How to make Support at Home rostering, reporting and claims easier

From November 2025, Australia’s Home Care Packages transitioned to the new Support at Home (SAH) program. While the intent of helping older Australians live independently at home for longer remains the same, the way services are planned, delivered and claimed has changed significantly.

Support at Home includes more structured service categories, activity-based funding and stronger evidence requirements. For providers, this shift brings new operational expectations around rostering accuracy, time capture, documentation and claims compliance.

To support the new program, Visualcare has released a suite of updates designed specifically for Aged Care providers working within the Support at Home program. Our latest enhancements meet the fundamental shift Aged Care Providers are having to make and have added capabilities that go beyond basic software updates to streamline admin and compliance for providers. 

Take a look at our new features to understand how Visualcare can support you as a care provider service in 2026 and beyond. 

Want to get started right away? Request a Visualcare demo today.

Key takeaways:

• Support at Home moves aged care to an activity-based, evidence-driven funding model
• Accurate rostering and staff scheduling are critical parts of the SAH claims process
• 15-minute claim increments require new ways of rostering and working
• Purpose-built rostering for Support at Home improves staff outcomes, participant experience, claims and compliance
• Visualcare’s new integrated dashboards, direct API exports and other software capabilities reduce administrative burden and risk for care providers in Australia
  
  

What has changed under Support at Home?

Australia’s new Support at Home program introduces a fundamentally different claiming environment for aged care providers, including:

• Funding based on standardised criteria
• New service categories including restorative care and end of life categories
• Clinical support, independence and everyday living categories, each with a different participant contribution rate
• Activity-based services instead of bundled hours
• Claims submitted in 15-minute increments
• The need for real-time or near real-time record keeping
• Stronger alignment between care plans, budgets, delivered services and records
• Assistive Technology & Home Modification expense reporting and claiming changes
• Introduction of direct Aged Care Claiming API through Support At Home 

To add to this, a 10% cap will apply to all providers, meaning that they cannot charge participants more than 10% of their total package budget for care management, and fixed price caps on services will come into effect from July 1st, 2026.

And while time must be captured accurately, often to the minute, claims must still comply with 15-minute rounding rules. If rostering, time tracking and claiming systems are not tightly connected, this is a recipe for confusion.

Read more: How to approach rounding care management time within the Support at Home program 

Support at Home benefits for providers and participants

This new program has its benefits and is more aligned with an NDIS-style of service. It provides:

• Increased transparency and budget control

Support at Home places greater emphasis on participant budgets and forward planning. Providers must demonstrate that services are delivered within allocated funding while respecting participant preferences.

Effective rostering supports this by:

• Linking each shift to a service type and budget category
• Showing real-time budget consumption
• Preventing over-servicing or under-utilisation

• More personalised, participant-focused care

When services align directly with care plans, providers can:

• Match workers based on skills, availability and participant preferences
• Adjust schedules quickly as needs change
• Balance efficiency with continuity of care

As Support at Home increasingly mirrors participant-led models, personalised rostering becomes a key enabler of quality care.

• Alignment with NDIS-style service delivery

Many organisations operate across both aged care and disability services. Support at Home intentionally brings aged care closer to NDIS-style models, including:

• Activity-based funding
• Evidence-driven claiming
• Participant choice and control

Modern rostering systems allow providers to standardise processes across programs, reducing duplication and training overheads.

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Support at Home challenges for providers

As providers adjust to the new Support at Home program, challenges include:

• Reconciling rostered time with actual time worked
• Managing rounding rules across multiple shifts
• Ensuring activities claimed match approved services and service categories
• Correcting errors before submission deadlines
• Submitting claims to relevant authorities
• Maintaining audit-ready evidence and documentation
  
  

Without structured processes and the right tools, these tasks will quickly consume staff time and increase the risk of financial and compliance issues, which eat into sustainability and profit margins, while also potentially impacting staff engagement and retention. 

Reducing friction as a Support at Home care provider

Streamlining SAH workflows, claims and compliance starts with awareness and updated workflows, but these must be backed by good rostering fundamentals.

• Care staff need to understand SAH and the importance of precise time capture
• Administrators need to be aware of reporting requirements and regulatory updates
• Rosters need to align directly with care plans and service categories
• For optimal efficiency, software needs to automatically convert roster data into claim-ready records
• Workflows should be automated as much as possible, with manual reviews to identify anomalies.

When SAH shift rostering is done correctly, frontline staff can contribute by easily logging shift activities and supporting evidence. From there, claiming becomes a natural outcome of care delivery rather than a separate administrative taskload. 

Using a purpose-built SAH rostering platform delivers measurable benefits, including:

• Predictable claiming and cash flow
• Reduced manual corrections and rework
• Clear linkage between care delivery and funding
• Lower compliance and audit risk

Generic rostering tools and spreadsheets struggle to keep pace with SAH requirements, and can increase administrative overheads instead of reducing them. This is why a purpose-made solution is needed. 

In practical terms, a Support at Home roster is no longer a simple staff schedule: it has become the source of truth for funding, financial management, record-keeping and compliance.

How Visualcare helps providers streamline Support at Home efficiency

Visualcare’s home care provider software brings scheduling, documentation and claiming into one connected workflow. 

Our platform supports complex rostering requirements while providing real-time evidence capture, clean data flow and reporting across every service, helping care providers to meet compliance requirements with confidence.

When Support at Home was announced, we updated our roadmap with provider requirements in mind. The latest release gives providers the following capabilities: 

• Direct API integration with Services Australia for claim submission
• Ready-to-claim and removable line items
• At-a-glance claim status reporting (Draft, Approved, Rejected)
• Bulk CSV export options
• Automated rounding mechanisms aligned with SAH rules
• Role-based security controls for claiming functions
• Invoicing and monthly statements
• Quoting and budget tracking functionality
• AT & HM bulk expense uploads
• Business item code support for additional services

These updates bring care-plan details, worker suitability and documentation requirements together at the moment of scheduling, reducing downstream corrections and improving audit readiness. The result is a more sustainable organisation, with less overwhelmed staff, reduced risk of audit issues, and a strong foundation for optimal profit margins. 

Read more: Visualcare’s new features supporting SAH providers

Looking ahead: Visualcare’s roadmap for Support at Home

Visualcare’s guiding principle for care providers is simple: get rostering right, and everything downstream becomes easier.

In 2026, further upgrades will focus on:

• Expanded budget forecasting tools
• Smarter worker-to-participant matching
• Enhanced compliance and audit reporting
• Ongoing alignment with government guidance
  
  

By continuously strengthening the link between rostering, care delivery and claiming, we are helping providers to future-proof their operations while still delivering the high-quality care that participants and their families expect. 

Make SAH management easier: Choose Visualcare 

Support at Home will have care providers managing new evidence, service classification and reporting requirements. Visualcare’s digital solutions help providers meet these expectations by building compliance into everyday workflows.

With Visualcare:

• Rosters align with care plans from the start
• Evidence is captured naturally during service delivery
• Finance teams receive clean, claim-ready data
• Claims export directly to Services Australia via API
  
  

The result is predictable claiming cycles, reduced administrative pressure and audit-ready documentation, without compromising care quality.

Want a roster that also supports accurate claiming and compliance? Request a Visualcare demo today.

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Support at Home rostering and reporting FAQs