How to Write NDIS Progress Notes (With Examples)

The short version

A progress note (also called a case note or shift note) is the written record of a support: what happened, when, what the participant said and did, and what the next person needs to know. It's the evidence behind your invoice.

Four things to get right:

• Write it on the shift or straight after. The Practice Standards want each participant's information "accurately recorded, current and confidential".
• Write what you saw and did, not what you think. Times, actions, the participant's own words.
• Tie it to the support and the goals. The NDIA says case notes outline the activities and how they relate to the support item and the participant's goals.
• Keep it for 7 years. Since 27 August 2026 the NDIS Act sets 7 years, from the day of the claim, for providers to keep claim records.

Everything below is sourced to the NDIS legislation and NDIA guidance as at 2 October 2026. It's general information, not legal advice.

Why progress notes matter

The Practice Standards require it

For registered providers, the Core Module says: "Management of each participant's information ensures that it is identifiable, accurately recorded, current and confidential." It also says each participant's information must be "easily accessible to the participant and appropriately utilised by relevant workers" (Practice Standards Rules, Schedule 1, clause 12).

The quality indicators auditors work from go further. Your information system must record "each participant's information in an accurate and timely manner", and documents need proper access, security, retention and disposal processes (Quality Indicators, section 14).

Support planning is in there too: progress towards each participant's goals has to be assessed "at a frequency relevant and proportionate to risks, the participant's functionality and the participant's wishes" (Quality Indicators, section 20). You can't show progress you never wrote down.

Notes are the evidence for your claim

This part applies whether you're registered or not. The NDIA says: "As a provider, you need to keep complete and accurate records of NDIS supports delivered to participants." Those records include invoices, support logs, rosters, case notes and service agreements (NDIA record keeping requirements).

The NDIA's claiming rules say registered providers can only claim a support once it's been delivered, and that claims must "accurately reflect the supports delivered, including the frequency, volume and type of support" (PAPL 2025-26). The NDIA still lists the 2025-26 PAPL as claiming guidance until its update is out (NDIA pricing arrangements). If you can't produce complete and accurate records when the NDIA reviews a claim, you may have to pay the money back (NDIA record keeping requirements). Under the 2026 changes to the NDIS Act, an amount you were paid becomes a debt if you didn't keep a required record and can't otherwise show you were entitled to it (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act 2026, Schedule 2, item 86).

Timing matters more from December. From 1 December 2026, claims must be made within 90 days of delivering the support (NDIA, Securing the NDIS for future generations). Notes that arrive three weeks late hold up the invoice.

Notes feed the progress report

When the NDIA asks for a progress report, it wants a summary of the supports delivered, the progress made towards the participant's goals, the challenges met, and any risks and how they're being handled (NDIA guide to report writing). If every daily note says "good shift, no issues", that report has nothing to draw on.

Notes protect the participant and the worker

Small changes show up across notes before they become a crisis: eating less, sleeping badly, a new bruise. The NDIS Code of Conduct applies to every provider and worker, registered or not, and requires them to "act with integrity, honesty and transparency" and to "promptly take steps to raise and act on concerns" about quality and safety (NDIS Code of Conduct Rules). A clear, timely note shows you did both.

What a good progress note includes

The NDIA's minimum identifying information for any claim record is the participant's name, NDIS number, the date the support was delivered, the amount and quantity or hours delivered, and the support type (NDIA record keeping requirements). The NDIA's provider toolkit lists which records each support type needs. Assistance to access community, social and recreational activities, for example, is marked for a support log, a case note and a service agreement (NDIA, Documentation by support type).

Build on that minimum:

Objective, specific and time-stamped

Write what you saw, heard and did. Use numbers, names and times instead of "a bit", "some" and "later", so the reader knows when each thing happened, not just which day.

Delivered vs planned

If the shift was rostered 9am to 1pm and you left at 12:15pm because the participant went to their sister's, say so. The note should match what gets claimed, and the claim has to reflect what was delivered (PAPL 2025-26). Copying rostered times into a note when the shift ran short is how providers end up repaying money.

The participant's voice

Participants are meant to be actively involved in their support planning (Quality Indicators, section 20), and the Code of Conduct protects their right to self-determination and decision-making (NDIS Code of Conduct Rules). Record their choices and what they said. If they chose not to do something, that's their choice, and the note should say so plainly, without calling it "non-compliant".

Consent and privacy

Participants have to consent to how their information is collected, used, kept and shared, and be told how they can access or correct it (Quality Indicators, section 14). They should understand and agree to what's collected and why, "including recorded material in audio and/or visual format" (Quality Indicators, section 8). So check consent before a photo goes in a note.

Write every note as if the participant, their family and an auditor will read it, because they might. In shared houses and groups, don't name other participants in someone's note. Use initials or "another resident".

Language: what to write and what to avoid

The fix for most bad notes is the same: swap the label for what actually happened.

Do: use plain words, short sentences and the participant's name (not "the client"). Give times. Quote them when their words matter. Say what you did and who you told.

Don't: diagnose ("she's got a UTI"), guess motives ("he's attention-seeking"), use judgement words (naughty, difficult, manipulative), use abbreviations the next reader won't know, or write anything you wouldn't read out to the participant.

