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Charge Items & Services

What is a Service?

A Service is attached to a participant’s NDIS Plan and represents a support or activity you are delivering.

Astalty supports two types of services:

  • Scheduled Services – Used for supports linked to a rostered or booked activity, such as Community Access, Group Activities, or Supported Independent Living. These services use Charge Item Sets that determine billing based on factors like time of day.

  • Unscheduled Services – Used for supports not tied to a specific booking, such as Support Coordination, Recovery Coaching, or Allied Health services. These services use a single Charge Item.

For scheduled services, if a participant is receiving multiple days of support that all fall under the same charge item set, you only need to set up one service. 

However, if the participant receives different types of supports - for example, Community Access and Capacity Building - you would set up two separate services, each with its own charge item set configured to match the relevant support category.

What is a Charge Item?

A Charge Item in Astalty represents items you charge for - they behave much like line items for the Price Guide and most of the time, Charge Items can be created by importing from the Price Guide and include details like:

  • NDIS line item number

  • Price

  • Claim Type

  • Other relevant billing information

How is a Charge Item different to a line item

The NDIS Price Guide lists standard line items, each with a unique line item number (e.g., 07_002_0106_8_3).

In Astalty, Charge Items also have line item numbers, but you can create multiple Charge Items with the same NDIS line item number. This allows you to customise them - for example, by changing the default Claim Type or using a different hourly rate.

Charge Items vs. Charge Item Sets

  • Charge Item (Unscheduled Services) – One specific item you bill for, such as Level 2 Support Coordination. Only one charge item can belong to one unscheduled service at a time.

  • Charge Item Set (Scheduled Services) – A collection of charge items configured for different conditions (e.g., time of day or day of week) that automatically determine which rate applies for a scheduled support.

The example above shows a charge item set for Community Access that includes both  Weekday Daytime Standard Rate and Weekday Evening Standard Rate. Astalty will automatically select the correct charge item from the set based on the scheduled time of the support.

How are Services and Charge Items relate to Charges

When you create a Task for a participant, you can assign Charge Items to that Task — this allows you to bill for your time.

  • For Unscheduled Services, you’ll choose the single Charge Item assigned to the service.

  • For Scheduled Services, the relevant Charge Item will come from the Charge Item Set linked to the service.

Astalty uses the Management Type of the service to determine how invoices are prepared and where they are sent. Without creating services, Astalty cannot process invoices for the charge items used.

Creating and Updating Services Video Walkthrough

Here is a video guide on how to Create and Update a service!