Aura OS documentation

Everything you need to set up and use Aura OS — the compliance and operations app for Australian NDIS SIL providers. Written for owner-operators and admins. Support workers get a worker-scoped experience described under Roles & permissions.

New to Aura? Start with What is Aura OS? and the sign-up walkthrough. Already running? Jump into the feature guides.

What is Aura OS?

Aura OS is the day-to-day operations app inside Clearline Health. It handles the records the NDIS Commission expects you to keep — shifts, handovers, medications, incidents, progress notes, policy reviews — and turns them into a one-click evidence pack when an auditor or plan manager asks.

The core promise: audit-ready evidence in sixty seconds. Pick a participant, pick a date, pick a Practice Standard → seven-section PDF. See Audit Evidence.

Who it's for

• SIL providers (registered or unregistered) preparing for the 1 July 2026 NDIS reforms.
• Owner-operators running 1–20 workers.
• Plan managers and OTs who connect via Clearline Connect.

What Aura OS is NOT

A short list of things people ask about. If any of these is your primary need, Aura isn't the right tool — we'll happily point you at one that is.

• Not a rostering tool. Shift logging happens here, but roster planning (who's working next fortnight) belongs in ShiftCare, Deputy, or similar.
• Not a CRM. Customer-relationship tracking, sales pipelines, leads — all out of scope.
• Not a clinical record system. Clinical observations can be logged as progress notes, but full clinical records (pathology, imaging, allied-health notes) aren't Aura's remit.
• Not a general healthcare platform. SIL-specific by design. Aged care, mental health standalone, allied-health solo practice — not the target.
• Not a participant-facing tool. That's Compass, a separate free app for families and carers.
• Not a payroll system. Aura flags Fair Work SCHADS breaches but doesn't file Single Touch Payroll. Pair with Xero, MYOB or Employment Hero for pay runs.

What's included on Free vs Pro

New accounts come with a 7-day Pro trial, no credit card, no reminder emails. Reverts to Free at day 7 — your data stays.

Payment + refund terms

• Monthly: $49/month AUD (GST inclusive). Billed the same date every month.
• Annual: $490/year AUD (GST inclusive) — two months free versus monthly. Pick annual at Stripe Checkout.
• Payment methods: Visa / Mastercard / Amex, or BECS Direct Debit (lower fees, recommended for Australian providers). Both options appear at checkout.
• 7-day money-back guarantee from the day you upgrade. No questions. Email hello@clearlinehealth.com.au.
• Cancel anytime from the Stripe customer portal linked in Settings → Plan. Your plan stays Pro until the end of the billing period, then reverts to Free. No cancellation fee.

Sign up for an account

Visit clearlinehealth.com.au/aura-os. The signup form asks for:

• Your name
• Organisation name
• Email address
• Password (minimum 8 characters)
• Phone number (optional)
• Your role — Owner, House Manager, Compliance Officer, etc.
• Operating mode — "Just me" (sole trader, covers own shifts) or "I manage a team". See Solo vs team mode.

Your first login

After signing up, you'll land on the Dashboard. The Finish setup card walks you through the first 4 (team) or 5 (solo) tasks that unlock your compliance score:

1. Review a policy in PolicyDesk
2. Add your first worker (team) or complete your worker profile (solo)
3. Add your first participant
4. Log your first shift
5. Log a supervision session (solo only)

Add your first participant

Go to Participants in the sidebar, then click + Add participant. The form opens with six essential fields visible and five collapsible sections for optional detail. You only need to fill what you know now — edit the rest later.

Essential fields

• First name (required)
• Date of birth
• Primary disability
• NDIS classification (Standard, Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust, HPS)
• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status (required — NDIS reporting)
• Language spoken at home (required)

Collapsible sections

• NDIS plan & living arrangement — NDIS number, plan start/end dates, living arrangement (SIL shared, SIL individual, etc.)
• Plan manager contact — name, email, ABN. Needed to push DRAFT invoices to a connected Xero tenant. See Xero integration.
• Emergency contact — name, phone, email.
• Behaviour support plan — toggle active + triggers/de-escalation notes (encrypted at rest).
• Invite the family — email-invite the family to Compass directly from the participant record. See Clearline Connect.

