Release Notes

View Agreed Hours and assess Potential Overtime risks to more easily identify the best match when filling Staff Shifts

Security updates for increased data protection

For increased data protection, the upgrade to SupportAbility Web App version 8.12 and Mobile App version 1.7 includes the following security updates:

1. Minimum password requirements: This is now at least 8 characters, and passwords must contain at least 2 of the following: Upper-Case Letter, Lower-Case Letter, Number, and/or Special Character.

2. Web App login: Users are now logged out after a maximum of 30 minutes of inactivity. Please note that this can be configured to less than 30 minutes, as per your organisation’s preferences.

3. Mobile App PIN: Users are required to re-enter their PIN after 1 minute of inactivity

If your organisation does not currently adhere to the above minimum password requirements, staff will be prompted to change their password upon logging in to SupportAbility following this upgrade.

Please see this section of the Managing Password Security and this section of the Logging into SupportAbility article for more information.

Easily identify the most suitable Staff Members to fill Staff Shifts in Activities

Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities will notice that the ‘Change Staff Member’ modal (previously named ‘Change Activity Staff’) looks different with this release when either filling ‘To Be Filled’ Staff Shifts or changing a Staff Member in a Shift.

While this is a work in progress, these changes aim to assist rostering teams, managers, and team leaders in better understanding which staff are available and the most suitable to fill the shift.

In coming releases, this will be expanded to encompass Agreed Hours and Potential Overtime in the pay period (see below). We hope these ongoing changes are beneficial, and we welcome your feedback via support.

Please see the How to Change a Staff Member in a Staff Shift article for more information.

Configure your organisation’s Pay Period for improved Staff matching

Help the rostering team select the most suitable Staff Member by configuring your organisation’s Pay Period to display accurate ‘Agreed Hours’ and ‘Potential Overtime’ when updating Staff Shifts.

It is important to note that the Agreed Hours and Potential Overtime will not be displayed in the ‘Change Staff Member’ modal in Staff Shifts in Activities until the next release.

However, we encourage providers to configure their Pay Period in readiness for this to ensure this information is displayed following this release.

Please see the Configuring the Pay Period for your organisation article for more information.

View Rostered, Recorded and Finalised Shift and Kms details on the Mobile App

View Rostered, Recorded (inc. Check In/Out time stamps where relevant) and Finalised Shift and Kms details when using the Mobile App via the new ‘View Time and Kms’ button.

This replaces the ‘Edit Recorded Time’ button in a Staff Shift after the Shift Sign Off or the Activity Sign Off has been completed.

Roll out of a new Date Picker across the Web App

The Date Picker used in the SupportAbility Web App is being updated across the platform to a more modern design.

In this release, the new Date Picker has been included in the following screens:

• Client Funding → Add Client Funding modal

• Client → Client Service Participation

• Client Search → From/To filters

• Staff Search → From/To filters

• AIR Incident → Date of Incident

The new Date Picker will be introduced in more places in the Web App in the coming releases.

The 2024/25 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits v1.3 – effective 1 Oct 2024, has been added to SupportAbility. 

Employment Type badges and a new Quick Search have been added to the ‘Change Activity Staff’ window in Activities.

Employment Type badges, e.g. Casual, Part Time, are now displayed next to the Staff Member’s name based on ‘Employment/Volunteer Type’ configuration in the HR tab of their Staff Account.

A quick search has been added to search for Staff by Name or Employment Type.

‘Working Hours’ has been updated to ‘Agreed Hours’ in the HR tab of the Staff Account.

When Agreed Hours have been entered in the HR tab, e.g. 20, but no ‘per Period’ value has been selected, e.g. Week, a validation warning is now displayed as this is required.

This language has also been updated in the Staff Hours Report and the Staff Account Search export.

The word that populates in the ‘Tracking Name 1′ column of the Xero Direct Invoice Batch export can now be configured for providers using the Xero finance system when Job Codes are in use. This was previously hard-coded to ‘SupportAbility’ and is now the current default value.

If your organisation would like this to be configured to something other than ‘SupportAbility’, e.g., ‘Location’, please let us know via support@supportability.com.au, and we can configure this for your organisation.

Link the Staff Members a Client Prefers to Work With, or Prefers Not to Work With

The Staff Members that a Client prefers to work with and/or any Staff Members that the Client does not prefer to work with can now be linked in the Status tab of the Client record by Staff with Team Leader privileges.

This information is a foundational step toward the first roster-matching functionality in SupportAbility. Please see the new How to link or unlink Staff Members a Client Prefers or Does Not Prefer to Work With article for more information.

