Action a budget update

Document 2 FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

Guidance in this document is not approved for use unless you view it in PACE.

This article provides guidance for a planner delegate, planner (non-partnered area) or review officer to:

confirm the case for completing a budget update as part of a s47A decision
check for external review orders during a budget update
request further information
contact the participant or authorised representative
update the reassessment date
add support categories to the budget update
change the instalment type of an existing support category
adjust a support category
add a new support category
remove a support category from the approved plan
remove draft budget items
add the plan conversation support tool to the case.

Recent updates

15 December 2025

Guidance updated to advise staff to cancel the participant budget update case if it was created as part of a plan continuation.

1 December 2025

Guidance updated to advise that if a draft budget item is reduced to $0, you need to make sure the supports and the comment are removed from the plan.

Before you start

You have:

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understood you can only use this article if the plan change or participant budget update case does not have a Funding Periods tab. If it does, you need to use article Action a budget update with funding periods
read and understood Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external)
read and understood Our Guideline – Changing your plan (external)
read and understood article Understand milestones in a case
reviewed the plan change request, go to article Assign and review a plan change case
made a decision to vary a plan, go to article Make a plan change decision.

Confirm the case for completing a budget update as part of a s47A decision

When you update the participant’s budget outside of a plan variation (s47A) decision, go to section Check for external review orders during a budget update in this article.

When there’s a decision to vary the participant’s plan (s47A) in a Plan Change case, PACE will trigger the Budget Updates and Fund Management tabs to appear in the Plan Change case. PACE will also create a Participant Budget Update case as a standalone case.

For s47A decisions, don’t use the participant budget update case. Make sure you complete all actions via the Budget Updates and Fund Management tabs within the Plan Change case.

Once the updated plan tab has been approved and the plan change case has been completed, the Participant Budget Update case will also update to completed.

Note: don’t select the Cancel Case button in the Participant Budget Update case. This case will need to remain open to allow the updates to be made in the Plan Change case.

IMPORTANT: the above note doesn’t apply if the Participant Budget Update case was created as part of a plan continuation. If this case was created because you accidentally made a decision in a Plan Change case which was part of a plan continuation, you need to cancel it.

If you don’t, the plan continuation won’t work. This is for plans approved after 9 October 2024.

To check if the case is part of plan continuation:

Go to the Details tab and select Parent Case. This will take you to the Plan Change case related to this case.
In the Plan Change case, go to the Details tab and confirm the Case Reason is Plan continuation.

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Go to the Decision tab and confirm the Plan Continuation Confidence option shows.

This only shows for cases created as part of a plan continuation.

After you’ve confirmed the case is part of a plan continuation, you’ll need to cancel the Participant Budget Update case.

Select Cancel Case.

Because you made a decision in the plan change case, the participant will receive a letter telling them we’re going to change their plan. You’ll need to contact them to let them know the letter was sent accidentally and their plan will be extended as discussed in the check-in.

Check for external review orders during a budget update

Check for any current (in effect) or previous external review orders, decisions, or notices. Also check if there’s an Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) application in progress.

If an ART application is in progress, there’ll be an Alert on the Person Account. You can also check for any previous external review orders and decisions on the Documents tab of the Person Account.

To check for external review orders, decisions, or notices:

In the Person Account, select the Documents tab.
Select the Category heading to sort documents alphabetically. Look for any documents with the Authorisation category. You can also sort by the Sub Category heading and look for a document with the Legal Orders sub category.
Once you’ve located the external review related document, select the document from the list.
Select Download from the Document details pop-up screen.
A copy of the document will be downloaded to your personal files to view.

You need to consider any external review orders or decisions when you’re varying and approving a participant’s plan. You need to make sure the effect of those orders or decision is preserved where appropriate and still required.

Note: you shouldn’t make any changes to plan supports related to an external review order or decision still in effect. The order or decision will usually state the length of time it applies for.

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You must consider any active external review order or decision as part of the evidence you use to make your plan variation decision. If there’s no evidence to suggest changes to a support that was based on an external review order or decision, these are generally kept in the next plan.

You should check:

if the decision or order has a specific time period the support will be in place for
if the decision or order relates to a particular life stage or transition
if there’s evidence the participant’s situation has changed and the intent of the support no longer applies.

You’ll need to justify any changes to supports included in a plan by an external review order.

You should check with a senior planner or team leader if you need help to understand an external review order, decision or notice. You can seek help with more complicated cases through the ART Case Management Branch by emailing ART.correspondence@ndis.gov.au.

Request further information

If you have enough information or evidence, complete the budget update. If you don’t have enough information or evidence, create a request for more information.

For all requests for information, you’ll need to contact the participant or their authorised representative. Learn more in article Contact attempts and unable to contact in a plan change case.