Bulk import via CSV

If you're onboarding many participants at once, use the Import CSV button at the top of the Participants list. See Bulk CSV import for the full walkthrough.

Invite support workers

Applies to team mode only. Skip this section if you're on solo mode — your worker record was created automatically on signup.

You can invite workers from three places:

1. Staff → + Add worker. Fill in name, role, employment details + email, keep "Send sign-in link" ticked. Creates the worker record, sends the invite.
2. Settings → Team → Invite by email. Creates only the invite; the worker record is created on accept.
3. Participants → participant card → Assign workers. Handy if you just added a participant and want to give an existing worker access.

How workers sign in

Workers don't set a password. They click the emailed sign-in link, which opens Aura OS logged in. On subsequent visits they use Email me a sign-in link on the login screen.

Assigning workers to participants

Workers only see the participants they've been explicitly assigned to. The fastest way to set this up is the assignment matrix:

Settings → Team → Assignment matrix shows workers × participants as a grid. Tap any cell to toggle the assignment. Changes save instantly.

Log your first shift

Open the Shift logs module. Admins click + New shift; workers click ⚡ Start shift now which pre-fills today's date, the current time, and the worker.

Required fields

• Participant
• Support worker
• Date + start + end time
• Five end-of-shift checks: Handover completed, No incidents, Medications given (if applicable), Notes completed, BSP followed (if applicable)
• Wellbeing acknowledgement — ticking "I have sighted the participant and confirmed their wellbeing" unlocks sign-off

Check-in, check-out, sign-off

1. Check-in (optional) — on arrival, stamps the time + GPS coordinates. Native geo on the Android wrap; browser geo elsewhere.
2. Check-out (optional) — on departure, stamps departure time + GPS.
3. Sign-off — end of shift, when all five checks pass. Triggers:
   • An auto-billing row (for Pro users with a default service assignment on the participant)
   • Audit log entry
   • The shift becomes read-only for non-admins

Generate your first invoice

Pro feature. Requires at least one signed-off shift with an auto-billing row.

Open Billing & Claims. The Generate new batch card at the top takes a date range + a format:

• Invoice PDF (plan manager) — for invoicing plan-managed participants.
• PACE CSV (registered provider) — for registered providers lodging direct with the NDIA.

Pick a range using the presets (This fortnight / Last 28 days / Last month) or set custom dates. Click Generate. A 5-minute presigned download link opens in a new tab.

See Billing & claims for the full workflow (Xero push, send to plan managers, batch history).

Participants

The Participants module is where you add, edit, archive, and assign the people you support.

Add & edit

Covered in Add your first participant. To edit an existing participant, click their name in the list then Edit.

Archive

Click the participant card → Archive. Archived participants stop counting against your Free-tier cap but their shift history stays in the audit log. Restore from the Archived tab.

Assign workers

Two entry points:

• Participant card → Assign workers — tick the workers who support this person.
• Settings → Team → Assignment matrix — grid view of the whole team.

Assignments are what drives worker scope: a worker only sees the participants they're assigned to, in every module.

Invite the family

Each participant record has an Invite the family section (always-visible inside the participant modal). Enter the family's email, add an optional personal message, send. The family receives a Compass sign-up link; once they sign up and add the participant's NDIS number to their plan, the link materialises automatically and appears as a pending approval in your Aura Care team panel.

How the email invite flow works

What happens after you send the email invite:

1. Family receives an email from hello@clearlinehealth.com.au with a Accept this invitation button.
2. Clicking opens Compass with an inviter-context banner (your org name, participant name, your personal message).
3. Family signs up to Compass via standard magic-link signup (the invitation context survives).
4. Family creates their family plan in Compass with the participant's NDIS number.
5. The link materialises automatically as a pending request on their side. They approve, you're connected.

Below the invite section you'll see Pending email invitations for this participant — a panel showing every active email invite you've sent, with the recipient address, who sent it (you or a colleague at your org), and dates. Each row has a Cancel button.

Invitations expire automatically after 7 days. Cancel any time before redemption from the panel; the family's email link stops working immediately. The personal message field is visible to anyone with the invitation link — keep it short and avoid sensitive details (medical, financial, plan numbers).

