How to self-manage your funding

Step 1: Setting up your bank account

When self-managing your NDIS funding, it’s a good idea to set up a separate bank account. It will make it easier for you to see what money is coming in and what payments are going out.

NDIS funding will only be paid into an account held by the person responsible for self-managing the supports, paying providers and keeping records.

This will be you as a participant, your nominee or a child representative for a participant under 18 years of age.

Provide us with your bank account details

You can call us on 1800 800 110 or give your bank account details to your my NDIS contact, who will put them in our system.

Step 2: Choose who to work with

You can choose which providers to buy your NDIS supports from. You can choose registered NDIS providers or unregistered providers.

As a self-manager, you have the freedom to:

choose providers
negotiate how much NDIS support will cost
manage your working relationship with your providers.

You may also choose to engage or employ your own support staff.

Learn more about engaging your own staff.

Download the guide to directly engaging your own staff:

Directly engaging your own staff (PDF 312.68 KB)
Directly engaging your own staff (DOCX 310.87 KB)

Step 3: Pay for your NDIS supports

When you have received NDIS supports from a provider, there are 2 ways to pay for your NDIS supports:

Option 1: We pay you first, then you pay the provider.

Option 2: Pay them out of your own pocket, then we pay you back.

Learn more at how to pay for your NDIS supports and working out how much to pay your providers .

Step 4: Keep records of your spending

Keep track of your claims

You must keep records of how you spend your NDIS funds. Records can show that you've spent your funding in line with the supports in your plan and made the correct claims.

You should keep records such as receipts, invoices, payroll records, dates and any notes you have about a particular support you received for 5 years.

We review claims before and after we pay them.

You should submit a claim as soon as possible after receiving an NDIS support.

We may hold a claim for review if you submit it more than 12 months after receiving an NDIS support. The review may take up to 28 days.

We may ask you to provide evidence of the NDIS support you’ve received to make sure it matches your claim or payment request.

We check that funds are being spent on NDIS supports and in line with your plan.

You can choose to keep track of payments by keeping hard copies or digital versions of your records, but your records need to have:

the provider’s name
the provider’s ABN or reason they are exempt from providing an ABN
the start and end dates of the support
the NDIS support category
a short description of the support provided
the amount of support provided (hours or quantity)
the price of the support (per hour or unit)
the total amount paid
a receipt or tax invoice.

Learn more about keeping good records .

Step 5: Know how much funding you have left

Your NDIS funding needs to last for the length of your plan. The NDIS supports you buy must fit into your total funding amount.

We will call this a 'total budget amount' in your plan.

Work out your budget early so you know what you can afford. You can also track your funding by checking the funding available every time you make a claim.

Check your funding by: