Financial compliance depends on being able to explain a charge, reconcile a payment and show who reviewed an exception. Residential care and Support at Home have different fee, funding and reporting arrangements; a useful finance system keeps those distinctions visible.
This guide sets out the records and controls to examine when choosing aged care financial software, with current government guidance linked where the rules matter.
Start with the resident’s fee arrangements
Confirm which fee arrangements apply before calculating residential charges. Under the 1 November 2025 arrangements, the fee types include a basic daily fee, hotelling contribution and non-clinical care contribution, with an optional higher everyday living fee. Residents under earlier arrangements may instead pay a means-tested care fee. Accommodation costs are a separate part of the bill.
Entry date alone is not enough: transitional protections and a decision to opt in can affect the applicable arrangements. Use the resident’s fee advice and agreement alongside My Aged Care’s fee guidance.
In a demonstration, ask the vendor to show two residents under different arrangements. Follow each charge to its rate, effective date and source agreement. Then test a retrospective adjustment and inspect the resulting invoice and review history.
Reconcile funding separately from resident charges
AN-ACC subsidy reconciliation and resident billing answer different questions. Your team needs to explain what funding was received, which period it relates to and how it compares with the underlying resident and service records. A resident invoice also needs its own agreed charges, payments and adjustments.
Use an ordinary month and an exception month in your evaluation. Ask how staff identify an unexplained difference, assign responsibility and retain the correction. Check the handling of effective dates and source statements rather than assuming that a funding total validates every resident charge.
Explore Funding & Claims alongside Billing & Finance, and agree which reconciliation steps your team will perform.
Manage deposits, liquidity and refund events
The current framework has three Financial and Prudential Standards: Financial and Prudential Management, Liquidity, and Investment. Applicability depends on the provider’s circumstances; the Commission’s guidance identifies relevant categories and exclusions. Deposit records, permitted uses, liquidity and governing-body oversight need to be considered together.
A single “14 days from departure” rule is not sufficient for refundable accommodation balances. When a resident moves to another home, the deadline depends on notice: more than 14 days’ notice means refund on departure; shorter notice generally means within 14 days after notice; no notice means within 14 days after departure. Other situations have different triggers, including the evidence received after a resident dies. Check the Department’s refund periods and interest guidance.
Ask to see the trigger date, calculated due date, balance, approval evidence and payment record for a refund. Review how missing agreements and overdue items become visible to the responsible person.
Apply Support at Home contributions to the right services
Support at Home contributions depend on service category and the participant’s assessed circumstances. The three contribution categories are clinical supports, independence and everyday living. Clinical supports do not attract a participant contribution.
Four common circumstances to distinguish are full pensioners, part pensioners, people eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, and self-funded retirees who are not eligible for that card. Part pensioners and eligible cardholders share an assessed contribution range; these labels are not four fixed rates. Use the current Services Australia advice, including any no-worse-off arrangements. See the Department’s participant contribution guidance.
Service dates matter too. Personal care contribution arrangements change on 1 October 2026. Ask how the software applies the appropriate service classification and contribution for the date of delivery, including corrections to earlier periods.
For SAH contributions and claims, trace one delivered service through its price, contribution, subsidy amount and monthly statement. Test a corrected assessment and an overpayment refund.
Keep claims and financial reports distinct
- Support at Home claims. Services Australia’s claiming guidance describes creating invoices in the Aged Care Provider Portal, entering items manually or by CSV, providing supporting documents where required, and claiming submitted invoices. A prepared file is not evidence of an accepted or paid claim. Retain the receipt and reconcile the outcome.
- Quarterly Financial Report (QFR). This is routine reporting for residential care and Support at Home providers, not a requirement reserved for providers in financial distress. Required sections vary by provider type and reporting period. CHSP-only providers do not submit a QFR. Use the Department’s current QFR requirements and dates, including changes from the first quarter of 2026–27.
- Aged Care Financial Report (ACFR). Annual reporting is separate from the QFR. For residential providers, the Department describes financial statements and, where applicable, an audited Annual Prudential Compliance Statement, as well as the Care Minutes Performance Statement from 2025–26. See residential reporting requirements.
Agree who prepares, reviews and submits each return. Request a sample output and reconcile it to source records before treating an export as suitable for your reporting obligations.
What to inspect in Statura Care
Statura Care’s billing workspace brings period readiness, invoice work and reconciliation into a finance workflow. The reconciliation view distinguishes invoices awaiting payment, paid and voided items, and accounting variances. Ask to inspect the invoice detail behind an exception. The residential billing workbench also shows the fee arrangement and daily charge breakdown for each resident, with a reason required to reopen an eligible finalised run for correction.
The Prudential workspace provides deposit, liquidity, permitted-use, governance, pricing and reporting views. Its oversight view identifies items such as overdue refunds and missing agreements. Final board approvals, supporting evidence and external filing references can still require provider action.
Bring a representative billing period and a synthetic refund scenario to your demonstration. Use the software evaluation workbook to record what you see, the proposed configuration and the responsibilities your team retains. Book a tailored demonstration with your finance and operational leads.