Recorded Shift Date & Time can no longer be updated earlier than one hour prior to the commencement of the Rostered Shift in both the Web App and the Mobile App.

Various changes have been made related to Shift Sign Off:

• The Shift Sign Off can no longer be completed until the Rostered Shift has commenced.
  ‘Shift has not started’ will appear instead of the Shift Sign Off button prior to the commencement of the Rostered Shift. This will appear in the Activity record and Dashboard on the Web App, as well as in the Mobile App.
• An issue with the ‘Remove Shift Sign Off’ button has been fixed to ensure this will only appear in red for people who can remove the Shift Sign Off (the person who completed this or a Team Leader).
• Shift Sign Off no longer requires confirmation, however, confirmation is now required if this is removed.
• Staff with the privileges required to manage Activities can now modify ‘Non-NDIS Chargeable Hours’ and ‘Not Paid’ as required after Shift Sign Off, and before Activity Sign Off.

Please see the Apportioning the Price of the required Group Supports article for more information.

A new ‘Timesheet Categorisation Audit Report’ export is now available from the Activity Staff Report.

Timesheet Categorisation update

Staff shifts that occur in the evening and commence on a Saturday or Sunday are now categorised as ‘Time and a Half’ or ‘Double Time’, respectively, instead of ‘Evening’, for providers in all States and Territories.

This categorisation was previously limited to providers in QLD and WA.

The ‘Staff Availability Leave Exception Search’ List export has been updated to include each leave exception’s ‘From Time’ and ‘To Time’.

Performance enhancements have been made when loading the Timesheet Batch list page, including high volumes of data, to improve loading times. 

Update to the ‘All Kms’ function in NDIS Support Allocations to align this with how the Shift Kms Settings are configured in System Preferences for the Service.

For example, when Finalised Kms is set to use ‘Recorded’ data (as is the default), the ‘+ All Kms’ button function in NDIS Support Allocations will draw the Kms from ‘Finalised’ instead of ‘Rostered’.

Please see the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limit Updates – 2024/25 article for more information regarding this and for all future updates.

Kms Totals have been added at the bottom of the Activity Staff section in the ‘Recorded’ and ‘Finalised’ columns, as well as ‘Rostered’.

‘Funding Notes’ have been added to the Client Funding Search and Bulk Statements export.

Staff Shift changes

• To provide greater transparency and auditability between the hours and/or kilometres (kms) rostered, the actual hours worked and/or kms travelled, and the finalised data for payroll, the single ‘Working From-To Time’ column in the Activity Staff section of the Activity record has been updated and split into three columns: ‘Rostered’, ‘Recorded’, and ‘Finalised’.
• A contextual ‘Actions’ menu has been added to the far right of the Activity Staff section of the Activity record (replacing the Delete trashcan icon).
  • The Actions menu is now where you can ‘Change Staff’, update ‘Non-NDIS Chargeable Hours’, or ‘Delete [the] Shift’.
• This release steps toward aligning the workflows for Staff Shifts in the Web App and Mobile App:
  • Shift Sign Off is now available in the Mobile App, and
  • Check In/Out and Recorded Kms data is now displayed instantaneously under ‘Recorded’ in the Activity record on the Web App.
• The Activity Sign Off no longer autocompletes the Staff Shift Sign Off when the Shift Sign Off is configured as on for the relevant Services (as is the default).
  • Any Staff Shifts included in an Activity that has been Signed Off will be available to include in Timesheet Batches for payroll, regardless of the Shift Sign Off status.

Please see the new Rostered, Recorded, and Finalised Staff Shifts and Kms Overview article for more information about all of the above changes.

New Staff Shift Settings configurable by Service are now available which apply to both the Web App and the Mobile App, allowing providers to:

• Turn off or on features related to Staff Shifts, e.g. Shift Sign Off or the ability to Capture Kms.
  • Shift Sign Off and Capture Kms are on for all Services by default, as is the current functionality.
• Configure inline Warning messages for Recorded Shift Hours and/or Kms based on customised thresholds.
• Set your organisation’s preference for the default data to populate in Finalised, designed to minimise the clicks required for those completing the Activity Sign Off.
  • The default settings for existing and new Services added for Finalised are to populate Rostered data for Hours, and Recorded data for Kms.
• A Bulk Actions menu has been added to allow Staff Shift settings to be applied to multiple Services at a time.

Please see the new How to configure Staff Shift Settings by Service article for more information.