Note: if the requested information is related to evidence, you’ll need to link this to the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case. Go to article Add and link evidence to a case.

Contact the participant or authorised representative

Each plan variation (s47A) must be prepared with the participant or authorised representative.

To help you build rapport and have authentic and engaging conversations, go to article Guide – Conversation style guide.

Before you make any changes to the participant’s plan, you must make every attempt to contact them. Learn more in article Contact attempts and unable to contact in a plan change case.

You’ll need to:

discuss what supports you’ll vary

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explain if the supports are flexible or stated, what budget category you’re varying, and how the funding can be used
discuss the new plan reassessment date, if applicable
advise of requests that haven’t been changed in the plan and reasons for this decision, if applicable
recommend they contact their local area coordinator, early childhood partner or support coordinator about how they can use their plan flexibly, if applicable
explain their review rights if they disagree with the decision
go to article Understand, create and action a request for a replacement support if they request a replacement support.

Note: the participant can ask for an internal review of the plan variation decision within 3 months of the decision letter date. Learn more in article Our Guideline – Reviewing our decisions (external).

You must tell the participant their new plan won’t have funding periods. The plan will look different, with funding now shown under funding components. If they have Core supports, explain that funds can be used flexibly across categories if they have the same fund management type. Other support category types will be shown under each funding component. You’ll also need to explain:

the total funded supports budget and support types haven’t changed
their NDIS plan will have comments explaining the type of NDIS supports included in their plan
these comments will help the participant understand what NDIS supports they can buy with their plan
there’ll be information on how to protect their NDIS plan from fraud.

Update the reassessment date

If you need to change the reassessment date in a participant budget update, go to article Update the reassessment date in a participant budget update.

Note: when updating the reassessment date, all supports in the current approved plan will come into the budget update. All support category funded amounts will be automatically adjusted to the new reassessment date.

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These support categories don’t need any further update unless it’s needed as part of the request. Go to section Adjust a support category or Next steps in this article.

Add support categories to the budget update

In a Participant Budget Update case, only add supports if they need to change. All other supports in the participant’s plan won’t change when the budget update is approved.

If you want to include supports from the participant’s current plan in the budget update:

In the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Budget Updates tab.
Select Select Existing Support Categories.
At Choose Items to Add to Budget Update Use Case, select the Add to Budget Update checkbox next to each support you’d like to include in the budget update.
Select Next.

Change the instalment type of an existing support category

If you’re not changing the instalment type of a support category, go to section Adjust a support category in this article.

If you change the instalment type of an existing support category, it can cause problems with the frequency and amount calculations. This will cause errors in the budget update.

If you change the instalment type of a support category already included in a plan and need to:

remove the existing support category with the incorrect instalment type. Go to section Remove a support category from the approved plan in this article.
add the same support category with the required instalment type. Go to section Add a new support category in this article.

Note: the new instalment type must be different to the instalment type of the removed support category. You’ll get an error if you replace the same support category and instalment type.

Adjust a support category

You’ll need to adjust each support you’ve added to the budget update.

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Note: you must complete any supports that are Pending Update before you can approve the budget update.

From either the Flexible Budget or Stated Budget, select the budget item with the action Pending Update.
Review the Budget Type and update if needed.
Select either Increase Amount or Decrease Amount.

Note: if you’re completing a plan variation:
- you can’t backdate supports. You can only include supports from the date the plan variation will take effect
- only decrease funded supports where there’s a minor or technical error. For example, moving funding from a support category added in error to a new category added as part of the budget update. If major changes are needed, complete changes as part of a plan reassessment (s48)
- and you’re decreasing the funded amount to $0 for a support that’s not a Core support category, remove the support category from the participant’s plan. Go to section Remove a support category from the approved plan in this article
- make sure you don’t decrease the funding amount below the amount that has already been paid for the support category. This will create a negative balance in the participant record. You may need to confirm this with the participant or authorised representative if they’ve used funding that hasn’t been claimed. You’ll need to think about this when reducing funding
- talk to your team leader or senior planner if you think you need to decrease funding as part of a plan variation.
Enter the adjusted Amount for this support. You can use the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to develop the Increase or Decrease Amount. To learn more, go to section Complete the budget update in article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.

Note: the adjustment is based on the Instalment Type field. If the Instalment Type is:
- Recurring, the adjustment will be to the annual amount

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Regular, the adjustment will be to the monthly amount
Once-off, the adjustment will be to the total amount.

If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox to confirm this.
Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. You can edit the justification to make it specific to the participant’s support needs. For more information about recording justifications, go to article Understand support justifications.

