The short answer: From 1 December 2026, the NDIS moves to a 90-day claiming window. A payment claim must be lodged within 90 days of the date a support was delivered, and claims older than that will not be paid unless the NDIA accepts exceptional circumstances. The long window providers have relied on is closing. In practice that means two jobs this month: clear any aged claims before the cutoff, and tighten your weekly claiming rhythm so nothing ever ages past 90 days again.
Key takeaways
- From 1 December 2026, NDIS claims must be lodged within 90 days of the service date, down from a window of up to two years.
- The clock runs from when the support was delivered, not the invoice date, so a slow plan manager does not buy you time.
- From 15 October 2026 the NDIA applies extra checks to claims over 90 days old and can hold them for up to 28 days.
- Late claims are not paid unless the NDIA accepts exceptional circumstances. Unclaimed work becomes unpaid work.
- The fix is a weekly claiming rhythm plus a monthly gap report, so claims are submitted within days of delivery.
What the NDIS 90-Day Claiming Rule Is
The 90-day claiming rule requires NDIS providers to submit a payment claim within 90 days of delivering a support. It is part of the wider NDIS payment and assurance reforms, and it tightens a window that used to be far more forgiving. Until now, a provider could claim for a support delivered up to two years earlier. From 1 December 2026 that window shrinks to 90 days, after which a claim is treated as out of time.
The change has been arriving in stages. From 15 October 2026 the NDIA began applying additional checks to claims lodged more than 90 days after a support was delivered, and those claims can be held for up to 28 days while they are reviewed. The firm cutoff then lands on 1 December 2026. You can read the current rules on the NDIS provider pricing and payments pages, and we would always suggest confirming the detail for your registration type directly with the NDIA.
What Changes on 1 December 2026
| Before | From 1 December 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Claiming window | Up to around two years from service | 90 days from the service date |
| Late claims | Generally paid within the window | Not paid unless exceptional circumstances are accepted |
| Extra scrutiny | Limited | Checks on claims over 90 days from 15 Oct 2026, held up to 28 days |
| Recommended practice | Claim when convenient | Submit within 14 days of delivery |
The practical effect is simple but significant: claiming is no longer something you can leave for a quiet month. It becomes a weekly discipline with a hard deadline attached to every single support you deliver.
How the 90 Days Is Counted
This is the detail that catches providers out. The 90 days runs from the date the support was delivered, not from the date you raise the invoice and not from the date a plan manager receives it. For agency-managed work that is usually straightforward, because you claim through the myplace portal yourself. For plan-managed work it is where the risk sits: you invoice a third party, the plan manager has its own processing rhythm, and the clock keeps running the whole time. If a plan manager sits on an invoice for six weeks, you have already burned 42 of your 90 days before they have even actioned it.
That is why the safe internal target is well inside the limit. If you aim to submit within 14 days of delivery, as the NDIA recommends, you keep a large buffer for rejections, reworks and slow third parties, and nothing drifts toward the edge.
What Happens If You Miss the 90 Days
After 1 December 2026, a claim lodged more than 90 days after the service date will not be paid. The only exception is where the NDIA CEO accepts exceptional circumstances under section 45A(6) of the Act, and that is a discretion, not an entitlement. It is not something to build a cash flow plan around. In blunt terms, a delivered support that is not claimed in time becomes work you did for free. For a provider running on tight margins, a handful of those a month is the difference between a viable year and a painful one.
Clear Your Backlog Before the Cutoff
The most urgent job right now is the backlog. Any support with a service date older than 90 days should be claimed before 1 December 2026, because after that the window is gone. Pull a list of every delivered support that has not yet been claimed, or that was claimed but never paid, sorted oldest first, and work it down before the deadline. This is exactly the kind of gap a clean, reconciled set of books surfaces in minutes and a messy one hides until it is too late.
One honest caveat: at the time of writing, the NDIA has not fully confirmed how supports delivered before 1 December are treated once the new rule starts. The safe assumption, and the one we are working to with clients, is to get everything in before the date rather than test the edge case and hope. Confirm your own position with the NDIA if you are carrying older claims.
Need help clearing an NDIS claim backlog? True Tally provides fixed-fee bookkeeping, claims reconciliation and SCHADS payroll for NDIS providers across Australia.
Worried about the 1 December deadline?
We offer a free books assessment for NDIS providers: where your claims and reconciliation actually stand, what is at risk before the cutoff, and a fixed quote to get it current.
NDIS Bookkeeping ServicesBook a Free CallThe Claiming Rhythm That Keeps You Inside 90 Days
Once the backlog is clear, the goal is to never build another one. The providers who handle this well do not think about the 90 days at all, because their claiming rhythm keeps everything current by default. It looks like this:
| When | Discipline |
|---|---|
| Every week | Claim or invoice every support delivered that week, inside 14 days of delivery |
| Mid-month | Match portal remittances to claims, rework and resubmit any rejections before they age |
| Month end | Gap report: every delivered support not yet claimed or paid, oldest first, with days remaining |
| Quarterly | BAS lodged by a registered agent, price-limit and line-item check, payroll tax watch as wages grow |
The one new column worth adding to your month-end gap report is "days remaining". When every unpaid support shows how close it is to the 90-day edge, nothing slips quietly, and the oldest items get worked first as a matter of course. For the full picture of how NDIS reconciliation and SCHADS payroll fit together, see our main guide to NDIS bookkeeping for providers.
What It Means for Your Cash Flow
There is a silver lining here. Claiming faster does not just protect you from the deadline, it gets you paid sooner. A provider who moves from monthly batch claiming to weekly claiming often pulls their payment cycle forward by two to three weeks, which is real working capital back in the account. With borrowing costs at an 18-year high after the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.85% in November 2026, that tighter cycle matters more than it did a year ago. The 90-day rule, handled properly, pushes you toward the exact habit that strengthens cash flow anyway.
It also sharpens hiring decisions. If you know your plan-managed revenue arrives on a two to three week lag, you know precisely how much cash buffer a new support worker's wages need before their billable hours catch up. That is a question your books should answer before the job ad goes up.
Your November 2026 Checklist
- Pull a list of every delivered support not yet claimed or not yet paid, oldest first.
- Claim everything with a service date approaching or over 90 days before 1 December 2026.
- Confirm with the NDIA how any pre-December supports you are carrying will be treated.
- Switch from batch claiming to weekly claiming, targeting 14 days from delivery.
- Add a "days remaining" column to your month-end gap report.
- Check your SCHADS payroll and Payday Super settings while you are in the file, errors there compound the same way.
The Bottom Line
The 90-day rule is a deadline attached to every support you deliver, and after 1 December 2026 there is no soft landing for claims that miss it. The providers who come through this without losing revenue are the ones who clear their backlog now and claim weekly from here on. That is bookkeeping work, not care work, and it is exactly the kind of rhythm a specialist can take off your plate so you can get back to the participants.
