The Recurring Billing feature allows you to set up fixed, repeated charges for a client that are not dependent on specific rostered hours. This is ideal for scenarios such as weekly claiming or other fixed service agreements.
With customisable billing cadences, the system can automatically calculate pro-rated charges to ensure these fixed fees align perfectly with your organisation's financial cycles.
This feature is only available for Premium plan users.
Optional Price Book Setup
To ensure your recurring charges display the correct NDIS Support Item Codes on invoices, you can choose to set up a specific Price Book first.
Important Note: If you are using an accounting integration for invoicing, it is required that you use a pricebook to ensure the invoice will link to your chart of accounts
Navigate to Account > Prices.
Click Actions and select 'Add Price Book'.
Give your price book a descriptive name (for example: "Weekly SIL"). Make sure to tick 'Fixed Price Only' so the price book will appear.
You don't need to worry about filling out specific days (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) for this purpose, but ensure that at least one line item exists.
Enter the required NDIS Support Item Code in the Reference Number field.
Set the price to $0. You will be able to input the recurring price later.
Continue reading to discover alternative methods that do not require creating a Price Book.
Creating a Recurring Bill
You can now set up the billing schedule on the client's profile.
Navigate to Clients > List and select the specific client.
Go to the Billing tab located in the top menu and click '+ New Recurring' in the Fixed Recurring Transactions section.
Fill in the required details:
Description: Give the charge a descriptive name (e.g., "Weekly SIL Billing") or input the NDIS Support Item Code here.
Price Book (Optional): If applicable, select the Price Book you created in the previous step.
Amount: Enter the total recurring amount to be charged.
Shift Type (Optional): Select a shift type if you want to show this on invoices.
Fund (Optional): Select the client's fund to draw these charges from.
Payment Type: Select the client's payment type to group invoices.
Frequency: Select how often this charges (e.g., Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly).
Duration: Set the Start Date and End Date.
Notes (Optional): Add notes as needed.
Click 'Create Recurring Transaction'. All recurring charges will be displayed in the client's Billing tab.
Avoiding Double Billing
If you are charging a client a flat weekly fee (via Recurring Billing) but still need to roster staff for care, you must ensure you don't charge the client twice (once for the fixed fee and again for the hourly rostered shifts).
To prevent this, you can use a Non-Billable Shift Type.
Navigate to Account > Settings > Shift Types. Click 'Edit'.
Click 'Add New Shift Type' and give it a descriptive name. Make sure the 'Billable' setting is toggled off.
Click 'Save'.
When rostering a shift for this client, assign them the non-billable shift type.
These shifts will appear on the roster for staff visibility but will not be invoiced, as the client is already being covered by the Recurring Bill. As such, it does not matter which price book you assign to this shift.
Invoicing Logic and Pro-Rated Billing
To ensure your client's fixed charges perfectly align with your organisation's standard billing cycle, you can configure your Recurring Billing Cadence.
When you create a new recurring billing item with a start date that doesn't perfectly match the billing cycle, ShiftCare automatically charges a pro-rated amount for the partial first period, then bills the full amount aligned to your cadence moving forward. If the item's end date falls partway through a period, that final period will also be pro-rated.
You only need to set this up once in your account settings.
Navigate to Account > Invoice Settings.
Click 'Edit' in the Recurring Billing Cadence section.
Define the day your billing cycles officially begin:
Weekly: Select the day of the week (e.g., Monday).
Fortnightly: Select a specific anchor date (e.g., 01/06/2026) to define the two-week cycle.
Monthly: Select a day of the month (e.g., every 15th of the month). If the configured day doesn't exist in a given month, billing will start on the last available day of that month.
Click 'Save'.
When you create a new recurring bill on a client's profile, the system will look at your Cadence settings.
If you select a Weekly, Fortnightly, or Monthly frequency, a message will appear beneath the dropdown explaining that your first billing period will automatically be pro-rated to align with your configured cadence.
Example: If your Weekly billing cadence starts on a Monday but the client's service starts on a Wednesday, ShiftCare will automatically calculate a pro-rated charge for Wednesday through Sunday. It will then generate full weekly amounts every Monday moving forward.
Existing recurring items created before this feature was enabled will not be pro-rated or recalculated. Changing your cadence in Invoice Settings will only affect newly created items moving forward.
Invoice Line Item Details
For recurring billing, you can customise which line items appear in the invoice by navigating to Account > Invoice Settings.
Click 'Edit' in the Invoices section.
Scroll down to 'Fixed Recurring Invoice item default format' and click on the question mark to see the description tags you can add to the invoice.
Click 'Save'.
Note: You can enter the NDIS Support Item Code directly into the Recurring Billing Description field. As long as the {description} tag is included in your invoice settings, the code will appear on the invoice without the need for a specific Price Book.
For further assistance with Setting Up Recurring Billing, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.