For the full end-to-end story of how data flows after the link is active, see Connect documentation.

Shifts & handovers

Shifts are the spine of Aura OS — they drive the compliance score, feed auto-billing, and generate the handover chain that the next worker reads before they start.

Shift statuses

Handover notes

A handover note is what the outgoing worker writes at sign-off. The incoming worker reads it on the Handover screen before they start. The NDIS expects every handover to be acknowledged on the next shift — the Handovers module tracks this.

Pending handovers show up as amber on the dashboard "Needs your attention" row (admin view).

Editing a past shift

Admins can edit any shift; managers can edit shifts on participants they manage; workers can edit their own shifts until sign-off. After sign-off, only admins can correct.

Handover

The worker's first-screen-of-the-day. Handover notes from the previous shift, medications due this shift, open incidents, and the participant's behaviour support notes — all on one screen.

Open from the sidebar Handover, or tap Open Handover for this participant first → inside the Log Shift modal.

Medication administration (MAR)

The Medication Administration Record tracks scheduled + PRN medications, with S4 / S8 controlled-schedule support and witness capture for S8.

Add a medication

Open Medications, pick the participant, click + Add medication. Fill:

• Drug name, strength, form (tablet, liquid, patch, etc.), route (oral, sublingual, IV, topical, etc.)
• Schedule type — Scheduled (fixed times, e.g. 08:00 / 20:00) or PRN (as-needed with instructions + max-doses cap)
• Controlled schedule — None / S4 / S8. S8 auto-ticks "witness required" — every dose will prompt for a second worker to witness.

Log a dose

On the MAR module, each due dose appears in the Due list. Click Record dose:

1. Administered-at time (defaults to now, and remembers your last-used time for batch-logging missed doses)
2. Outcome — Given / Refused / Omitted / Vomited (with mandatory reason for anything non-Given)
3. Witness worker (S8 only — the dropdown appears when controlled=s8)
4. Notes (optional)

Low-quantity alert

When the remaining quantity of a scheduled medication drops under 7 days, an alert appears on the Dashboard. Admin only.

Progress notes

Short-form notes on each participant's progress. Categorised by type (Support / Behaviour / Medical / Goal / Other) with optional goal reference and date.

Used for NDIS reporting + plan reviews. Workers can add notes on participants they're assigned to; admins see all.

Incidents

Incidents are anything that triggers an NDIS Commission reportable-incident review: medication errors, serious injury, use of restrictive practice, neglect, abuse, unexplained death. Aura guides you through the five-step Commission investigation framework on resolve.

Report an incident

Quick-action + Report an incident from the Dashboard or FAB. Fill:

• Participant, date, time, location
• Type (medication error, injury, restrictive practice, etc.)
• What happened, immediate actions taken, who was notified

Resolve an incident

Open the incident → Resolve. The stepper walks you through five Commission-aligned prompts:

1. CCTV or location footage reviewed?
2. Staff on shift interviewed?
3. Family / guardian contacted?
4. NDIS Commission notified (if reportable)?
5. Prevention actions taken?

Each prompt is a yes/no radio + a detail textarea. Answering auto-advances to the next unanswered prompt — you can blast through all five on a phone without scrolling.

Audit Evidence

The sixty-second audit test. Pick a participant, a date, a Practice Standard → get a seven-section evidence pack you can hand straight to an auditor or plan manager.

How to generate a pack

1. Open Audit Evidence in the sidebar.
2. Pick a participant (defaults to whoever had the most recent shift).
3. Pick a date you want audited.
4. Pick a Practice Standard — SIL-specific, Rights & Responsibilities, Governance, Provider Governance, Support Provision, etc.
5. Click Generate pack.

What's in the pack

Seven sections, rendered as a branded PDF:

1. Cover — your org, compliance score, date range.
2. Participant profile — demographics, NDIS plan, primary supports.
3. Shift log for the date — check-in/out times, worker, GPS, 5-check outcomes, handover written and acknowledged.
4. Medication record — every dose logged that day, with S4/S8 witness trails.
5. Incidents — any open or resolved incident affecting the participant.
6. Policy evidence — the specific policies the selected Practice Standard requires, with last-reviewed dates.
7. Worker credentials — NDIS Worker Screening, mandatory training expiries for the worker who was on shift.

