Document 13 FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

Finalise and approve a budget update

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 or review officer to:

know what to consider before finalising the budget update
review the budget update
assign the case for review and approval
approve the budget update
generate the updated plan.

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.

Before you start

You have:

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 Finalise and approve a budget update with funding periods
read and understood Our Guideline – Changing your plan (external)
read and understood Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external)
read and understood article Understand milestones in a case
read and understood article [Understand provider relationships](https://example.com)
made changes to a participant’s plan through a plan variation (s47A), Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) order or internal review (s100) decision.

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 1 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

IMPORTANT: if you can’t change the end date in the Participant Budget Update case, it’s likely because this was created in error as part of a plan continuation. You won’t be able to finalise or approve the budget update.

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.
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.

What to consider before finalising the budget update

When you finalise a budget update, you need to:

read all available evidence and information relating to the request
confirm the fund management decision
check all the information in the budget updates and fund management tabs against the participant’s current plan
complete the request for service (RFS) case for new or amended support coordination or recovery coach supports. Go to article Request for service overview
add a my provider relationship for home and living supports, behaviour support or specialist disability accommodation. This is so providers can access funding. If the participant doesn’t have a provider yet, tell them to let us know when they do. Then we can add the my provider relationship. Go to article Add or update a provider relationship

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 2 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

consider the current reassessment date and the participant’s situation. To learn more about plan durations, go to Our Guideline – Creating your plan (external).

Make sure all the changes you’ve made to funded supports, plan duration and fund management:

relate to the initial request and overall decision to change the participant’s plan
meet the participant’s disability-related support needs and will help them pursue their goals.

Review the budget update

From a Participant Budget Update or Plan Change case:

Select the Budget Updates tab.
Review the Reassessment Date. To update the reassessment date, go to article Update the reassessment date in a participant budget update.
Review the Flexible Budget and Stated Budget categories. If a Budget Category has an Action of:
- New, review the funded support information, amount, and justification
- Update, review the Total Amount column for any increase or decrease to the funded amount
- Pending Update, you’ll need to update this support before you can progress to approval.
Review Fund Management - Justifications and Decisions. If this information isn’t recorded or needs to be changed, go to article [Make fund management decision](https://example.com).
Review Budget - Justifications and Decisions. If you need to change a support, go to article [Action a budget update](https://example.com).

Assign the case for review and approval

If you’ve identified or received an error that says the plan variation value exceeds your delegation, you’ll need to seek approval from the appropriate delegate.

For Plan Delegate 2 or Plan Delegate 3, these will be approved within your team.

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 3 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

For Plan Delegate 4, these will be assigned to your local Plan Delegate 4.
For Plan Delegate 5, these will be assigned to the Technical Advice and Practice Improvement branch.

Note: your team leader will need to review each case before you assign it for approval.

Assign case to team leader for review

You’ll need a team leader or senior planner (APS6 delegate) to check your budget update before you send it for approval. They’ll review the budget update first and suggest any changes if needed. You’ll need to assign the plan change case in PACE to your team leader or APS6 delegate.

In the top right-hand corner of a Plan Change case, select Change Case Owner.
At Please select if the case owner is a user or a queue, select User from the drop- down list.
At Select User, enter the name in the search bar and select the user from the drop- down list.
Select Change Owner.
Add an Internal Note to the Plan Change case using the template below. This is so your team leader or APS6 delegate knows you’re seeking approval from a higher delegation level.

Plan Change Type: Plan variation s47A

Reason for review: Approval or Endorsement

Approval Level required: Plan Delegate 2, 3, 4 or 5

Identified risks, if any:

Has mandatory TAPIB advice been sought, received and followed? Yes, No or Not Applicable.
You’ll need to manually route the case to the specified user for review.
- For Plan Delegate 2 and Plan Delegate 3 approvals, the APS6 delegate will assign the case within your team for approval

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 4 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

For Plan Delegate 4 and 5 approvals, the APS6 delegate will log an activity with their endorsement and assign the case back to you to progress. Go to section s47A higher delegate approvals in this article.

If the APS6 delegate suggests changes before the budget update can be approved, you’ll need to:
- make changes to the PCST. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool
- change the draft budget and re-upload the PCST to the case. Go to article Action a budget update
- return to step 1 to request an additional check after the changes have been made.

s47A higher delegate approvals

Once a team leader or senior delegate has endorsed the variation, you’ll need to assign the case to the correct user or queue for approval.

From the Participant Budget Update case:

Select Change Owner next to the current Case Owner. A Change Case Owner pop- up box will appear.
At Select New Owner:
- For Plan Delegate 4 approvals select Users, then enter the delegate’s name in the search bar and select the user from the drop-down list. Select the checkbox next to Send notification email.
- For Plan Delegate 5 approvals select Queues, then select Technical Advice Case (TAB) Routing Queue from the drop-down list.
Select Change Owner.
Add an Internal Note to the Participant Budget Update case using the template below. Go to article [Log an activity or internal note](https://example.com).

