This article explains how NDIS and disability support providers can decide whether Deputy is the right fit, plan their set-up, trial key workflows, and prepare for rollout across clients, regions, SIL houses, support workers, payroll, compliance, and operations.

Before you read

• Target audience: This article is for users with System Administrator access.
• Plan restrictions: To check whether your plan includes this feature, see our plan guide.

This article covers:

• Who this guide is for
• What Deputy can help NDIS providers manage
• Choosing a starting model
• Structuring Locations, Areas, access, and integrations
• Reviewing Location settings before rollout
• Setting access and approval responsibilities
• Preparing payroll, compliance, and reporting workflows
• Running day-to-day support workflows
• Quick add-on and plan check
• Trial and rollout checklist
• Common mistakes to avoid

Who this guide is for

This guide is for NDIS providers, disability support providers, in-home support teams, community access teams, SIL providers, respite providers, and mobile support teams.

It is especially useful for providers that manage mobile support workers, client-based rosters, SIL houses, community access, sleepovers, active nights, travel, kilometre claims, compliance documents, or SCHADS-related payroll complexity.

What Deputy can help NDIS providers manage

NDIS and disability support providers often need to manage mobile teams, fixed houses, client-based support, and complex approval workflows at the same time. Support workers need clear rosters, coordinators need attendance visibility, payroll teams need approved timesheets, and managers need compliance visibility without duplicating a care management system.

Deputy can help NDIS providers manage client-based rosters, mobile support workers, mobile clock-in, GPS attendance capture, timesheet approvals, sleepovers, active nights, travel visibility, payroll preparation, Training Tags for compliance visibility, workforce communication, task workflows, and reporting by region, client, house, or support type.

Many NDIS providers adopt Deputy because it can reduce roster admin, improve attendance visibility, and simplify day-to-day coordination across support workers, coordinators, clients, houses, and regions.

• Support workers can view shifts and see which client, house, or support type they are rostered to.
• Workers can clock in using mobile workflows without being blocked by unrealistic geofences.
• Coordinators can review GPS, missed clock-ins, notes, travel, and exceptions before payroll cut-off.
• Payroll teams can work from cleaner approved timesheets with sleepovers, active nights, travel, or support types clearly identified.
• Compliance-sensitive support work can be visible before rosters are published.
• Task workflows can help support operational consistency across teams.
• Communication workflows can help coordinators share roster changes, urgent coverage needs, client schedule updates, and house updates.

Deputy is usually used alongside client care plans, case notes, participant records, funding, claiming, service agreements, and incident management systems. Keep those workflows in your specialist care or NDIS systems if they already sit outside Deputy.

Many NDIS providers start with scheduling, attendance, and timesheet approvals first, then expand into reporting, communication, onboarding, analytics, or broader workforce workflows over time.

What good looks like

• Support workers know which client, house, or support type they are rostered to.
• Workers can clock in without being blocked by unrealistic geofences.
• Coordinators can review GPS, missed clock-ins, notes, travel, and exceptions before payroll cut-off.
• Payroll teams receive clean, approved timesheets with sleepovers, active nights, travel, or support types clearly identified.
• Compliance-sensitive support work is visible before rosters are published.
• Coordinators can manage time without necessarily seeing wage costs.

Choose your starting model

Start by choosing the model that best matches how your provider works today. You can add more reporting detail later once your team is using Deputy consistently.

Use these models as a starting point only. Your final set-up should reflect your payroll rules, reporting needs, integrations, approval process, and how your team manages support delivery.

Structure Locations, Areas, and integrations

In Deputy, a Location does not always need to represent an office. Many NDIS providers use Locations to represent regions, clients, SIL houses, service hubs, programs, or major support arrangements.

Areas are usually used to represent the support being provided or the reporting detail needed. For NDIS providers, this might include clients, personal care, community access, transport, sleepover, active night, admin, or travel.

Some integrations can create or update team members, payroll data, or reporting information in Deputy. Review your integration requirements before you finalise your structure so your Deputy set-up matches your payroll, finance, care management, or operational workflows.

Option 1 — Region as Location, client or support type as Areas

This structure works well for providers with many clients and mobile support workers.

Community access, in-home support, and mobile support teams commonly use this model because it keeps the set-up manageable while still allowing client or support-type reporting through Areas.

Option 2 — SIL house as a Location

This structure works well for supported independent living, group homes, and residential-style support.

SIL providers commonly use this model because it keeps house-level reporting, approvals, and fixed-location attendance workflows cleaner.

Option 3 — Client as a Location

This structure works well for providers with fewer high-support clients or client-specific manager responsibilities.

