PACE is the NDIS Provider And Customer Experience system that replaced the legacy myplace claiming workflow for many provider types. For NDIS-registered providers claiming directly against participant plans, PACE is the system you upload claim batches to. Bulk uploads use a 16-column CSV that the system parses, validates, and either accepts whole or rejects with line-level error messages.
The CSV format isn't complicated, but the failure modes are. This post walks through every column, lists the five most common upload errors operators run into, and links to a downloadable sample template you can edit. If you're using Aura OS Pro, the CSV is generated automatically — but the underlying format is worth understanding regardless of which tool you use.
Who needs to care about PACE CSVs
NDIS-registered providers claiming via NDIA payment (rather than via plan managers or self-managed participants) submit claims through PACE. The bulk-upload CSV is the path most operators use once they're past three or four claim lines per fortnight — manually entering each claim through the myplace UI gets tedious past that volume. Unregistered providers don't use PACE; they invoice plan managers via plan-manager invoice PDFs (Aura OS Pro ships those as a first-class feature alongside the PACE CSV).
The CSV format itself is published by NDIA on the developer documentation pages at ndis.gov.au. We're paraphrasing here for plain-English readability; the authoritative spec is on the NDIA site.
The 16 columns, field by field
Each row of the CSV is one claim line. One CSV can carry hundreds of rows. Headers in row 1; data from row 2 onward.
| # | Column | Type | Example | Common gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RegistrationNumber | Text | 405XXXXXX | Your provider registration number — same one PACE prompts for at sign-in. |
| 2 | NDISNumber | 9 digits | 430XXXXXX | Participant's NDIS number, no spaces. Leading zeros sometimes get stripped by Excel — format the column as text first. |
| 3 | SupportsDeliveredFrom | DD/MM/YYYY | 01/04/2026 | Australian date format. ISO 8601 (2026-04-01) is rejected. |
| 4 | SupportsDeliveredTo | DD/MM/YYYY | 14/04/2026 | End date for the claim period. For a single shift, From and To are the same date. |
| 5 | SupportNumber | Text | 01_011_0107_1_1 | The NDIS service code. Cross-check against the active price guide; copy-paste typos here are the #1 reject reason. |
| 6 | ClaimReference | Text | CL-A1B2C3D4-E5F6G7H8-000001 | Unique per claim line. Aura OS uses CL-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-NNNNNN. Must be unique across all your past PACE submissions. |
| 7 | Quantity | Decimal | 8.0 | Hours, units or dollars depending on service code. Most SIL line items are hours. |
| 8 | Hours | Decimal (HH.HH) | 8.0 | Duplicate of Quantity for hour-based service codes. Keep them aligned. |
| 9 | UnitPrice | Decimal | 81.27 | Per-unit price for this service code. Cross-check against the current price guide; rates change quarterly. |
| 10 | GSTCode | P1 / P2 / P3 | P2 | P2 = GST-free supports (most NDIS supports), P1 = GST applicable, P3 = out of scope. |
| 11 | ClaimType | Text | DIRECT_SERVICE | Most claim lines are DIRECT_SERVICE. CANCELLATION, NF2F (non-face-to-face), TRAVEL etc apply for specific scenarios. |
| 12 | CancellationReason | Text | (blank) | Required only when ClaimType = CANCELLATION. Use approved reason codes from the price guide. |
| 13 | ABN | 11 digits | 16707891605 | Your provider ABN. Goes in unformatted (no spaces, no dashes). |
| 14 | InKindFundingProgram | Text | (blank) | For in-kind transition arrangements. Most operators leave blank. |
| 15 | ClaimReason | Text | (blank) | Free-text reason — required for some ClaimType values, optional otherwise. Keep short; PACE truncates over 100 characters. |
| 16 | RequestedAmount | Decimal | 650.16 | Quantity × UnitPrice rounded to two decimals. PACE recalculates and rejects if the line doesn't reconcile. |
A worked example for a single 8-hour SIL Daytime support shift:
Notice the consistent decimal places (two for currency, two for hours), the DD/MM/YYYY date format, and the unique ClaimReference. PACE will accept this row, validate it against the price guide, and post the $650.16 against the participant's plan.
Common upload errors
Five reject reasons cover most failed PACE uploads. The fixes are short.
PACE expects DD/MM/YYYY, not ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD). Excel and many SaaS exporters default to the wrong format on Australian locales. Fix: re-export with DD/MM/YYYY explicitly set, or open the CSV in a text editor and check the date columns before upload. Aura OS produces DD/MM/YYYY by default.
Each line needs a unique ClaimReference. PACE remembers references across past uploads — re-using a reference from a previous batch silently rejects the row. Fix: regenerate with a new reference range. Aura OS uses the CL-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-NNNNNN pattern that includes a per-batch hash so collisions don't happen.
PACE rejects unrecognised service codes silently — the line errors but the rest of the batch posts. Fix: cross-check the SupportNumber column against the active service catalogue at ndis.gov.au. Copy-paste typos (a missing underscore, a transposed digit) are the most common single error. Run a quick AVERAGE() over the column in Excel to flag any obviously wrong-shape codes.
Quantity × UnitPrice must equal RequestedAmount to two decimal places. Excel rounding produces $650.155 internally that displays as $650.16 but compares-equal against $650.15. Fix: recalculate RequestedAmount with =ROUND(C2*F2, 2) before saving the CSV, or generate the CSV from a tool that does the rounding consistently.
PACE expects UTF-8. Saving from older Excel installations on Windows can produce CP-1252 with mojibake on participant names containing accented characters (Aoife, Müller, etc). Fix: in Excel, choose "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv)" from the Save As dropdown, not the plain "CSV". On Mac and Linux, the default UTF-8 export is fine.
Download the sample template
Save this 16-column template to your desktop, edit the example row, and test-upload through NDIA myplace. The headers are the literal field names PACE expects; the sample row uses the worked example above.
Copy the two lines above into a plain text file, save it as pace-sample.csv with UTF-8 encoding, then upload through myplace's bulk upload page. Replace the example values with your real registration number, ABN, participant NDIS number and dates before submitting any real claims.
How Aura OS generates PACE CSVs
Aura OS produces the exact 16-column format automatically. After signing off shifts in the app, the Pro-tier billing flow groups claims by participant and period, mints unique CL-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-NNNNNN references, calculates RequestedAmount with proper rounding, and emits a UTF-8 CSV ready for myplace upload. Service codes are pulled from the live NDIS price guide; date format is forced to DD/MM/YYYY regardless of locale. See the billing flow in product detail on the for-providers page, or read the Pro feature list on the pricing page.
Direct API integration with the NDIA Developer Portal is on the roadmap pending certification. The CSV path remains the supported workflow until then, and operators using Aura OS Pro shouldn't notice the difference — both paths produce the same result on the participant's plan.
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