Rostery

What is Plan management?

Plan management is where a registered plan manager holds and pays a participant’s NDIS funding on their behalf. The plan manager receives provider invoices, checks them against the participant’s budget and the price guide, claims from the NDIA, and pays the provider — while the participant keeps full choice of provider.

In RosteryNDIS plan management softwareInvoice capture, participant approval, NDIA claim files, ABA payments and reconciliation.

Plan management sits between agency management and self-management. It gives the participant the freedom to use unregistered providers, without the administrative burden of paying invoices and tracking budgets themselves. The NDIA funds plan management separately, so it does not reduce the participant’s support budget.

For the plan manager, the work is high-volume invoice processing under a compliance obligation: every line must map to a valid support item, sit within the price limit, and be covered by remaining funds in the right budget category. Errors are recoverable but visible, which is why reconciliation and an audit trail matter more here than almost anywhere else in the scheme.

What a plan manager does

A plan manager buys NDIS supports on the participant's behalf, using the funding the participant gives them to manage. In practice that means:

  • receiving provider invoices and checking each one is for an NDIS support in line with the plan
  • checking there is enough funding left in the current funding period for that funding component
  • claiming from the NDIA and paying the provider
  • giving the participant budget reports so they can monitor their spending
  • helping the participant build financial and plan management skills.

Rules plan managers must follow

  • Plan managers must be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Act s 42(2)(b)).
  • They can claim up to the maximum price in the NDIS Pricing Schedule for each support. The Pricing Schedule 2026-27 applies its maximum amounts to both Agency-managed and plan-managed funding.
  • Plan-managed participants can use unregistered providers, except for supports that always need a registered provider, such as SIL, SDA, specialist behaviour support and supports involving restrictive practices.
  • A claim cannot be paid if it would exceed the funding available in the funding period, and every claim must be lodged within 2 years of the support date.

How the plan management fee is funded

If a participant chooses a registered plan manager, the NDIA always includes funding in the plan to cover plan management costs. This sits in the Improved Life Choices category of Capacity Building, separate from the participant's other supports. The Pricing Schedule 2026-27 lists a monthly plan management fee item.

Plan-managed, self-managed or Agency-managed

  • Self-managed: the participant pays providers, keeps records for 5 years and can negotiate prices above or below the pricing schedule.
  • Plan-managed: the plan manager pays providers and keeps records, and prices are capped at the schedule.
  • Agency-managed: the NDIA pays registered providers directly.

Participants can mix these options across different parts of their plan.

How Rostery helps

Rostery includes a plan management module, and the NDIS bulk claim files it produces are checked against current price limits before they are lodged.

Questions people ask

Can a plan manager pay an unregistered provider?

Yes, for most supports. The exceptions are supports that must always come from a registered provider, such as SIL, SDA, specialist behaviour support and supports involving regulated restrictive practices.

Can providers charge plan-managed participants above the NDIS price limit?

No. A plan manager can only claim up to the maximum price in the NDIS Pricing Schedule for each support.

Does plan management cost the participant anything?

When a participant chooses a registered plan manager, the NDIA includes funding for plan management in the plan, in the Improved Life Choices category, so the fee does not come out of their other supports.

Do NDIS plan managers need to be registered?

Yes. Plan management is one of the supports that can only be delivered by a provider registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

Checked against the official sources on 2 October 2026. Rules change: confirm the current position with the agency before you rely on it.

Related terms

ParticipantA participant is a person whose access to the NDIS has been approved and who holds an individual, funded NDIS plan. The term is used in place of “client” or “patient” throughout the scheme, reflecting that the person directs their own supports rather than receiving a service allocated to them.Self-managementSelf-management is where an NDIS participant, or their nominee, manages their own plan funding. They choose and pay providers directly, claim payment from the NDIA, and keep records and receipts. Self-managing participants can use registered or unregistered providers, and the NDIS price limits do not apply to self-managed funding.Support item numberA support item number is the code identifying a specific NDIS support for claiming, in the form 01_011_0107_1_1. It has five parts: the support category, a sequence number, the registration group, the outcome domain and the support purpose. Every claimed line must carry a valid item number that matches the support actually delivered and sits within the participant’s funded budget.NDIS Price GuideThe NDIS Price Guide, published with the Support Catalogue, sets the maximum prices registered providers may charge for each support item. It is updated at least annually, usually effective 1 July, and defines item numbers, unit types, price limits by state grouping, and the rules for cancellations, travel and non-face-to-face time.Bulk payment requestA bulk payment request is the CSV file a registered NDIS provider uploads to the myplace portal to claim for many supports at once. Each row carries the participant’s NDIS number, the support item number, service dates, quantity and price. The NDIA validates the file and returns a result per line.

More in NDIS

NDISNDIASupport coordinationSIL

Rostery handles this in practice

SCHADS interpretation, NDIS price-guide validation, claiming and the evidence an audit asks for — built for Australian providers.

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