FAQ
The questions people actually ask before they buy.
What is included, what it costs, what you have to supply and who checks the work. If your question is not here, ask it and you get a written answer within one business day.
Free diagnostic
Registration Readiness Scorecard
A short review of six areas based on the information and samples you send.
What does the scorecard actually tell me?
It rates six areas of your compliance red, amber or green, using the material you send. Where that material does not go far enough to judge, the report says so rather than guessing. Each area gets one action and a named next step.
Is this a formal audit or Commission approval?
No. The scorecard is based on the information and samples you send. It is not a formal audit or Commission decision. Those decisions stay with the Commission and your approved auditor.
Will a green rating mean I will register or pass an audit?
No. A green rating means no material gap was identified in the supplied sample for that dimension. It is not an outcome guarantee and does not replace a formal application, audit or evidence of practice.
How is the scorecard reviewed?
Before delivery, we check each rating against your intake and samples, make sure missing information is shown clearly, and remove any prediction about an auditor’s decision. The principal reads and approves the final scorecard.
How much information do I need to send?
Enough to cover the six areas. The intake page lists what helps. Send a policy index and redacted samples, never an export of participant or worker data. If something is missing, the report says so.
What happens if I have a deadline inside 48 hours?
Send the intake and the deadline evidence now. We confirm when the intake is complete, and your report is due 48 hours later. Any date your regulator or auditor sets still stands.
What happens after the debrief?
You get the ratings, the evidence limits and the priority actions in writing, and you can email questions afterwards. You can fix the actions in house from there. If policy currency or registers came back red, registration preparation is the usual next step. A real notice or finding goes to Audit Rescue. Monthly support starts once policy currency and registers are no longer red.
You can also ask for a free 20 minute call with the principal, and we confirm the time before booking. A registration preparation project includes a question set, role specific evidence prompts and up to two 60 minute sessions for your nominated people. Live sessions are optional and cost nothing extra.
Fixed project
Registration preparation
Preparation for one provider entity and one agreed registration, renewal or audit preparation scope.
Which registration preparation fee applies?
Do you deliver SIL or high intensity supports? If you do, certification has to cover that scope and the price is A$3,290. If you do not, certification is A$1,890. Verification is A$790, and it applies only when the Commission puts you on the simpler pathway. We do not charge GST, so these are the amounts you pay.
Certification and Certification with SIL are paid in two halves, on signing and at final pack delivery. Verification is paid in full on order. We confirm your pathway after reviewing your supports, your registration status and the current requirements.
What happens if I cancel?
If you cancel before we start work, your payment is refunded in full. If you cancel after we start, we keep only the part that covers the work done. We refund the rest and tell you the amount in writing first.
What is the all-in cost of getting registered?
Your Clearharbour fee, plus your auditor's fee, which the auditor sets and you pay directly. Published ranges for a sole trader or micro provider are A$800 to A$1,500 for a verification audit. Certification audits are A$3,000 to A$5,000. The Commission states there is no cost to register with it.
For a small SIL provider that gives an estimated all in total of A$6,290 to A$8,290. That is an estimate, not a quote. See the costs guide for the sources and dates.
Does the preparation project guarantee registration or a passed audit?
No. It produces a structured preparation and evidence pack for your service. Your implementation and the regulator or auditor's decision stay outside our control.
Will the policies fit my service?
Yes, within the agreed pathway and scope. We prepare the relevant policy and procedure set using your organisation's services, roles, workflows, records, owners, version control and review dates. Your team then puts the policies into practice and keeps the supporting records.
Who appoints and pays the auditor?
You appoint, contract with and pay the auditor directly. Clearharbour prepares the evidence and responses you approve, supports written administrative liaison and does not make or influence the audit decision.
What about the two rounds of responses?
Each round covers one set of written auditor findings or requests. You supply the factual responses and the available evidence. We return one revised response or evidence set. Extra rounds, a wider scope or operational work are quoted separately.
Can you run my service while I prepare?
No. Clearharbour prepares documents, maps evidence and supports readiness. Your organisation must implement the controls, deliver supports, manage workers and participants, and keep records that accurately reflect practice.
How is the preparation pack reviewed?
We check the requirements against the policies, registers and evidence in the pack, and the principal approves the pack before release. You check that the documents accurately describe your service. Your approved quality auditor then carries out the independent assessment.
What if the auditor or Commission changes the scope?
Send us the written request now. We check whether it fits the agreed written scope and the two included response rounds. New modules, sites, entities or material work outside that scope need a written change order. Outside fees remain yours.
Recurring support
Monthly compliance support
Monthly support for your agreed documents and controls, within a defined scope. If your scorecard is red for policy currency or registers, registration preparation comes first.
Your first month of monthly support comes free with a registration preparation project. Take it and you are committing to months two and three at your tier. That is A$398 for Micro, A$698 for Standard or A$1,258 for Complex. Turn it down and nothing about your project changes. We do not charge GST, so these are the amounts you pay.
How do I choose Micro, Standard or Complex?
Micro is A$199 a month, Standard is A$349 and Complex is A$629. Micro is for ten or fewer workers, with no SIL and no more than one site. Standard is for 11 to 39 workers where no complex trigger applies, and for a single site SIL provider with ten or fewer workers.
Complex applies to more than one site, 40 or more workers, or SIL beyond a single site or with more than ten workers. Any one complex trigger sets the tier. A material change is reviewed for the next billing cycle.