Note: this field has a limit of 1500 characters. Certain special characters in this field may cause an error. This is generally caused when copying justifications from SAP CRM into PACE. If you see the characters |% you’ll need to change these before you can select save.

Note: using personal information in AI tools such as Copilot is a breach of privacy. Don’t add any participant information into AI tools.
If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list. If you select:
- Document, go to step 10.
- Other, go to step 11.
Enter the Evidence Link. To bring up a list of evidence that’s linked to the case, press the spacebar. Select the correct evidence document to link to the decision. You can view linked evidence on the Evidence tab of the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case. To learn more about linking evidence, go to article Add and link evidence to a case.
Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.
If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat from step 7.
Select Next.

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Select support items and check plan comments

Plan comments will print on the participant’s plan. You’ll need to select which support items you’re funding under each support category.

Check the plan comments for each support item in the support category. Go to article Understand and check plan comments. You should only edit plan comments for a support item the article tells you to.

Note: plan comments revert to the pre-populated comments in a Participant Budget Update. Review the plan comments in the previous Plan Approval or Participant Budget Update case or most recent approved plan. Update any plan comments that were previously edited.

Note: support items can’t be added when there’s no funding in a support category. Please add funding to the support category if you want to identify support items. If you add a $0 support category for flexibility of Core supports, you don’t have to add support items. You’ll receive an error message if you select Yes to any support item.
Select Next.

Review and submit

At Review and Submit, you’ll be able to view the Base Description and the Plan Comments for the support category.

Note: the support category Base Description and Plan Comments will print to the participant’s plan. The Base Description can’t be edited.
Review the support category plan comments. You’ll need to:
- check that comments are objective, include facts based on evidence, and avoid personal opinions or feelings
- keep the text short, simple and in plain conversational English
- check your spelling and grammar
- avoid jargon
- introduce all acronyms before using them. For example, ‘Assistive Technology (AT)’

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avoid the use of special characters, such as < > or % as this will cause an error or the comment to appear blank.

Once you’ve confirmed the base description and plan comments are correct, select the Acknowledgement checkbox.
Select Submit. If you need to add another support, return to section Adjust a support category in this article.

Add a new support category

If you’re adding the Recurring transport support category, check if the participant or authorised representative has an active bank account recorded. If there’s no bank account recorded, you can’t add this until after you’ve approved the budget update.

To view bank account details, go to article View bank account details. If you need to update the bank account details, go to articles Before you update bank account details and Add, update or remove bank account details.

You can use the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to calculate the amount of supports. Go to article [Understand and update the plan conversation support tool](/foi-library/releases/2b9caedda9de-foi-24-25-0209-documents-disclosure-log/document-003__understand-and-update-the-plan-conversation-support-tool/). If you use the PCST, you must upload it to the participant’s record.

To add a new item to the draft budget:

From the Budget Updates tab, select Add New Budget Item.
Enter the support name in the Support Category field.
Select the Budget Type from the drop-down list.
Select the Instalment Type.

If the Instalment Type is:
- Recurring, the Amount will be the annual amount for this support
- Regular, the Amount will be the monthly amount for this support
- Once-off, the Amount will be the total amount for this support.
Enter the Amount for this support. Use the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to develop the Increase or Decrease amounts. To learn more, go to section Complete the budget update in article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.

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If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox to confirm this.
Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. You can edit the justification to make it specific to the participant’s support needs. For more information about recording justifications, go to article Understand support justifications.

Note: this field has a limit of 1500 characters. Certain special characters in this field may cause an error. This is generally caused when copying justifications from SAP CRM into PACE. If you see the characters |% you’ll need to change these before you can select save.

Note: using personal information in AI tools such as Copilot is a breach of privacy. Don’t add any participant information into AI tools.
If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list. If you select:
- Document, go to step 10.
- Other, go to step 11.
Enter the Evidence Link. To see a list of evidence that’s linked to the case, press the spacebar. Select the correct evidence document to link to the decision. You can view linked evidence on the Evidence tab of the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case. To learn more about linking evidence, go to article Add and link evidence to a case.
Enter the Evidence Explanation in the free text field.
If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat from step 9.
Select Next.

Select support items and check plan comments

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Plan comments will print on the participant’s plan. You’ll need to select which support items you’re funding under each support category.

Check the plan comments for each support item in the support category. Go to article Understand and check plan comments. You should only edit plan comments for a support item if the article tells you to.

Note: support items can’t be added when there’s no funding in a support category. Please add funding to the support category if you want to identify support items. If you add a $0 support category for flexibility of Core supports, you don’t have to add a support item. You’ll receive an error message if you select Yes to any support item.
Select Next.

Review and submit

At Review and Submit screen, you’ll be able to view the Base Description and the Plan Comments for the support category.

