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Action a budget update with funding periods

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Action a budget update with funding periods

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), compensation delegate, external review officer or review officer to:

  • check the type of budget update case
  • check for external review orders
  • request further information
  • contact the participant or authorised representative
  • understand limitations of the participant budget update case
  • adjust a funded support
  • add a new funded support
  • remove a draft funded support.

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 funded support is reduced to $0, you need to make sure the supports and the comment are removed from the plan.

Before you start

You have:

  • understood you can only use this article if the plan change or participant budget update case has funding periods. If it doesn’t have funding periods, you need to use article Action a budget update
  • read and understood Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external)
  • read and understood Our Guideline – Changing your plan (external)

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  • made a decision to vary a participant’s plan through a plan variation (s47A), or need to update the participant’s plan from an Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) or Internal Review (s100) decision.

If the plan change or participant budget update case doesn’t have Funded Supports or Funding Periods tabs, you’ll need to use article Action a budget update.

Check the type of budget update case

When updating the participant’s budget that’s not a plan variation (s47A) decision, go to section Check for external review orders in this article.

When there’s a decision to vary the participant’s plan (s47A), PACE will trigger the funded supports and fund management tabs to appear in the plan change case. PACE will also create a Participant Budget Update (PBU) case as a standalone case.

For s47A decisions, don’t use the participant budget update case. Make sure you complete all actions on the tabs within the plan change case.

Once the updated plan tab has been approved and the plan change case has been completed, the PBU case will also update to completed and close automatically.

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 due to the Participant Budget Update case that’s created if you progress the case. This is for plans approved after 9 October 2024.

To check if the case is part of plan continuation:

  1. Go to the Details tab and select Parent Case. This will take you to the Plan Change case related to this case.
  2. In the Plan Change case, go to the Details tab and confirm the Case Reason is Plan continuation.
  3. 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.

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

  1. 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

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 there aren’t any ART orders, decisions or notices, continue reading from Request further information in this article.

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:

  1. In the Person Account, select the Documents tab.
  2. 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.
  3. Once you’ve located the external review related document, select the document from the list.
  4. Select Download from the Document details pop-up screen.
  5. 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 needed.

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. To learn more, 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:

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  • criteria. This doesn’t apply to updating a participant’s plan through an s100 decision, though you’re still unable to remove a funded support
  • change the fund management type for an individual flexible core support category when it’s been grouped with other flexible core supports in the same funding component
  • change the fund management type for individual flexible Core supports at the support category level.

Note: if you need to change the fund management type of a core flexible support, you’ll have to update every core flexible support to the new fund management type.

If you identify any of these scenarios, you still need to complete the budget update because you’ve made a decision to vary the participant’s plan. Then action any of the changes you can.

Note: if the plan was approved between 9 October 2024 and 18 May 2025 and has duration other than 12 months, it won’t have funding periods. To action a budget update without funding periods, go to article Action a budget update.

Adjust a funded support

In the updated Participant Budget Update case, PACE will no longer pro-rata a support when you’re adjusting it. You’ll enter a total amount that you’re increasing or decreasing the support category by.

You’ll need to think about this if there’s a plan continuation. PACE will take the total funded amount entered in the PBU and calculate an annual amount. This annual amount will be included in the support category if the plan is automatically extended.

You’ll need to use the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to help you calculate the total funded amount correctly when adjusting a funded support. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.

Example:

Note: this is only for plan variation (s47A) decisions.

The participant has requested a change to their plan. Their plan duration is 24 months (2 years) and they’re currently 6 months into the plan. The request is for additional support worker hours, and you’ve made a decision to increase the Assistance with Daily Life support category. You decide to add an additional $100 per month for the remainder of the plan, totalling $1,800.

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If the plan were to automatically extend for an additional 12 months, the additional calculation for this funded support would be $1,200. Any unspent funding will also be included in the first funding period of the extended plan.

For s47A decisions only: you can’t decrease the amount of the total funding amount in the participant’s plan. You’ll only be able to decrease funding in a support category when moving it to another support category and not removing it from the plan. For example, funding for home and living supports in Assistance with Daily Life moving to Home and Living.

You’ll also need to consider that you can’t decrease funding in the current funding period, only future funding periods.

You won’t be able to decrease funding in a support category by more than the Amount Yet To Be Released. This is because a portion of the funding has already been released to the participant.

  1. From the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Funded Supports tab.
  2. From either Flexible Supports or Stated Supports, at the support category you’re adjusting, select Edit.
  3. At Update Funded Support, select either Increase Amount or Decrease Amount. Use the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to develop the Increase Amount or Decrease Amount. To learn more, go to section Complete the budget update in article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.
    • If you Increase Amount, enter the total amount you’re increasing the support by at Increase Amount By.
    • If you Decrease Amount, enter the total amount you’re decreasing the support category by at Decrease Amount By.
  4. Record your Justification for the change to the support category 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, go to article Understand support justifications.

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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.

Note: using personal information in AI tools such as Copilot is a breach of privacy. Don’t add any participant information into AI tools.

  1. If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Evidence Used.
  2. At Evidence Type, select the relevant option from the drop-down list:
    • If you select Document, go to step 7.
    • If you select Other, go to step 8.
  3. Enter the Evidence Link. To show 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.
  4. Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.
  5. If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat from step 6.
  6. At Acknowledgement, select the checkbox to confirm the support category meets the NDIS funding criteria (external).
  7. Select Next.

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.

  1. 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 article Understand and check plan comments tells you to do so.

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Otherwise don’t edit plan comments.