What happens in a normal monthly cycle?
You send new entries, source documents and decisions through the agreed channel. The monthly cut off controls the routine cycle. Anything later moves to the next cycle unless we agree a priority or urgent scope.
We review the register material you send, update the agreed structures and indexes, file the evidence and return the changes and open actions. Your team records real events, approves factual changes and carries out decisions.
How fast are policies updated when a rule changes?
When a rule or standard changes and we confirm it affects your agreed scope, we update the affected policy documents within 5 Australian business days of confirming it. If we need a decision or factual input from you first, you receive a tracked interim action inside those 5 days instead. Your approval and implementation remain your responsibility.
Are you updating my registers or creating records for me?
Clearharbour reviews incident, complaint and risk controls, prompts missing information, maintains authorised structures or indexes and files client supplied updates. You remain responsible for recording what happened, investigating it, notifying where required and approving factual entries. We never invent or backdate records.
Are the four mock audits a year a formal audit?
No. Each one is a Clearharbour internal diagnostic using a risk based sample, run once each quarter. It does not replace an approved auditor, the Commission, a formal audit or your obligation to implement and evidence practice.
What is included on audit day?
One scheduled audit day each rolling 12 months. On the day we coordinate the evidence requests, find the documents, draft responses for you to approve and keep an action log afterwards. Live support covers the agreed hours.
Attendance is remote by default while the auditor's site visit runs on site. Ask if you need someone on site. You contract the auditor directly. Extra days are quoted in writing before the audit, and major repair work sits outside the base monthly service.
Can I cancel after one month?
No. The minimum term is three months. After that the service continues month to month. Either side may give notice in writing.
We end the service at the end of a billing period. That is at least one month after we get your notice, and never before your three months are up. The agreement records the activation date, the billing date and the resulting end of the minimum term.
How is the monthly service work reviewed?
Each month you receive a record of rule changes, document updates, evidence filed and actions waiting on you. It also records when no changes were needed.
Finding response
Audit Rescue
Written triage first, then a fixed price for the cause analysis, the corrective action plan and the evidence response.
When should I use Audit Rescue?
Use it when you have written nonconformities, conditions, an adverse audit report or a Commission compliance notice. You need a cause analysis, a corrective action plan, implementation documents and a supported evidence response. If you only need general readiness before a deadline, the scorecard or registration preparation may fit better.
What do I receive from the free 48 hour triage?
You receive a short triage memo naming the findings or deadline, the likely scope, your immediate actions, the unknowns and whether Audit Rescue fits. The written scope then states the fixed fee for the proposed paid work. It is not the paid root cause analysis. It does not extend or replace an existing deadline.
Which Audit Rescue price applies?
A$1,990 covers up to three findings at one site. You get the root cause analysis, the corrective action plan in the Commission's format, the response pack and one follow up round. A$3,990 covers a full corrective action plan at one site, whatever the number of findings.
More sites or an enforcement matter is quoted after the free triage, from A$3,990. You pay half on signing and half at delivery of the plan. These are the amounts you pay. We do not charge GST.
Can the plan make the Commission close my finding?
No. The paid scope organises the root cause analysis, the corrective action plan, the implementation documents and the evidence response you approve. The auditor or Commission decides whether the finding is closed. You are responsible for carrying out the action and keeping accurate evidence.
Can you create the evidence I am missing?
We can create ready to implement documents such as policy changes, forms, checklists, register controls, evidence indexes and ownership tools. We cannot create historical evidence, backdate records, invent practice or claim a control operated before your organisation implemented it. Evidence of future implementation must be generated by your real operations.
Will Clearharbour submit the response for me?
We prepare a response and evidence pack for you to approve, and we support written follow up questions. You remain the applicant or registered provider. You review the facts, approve the submission and send it to the auditor or Commission. We never sign or submit an attestation in your name.
How is the rescue work reviewed?
We check the response against the finding and the evidence you hold, and the principal approves it before it reaches you. Unsupported statements are corrected or removed before you approve and send it. The auditor decides whether to accept the response.
What if my deadline is sooner than ten business days?
Send the notice immediately. The written triage will identify the deadline and whether Clearharbour can accept the proposed scope and timing. The paid delivery window starts when the engagement is signed, the first payment is received and all paid rescue inputs are complete. We will confirm whether we can meet your deadline. A regulator's deadline still applies.
Do you work with providers outside New South Wales?
Yes. We work with NDIS providers in every state and territory, because the NDIS rules are national. A few things are set by your state: the worker screening unit, the restrictive practice authorisation pathway and the work health and safety Act.
In New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT a health records law can also apply. The intake asks for your state, and we confirm those items before any paid work starts.
What does the guarantee cover, exactly?
If an approved auditor identifies a nonconformity that traces directly to a document we prepared, we correct that document free of charge under the engagement terms. It does not reach evidence you had to generate yourself, or records that were already inaccurate when you gave them to us. Nor does it cover how you put the documents into practice, or a decision made for other reasons.
The full clause is in the engagement letter, which you read before any paid work starts.
What if I am unhappy with your work?
Email hello@clearharbour.com.au and say what went wrong. The principal reads every complaint and replies in writing within five business days. The reply says what we found and what we will do about it. If that does not resolve it, a privacy matter can go to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. A consumer matter can go to NSW Fair Trading or the consumer body in your state.
Need help choosing a service?
Ask a quick question if you want help choosing a path. The free scorecard remains available when you want a structured starting view before paid work.