Use this model selectively when client-level reporting, permissions, notes, or clock-in settings need stronger separation.

Option 4 — Program as a Location

This structure works well when different programs have different managers, reporting needs, or support models.

Community access, in-home support, SIL, and respite programs may use this model when program-level approvals or reporting matter.

Review Location settings before rollout

Location settings control many of the defaults that affect scheduling, clocking in, timesheets, approvals, and reporting. Review these settings before go-live so each region, client, house, or program works the way your team expects.

This section is not a full set-up guide. Use it as a quick reminder of the settings to review, then refer to the detailed Location, Area, scheduling, and timesheet settings articles for step-by-step guidance.

General Location settings to review: region, client, house, or program name, address and map pin, operating hours, Location code, notes, and attachments.

For NDIS providers:

• Clear Location names can help coordinators distinguish between regions, clients, SIL houses, programs, or service hubs.
• Accurate addresses and notes matter for client or SIL house Locations.
• For regions, avoid pretending one map pin represents every possible community location.

Area settings to review: support type names, Area export codes, preferred support workers, Area addresses where relevant, and Training Tags.

For NDIS providers:

• Areas are where you can set up clients, personal care, community access, transport, sleepover, active night, admin, or travel.
• Area export codes can support payroll, finance, care management, or support type reporting workflows.
• Training Tags can help manage worker screening, medication, manual handling, behaviour support, driver licence, and client-specific suitability.

Scheduling settings to review: default shift settings, default break settings, shift offers, shift swaps, open shifts, notifications, and shift locking.

For NDIS providers:

• Open shifts should be controlled carefully because client suitability, training, and continuity of care may matter.
• Shift swaps and offers should usually require manager approval so support suitability and continuity can be reviewed.
• Shift locking can help reduce retrospective schedule changes after work has already happened.

Timesheet settings to review: mobile clock-in, GPS capture, geofencing, employee timesheet edits, break settings, rounding, timesheet auto-approval, unscheduled shifts, notes, and custom timesheet questions.

For NDIS providers:

• This is where you can control important attendance and payroll behaviours.
• Mobile clock-in with GPS capture is usually more practical for mobile support work.
• Hard geofencing should usually be used only for fixed SIL houses or stable client sites.
• Timesheet auto-approval should usually be avoided until support, travel, sleepover, active night, and exception workflows are proven.

Set access and approval responsibilities

Access decisions should be made during set-up. The right access model helps managers control scheduling, timesheet approvals, payroll visibility, client visibility, compliance visibility, and labour cost access.

Most NDIS providers allow support workers to clock in, clock out, and submit leave requests. Team leaders, coordinators, and house leads usually review GPS, notes, attendance, and exceptions. Service managers usually manage rosters, approvals, and labour visibility. Payroll and admin teams usually review payroll outputs and final exceptions.

Supervisor or Location Manager?

Most NDIS providers use Supervisor access for coordinators who approve time but should not see wage costs.

Use Location Manager access for managers responsible for labour budgets, workforce reporting, wage visibility, or broader operational visibility.

Prepare payroll, compliance, and reporting workflows

Payroll systems and payroll workflows

NDIS providers often need to manage SCHADS-related rules, sleepovers, active nights, broken shifts, travel time, kilometre allowances, weekend rates, public holidays, higher duties, overtime, minimum engagements, and cancellations, depending on internal process.

Many NDIS providers want payroll workflows that sit close to scheduling, attendance, and approved timesheets. Deputy Payroll (AU) and Deputy Payroll (US) can help support that approach where available.

Providers with established payroll, finance, care management, claiming, or NDIS systems may still choose to connect Deputy to a third-party payroll integration. This usually works best when another system already owns participant records, claiming, care notes, service agreements, or funding workflows.

Before rollout, decide which system should own:

• Employee records
• Payroll calculations
• SCHADS interpretation
• Sleepover and active night handling
• Travel and kilometre workflows
• Client, house, support type, or program reporting

Compare payroll approaches

Start by reviewing whether Deputy Payroll is available and suitable for your region and provider needs. If your provider already has a payroll, finance, care management, claiming, or NDIS system that needs to stay in place, review how Deputy should connect to that system.

NDIS providers commonly test payroll exports and approval workflows before rollout so coordinators, payroll teams, and service managers can confirm that support, sleepover, active night, travel, and allowance workflows behave as expected.

Payroll testing

Test payroll before your first live pay run using real NDIS examples so payroll, coordinators, and service managers can confirm the outputs match your provider workflows.