Changes have been made to the Activity Schedule Dashboard Portal to align with the above:

• The first section of the Activity Schedule Dashboard portal has been renamed to ‘Shifts without Sign Off’.
  • If ‘Shift Sign Off’ is turned off for the related Service, the ‘Shift Sign Off’ column will be empty.
• The bottom section of this Dashboard portal has been renamed to ‘Shifts with Shift or Activity Sign Off complete’
• Status icons have been updated to help determine whether the Shift Sign Off is required or has been completed (please see below).

The following changes have been made to Activity Icons:

• The clock icon has been updated to ‘Shift Not Signed Off‘.
  • This icon now only displays when Shift Sign Off is configured for a related Service. 
• The tick icon has been updated to ‘Shift Signed Off‘ solely.
  • This icon was previously used to reflect Activity Sign Off, too. 
• A new checklist icon has been added to reflect when the ‘Activity has been Signed Off‘.
• These Activity icon changes have been applied in the following places on the Web App:
  • Roster
  • Activity Schedule Dashboard Portal
  • Activity Search Results Lists
  • Activity Report
  • Activity Staff Report
  • Activity Staff section of the Activity record
  • Activities tab on the Client record

This release also includes an update to how SupportAbility completes Support Item Budget calculations in NDIS Client Funding records when a frequency other than ‘once’ is selected.

• Before this update, a pro-rata based on 365 days was applied regardless of the frequency selected, e.g., ‘weekly’ or ‘monthly’.
• This update removes the pro-rata from the calculation, resulting in clearer and more predictable calculated totals based on the Funding period and eliminating the confusion surrounding how these calculations are completed.
• In this release, all existing calculated Support Item Budgets that use a frequency other than ‘once’ will be converted from a calculated budget to a ‘Total Budget’ value.
  • This is required to ensure that existing calculated Support Item Budgets are not recalculated. It will also ensure that the value of the existing calculated Budgets remains unchanged while allowing all future calculated Support Item Budgets to be completed with the updated formula.
  • Information about the previous calculator parameters has been added to the corresponding notes field of any calculated Support Item Budgets for reference.

The recent upgrade to SupportAbility v8.4 required all users to enter the Shared Username and Password when they first logged in following this update.

We do apologise that advance notice of this requirement was not provided and for any issues that this caused your organisation the morning after the release. This event allowed our team to reflect, in detail, on the efficacy of this initial log-in step.

The Shared Security requirement was put in place many years ago to stop the server from responding to unnecessary traffic.

As part of the security enhancements introduced as part of our ISO27001 certification, a Web Application Firewall was introduced to reject web page requests that look suspicious.

Rate limiting was also introduced to block suspicious high-volume traffic during a short period of time.

These and other security measures mean that the shared security mechanism is now redundant.

Therefore, the Shared Security log-in requirement has been removed in this upgrade and is no longer required when logging into SupportAbility. 

When an Unavailable Leave Exception is being approved, or a Staff Member is made inactive, a new option is now available to update the shifts the Staff Member is rostered into to ‘TO BE FILLED’ as required. 

A note can be added as part of this process, which is appended to the ‘Non-Replicating Staff Notes’ field in each Activity, with shifts updated to TO BE FILLED  upon confirmation.

A new setting is available in the Human Resources tab of the Staff Account called Not Available To Roster.

This new setting would be suitable for staff who do not provide direct service delivery to Clients, e.g. managers, HR, finance or administration personnel.

When set, it hides the individual from appearing in the list of available or suggested Staff when rostering or replacing someone on leave. 

This also results in the following amber message appearing in the Availability tab of the Staff Account and in My Staff Account: Not Available To Roster has been configured in the Human Resources tab.

Staggered release

Due to the volume of changes in the upgrade to v.8.4, this update will have a staggered release commencing Tuesday evening, 27th of February 2024.

This means that v8.4 will be applied to each provider’s SupportAbility installation over a two-week period until all installations have been updated to the latest version.

As always, if you have any questions or encounter any technical issues associated with this upgrade, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at support@supportability.com.au for assistance.

Infrastructure upgrades

The infrastructure, core programming languages, and software libraries that underpin all SupportAbility installations have all been upgraded for added security and efficiency.

While these changes will likely go unnoticed by Staff Members, this is essential for future product enhancements, as outlined in the recently updated SupportAbility Roadmap article.

SupportAbility Web App interface update

We are excited to announce that the SupportAbility Web App has had a much-needed makeover in this release.

The updated design of the SupportAbility Web App interface is focused on providing Staff Members with a modern and cleaner user experience.

By lightening the background and reducing the use of bold colours, screens previously susceptible to being cluttered with colour (e.g. Dashboard Notifications) have been updated, resulting in items that require attention standing out more.

It is important to note that this update will not change all areas of the SupportAbility Web App visually, including but not limited to:

• the Warning bar in Client records and Activities,

• Bookmarks,

• pop-up windows, etc.

