Your first week checklist

This is the order that gets a new workspace ready to run shifts and bill for them: configure the workspace, add your team, then load your participants and workers so you’re not typing them in one at a time.

The checklist

1. Set up your organisation. Business details, invoicing defaults and an optional Xero connection. See Set up your organisation.
2. Choose your workspace features. On the Account›Features tab, switch off any module you do not use (Payroll and Invoicing start off; the other modules start on), and set the two clock-in gates: Geofencing and the Clock-in window. See Workspace features.
3. Decide your roles. Work out who needs the office app and what they should see. See Roles and access.
4. Choose how to add your team. Use Workforce›Workers and Invite worker for individual office staff or support workers, or use the worker import below for a prepared list. Give office staff the correct account type and role. Do not create the same person individually and then import them as another new worker. See Invite a worker.
5. Add your participants. Import your existing participant list or add people individually. Check whether a record already exists before creating another one.
6. Complete worker setup. If using import, review and save the prepared list, check the invitation results and ask those workers to finish their access. For individually added workers, continue from their existing records.
7. Turn on two-factor authentication. Once your team is in, require 2FA for the roles that need it, on the Account›Account tab. See Roles and access.

Import your participants

Rather than adding participants one at a time, load your existing list from a single spreadsheet: core details, contacts, NDIS plans and plan budgets, all linked together and checked before anything is saved. Open Participants and select Import, next to Add participant.

The full walkthrough, with the template’s ten sheets, the per-row checks and the issue report, is in Bulk import participants.

Import your workers

Load your workers the same way, including SCHADS classification when Payroll is enabled, from Workforce›Workers and Import, next to Invite worker. New worker records are saved before setup invitations are sent. Check the invitation results. If an invitation fails, keep the imported record and recover its access from the worker’s Access tab; do not rerun the whole import to resend invitations. Existing worker updates do not all receive new invitations.

The full walkthrough is in Bulk import workers.

Then run your first week

With people and participants loaded, set their employment types and open Workforce > Availability. Add regular hours for permanent workers, request casual availability, then approve the hours before assigning shifts. A worker without saved approved hours cannot be assigned.

Two other settings shape the first week:

• Each shift carries an Acceptance setting. Left on Automatic, publishing books the worker. Set to Required, the worker has to accept the shift in their app before they can clock in, and you are told straight away if anyone declines. See Assign workers to a shift.
• Payroll requires the owner to enable it and the office to prepare worker pay settings before work starts. A shift first clocked in with Payroll off does not become payroll work merely because the switch is later enabled. Review eligible timesheets before finalising a week; finalisation does not transfer money to workers. See Payroll overview.

Check one complete service before expanding the roster

Prepare one participant’s real contact details, current plan, funding and signed agreement with the supports you intend to schedule. For the worker, check their account, employment type, compliance and approved availability. Enter dated pay settings before the first clock-in when Payroll will be used. A successful invitation or import is not proof that those preparations are complete.

Create one coherent shift, select its participants, eligible supports and available workers, and publish it. Where acceptance is Required, check the worker’s response. Have the worker use the actual app for clocks, travel, breaks and notes, then review the submitted assignment in the office. Confirm the resulting Billing and Payroll inputs when those modules apply. If something is missing, return to that source record before copying the pattern across a whole roster.