Email to auditor

After generation, click Email to auditor. The pack is delivered via Resend with a short cover note and the PDF attached. The recipient doesn't need a Clearline account.

Billing & claims

Invoice plan managers or lodge with NDIA direct. Aura aggregates every signed-off, uncancelled shift billing in a period into one document.

Service codes

Before billing works, each participant needs a default service assignment — a mapping from their shifts to an NDIS service code (e.g. 01_011_0107_1_1 for standard weekday support). Set this up in Billing & Claims → Participant assignments.

Generate a batch

1. Pick a format: Invoice PDF (plan manager) or PACE CSV (registered provider lodging direct).
2. Pick a date range (use the presets for speed).
3. Click Generate.

The resulting PDF or CSV opens in a new tab with a 5-minute presigned download URL. A batch record is saved; you can re-download it from the Batches tab.

Xero skip warning

If your org is connected to Xero and you pick Invoice PDF, Aura runs a pre-check before generating. If any participant in the period lacks a plan-manager contact on their profile, a confirm dialog lists them by name and explains:

"3 of 5 participants in this batch have no plan manager. They'll appear in the invoice PDF but WILL NOT push to Xero as DRAFT invoices…"

Cancel to add plan-manager contacts, or OK to generate anyway (PDF covers everyone; Xero push only covers the ones with a plan manager).

Send to plan managers

On any invoice batch in the Batches tab, click Send to plan managers. Aura emails each participant's plan manager with the invoice PDF attached. Skipped recipients (no plan-manager email on file) are reported in the toast.

Click View sends to see delivery status per recipient (delivered / bounced / queued).

Batch history

Every generated batch is logged with its period, row count, total value, and current status. Re-download the PDF or CSV at any time (a fresh 5-minute presigned URL is minted).

Xero integration

One-way push: every invoice batch you generate also creates DRAFT invoices in your Xero tenant, one per participant. Review and authorise in Xero as you would any DRAFT.

Connect your Xero account

1. Go to Settings → Xero integration.
2. Click Connect Xero. You'll be redirected to Xero.
3. Authorise Aura OS against the Xero organisation you want to use.
4. You'll be redirected back to Settings with a "Xero connected" toast and the tenant name in the Xero card.

What gets pushed

• One DRAFT invoice per participant per batch.
• Invoice number format: CL-INV-<batch-id>-<sequence>-P<participant-index>.
• Contact = the participant's plan manager (name + email + ABN on the participant record).
• Line items mirror the invoice PDF.
• Reference: "Aura OS batch <batch-id-prefix> · <participant name>".

Participants skipped from Xero

A participant is included in the invoice PDF but not in the Xero push if they have no plan-manager name and no plan-manager email on their profile. Fix: open the participant, expand the Plan manager contact section, fill in at least one of name or email.

Disconnecting

Settings → Xero integration → Disconnect. Future batches stop pushing until you reconnect. Existing Xero invoices are untouched.

Clearline Connect

Clearline Connect is the cross-product invite + consent layer. Aura OS uses it to link with Compass families and Pilot Support Coordinators by email, and with Scrive OTs via a short Connect ID. Once linked, you can exchange messages, share reports, and push plan updates without email chains.

Linking with a family (Compass)

From the participant record → Invite the family section: enter the family's email, optional personal message, send. Once the family signs up to Compass and enters the participant's NDIS number on their plan, the link appears as a pending request in your Aura Care team panel. Approve (or decline), and data starts flowing on both sides. See Invite the family above for the full walkthrough.

Linking with a Support Coordinator (Pilot)

From Settings → Pilot Connect → + Invite SC: pick the participant, enter the SC's email, tick the scopes you want to grant (shifts, incidents, training, etc.), send. The SC receives an email with a sign-up link to Pilot and accepts the scopes from their Pilot dashboard.