These items will be updated to align with the modernised interface over time.

The screenshots and screens used in our learning material will continue to use the previous background colour and will also be updated over time.

Client Incident Tags

A new Tag cloud has been introduced, allowing providers to create Client Incident Tags in the ‘Tags’ tab in System Preferences.

Once created, Staff will be able to add the relevant Tag/s to the Client Incident record as required.

Tags can then be used as a search criteria when choosing which Client Incidents to include in the Client Incident Report, accessible from the print menu in the Client record or from the ‘Clients’ section of the Reports menu.

Staff can now log out from the PIN screen in the SupportAbility Mobile App if required.

Fixed an issue to ensure the ‘Number of Days Advance Notice’ is working correctly in relation to the Activity Schedule Dashboard Portal.

Fixed an issue in the ‘Availability’ tab in My Staff Account resulting in Standard Availability hours being displayed.

Fixed an issue to ensure the Document Preview button is working as expected on Chrome mobile when the SupportAbility Web App was being viewed in Desktop mode.

• 180 Support Items updated to Legacy Supports

NDIS Group Supports update

• To ensure that the Support Items associated with the new pricing arrangements for group-based social and community participation are available prior to the upcoming transition deadline of the 31st of December, 2023; the NDIS Group Supports setting has been changed for providers that are still in the ‘Transitional Approach’ stage to the ‘Preparation Phase’.
• This update also removes the ability to revert this setting to the ‘Transitional Approach’, which was previously possible, and has made this option unavailable to select across all SupportAbility installations. This is required to ensure that the group-based social and community participation supports associated with the new pricing arrangements are available in all SupportAbility installations.
• To clarify, this update does not change any existing data; it just means the Support Items associated with the new pricing arrangements for group-based social and community participation are no longer hidden and are available to utilise as required.

Please see the Transitioning to the New Approach for Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Supports article and let us know if you have any questions at all about this. 

Minor updates to the Client Workforce tab for Supported Employment

• Addition of a new SWS ID field to record the participant’s Supported Wage System ID where applicable

• The existing ‘Award Grade’ field has been converted to a configurable List called Client: Workforce Award Grade (available in the Lists tab in System Preferences).

  No changes have been made to existing data, however, the default Award Grade options to select now include – A, B, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Client Goals and Goal Strategies can now be linked to Journals in the SupportAbility Mobile App

We are pleased to announce that once a Client Journal has been added and saved in the SupportAbility Mobile App, a new ‘Goals’ tab will appear, allowing you to link the relevant Client Goals and Goal Strategies to the Client Journal.

Any available Strategy Tasks can be viewed when linking a Goal Strategy to a Client Journal. Notes related to the linked Client Goal or Goal Strategy can be added, along with a Goal Progress Assessment Score where required.

When viewing historic Client Journals, the Goals tab is available to view linked Client Goals or Goal Strategies, the associated notes and Goal Progress Assessment Scores.

We recommend reviewing this section of the SupportAbility Mobile App – overview article for more information about this new functionality.

The 2023/24 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits v1.2 update has been added to SupportAbility.

This includes the addition of seven new Provider Travel Non-Labour Cost Support Items and the removal of sixteen Legacy Support Items.

Please see the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limit Updates – 2023/24 article for more information.

Updates to the NDIS Service Breakdown Report

A few minor changes have been made to the layout of this report, introducing drop-down selectors to choose the relevant Sites and Services.

The layout and format of the search results have also been updated.

A bug fix has been applied to address an issue where some Category 1 Support Items appeared in duplicate at the bottom of the report after the latest upgrade to SupportAbility 8.2.0.

Category 1 Support Items will now only appear under the new PACE Category 16 when they are associated with PACE Funding records.

The text field for Actions in Client Journals and Client Incidents has been expanded.

Updates have been applied to the Incomplete Actions Dashboard Portals for both Client Journals and Client Incidents.

An ellipsis is now displayed after 200 characters to click through for more information.

Advanced notice of an upcoming update in Feb 2024

The background colour of the SupportAbility Web App will be updated to a lighter colour, along with some other minor aesthetic design changes to modernise this.

Prior to this upgrade, communications will be sent about this, and a notification message will be added to the Web App to preview this change.

Several enhancements have been released in SupportAbility v8.2 designed to help providers manage their Clients’ NDIS Funding while their NDIS plans gradually transition to the new ‘my NDIS provider portal’ – PACE.