• Day support
• Sleepover
• Active night
• Broken shift
• Travel time
• Kilometre claim
• Weekend shift
• Public holiday
• Missed clock-in correction
• Client-specific Area or export code
• Employee working across multiple clients or houses

Compliance and workforce readiness

NDIS providers often need to confirm that workers have the right checks, training, and suitability before they are rostered. Training Tags can help make compliance-sensitive support work visible before shifts are published.

Common NDIS Training Tags include NDIS Worker Screening, Working with Children Check, First Aid, CPR, Medication Training, Manual Handling, Behaviour Support, Hoist Training, Driver Licence, and Client-specific Induction.

If your provider needs to collect onboarding documents, store employee records, manage policy acknowledgements, or track licence and certification expiry dates, Deputy HR can help support those workflows. Deputy HR requires an add-on.

Reporting and workforce visibility

If labour reporting by region, client, house, program, or support type matters, use Areas, Area export codes, consistent naming conventions, notes, or integrations. This keeps reporting cleaner and helps avoid duplicating your care management system.

NDIS providers commonly review reporting by:

• Region
• Client
• SIL house
• Program
• Support type
• Sleepover and active night activity
• Travel and kilometre activity
• Rostered versus actual hours
• Missed clock-ins

Run day-to-day support workflows

Clocking in and attendance

Most NDIS providers should use mobile clock-in with GPS capture. This provides attendance visibility while still supporting mobile and community-based work.

Hard geofencing should usually be used only for fixed SIL houses or stable client sites.

Avoid hard geofencing for community access where the shift may legitimately start at a client home, appointment, school, transport pickup, or community location.

Scheduling and shift changes

Use Areas, shift notes, and Training Tags to support client suitability, support type visibility, and continuity of care.

Be careful with open shifts where specific workers are required due to training, relationship, client preference, or support complexity.

Travel and kilometres

Decide before rollout how support workers should record travel, kilometres, and exceptions.

This may be handled through notes, Areas, custom questions, payroll workflows, or another system depending on the provider’s process.

Task management

Task management can help NDIS providers standardise daily support, house, coordinator, and operational routines so important work is not missed.

NDIS providers commonly use Task management for shift handovers, house checks, client-specific reminders, documentation prompts, medication reminders, coordinator review tasks, and end-of-shift checks.

Communication

News Feed and Messaging can help coordinators share roster changes, urgent coverage needs, client schedule updates, operational announcements, shift instructions, and house updates.

Messaging Plus can support NDIS providers that need larger groups, more message history, team-based conversations, or role-based communication. This can be useful when coordinators need groups for regions, houses, programs, or mobile support teams.

Labour visibility and analytics

NDIS providers commonly review overtime, attendance patterns, workforce trends, regional activity, house-level activity, rostered versus actual hours, missed clock-ins, travel activity, and support type activity.

Analytics can help providers review workforce activity inside Deputy. Analytics Plus can support deeper reporting needs, including custom reports, scheduled emailed reports, and workforce reports for managers or operations leaders who need visibility without logging in every day.

Quick add-on and plan check

Some NDIS providers need more than scheduling, attendance, and payroll preparation. Use this section as a quick guide to what may be useful as your rollout becomes more complex.

To check what is included in each plan or add-on, see our pricing plans.

Trial and rollout checklist

You do not have to build your full provider structure in Deputy during a trial or first rollout. A focused rollout can help you test one real region, house, client, support workflow, payroll scenario, and approval process before expanding the set-up.

The timeline is up to your provider. Some providers move quickly, and others need more time to validate payroll, train coordinators, and review integrations. Use these stages as a guide, not a fixed timeline.

Avoid common NDIS provider set-up mistakes

Final recommendation

If you are unsure where to start, begin with the structure your coordinators already use to plan support coverage.

For most mobile NDIS providers, use Locations for regions, Areas for clients or support types, mobile app clock-in, GPS capture turned on, and hard geofencing turned off.

For SIL providers, use Locations for SIL houses, Areas for day support, evening support, sleepover, and active night, with mobile GPS or kiosk clock-in depending on the house workflow.

Choose one starting model, build one pilot Location, test mobile clock-in, review Location settings, review approval workflows, test payroll, and decide whether add-ons are needed before expanding your set-up.

Review attendance workflows, payroll testing, reporting requirements, integrations, add-ons, Training Tags, and coordinator adoption before rolling Deputy out across the provider.

The goal is mobile flexibility without losing attendance, payroll, or compliance visibility.

Need help? Use the help menu in your Deputy account to access support, online training, and guidance.