ShiftCare Virtual Assistant: a VA who fills shifts and gets the NDIS claims out

Nobody who runs a disability support provider needs “admin” explained to them. A worker calls out at 6:05am and the 7:00am shift still needs a body. The NDIA wants claims in one very particular file format, plan managers want invoices in another, payroll wants approved timesheets by Tuesday, and somewhere in the pile a police check expired without telling anyone. ShiftCare holds all of it, which is exactly why “shiftcare admin” is a thing people type into Google at 9pm: the software has a screen for every one of those jobs, and every one of them is currently driven by you.

A week inside your ShiftCare

The day starts in the Scheduler: unfilled shifts flagged, cancellations processed, recurring shifts checked against availability. When a call-out lands, the vacant shift goes onto the Job Board with the matching filters on and approvals required, and your VA watches the applications. When nobody bites, which is real life in this sector, they work the phone and SMS list of qualified workers until it’s covered, and only then tell you about it. ShiftCare charges ten cents an SMS; the ring-around is the cheapest part of your week.

Then the quiet job that protects every dollar you claim: the note check. Workers write their progress notes in the app as each visit ends, and your VA never writes one, not a line. What they do is confirm every finished shift has its note attached before the invoice run, then nudge whoever forgot, because a claimed shift with nothing behind it is exactly the gap an auditor hunts for.

Money next. Invoices generated in bulk from the Client Billing Report on your cycle, rates checked against the imported NDIS price books, then the NDIA claims file downloaded from the finalised invoices and uploaded into PRODA, or prepped to one click if you’d rather keep PRODA access to yourself. Rejections chased with context, plan-managed invoices out the same day, and the outstanding ones worked to a follow-up rhythm you sign off. Before payroll: clock-on and clock-off times checked against rostered hours, variances flagged with the story attached, approved timesheets pushed to Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks or Employment Hero (the payroll platform ShiftCare’s older pages still call KeyPay).

Weekly: the Compliance Report and the expired tab in Staff > Document Hub. Police checks, NDIS Worker Screening, first aid, chased before they lapse rather than discovered after, with reminders set under Account > Reminders so the system nags before your VA has to. On Intelligence-tier accounts the Funds screen gets the same treatment, because ShiftCare warns when a fund balance falls below its 50% threshold or nears expiry, and a participant burning through plan funding in month two of a twelve-month plan is a conversation you want in month two. Each July, when the NDIA updates its pricing arrangements, the new price guide gets imported under Account > Prices and the price books checked before the first invoice run on the new rates.

The catches, upfront

Three things before you budget. ShiftCare prices per user with a five-licence minimum, and admin logins count, so unlike the clinical platforms with free reception seats, your VA’s seat is one more licence, $9-25 a month on monthly billing depending on plan. The Job Board and bulk invoicing with NDIA claiming only start on the Growth plan, the one long-time customers know as Professional; on Essentials, shift-fill is a phone-and-SMS job, which a VA does perfectly well, but the claim-a-shift workflow isn’t there. And fund balance alerts live up on Intelligence, the old Premium, so the Funds watch only applies if your plan carries it. We’d rather you hear all three here than on your invoice.

What never moves to the VA

Support delivery, always. Progress notes, written by the workers who delivered the support, never by the VA, with ShiftCare’s data access controls doing the enforcing: the role we configure has client notes and the care plans tab set to no access, applied everywhere from the profile to the exports. Incident decisions, service agreements, anything touching a participant’s plan or behaviour support stays yours, and anything clinical or safeguarding-shaped goes up to you under a written escalation rule. The line is the same one on our NDIS industry page: the VA never delivers supports and never writes a care note. They make sure everyone who does gets rostered, paid and renewed on time.

Cost, and the first step

ShiftCare work lands on our admin tier at $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST, usually 10-15 hours a week, more if the VA also takes on the wider data upkeep. Placement runs 7-10 business days. The first 5-7 days are supervised inside your ShiftCare before any solo work, the first 30 days carry a recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and you can walk away on 14 days notice.

The NDIS page covers the industry side, allied health practices on splose have their own page, and the VA cost guide walks through every number. Otherwise book a discovery call with Jenn. She’s placed 48+ VAs since 2024, and if your operation isn’t ready for one, she’ll say so before taking a dollar. Bring your unfilled-shifts view and your expired-documents tab; the hours are in there, and we’ll dig them out.