One more rule from the 2026 law: records kept for claims must be in English, or be readily accessible and convertible into English (new section 45B(9)).

A progress note template you can copy

Use these headings in order. Not every shift needs every line, but every shift needs the first four.

Put together, Lena's note reads like this:

Jordan K, Tuesday 29 September 2026, 9:00am to 1:00pm, community access 1:1. Worker: Lena P.

9:20am we caught the bus to the library. Jordan tapped on and picked the stop himself (goal: travel by bus on his own). I sat 2 rows back. 10:00am to 11:30am he did his computer class and saved his first spreadsheet. 11:45am lunch at the cafe, he ordered and paid himself and ate all of it.

On the walk back up the hill Jordan said his knee was sore. No swelling I could see. He said it felt better after a rest.

Jordan said, "Next week I want to catch it by myself." Team leader please review his travel plan. Jordan asked to go home after lunch, so the shift finished at 12:45pm, not 1:00pm.

Five minutes of writing, and it answers what an auditor or the next worker would ask.

Common mistakes

1. Writing notes days later. Memory fills gaps with guesses. "Current" and "timely" are in the standards for a reason.
2. Copy and paste notes. Five identical notes in a row tell an auditor nobody was paying attention.
3. Notes that don't match the invoice. Hours in the note, the roster and the claim should agree. If they don't, the note should explain why.
4. Nothing about goals. The NDIA ties case notes to the support item and the participant's goals (NDIA record keeping requirements). A note that only lists chores doesn't show the support is doing its job.
5. Burying an incident in a note. If something meets your incident definition, it goes in the incident system. The note mentions it and says it was reported.
6. Notes on personal phones or group chats. Records need secure storage, access and retention processes (Quality Indicators, section 14). A worker's text messages aren't that.
7. Quietly changing a note. If a note is wrong, add a dated correction with your name. Don't delete or rewrite it after the fact. Honesty and transparency are in the Code of Conduct.

How long to keep progress notes

A few things to know about the 7-year claim rule:

• It started on 27 August 2026 and applies to claims made on or after that day. The Act sets participants at 3 years and other claimants (such as nominees) at 5 years. Failing to keep a required record carries a civil penalty of 120 penalty units (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act 2026).
• The kinds of records are still to be spelled out. Section 45B covers records "of a kind prescribed by the National Disability Insurance Scheme rules". We couldn't find rules prescribing those kinds on the Federal Register of Legislation as at 2 October 2026, and the NDIA says "more information will be provided to explain what records you need to keep" (NDIA, Securing the NDIS for future generations). Case notes are already on the NDIA's list of provider records, so plan on keeping them.
• Some sources give a different start date. At least one industry article says the rule started on 1 July 2026 (SIPCITY). The Act's commencement table says 27 August 2026, so go with the Act.

The incident rules also note that other Commonwealth, State or Territory laws on keeping records may apply (Incident Management Rules). The simple approach: keep every progress note for at least 7 years after the last claim it supports, and check your state's rules.

Notes for incidents and changes in health

When something goes wrong

A progress note is not an incident report. Registered providers must run an incident management system covering incidents that have, or could have, caused harm to a participant, acts by a participant that caused serious harm or a risk of serious harm to someone else, and reportable incidents (Incident Management Rules, section 5). For each incident it must record, at a minimum, what happened and the harm caused, whether it's reportable, the time, date and place, who was involved and who saw it, what was done in response, any consultation with the participant, any investigation and its outcome, and who made the record (section 12(2)).

Reportable incidents include the death, serious injury, abuse or neglect of a person with disability, and the use of restrictive practices in certain circumstances. Some must be notified to the NDIS Commission within 24 hours and others within 5 business days (Incident Management Rules, sections 14 and 16). That clock starts when the provider becomes aware, so workers need to tell the office on the shift, not in tomorrow's note.

In the progress note itself, keep it short and factual: what happened, the time, what you did, who you told and when, and that an incident report was lodged. Don't argue fault in a note.

If a regulated restrictive practice was used, the rules also require a record of the behaviour that led to it, when it started and ended, and what less restrictive options were tried first (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support Rules, section 15).

When health changes

If it's an emergency, call 000 first and write later. For anything else, a good health note has four parts:

1. What you noticed, compared with what's normal for this person. "Usually eats a full breakfast, today ate half a piece of toast."
2. What the participant said, in their words.
3. What you did: first aid, a reading, a call.
4. Who you told and when, and what they said to do.

Medication needs its own record. The indicators expect records that "clearly identify the medication and dosage required by each participant" (Quality Indicators, section 26). Follow your medication procedure and the participant's chart, record what was given, refused or given late, and mention anything out of the ordinary in the progress note.

Make it easy to do right

Most bad notes come from bad timing, not bad workers. A note written three days later will always be vague. Make the note part of finishing the shift and quality goes up on its own.

That's how Orangised works. The app won't let a worker clock off a shift without a care note of at least 150 characters, typed or talked in with voice-to-text. The note lands on the participant's record with who wrote it, the date and the shift, and the next worker can read past notes before they start.