These enhancements include: 

• An additional ‘PACE’ setting for new NDIS Client Funding records – once a participant’s NDIS Plan has been transitioned to the new portal, a new NDIS Funding record must be created in SupportAbility to select this new setting.
  Once selected, the new Support Categories can be added as needed, and Support Items are mapped to the correct Support Category accordingly.
  For example, the Assistance in Supported Independent Living Support Item 01_801_0115_1_1 that used to belong to Category 1 is now part of the new Support Category 16, Home and Living.

• Addition of the new Support Categories – in PACE Client Funding records, NDIS Support Allocations, Budget Utilisation, reports, etc.

• Mapping of the relevant Support Items to the new Support Categories – as above.

• ‘PACE’ option in the Generate Direct Bulk Payment Request (BPR) search criteria – this allows your organisation to create separate BPRs related to PACE Funding as required, given there may be longer processing times for any claims awaiting verification based on your organisation’s ‘my provider’ status.

• Addition of ‘Open’ Claim Status in BPRs – for any claims awaiting verification.

• Enhanced ability to upload a subsequent Bulk Payment Result File (BPRF) – to update the Claim Status of any ‘Open’ claims.

• Various updates to reports and exports

We recommend reviewing the brand-new article below for more details and examples of the above changes:

• SupportAbility updates to align with the new my NDIS provider portal – PACE

—
Important – This functionality has been developed based on the public information made available by the NDIA in the lead-up to the start of the rollout (i.e. 30th October 2023). However, we acknowledge that due to the complexities involved in such large-scale change that the NDIS is undergoing, there may be additional considerations that need to be reviewed once participants’ NDIS plans start to transition.

With this in mind, we are keen to hear from providers as they start to navigate their way through this process. This feedback will help to inform any further enhancements that may be required in SupportAbility to help manage this transition more effectively.

Swipe gestures have been introduced in the SupportAbility Mobile App to update Journal Actions.

Please see the Swipe gestures to complete Journal Actions section of the SupportAbility Mobile App overview article for more information.

When searching for NDIS Supports in the NDIS Support Allocations window in the Activity record, the search results have been updated to list the available Support Items for the Client first, ahead of unavailable Support Items.

Confirmation of your current password is now required when Reset Password is selected in ‘My Staff Account’.

N.B. If you have forgotten your password, it is recommended to log out and select the ‘Forgot Your Password?’ link to reset this.

Update to the minimum supported web browser versions required to run SupportAbility optimally:

• Chrome – 100 (April 2022)
• Microsoft Edge – 102 (May 2022)
• Firefox – 102 (June 2022)
• Safari – 15 (September 2021)
• Safari (for iOS on iPad) – 15 (September 2021)

Please see the Supported web browsers and troubleshooting browser-related issues article for more information.

When a staff member has changed their password in ‘My Staff Account’ in the SupportAbility Web App, an email is now sent to their work email address advising of this change as an added security measure.

‘Registered to Vote’– Yes/No has been added to the end of the ‘Client List’ and ‘Client List including Personal Contacts’ exports.

These exports are available to download from the Actions menu in the Client Search list results.

A Client’s Support Needs are now available to view in the Status tab of the Client record on the SupportAbility Mobile App.

A Client information summary is now available to view in the Activity Clients tab on the SupportAbility Mobile App.

This summary can be viewed by selecting the Client’s name, allowing you to open the full Client record as needed.

Please see the Client information summary from the Activity Clients tab section of the SupportAbility Mobile App overview article for more information.

SupportAbility Mobile App v1.0.0 – now available in the Apple App Store

We are pleased to announce that the SupportAbility Mobile App is now also available to download from the Apple App Store!

Whenever any information is entered or recorded in the Mobile App, this integrates with your organisation’s SupportAbility installation (Web App) instantaneously and is available to view immediately.

For more information and a preview of the available functionality, we recommend reviewing the following articles, as these include examples and screenshots:

• SupportAbility Mobile App overview
• How to Check In/Out and Record kms using the Mobile App

SupportAbility Mobile App v1.0.0

We are very excited to announce that the SupportAbility Mobile App is now available to download from the Google Play Store!

IMPORTANT – This is not yet available to download from the Apple App Store, and we are working with Apple to resolve this ASAP. As soon as this is available in the Apple App Store, a new notification message and release notes will be published to confirm this.

Whenever any information is entered or recorded in the Mobile App, this integrates with your organisation’s SupportAbility installation (Web App) instantaneously and is available to view immediately.