Linking with an OT (Scrive)

Scrive currently links via a Connect ID (format CLR-XXXX-XX) — an OT shares theirs from Scrive Settings; you import it via the sidebar + Send an invitation → Invite an OT or clinician. We accept this is the legacy path while we modernise the Scrive direction toward an email-invite flow.

How invitations show up

Outgoing email invitations land in Pending email invitations for this participant under the participant record. Incoming requests from Compass families show up under Settings → Family connections from Compass. SC requests show up under Settings → Connect requests from Support Coordinators. All three surfaces support Approve / Decline / Revoke and audit-log every action.

Webster pack OCR

Photograph a Webster pack label → Claude vision reads it → medication rows are pre-filled for your review before they save.

How to use it

1. Open Medications → pick a participant → click 📷 From photo.
2. Your camera opens (mobile). Take a clear photo of the Webster pack label.
3. Wait 5–10 seconds for Claude to extract the medications.
4. Review each row — drug, strength, schedule, confidence chip, raw label quote. Edit any row that looks wrong, or tap Skip to drop it.
5. Click Save selected. Saved rows become real medications on the MAR.

Push notifications

Aura sends push notifications to your Pixel, Samsung, or iPhone when you install the native wrap (Android available on Richard's Pixel 9 Fold today, Play Console publish pending; iOS on the roadmap).

What triggers a push

• New Connect message from a family member or OT
• Incident reported on a participant you're assigned to
• Shift handover filed for the shift starting within the hour
• Due medication reminder (MAR, 10 minutes before dose time)

You can opt-out per category in Settings → Notifications.

Roles & permissions

Aura has four roles. The role is set when an invite is sent and can be changed from Settings → Team.

What workers don't see

• Dashboard compliance score ring + six-pillar breakdown (org-wide data).
• Staff module — they see their own profile instead, under "Your worker profile".
• PolicyDesk, Reports, Billing & Claims, Upgrade, Settings → Team.
• Clearances or training expiries of peers.

"Acting as worker" toggle (admin only)

Admins can temporarily switch to a worker-only view to test what their workers see. Settings → Multi-hat card → Act as worker. The banner at the top of every page reminds you you're in worker view. Clear via the banner's Back to admin button or by signing out.

Solo vs team mode

Picked at signup. Changes how Aura branches:

Switching modes

Settings → Operating mode card. Solo → team always works. Team → solo requires exactly one worker linked to the current admin (so Aura knows who the sole trader is); otherwise you get a "cannot switch — you have more than one worker" warning.

Compliance score

An overall 0–100 score plus six weighted pillars. Visible on the Dashboard (admin + manager only). ≥ 90 is audit-ready.

The six pillars

Each pillar is weighted — the overall score is a weighted average of the six. Weights reflect what the NDIS Commission prioritises.

Where the weights come from: the bigger the direct participant-risk signal a pillar sends the Commission, the higher it's weighted. Incidents and worker screening together carry 45% because those two drive most reportable-incident + investigation cases.

Click any pillar row to drill down to the specific workers, policies, or incidents pulling the score down.

30-day delta

The score banner shows how much the number has moved in the last 30 days. Useful for steering — if you fix three policies this week, you'll see the pillar + overall score respond.

PolicyDesk

34 NDIS policy templates pre-seeded — one per outcome of the 2025 Core Module the NQSC Applicant Portal asks SIL providers about, plus the Behaviour Support and HIDPA supplementary modules, plus standalone Code of Conduct, Bullying & Harassment, Conflict of Interest, Drug & Alcohol, Whistleblower and Document Control policies. You review each one, date it, and optionally attach a method note. Seven are flagged "SIL blocker" — the outcomes the NQSC most often rejects SIL applications on without strong written evidence. The Policy Reviews pillar reads from this module.

Marking a policy reviewed

1. Open the policy card.
2. Click Mark reviewed.
3. (Optional) Add a review method note — "Reviewed at team meeting 23 Apr 2026, all staff present".
4. Save. Next-due date is auto-stamped for 12 months out.

Admins can download any policy as a branded PDF for their evidence folder (Pro).

Commission audit PDF

One-click export of your whole compliance posture as a branded PDF, Commission-ready. Different from Audit Evidence (which is per-participant per-date) — the Commission audit PDF is org-wide, for registered-provider audits.

