NDIS software for sole traders: what you actually need, and what you're paying for that you don't

A one-person NDIS business needs six things from software: a client list with each person's plan and service agreement, a calendar, a way to check in and out of a visit and write the note, invoicing that a plan manager will accept, somewhere to keep your own credentials, and a record of who changed what. Most of the products you will find when you search for NDIS software were built for teams of twenty or two hundred, and they charge you for the rostering, award interpretation and claims machinery that a team of one never opens. This post sets out what you need, what you don't, and the four ways vendors charge for it, so you can read any pricing page and see what a solo operator actually pays.

What does a sole trader actually need?

Strip the feature lists back and the working set is short.

• Clients, and what you agreed to do for them. Each person's NDIS number, their plan dates, who manages the plan, and the service agreement you both signed. Everything else hangs off this.
• A calendar you can trust. Recurring visits, one-offs, and a clear view of the week. Not a roster engine, just your week.
• Check in, check out, write the note. The visit record is your evidence. A time, a place and a progress note written while it is fresh are what stand behind an invoice if anyone ever questions it. How to write progress notes covers what goes in the note.
• Invoicing that gets paid the first time. Your ABN, the participant's number, the support item number, the dates, the exact hours and the rate, on every line, sent to the plan manager or the participant. What an NDIS invoice must include is the checklist.
• Your own credentials in one place. NDIS Worker Screening, first aid, insurance, the Working with Children Check where it applies, with a reminder before each one expires rather than after. See the checks and documents a support worker needs.
• An audit trail. Who changed what and when. Boring until an auditor or a plan manager asks.

If a product does those six things well from your phone, between visits, it is doing the job.

What are you paying for that you won't use?

Enterprise care suites bundle a second list, and it is the second list that sets their price.

• Rostering for dozens of workers. Shift bidding, availability matching, gap detection across a team. You are the team.
• Award interpretation. SCHADS penalty rates, broken shifts, allowances, sleepovers. Genuinely hard, and only relevant if you employ staff under the award.
• Multi-site and multi-entity. Several locations, several ABNs, consolidated reporting.
• Claims portals and bulk NDIA claiming. Built for registered providers submitting batches. If you invoice plan managers and self-managed participants, you never touch it. Registered vs unregistered NDIS provider explains where that line sits.
• Compliance suites sized for an audit team. Policy libraries, multi-step incident workflows, restrictive-practice reporting.

None of this is padding; large providers need it. The problem is how it is sold: as a plan tier, priced per seat, with a minimum number of seats. A sole trader on that tier pays a share of a rostering engine that will never roster anyone.

How do NDIS software vendors charge?

There are four models in the Australian market. Each is honest about something, and each costs a sole trader in a different way. The vendors below are named because their pricing page is public and says which model it uses; the figures are on those pages, and this post deliberately does not repeat them.

Model	What it rewards	What it costs a sole trader	Published examples
Per user, per month	Growing your client list without growing your bill; adding a worker costs a known amount	Every login is a line on the bill, and some vendors set a minimum number of seats whether or not you fill them	ShiftCare prices per staff member and charges for a minimum of five; Astalty prices per user with different rates for standard users and support workers, and no minimum
Per participant, per month	Growing a team without growing your bill; staff accounts are usually unlimited	Your bill moves when you take on a client, and annual plans can carry a minimum term with an early-exit fee	Vertex360 prices by participant bracket with unlimited staff accounts, monthly or on a twelve-month annual plan
A percentage of what you bill (marketplaces)	Finding clients and handling the payment; nothing to pay while you have no work	The fee scales with your income for as long as you use the platform, and the client relationship sits with the platform	Mable deducts a percentage of the agreed rate from the worker and adds a percentage on the client's side
A quote, with minimum seats or a minimum term	Configuration and onboarding done with you; the depth a large provider genuinely needs	There is no published number to compare, and the minimums assume a team	The enterprise tiers most vendors list as "enquire for pricing", including the top tiers on the ShiftCare and Vertex360 pages

A fifth shape sits inside the first two: a flat price per business, where one subscription covers the operator regardless of seats or clients. Bugal is the clearest published example, with a free tier and flat monthly plans sized by team, built specifically for independent support workers.

