First on the Books

Resources

The checklist, and where every fact came from.

A working checklist for the first participant, and the six official pages this entire handbook is built on — so you can check any statement here against the body that made it.

The checklist

Every item links to the page on this site that explains it, and that page links to its source.

Before the first support

Not a compliance certificate and not a substitute for reading the guidance — a list of the decisions that have to be made before a first funded session, in the order they tend to matter.

  1. 01 Establish how this participant's plan is managed NDIA-managed, plan-managed or self-managed. It decides whether registration is required and who eventually pays you. Three kinds of participant
  2. 02 Settle whether you need to be registered Registration with the Commission is required to deliver supports to participants with NDIA-managed funding. Before you say yes
  3. 03 If NDIA-managed: be recorded as a my provider A separate requirement from registration, and it has to be done before you submit a payment request. Before you say yes
  4. 04 Get access to the right provider portal There are two, and which one applies depends on the computer system the participant's plan sits on. Before you say yes
  5. 05 Have an ABN ready for plan-managed invoicing An invoice to a plan manager must carry a valid ABN unless you are exempt, and an exemption needs the right form. Before you say yes
  6. 06 Write the service agreement anyway Not required in most cases, but recommended — and it is where the cancellation policy and the report scope live. The sequence
  7. 07 Tell the participant the price before delivering A stated obligation, and the easiest one to skip when the work starts informally. Your responsibilities
  8. 08 Diarise the claiming deadline for this plan type The windows differ by management type, and the tightest one is measured from something other than the session. Where it goes wrong

The sources

Six official pages. Everything factual on this site comes from one of them.

Where every fact came from

Each of these is the page that actually carries the statement it is cited for, rather than a general landing page that sounds like it should. They open in a new tab.

  • Guide to working as an allied health provider Referrals, evidence for access decisions, plan reassessment reports, the two portals, and supervision of students. ndis.gov.au
  • Guide to getting paid How payment differs by management type, what a claim must carry, the claiming deadlines, and payment timing. ndis.gov.au
  • What is a service agreement When an agreement is required, when it is only recommended, and what a good one covers. ndis.gov.au
  • What are the responsibilities of a provider Who must register, and the standing obligations once you are delivering. ndis.gov.au
  • How to use the provider portals Getting into the portal the participant's plan actually sits on. ndis.gov.au
  • How to be recorded as a my provider The step that has to happen before an NDIA-managed payment request can be submitted. ndis.gov.au

Not established by the gathered guidance

Insurance requirements and worker screening are real obligations for many providers, but they are not settled by the six pages above — they sit with the Commission's registration requirements and with state and territory screening bodies. This site does not state them, because it has not sourced them. Check with the Commission and your state's screening unit rather than taking a number from any website, including this one.