Plan Change Type: Plan variation s47A

Approval Level required: Plan Delegate 4 or Plan Delegate 5 (TAPIB)

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 5 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

Identified risks, if any:

Has mandatory TAPIB advice been sought, received and followed? Yes, No or Not Applicable

Staff member who completed the variation:

Team Leader who reviewed and endorsed the variation: 5. The case will be assigned to the user or the queue to be routed to the correct level delegate for approval. 6. If the approving delegate suggests changes before the budget update can be approved you’ll need to:

make changes to the PCST. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool
change the draft budget and re-upload the PCST to the case. Go to article Action a budget update
return to Assign the case for team leader to review in this article to request an additional check after the changes have been made.

If there are no changes, the higher delegate will approve the budget update and generate the updated plan. Go to the Next steps section of this article.

Approve the budget update

You can approve the budget update after you:

review each support category in the budget update. Make sure the supports meet [Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external)](https://example.com)
consider all evidence and information
add or remove supports from the budget update as needed. To learn more, go to article [Action a budget update](https://example.com)
review all information and make a fund management decision. To learn more, go to article [Make fund management decision](https://example.com)
check your delegation level

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 6 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

talk to the participant or authorised representative.

To approve the budget update:

In the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Budget Updates tab.
Select Approve Budget.

Note: make sure you add the Plan Conversation Support Tool (PCST) and budget breakdown to the case if used. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.
In the Confirm window, select Yes to confirm budget decisions and justifications.
At Acknowledgement, select the checkbox to confirm that you’ve considered evidence and used and uploaded the plan conversation support tool (PCST) to the case.
Select Approve.

Note: once approved, the plan can’t be edited.
If the budget is above your delegation, you’ll receive an error message with the delegation level needed to approve the budget. Go to section Assign the case for review and approval in this article.
Generate final plan will appear in the Budget Updates tab. Go to section Generate the updated plan in this article.

Note: a notification will be sent to any providers on the Person Account with the View Plan authority. To view providers, from the Person Account select the Relationships tab, then select the Providers tab.

If the participant self-manages any funding but doesn’t have bank account details recorded, PACE will automatically either
- create an Update Bank Account case
- link to an existing case if there’s one open.

An alert will display. It will give you the option to Complete Update Bank Account Case. The Update bank account case will remain open until bank account details are added.

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 7 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

Note: complete this case within 14 days to make sure recurring budget payments can be made. Learn more in articles Before you update bank account details and Add, update or remove bank account details.

Generate the updated plan

From the Plan Change or Participant Budget Update case, select the Budget Updates tab.
Select Generate final plan.
Review the participant’s or recipient’s details, then select Next. If you need to update details on the Person Account, go to article [Update a person account](https://example.com).

Note: you must check that the participant’s Standard Correspondence and Plan Correspondence preferences have the correct accessible format selected. This means the automatic request for these accessible formats will be sent to our external provider when you generate their correspondence in PACE.
At Do you want to preview the document before sending it? drop-down list, select Yes.
At Select a Recipient for preview, select the participant’s or recipient’s name from the drop-down list.
Select Next.
Preview Document will appear and a preview of the plan will generate. Review the plan approval cover letter and the plan for any errors before you select Next. You can also download the document as a PDF or Word document to review.
At Correspondence Confirmation, select Take me to the Preview Options if you want to view another recipient. Repeat from step 4. Otherwise, select Submit Correspondence.

PACE will send the correspondence to the participant, their nominee or child representative by their preferred contact method. Go to article Check a person’s preferred contact method.

Note:

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 8 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

If the participant has a statutory guardian and the relationship is established with an organisation account, you’ll need to manually send the automatically created Plan Change letter to the statutory guardian. To do this, go to article Send a letter to a statutory guardian or trustee.
If this Plan Change case was generated from a cancelled Plan Approval case, the participant will receive the Plan Variation letter.
Once you select Submit Correspondence, you won’t be able to Generate Final Plan again.

A message will appear saying Your correspondence generation request is being processed.
Select Next.
A message will appear saying Plan has been generated successfully.
Select Close.
Once the plan has been generated, the Plan Change case will move to Closed. You may need to refresh your browser.

Note: only use the Cancel Case button in the Participant Budget Update case if you’re not proceeding with the case.

You must tell the participant their new plan won’t have funding periods but 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 that:

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 better understand what supports they can buy with their plan
there’s information on how to protect their NDIS plan from fraud.

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 9 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

Next steps

Ask the participant or authorised representative if they’d like an implementation meeting to understand the changes to their plan. If they would like a plan implementation meeting and you’ve completed the budget update, you should complete the meeting. Go to article Create a plan implementation case.

Article labels

PACE user role names

No change.

Topics

No change.

Case names

No change.

Ownership

No change.

Version control

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
24.0	DD0014	Class 1 Approval Staff to advise participants their: * plan won’t have funding periods and will look different with funding now being shown under funding components * core supports can only be used flexibly if they have the same fund management type.	APPROVED	2025-05-26
25.0	AHB706	Class 1 Approval	APPROVED	2025-09-01

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 10 of 11

FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
		Updated to guide staff in choosing the right article when a plan does or does not have Funding Periods
26.0	AHB706	Class 1 approval Updated s47A higher delegate approvals so staff know to use the Participant Budget Update case to change the case owner to the relevant user or queue for approval.	APPROVED	2025-09-29
27.0	AJG505	Class 2 Approval Guidance updated to advise staff to cancel the participant budget update case if it was created as part of a plan continuation.	APPROVED	2025-12-08

V27.0 2025-12-08 Finalise and approve a budget update 229717081 Page 11 of 11