Generate from Reports → Commission audit PDF.

Organisation settings

Admin-only. Under the Settings sidebar item:

• Plan — current tier, trial status, upgrade / downgrade.
• Operating mode — solo / team (see above).
• Multi-hat — "Act as worker" toggle.
• Team — worker list, invites, assignment matrix.
• Organisation profile — name, ABN, address, email, phone.
• NDIS registration — registration number (appears on generated documents + evidence packs).
• Invoice + bank details — name, BSB, account number, payment terms, footer text. Embedded on every generated invoice PDF.
• Logo — PNG/JPEG/WebP, max 2MB, renders at 120×50px on the invoice header.
• Xero integration — connect / disconnect.
• Audit log — every important action, searchable.

Bulk CSV import

For onboarding many participants or workers at once. Max 100 rows per import.

Steps

1. Open Participants or Staff, click Import CSV.
2. Download the blank template if you don't have one already — ensures column names match exactly.
3. Fill your data into the template, save as .csv.
4. Choose your file. Aura validates the headers:
   • If no recognised columns → "This doesn't look like a participants CSV." — check you're uploading the right template.
   • If a required column is missing → explicit list of what's missing.
   • If there are unrecognised extra columns → amber banner in the preview showing which ones will be ignored.
5. Review the preview table. Rows with validation issues are flagged (row-by-row, with the specific field at fault).
6. Click Import N rows. Valid rows are created; skipped rows are reported in the results screen.

What's in the template

Participants: name, dateOfBirth, ndisNumber, planStartDate, planEndDate, planManagerName, planManagerEmail, planManagerAbn, classification, livingArrangement, primaryDisability, carerName, carerEmail, carerPhone, indigenousStatus. Only name is required.

Workers: name, roleTitle, email, phone, startDate, ndisScreeningId, ndisScreeningExpiry, employmentType. name + roleTitle are required. Payroll/bank/TFN fields are not imported via CSV — add those per-worker via the Edit modal for privacy reasons.

Common questions

I can't see the Add Worker button

You're either on solo mode (the button is hidden by design — switch to team in Settings) or signed in as a worker (admins only). Check Settings → Operating mode, or ask your admin to promote you.

My compliance score is stuck at zero

The score starts at a baseline until you have activity — at least one worker, one participant, one shift. Once data lands, the pillars populate within 30 seconds. Reload the Dashboard if it hasn't refreshed.

I marked a policy reviewed but the pillar still shows 0%

The compliance score is cached for 10 minutes to avoid hammering the DB. Either wait or reload the Dashboard — the pillar will update.

I generated an invoice but no DRAFT appeared in Xero

Check:

1. Is Xero connected? Settings → Xero integration should show "Connected" + tenant name.
2. Does the participant have a plan-manager name or email on their profile? (Pre-Generate warning catches this now; if you saw the confirm dialog, the skipped participants are listed.)
3. Was the generated format Invoice PDF? PACE CSV batches don't push to Xero.
4. Pulled straight from Xero — the invoice appears as DRAFT, not Authorised. Check the Draft tab.

A worker can sign in but sees no participants

They haven't been assigned yet. Admin: Settings → Team → Assignment matrix → tick their row against the relevant participants.

Why can't I delete a shift?

Signed-off shifts are protected — deleting them would break the audit trail. Admins can edit to correct details or mark as "cancelled" (which excludes from billing and compliance).

Sync & offline

Aura OS runs mostly in your browser. Actions sync to the cloud as you do them. If your connection drops:

• Shift check-ins, check-outs, handovers, and notes save locally and sync when the connection returns.
• Medication doses and incidents require connection at the moment (offline support is on the roadmap with the Capacitor wrap).
• If you see an amber "Offline — changes queued" banner at the top, your device is working but will retry automatically.

Force a sync

Sidebar → bottom → Sync now. Pulls fresh cloud state and replays any queued local changes.

Get support

Email hello@clearlinehealth.com.au from the email address on your account. Include:

• A screenshot of the issue.
• What you were trying to do.

Your account email address is enough for us to find you — we don’t need a Connect ID.

We reply within one business day. Founder reads every message.