Note: the support category Base Description and Plan Comments will print on the participant’s plan. The Base Description can’t be edited.
Review the support category plan comments. You’ll need to make sure to:
- check that comments are objective. You should include facts based on evidence and avoid personal opinions or feelings
- keep the text short, simple and in plain conversational English
- check your spelling and grammar
- avoid jargon
- introduce all acronyms before using them. For example, ‘Assistive Technology (AT)’
- avoid the use of special characters, such as < > or % as this will cause an error or the comment to appear blank.
Once you’ve confirmed the base description and plan comments are correct, select the acknowledgement checkbox to confirm this.

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Select Submit. If you need to add another support, return to section Add a new support category in this article.

Remove a support category from the approved plan

You can’t use the participant budget update case to remove a support category.

You should consider completing a s48 plan reassessment and talk to your team leader or senior planner if:

you’ve identified the participant doesn’t need a support
adding a new support will impact existing supports
you’ve made an error.

If the budget has any once-off Capital funded supports, such as assistive technology or home modifications, don’t remove these during a budget update. These items will be removed from the budget during a plan reassessment. This includes if the item has been added in error.

You can remove a support category when the evidence shows the support:

was added in error
has a minor or technical error in the amount of funding in the plan
isn’t wanted by the participant and has been added in error
needs to be recorded as in-kind, direct commissioning or periodic support.

You won’t be able to remove Core flexible supports. If the NDIS funding criteria isn’t met, record $0.00 in the Amount for this support. This will make sure that Core supports can continue to be flexible.

If you’ve removed a support category to record it as in-kind, direct commissioning or periodic support, go to article Add or remove in-kind supports.

If you need to remove a support from a participant’s approved plan:

On the Budget Updates tab, select Remove Support Categories.
Review the list of support categories and select the checkbox Remove From Plan under the support category you’re removing from the plan.
At the Justification drop-down list, select the relevant option.
At the Sub-Justification drop-down list, select the relevant option.

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Add Additional Details about why you’re removing this support in the free text field.

Note: this will not display on a participant’s plan. Use this comment to discuss funded supports as part of a plan implementation meeting.
Select Continue.
On the Budget Updates tab, the Support Category will appear under either the Flexible Budget or Stated Budget heading with an Action of Remove.

Remove draft budget items

If an item has been added in error or has incorrect details, you’ll need to delete the draft budget item. If you reduce a draft budget item to $0, the previous plan comments will stay in the plan. To remove the draft budget item and the previous plan comments, you must follow the steps below.

From the Budget Updates tab, select the budget item under the Flexible Budget or Stated Budget headings.
In the Budget Item Update screen, select Remove Support From Budget.
Select Yes to confirm you want to remove the support category.
Select Save.
Record your reason for removing the support category by adding an internal note. Go to article Log an activity or internal note.

Add the plan conversation support tool to the case

Once you’ve made changes to the draft budget in PACE and are ready to progress to the next step, you must upload a copy of the plan conversation support tool (PCST). This will act as a record of how the draft budget was developed.

The PCST must be added as a complete excel workbook. Saving a single excel worksheet or as a PDF will not allow a budget breakdown to be produced if it’s requested. Make sure you’re adding the complete PCST to the person account.

From the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Documents tab.
Select Add Documents. The Documents Details pop-up window will appear.

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At Please select a Document Category, select Supporting Information.
At Please select a Document SubCategory, select General.
At Does the document contain any Personal identifiable information (PII)? select Yes.

Note: make sure you’re on the correct person account before adding a document.
Provide any further information in the Description free text field.
Select Next.
At Upload Document, select Upload Files.
Find and Open the file to upload. All documents in the table should be Ready for upload.
Select Save. All files should now show as Uploaded successfully.

Note: if a document fails to upload, select Retry.

Select Close. The Documents tab will now show the document that was uploaded to the case.

Note: when you’ve uploaded the document, confirmed it’s in PACE and can open correctly, you must immediately delete all saved copies of the document to protect participant privacy. If you need to delete a document, go to article Update or delete a document from PACE.

Next steps

Check the fund management decision and update if needed. Go to article Make fund management decision.
Approve the budget update using article Finalise and approve a budget update.

Article labels

PACE user role names

No change.

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Topics

No change.

Case names

No change.

Ownership

No change.

Version control

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
21.0	TPO642	Class 1 approved. Guidance updated to advise that if a support category is reduced to $0, users need to make sure the supports and the comment are removed from the plan.	APPROVED	2025-11-21
22.0	AHB706	Class 1 Approval Guidance updated to advise staff to cancel the participant budget update case if it was created as part of a plan auto-continuation.	APPROVED	2025-12-05

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