Rostering software for disability support
A support worker might be at three addresses before lunch. The week is a run rather than a shift, and what matters is that each visit is rostered, clocked and counted where it happened.
| Who | Morning | Midday | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hana Y.Support | 7–9 Ellis St | 10–1 Community | off | 5–7 Ellis St |
| Sam T.Support | 7:30–9 Park Rd | off | 3–6 Park Rd | off |
| Marisol D.Support | off | 11–2 Denton Ave | 3:30–5:30 Denton Ave | 7–9 Denton Ave |
| Tom H.Sleepover | off | off | off | 10pm–7am Ellis St |
A day read as runs rather than shifts. Each address is a venue, and each visit is clocked at the door.
What makes a disability support service hard to roster
Four things that come up in every one of these weeks, and what happens here instead.
What changes once it is running
What disability support services get back, in the terms this trade measures it in.
A week in a disability support service
What it is used for in a disability support service
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- A day read as a run of visits, each at its own address and its own time
- Four short shifts for one worker in a day, with the gaps between them unpaid
- A sleepover rostered as one shift that crosses midnight
- Regular visits kept with the same worker by copying the week forward
- Clock in at the door of each house, with the distance recorded
- A cancellation recorded as what it was, rather than quietly deleted
The Thursday a visit was cancelled at the door
Eleven support workers, nine participants, a run of five visits before lunch.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| 8:55am | A worker arrives for a two hour visit and the family cancels at the door. | She clocks in at the address anyway, so there is a record that she attended. |
| 9:05am | The coordinator decides what happens with the two hours. | The shift is edited with a reason, or left and approved as attended. Either way it is recorded. |
| 9:30am | Another participant asks for an extra visit this afternoon. | The worker is free, the address is already a venue, and the shift takes a moment to add. |
| 4:10pm | The extra visit runs 20 minutes past its finish. | The difference sits against that shift for the coordinator to accept. |
| Friday | The run for the week is approved. | A cancellation, an added visit and an overrun, each with a reason and a name on it. |
A day that changed twice, and a record that still says exactly what happened.
The jobs that stop being jobs
Where the hours in a week like this go. No stopwatch: the left column is what the work takes without it, and the right is what is left of the same task.
| The job | Usually | Here |
|---|---|---|
| Building a run of visits | A spreadsheet per worker and a separate list of addresses | One week, several shifts a day, each attached to its address |
| Recording a cancellation at the door | A phone call that nothing keeps | A clock in at the address and a reason on the shift |
| Adding a visit the same day | A text to whoever answers first | Availability, the address already set up, and a shift published to their phone |
| Keeping continuity for a participant | Whoever is free that morning | The week copied forward, so regular visits stay with the same worker |
What the record shows, and what stays yours
Roster Flow keeps the record. Meeting the obligation is still the workplace's job, and these are the parts of it nothing here decides for you.
- Each visit as a shift, at the address it was worked at
- Attendance at a cancelled visit, where the worker clocked in at the door
- Visits added during the day, with who added them and when
- Time worked past a rostered finish, per visit
- Every correction and approval, in order, with the reason given
- NDIS plans, claims, cancellation rules and invoicing, none of which are handled here
- What a cancelled visit is paid, which is an award and agreement question
- Worker screening and checks, which are not held here
- Travel between visits, which is not counted as hours
What has to be kept, and for how long, is set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Nothing here interprets an award or certifies that a workplace complies with one.
Who is usually on the team
Ten to fifty support workers, most of them part time or casual, with a coordinator building the runs.
What drives the wage cost
Short visits, evenings and sleepovers at the rates you set. The estimate is a wage figure for the week, not a claim: what a service is funded for is worked out in whatever you use for that.
Questions people in disability support services ask
Does it handle NDIS plans, claims or invoicing?
No. It rosters staff and records their hours. Plans, claims and invoices stay in the system you use for them.
Does it work out travel time between visits?
No. Time between two shifts is not counted, because it is not a shift. If travel is paid, roster it as a shift or handle it in payroll.
Can a sleepover be rostered?
Yes, as a shift that crosses midnight. How it is paid is an award question, and that stays with you and your payroll system.
Can the same worker keep the same clients week to week?
Copy last week and the regular visits stay with the worker who does them, so continuity is what happens unless somebody deliberately changes it. That matters more here than the rostering: the person being supported notices a new face.
A visit is cancelled at short notice. What happens to the shift?
Take it off the roster and republish, and the worker is notified. If they had already started, what they actually clocked is compared to what was rostered and the difference comes to you as an exception rather than disappearing.
Can I show that a visit happened at the address it was meant to?
Each clock in records its time and the distance from the place, with a photo where you require one, and every later correction carries who made it and why. It is a defensible record of hours and attendance, not a case note.