Summary of features

The first version of the SupportAbility Mobile App includes the ability to:

• Security
  • Log in securely
  • Set and use PIN code security when accessing the app after the first login
  • Reset your password as required via Settings
• Home screen
  • Navigate to your next shift from the Home screen
  • View assigned Journal Actions from the Home screen
• View Client information 
  • View the list of Clients you have access to
  • Initiate calls and/or SMS’ to Clients/Client Contacts
  • View Client Details and Warnings
  • View Client Status tab information
  • View Client Contacts
  • View and/or add Client Journals and Journal Actions
    • N.B. The ability to link Client Goals/Goal Strategies to Client Journals and add Goal Progress Assessments is not yet available and is expected in a future release
• View your Roster
  • View Activity information via the Roster
  • Mark a Client as Absent and add the relevant Short Notice Cancellation Reason where required
  • Add/edit Non-Replicating Staff Notes in Activities
  • View and/or add Client Journals from the Client tab in the Activity record
  • Check In and Out of shifts (off by default and configurable by Service in the Web App, available in the Mobile App only)
  • Record kms in the Staff tab of the Activity record (off by default and configurable by Service in the Web App)

Functionality overview

For more information and a preview of the available functionality, we recommend reviewing the following articles, as these include examples and screenshots:

• SupportAbility Mobile App overview
• How to Check In/Out and Record kms using the Mobile App

New configuration options for each Service

The ability to configure the following for each Service in System Preferences in the Web App is now available:

• Mobile App – Check In/Out
  • Record Time, or
  • Record Time and Location
• Mobile App – Record kms

Please see the Configuring Mobile App Check In/Out and Record kms by Service article for more information.

View Mobile App Check In/Out and Recorded kms in the Web App

When the SupportAbility Mobile App is used to Check In/Out of shifts and/or Record kms, this data is displayed in the Staff section of the Activity record by way of a coloured status flag – green, amber or red, based on the difference in time/kms from the rostered to the actual.

Staff Members can see the status flags for their own shifts/kms, and Staff Members with access to the Activity and the Team Leader privilege can see the status flags for all Staff shifts/kms.

Status flags can be selected to view the Check In/Out and Recorded Kms data and synchronise this in the Web App where necessary, e.g. Recorded kms for reimbursement. Synchronising this overrides the original Staff shift time (essentially customising the shift time) or the Private/Company kms fields.

Please see the Viewing Mobile App Check In/Out data and Recorded kms in the Web App article for more information. 

• 1 Support Item has been added
  • 01_663_0118_1_3 – Assessment Recommendation Therapy or Training – EC – Podiatrist
• 167 Support Items have been removed
  • These Support Items were all Legacy Items in the last Price Guide, and their usage is minimal, with the main Support Items currently Allocated in Activities after July 1st, 2023, as follows:
    • 01_300_0104_1_1_T
    • 04_300_0104_1_1_T
    • 04_304_0104_1_1_T
    • 04_500_0104_1_1 If your organisation uses either of these Supports, we recommend using the Allocations Report to locate Activities they are used in that fall after the 1st of July, 2023 and replace these with the relevant equivalent.
• 394 Support Items have changed prices (including the TTP equivalent Support Items)
  • 386 Support Items have had a price increase (including the TTP equivalent Support Items)
  • 4 Support Items have had the NT/SA/TAS/WA price decreased to align with the ACT/NSW/QLD/VIC price of $193.99
  • 1 Notional Unit Price Support Item has had a price decrease to $1 to align with the Notional Unit Price
    • 02_051_0108_1_1 – Transport
  • 4 Support Items now have a Price Limit of $0, but are not Quotable – we have made these Quotable in SupportAbility so a custom price can be added so they can be utilised
• 65 Support Items have changed names
• 1 Support Item is now Legacy

All Transitional Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Support Allocations have been updated regarding the new valid until date, i.e. Valid until December 31st, 2023.

Please see the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limit Updates – 2022/23 article for more information regarding this.

The upgrade to SupportAbility v7.28 introduces some layout changes to the Staff section of the Activity record ahead of the upcoming release of the SupportAbility Mobile App later this year. It is important to note that no changes have been made to the existing functionality, only the design. These changes include:

• Edit Staff button – a new ‘Edit Staff’ button has replaced the previous ‘Change’ button to edit the Staff Member in the shift to better align with other areas of SupportAbility.
• Working-From-To-Time – now displays the day of the week with three letters, e.g. Tue. The time of the Staff shift is now always displayed, regardless of whether or not the shift has been customised.
• Availability Issues – are now displayed as a red inline warning message, when applicable, under the Staff Member’s name instead of as a ‘Clash’. This message can be selected to view the detail of the Availability Warning as required.
• Kilometers – the fields for Private and Company have moved and are now displayed further to the left. The Company Kilometers field is now always displayed, whereas this was previously hidden by default and was only accessible when the ‘Non-NDIS Chargeable Hrs’ section was expanded.
• Non-NDIS Chargeable Hrs – now includes a sub-total for each Client to display the total number of hours entered for each Client. N.B. this relates to Non-NDIS Billing only and specifically to providers that use the Non-NDIS Rate Card functionality.
• Totals – the Totals row in the Staff section has been updated to encompass one row instead of two. The Totals for Kilometers and Non-NDIS Chargeable Hrs now appear in their respective columns.
• To Be Filled – a minor change has been made to the layout of these shifts, i.e. the colour displayed to reflect the ‘To Be Filled’ status has been minimised. 

