Overview

Charge Items and Charge Item Sets are the building blocks of billing in Astalty. This page explains what they are, how they relate to Services, and where to go for everything else in this section.

What is a Charge Item?

A Charge Item in Astalty represents something you charge for — it behaves much like a line item from the NDIS Price Guide. Most of the time, Charge Items are created by importing from the Price Guide and include details like:

• NDIS line item number
• Price
• Claim Type
• Other relevant billing information

For step-by-step instructions, see Managing Charge Items.

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.

For step-by-step instructions, see Managing Charge Item Sets.

How Charge Items link to Services

A Service is attached to a Participant's NDIS Plan and represents a support or activity you are delivering. Services are what connect your Charge Items and Charge Item Sets to the supports you actually bill for.

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.

To learn more about Services and how to create them, see Creating a Service.

How 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.

Payment rates for staff payments

Charge Items are also used to drive staff payments. You can configure a payment rate for each Charge Item so that, when a support worker delivers a support, the correct pay rate is applied.

This is configured separately from the Charge Item itself. To set up payment rates per Charge Item, see Staff Payment Settings.

Automatic updates

When the NDIS releases new pricing arrangements each year, Astalty can update your eligible Charge Items to the new price limits automatically, rather than you updating each one by hand.

This is covered in detail — including eligibility, opting in or out, how previous charges are locked, and FAQs — on the Automatic Updates page.

Creating and Updating Services video walkthrough

Here is a video guide on how to create and update a Service.