Which model suits one person?

Work out which number you expect to grow first: logins or clients.

If you plan to stay a team of one for a while, per-user pricing with no minimum is fair, because one login is one line. The trap is the minimum-seat rule: a five-seat minimum turns a modest per-user rate into five times that rate, with four seats sitting empty. Read the FAQ on any per-user pricing page before you read the headline price.

If you expect to add a second worker before you add your tenth client, per-participant pricing can suit you, because staff accounts are unlimited. Watch the bracket boundaries, where one more client can move you to the next tier, and watch the annual plan's minimum term.

A marketplace is worth it while it is finding you the work. What it costs is the percentage on every hour, for every client you found through it, indefinitely. Why we don't take a percentage goes through the arithmetic.

Quote-only pricing is not for you yet, and the vendor will usually say so.

What should you ask any vendor before you pay?

Ask these in writing, and keep the answers.

1. Where is my data hosted, and under which country's law? "In the cloud" is not an answer. Ask for the region.
2. What happens to my data when I leave? Can you export clients, notes and invoices in a format you can open, and how long is the data kept after you cancel?
3. Is there a per-participant fee, now or above a certain number of clients?
4. Is there a percentage of anything? Of invoices, of payments processed, of card transactions.
5. Is there a minimum number of users, or a minimum term? If the answer is yes, calculate the real monthly bill for one person before you compare.
6. Is this a registered NDIS digital platform, or provider-side software? From 1 July 2026 the NDIS Commission requires NDIS digital platforms to register: a platform acts as an intermediary between participants and the people supporting them, and processes the payment for those supports from the participant's plan. A marketplace is one. Software you run your own business on, where the client pays you directly, is not. Both are legitimate; know which you are signing up to, because it changes who holds the client relationship.
7. Does it interpret the SCHADS award, and do I need it to? A no from the vendor is not a mark against them if your answer to the second half is also no.

How do you decide?

A short guide, in the order the decisions usually fall.

• No clients yet, finding work through a marketplace. Stay there for now, but keep your own client records and notes somewhere you control, so you are ready when a client wants to engage you directly.
• A handful of clients, invoicing plan managers and self-managed participants yourself, and it is only you. You need the six things above and nothing on the second list. Compare flat per-business pricing and per-user pricing with no minimum. Rule out anything with a seat minimum.
• About to take on a second worker. If all that person needs is check in, check out and write the note, a worker sign-in should cost little or nothing. Compare per-user rates for support workers specifically, and per-participant plans with unlimited staff.
• Employing staff under the award, or registered and claiming in bulk from the NDIA. The second list has become your first list. Look at the vendors who sell it and ask for the quote.

Where HarvestFlow Care sits

HarvestFlow Care is provider-side software for the person in the second and third bullets above. One price per workspace, from A$15 a month, free for the first 2 months. No percentage of your invoices, no per-participant fee, no minimum number of users, and unlimited clients on every plan. The six things on the first list — clients and service agreements, your week, check-in and check-out with the note, invoices carrying the participant number, your ABN, the support item numbers, dates and exact hours, credential expiry reminders, and an audit trail — are the working set on the Basic plan. It is hosted in Australia.

The features enterprise suites sell at the top — care plans, incident management, funding plans with balance alerts, client statements — are on Pro. The pricing page lists what is in each plan, and the quick start guide walks through the first half hour, screen by screen.

And what it does not do, said plainly. It does not interpret the SCHADS award; it records hours and visits and hands the timesheet data to your payroll system. It does not claim from the NDIA on your behalf; your invoices go to the plan manager or the participant, who pay you directly. It is not an NDIS digital platform; it does not find you clients or process their plan funds. If any of those three is what you need, one of the vendors above will serve you better, and we would rather say so here than have you find out in month two.

Vendor pricing models described as published on each vendor's own site on the date shown under Sources; check the source before deciding.