves it knows what it's for.

  3. Click Schedule (or Schedule Series for a recurring event).

Approval

Non-billable time goes through a quick approval step so it can be paid correctly:

Pending → Approved → Verified

  • A new non-billable appointment starts as Pending. If you're an admin, your own non-billable time is approved automatically (unless it overlaps another appointment).

  • Everyone else's non-billable time waits for an approver. Approvers see it as a request card on their Home page and on the appointment itself on the schedule, with Approve, Reject, and Request Changes buttons.

  • Whether you can approve or verify others' requests depends on your role and permissions in your org. If you can't, your request simply goes to an admin/director to approve.

How It Gets Paid

  • Only Approved or Verified non-billable time flows to payroll. Pending, rejected, or needs-changes time does not.

  • The pay period is the later of when the work happened and when it was approved/verified. This prevents backdating — if something is approved late, it's paid in the period it was approved, not when it occurred.

  • The category maps to a pay rate automatically: Training uses the training rate, Travel uses the drive-time rate, and everything else non-billable uses the admin rate. Admins can override the pay bucket (Paycode Type) on the appointment if needed.

Tip: make sure each team member's training, admin, and drive-time rates are set on their profile, or their non-billable hours may be paid at $0.