Switching From ShiftCare? A Practical Checklist for Small NDIS Teams
Thinking about moving from ShiftCare to another system? Use this practical checklist to move your roster, staff and history without losing anything.
The Disability Guide team · Sparks Support Pty Ltd · 4 min read
In short
Export your ShiftCare data first, run the import and check the numbers, re-invite staff, confirm your price book, then run one full pay cycle in parallel before switching over completely.
If you are moving away from ShiftCare, the biggest risk is not the new software. It is losing track of something during the handover: a participant's history, a staff member's login, or a shift that never made it into an invoice. This checklist is written for a small provider team doing the move themselves, without an IT department to lean on.
1. Work out what actually needs to move
Not everything needs to travel across on day one. List what matters most: current participants, active staff, this week's roster, approved hours waiting to be invoiced, and historical shift notes you are required to keep. Anything older or archived can wait until you are settled.
2. Export your ShiftCare data before you touch anything else
Do this first, even before you sign up anywhere new. Get a copy of your participant list, staff list and shift history out of ShiftCare while you still have full access. Save it somewhere your whole team can find it, not just on one person's laptop.
3. Run the import, then check the numbers
Sparks Provider has a built in ShiftCare import that brings across participants, staff invitations and up to seven years of shift history and progress notes. If you need to run it more than once while you are testing, re-importing the same file will not duplicate anyone. After the import, count your participants and staff against your old ShiftCare numbers. A mismatch is easier to fix on day one than three weeks in.
4. Re-invite your staff, do not assume it is automatic
An import can bring across a staff invitation, but each person still needs to accept it and set up their own login. Send a short message telling staff what is changing, when, and what they need to do. Staff see their own shifts and the client details relevant to those shifts, record their availability, add shift notes, and submit their hours, so they need to be active in the new system before rostering moves across properly.
5. Rebuild or check your price book
Your pricing does not carry across automatically in the way participant records do. Each business in Sparks Provider has its own price book based on current NDIS support items, and you control which items you actually use. Before you invoice anyone, open the price book and confirm the items your team bills against most often are set up correctly.
6. Send one test invoice before you go live properly
Pick a single approved shift, run it through to an invoice, and check every line: the participant, the support item, the rate and the total. If you use Xero, push that one invoice across as a draft and check it lands the way you expect before you send a batch. This is a much smaller problem to catch on one invoice than on fifty.
7. Keep both systems running for one full pay cycle
Do not cancel ShiftCare the day you sign up somewhere new. Run rosters and approvals in parallel for one pay cycle, so if something looks off in the new system you still have the old one to check against. Once approved hours have gone through to invoicing and, if relevant, to Xero payroll as draft timesheets, you can be confident the new setup is holding up under real use.
8. Know what will not come across, and plan around it
Some things need a fresh start rather than a transfer. Signed service agreements sit with each participant once they are signed in the new system, so existing agreements may need to be re-sent for electronic signing if you want them held there going forward. SMS shift reminders are marked coming soon in Sparks Provider and are not available yet, so if your team relies on SMS reminders today, keep using email reminders or your existing method until that arrives. And no system, including this one, makes your business compliant on its own. It keeps your operational records organised; your obligations as a provider stay with you.
If you want a side by side look at how Sparks Provider and ShiftCare compare on features relevant to a small team, there is a plain comparison at sparksprovider.app/compare/shiftcare. If you want to see what a year would look like against your current costs, there is a simple calculator at sparksprovider.app/calculator. Sparks Provider offers a 7 day free trial with no card required, and the subscription is a flat $499 a year including GST, with unlimited staff and clients, so testing the import and one pay cycle costs you time, not money.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Will importing from ShiftCare duplicate my participants if something goes wrong?
- No. Re-importing the same ShiftCare file does not create duplicate participants or staff invitations, so it is safe to run the import again if you need to check something.
- Do I need a new subscription for each staff member after switching?
- No. Sparks Provider is priced per business at $499 a year including GST, with unlimited staff and clients, so adding or re-inviting staff after a switch does not add to the cost.
- Can Sparks Provider submit our claims to PRODA directly?
- No. Sparks Provider creates a claim file for NDIA managed work that you upload to PRODA yourself. It does not sign in to PRODA or submit claims on your behalf.
- What happens to our old ShiftCare shift notes and progress notes?
- The ShiftCare import can bring across up to seven years of shift history and progress notes along with participants and staff invitations, so this history should not need to be re-entered manually.
This article is general information only and is not financial, NDIS or compliance advice. NDIS pricing and claiming requirements can change, so check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and provider guidance before relying on it.