All Transitional Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Support Allocations now display a blue message regarding their valid until date, i.e. Valid until June 30th, 2023.

For providers that utilise these Supports but are yet to have transitioned to the New Approach, we recommend reviewing the following guide designed to assist with this:

• Transitioning to the New Approach for Community and Centre Based Group NDIS Supports

• 2:9
• 3:4

The 2022/23 NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits – effective 1 October 2022, has been added to SupportAbility and is now in use in Activities & External Invoices for services delivered on or after October 1st, 2022.

N.B. The only exception is where the Activity Sign Off has already been completed, or a Client’s Price Guide Transition settings are configured to not utilise the latest Price Guide in Activities.

Please see the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limit Updates – 2022/23 article for more information.

Additional data has been added to the end of the Activity Staff Report export:

• Includes Break – Yes/No
• Not Paid – Yes/No
• Non-Replicating Staff Notes
• Replicating Staff Notes

Please see the Activity Staff Report article for more information regarding this.

When a photo has not been uploaded for a Client in the Client Details tab, this is now labelled ‘Upload Photo’ (instead of ‘Upload File’) and is accompanied by an empty profile picture icon.

When a Support Item that can be invoiced or claimed as a Short Notice Cancellation is added for an Absent Client in Finance Edit Mode, the Cancellation Reason of ‘Other’ is utilised by default and cannot be changed.

Therefore, it is recommended any Supports that need to be invoiced or claimed as a Short Notice Cancellation are added prior to Activity Sign Off, to ensure the applicable Cancellation Reason can be selected.

Fix to ensure the relevant AIR Incident and OFI records are again displayed on the Dashboard for Staff with Team Leader privileges for specific Sites and Services.

Fix to ensure incomplete AIR Incident and OFI records are sorted from newest to oldest on the Dashboard for those with the required privileges to view these.

For added security, several changes have been made to Uploading Documents in SupportAbility:

• A whitelist of acceptable file extensions has been added
• If the file name contains specific special characters, these will now be removed from the file name displayed upon upload
• The file name for a Document is limited to 150 characters
• The size of uploaded Documents is limited to 2GB

Please see the Uploading Documents article for more information and details about these updates.

Client Documents can now be linked to Routines in the Status tab.

Please see the Client Status tab overview article for more information.

Fix to ensure the Activity record is now saved when a Client Journal is added to preserve any changes.

Fix to ensure the Client Incident Report is accessible to all users in the Print menu of a Client record.

Fix to ensure the correct end date for Legacy Supports is displayed in NDIS Support Allocations as per the NDIS Support Catalogue.

Updates to the ‘Financials’ section of the Shared Contact record.

To better explain its function, the wording of the ‘Financial Plan Manager’ setting has been updated to ‘Debtor for Non-NDIS Invoices’.

Any Shared Contacts with this setting ticked are available to select from as the ‘Debtor for Invoices’ when adding or updating Non-NDIS Client Funding records.

The Shared Contacts Search has also been updated to reflect this.

Additional Portions are now available to select from for the relevant NDIS Support Allocations:

• 2:7
• 3:7
• 3:8

When adding Client Assessments, Client Assessment Scores can now be cleared if the wrong value is selected.

This is achieved by selecting the new cross icon on the right-hand side of the Assessment Scores.

New additions to the Allocations Report.

Two new search criteria have been added to the Client Supports section of this report – ‘Absent’ and ‘No Charge’.

This data has always been included in the Allocations Report export and is now available as additional search criteria.

• Absent – allows you to search for Allocations associated with Clients who have been marked as ‘Absent’ in Activities or those who are ‘Not Absent’
• No Charge – allows you to search for Allocations associated with Clients who have been marked as ‘No Charge’, or those who have not by selecting ‘Charge’

There are many use cases for these new search criteria. These new options can be used together or independently, allowing you to search for or omit Allocations by each status.

For example, if you only want to report on billable Allocations, selecting ‘Charge’ will ensure the results returned do not include any Allocations for Clients marked as ‘No Charge’ in the Activity.

Please see the Allocations Report article for more information.

The Add Direct Client Funding process has been updated and now includes an additional step in order to add the record:

• ‘Default Financial Plan Manager’ is now required for NDIS Funding records
• ‘Debtor for Invoices’ is now required for Non-NDIS Funding records

For more information, please see the new How to add a Direct Client Funding record article.

New additions to the Document Search.

Documents for a specific Client or Staff Member can now be located using the new single select search criteria.

For example, to review all of the NDIS Plans uploaded over time for our Client Tim, select Tim using the new Client search criterion and the relevant Document Type to achieve this.

Please see the Document Search article for more information.

• Most Support Items have an increased price
• Many Support Items have had a name change
• 17 Support Items have been added
• 48 Support Items have been removed (only some of which are now Legacy Supports)
• 36 Support Items are now Legacy Support Items
• 4 Support Items have updated Claim Types
• 2 Support Items are now Notional Support Items

A new filter ‘MFA Status’ has been added to the Staff Account Search, viewable by Staff with access to this search and the ‘Edit User Accounts’ privilege. MFA Status has been added to the end of the Staff Accounts Search export also.

Please see the Staff Accounts Search article for more information.

The ‘Current Date‘ has been removed from the header row in SupportAbility to minimise the data displayed here.

A ‘Return to Finance’ button has been reintroduced on the Direct Invoice Batch List page.

• Activity ID has been added to the Detailed Time Sheet Batch export
• Client ID has been added to the Activity Client Report export
• Funding Record Creation Date has been added to the Client Funding Search and NDIS Budget Utilisation Report exports

More than one Invoice Batch can no longer be generated at the same time to avoid duplicate Invoice Numbers e.g. in the case where multiple Staff are generating batches, or when this process is being run in multiple tabs.

If another user is currently in the process of generating a Direct Invoice Batch, a red validation message is now displayed at the top of the screen and it will not be possible to generate the batch at the same time.

We recommend trying the process again shortly, as this will be possible once the batch in progress has been generated.

Please see the following articles for more information:

• Generating a Direct Invoice Batch
• Generating a Direct Invoice Batch for NDIA Invoices

An additional Direct Invoice Batch export is now available from the Actions menu.

The ‘Direct Invoice Batch in BPR Format‘ export lists each Invoice Item in the same manner as the Bulk Payment Request (BPR).

It is designed to provide to Plan Managers, in addition to Accounts Receivable Invoices, to assist them in claiming these Supports from the myplace provider portal.

In order to utilise this new export effectively, we recommend creating separate Invoice Batches for each Plan Manager as no identifiable debtor information is included in the export.

Please see the Direct Invoice Batch in BPR Format article for more information.

Product Discovery is a process designed to help SupportAbility better understand our customers’ operations, challenges and requirements.

We use the information and feedback gathered in this process to ensure the development completed for the SupportAbility product has the most positive impact on providers.

A new option is now available in System Preferences for providers to opt in to participate in Product Discovery. Agreeing to participate in this process authorises SupportAbility to send Staff short 1-2 question email surveys on occasion, to gather feedback on new features.

It is important to note that if your organisation agrees to participate that individual Staff can opt out from participating at any time via My Staff Account.

We strongly encourage all providers to participate to help ensure that the functionality developed helps meet your business needs and adds value to your SupportAbility subscription.

Please see the following articles for more information:

• Continuous Product Discovery for the Evolution of SupportAbility
• How to participate in Product Discovery
• How to opt-out of participating in Product Discovery

Providers now have the option to improve the security when Staff log into SupportAbility by utilising Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

MFA is blocked by default and can be configured by your organisation in System Preferences when you are ready to utilise this.

Setting up MFA in SupportAbility is comprised of; configuring MFA for your organisation in System Preferences, each Staff Member activating MFA individually using an Authenticator App and then passing the MFA step periodically when logging into SupportAbility.

Once a plan to transition to MFA is determined and has been communicated to Staff, including which Authenticator App will be used and instructions about setting this up, it is recommended to transition to MFA by configuring your MFA Status as ‘Optional’ to begin with.

If your organisation plans to mandate MFA for all Staff logging into SupportAbility, when the majority of Staff have activated MFA, the configuration of your MFA Status can be updated to ‘Enforced’.

Following MFA being configured in System Preferences, MFA is activated individually by each Staff Member using an Authenticator App.

Once activated, Staff will be required to enter an MFA code periodically, in order to access SupportAbility as part of the log-in process.

We recommend reviewing the following articles regarding this:

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in SupportAbility
• How to configure and transition to using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• How to activate Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for your Staff Account
• How to log in to SupportAbility once Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) has been activated in your Staff Account