Scope boundaries · who to ask instead

What we don't do — and who to ask instead.

Clear boundaries for providers choosing the right professional and the right written next step.

Clearharbour's scope is deliberately narrow. We help small NDIS and aged-care providers understand their compliance position, prepare agreed artifacts and keep a written next action visible. That makes the boundary useful: the right professional should own work that requires a different licence, independence position, operating system or clinical judgement.

These boundaries are practical, not decorative. A scope question can change the right adviser: a compliance consultant can map a requirement and organise evidence, but a solicitor gives legal advice, a tax adviser gives tax advice, a health practitioner owns clinical judgement, and an approved auditor makes the independent audit decision. Keeping those roles separate gives the provider a cleaner written record and avoids asking one document to carry a decision it cannot make.

If a referral is needed, keep the question narrow and written. State the entity, service, site, deadline, decision you need and material you have already checked; ask the relevant professional to confirm their scope, assumptions and next action. We can help describe the compliance question and prepare client-owned artifacts around the answer, but the specialist remains responsible for the specialist conclusion.

Who to ask instead

• Legal advice: We are not lawyers, so ask a solicitor for legal advice about contracts, liability, disputes, employment obligations or legal rights.
• Audit decisions: We are not the approved quality auditor and never will be for our clients, so ask an independent approved quality auditor for the audit decision and read our auditor-independence guide before engaging anyone.
• Accounting and tax: We are not accountants or tax advisers, so ask a qualified accountant or registered tax agent for tax, bookkeeping or financial-reporting advice.
• Recruitment and HR: We are not a recruiter or HR provider, so ask a recruitment agency or qualified HR adviser for hiring, employment relations, payroll or workforce-policy work.
• Marketing: We are not a marketing agency, so ask a marketing strategist or agency for brand, lead-generation, advertising or campaign work.
• Rostering and claiming software: We are not a rostering or claiming software vendor, so ask your platform's support team or an implementation specialist for configuration and product advice; we work alongside yours.
• Clinical advice: We are not clinical advisers, so ask the relevant registered health practitioner to own clinical content, assessments, treatment decisions and clinical records.
• Hospitals and residential aged care: We do not serve hospitals, LHDs or residential aged care facilities, so ask a specialist health or aged-care compliance firm that works in those settings.

What we do

We do four things: the free Registration Readiness Scorecard gives a six-dimension starting view; the fixed-price Registration Sprint prepares an agreed registration or audit-preparation scope; the recurring Compliance Partner Retainer keeps policies, registers and evidence on a defined monthly cycle; and Audit Rescue triages a written finding before a fixed response scope.