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 a support item. You’ll receive an error message if you select Yes to any support item.

  1. Select Next.

Review and submit

  1. On the Review and Finalise screen, you’ll be able to view the Base Description and the Plan Comments for the support category.
  2. The support category Base Description and Plan Comments will print on the participant’s plan. The Base Description can’t be edited. Note: if you’ve added a $0 support category, only the base description will be displayed.
  3. Review the support category plan comments. Make sure you:
    • 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 so the participant understands the purpose and intention of the funded support. This will make sure they can spend their plan flexibility on NDIS supports, in line with their plan
    • 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.
  4. If you need to make changes to any of the plan comments, select Previous.

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  1. At Acknowledgement, select the checkbox to confirm you’ve checked the base description and plan comments are correct.
  2. Select Submit.
  3. If you need to adjust another funded support, go back to step 1 in Adjust a funded support section of this article. Otherwise, continue reading below.

Add a new funded support

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 PCST to help work out the total funded amount of a funded support. To learn more, go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool. If you use the PCST, you must upload it to the participant’s record. When prompted, you must select Yes the PCST has Personal Identifiable Information.

To add a new funded support:

  1. From the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Funded Supports tab.
  2. Select Add New Funded Support. This will open the Add New Support Item screen. Note: when adding a new flexible core support to plans approved between 9 October 2024 and 18 May 2025, you must make sure that the fund management type and funding period length are consistent with existing core supports to keep flexibility.
  3. At Support Category, enter the support category name and select the relevant option from the drop-down list.
  4. At Budget Type, select the relevant option from the drop-down list. To learn more, go to article Understand the draft budget. Note: Budget Type will have a default option for each support category. You’ll need to include information in your justification if you’re changing the budget type.

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  1. Select the Instalment Type. A default option will display for each support category and will inform the default funding period distribution for the support category. If the Instalment Type is:
    • Regular, the total funded amount will be evenly distributed across all funding periods in the plan, except for the current funding period. PACE will distribute funding based on the date the decision was made to change the plan, to the end of the current funding period. Note: if the plan is automatically continued, PACE will calculate an annual amount of the total funded amount and include an additional 12 months funding for these supports. If there’s funding remaining when the plan continues, this will carry over into the first funding period of the extended plan.
    • Once-off, the total funded amount will be available in the current funding period of the plan. Note: if the plan automatically continues, no new funding will be calculated for these supports. If there’s funding remaining when the plan continues, this will carry over into the first funding period of the extended plan.
    • Recurring, the total funded amount will be evenly distributed across all funding periods in the plan. You can’t change how recurring funding periods are distributed. These will be paid to the participant fortnightly. Note: if the plan is automatically continued, PACE will calculate an annual amount of the total funded amount and include an additional 12 months of funding for these supports. No funding will roll-over between funding periods or into the extended plan.
  2. Plan Duration field will be locked. This will be set based on the participant’s approved plan’s duration.
  3. Enter the Total Funded Amount for the funded support.
    • For internal review (s100) decisions on a statement of participant supports (s33), this will need to be calculated from the plan start date.

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  • For an internal review of a plan variation decision (s47A), this will need to be calculated from the plan variation decision date.
  • For plan variation (s47A) decisions, this will need to be calculated from the plan variation decision date.
  1. Consumables support category only: At Does the consumables support category include funding to meet participant’s continence support needs?, select Yes or No.
  2. Record a 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.
  3. If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
  4. Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list:
    • If you select Document, go to step 12.
    • If you select Other, go to step 13.
  5. 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 Approval case. To learn more about linking evidence, go to article Add and link evidence to a case.
  6. Enter the Evidence Explanation in the free text field.
  7. If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat from step 11.

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  1. At Acknowledgement, select the checkbox to confirm the support category meets the NDIS funding criteria (external).
  2. Select Next.

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.

  1. Select and check the plan comments for each support item in the support category. Go to article Understand and check plan comments. Note:
    • You should only edit plan comments for a support item if article Understand and check plan comments tells you to do so. Otherwise, do not edit plan comments. 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.
  2. Select Next.

Review and submit

  1. On the Review and Finalise screen, you’ll be able to view the Base Description and the Plan Comments for the support category. The support category Base Description and Plan Comments will print on the participant’s plan. The Base Description can’t be edited. Note: if you’ve added a $0 support category, only the base description will be displayed.
  2. Review the support category plan comments. Make sure you:
    • 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

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  • 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.
  1. If you need to make changes to any of the plan comments, select Previous.
  2. At Acknowledgement, select the checkbox to confirm you’ve checked the base description and plan comments are correct.
  3. Select Submit.

Remove a draft funded support

If you’ve included a funded support in error, or has incorrect details, you’ll need to remove it. If you reduce a draft funded support to $0 the previous plan comments will stay in the plan. To remove the draft funded support and the previous plan comments you must follow the steps below.

Note: you can’t remove a support category from the Participant Budget Update case. You will need to use the Plan Approval case. Go to article Change the draft budget.

  1. From the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Funded Supports tab.
  2. From either Flexible Supports or Stated Supports, at the support category you’re removing, select Edit.
  3. At Update Funded Support, select Remove Support From Budget.
  4. Select Yes to confirm you want to remove the support category.
  5. Select Save.
  6. Record your reason for removing the support category by adding an internal note. Go to article Log an activity or internal note.
  7. If you need to add the funded support again, go to section Add a new funded support in this article.

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supports and the comment are removed from the plan.

Version Amended by Brief Description of Change Status Date
7.0 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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