Templates
Occupational therapy chart of accounts
An occupational therapy chart of accounts splits revenue by who funded the session and by what the line is, not by who delivered it. The NDIS provider template ships fifteen revenue accounts and sixteen rows: listed therapy GST free, non listed supports taxable, and travel, reports and cancellation claims on codes of their own. Clearing accounts sit apart, one per payment rail.
Key facts
- Where occupational therapy sits
- One of the listed health services in the GST Act, so an hour performed by a recognised professional as appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply is GST free. The payer is not one of the three conditions1
- Revenue accounts in the template
- Fifteen, ordered by funding source first and then by what the line is, so one funder can carry more than one tax rate4
- Revenue rows in the template
- Sixteen, each resolving a funding source and service category pair to one account code and one Xero tax rate4
- What decides the account
- The funding source on the invoice and the service category on the line, in that order, with the practice default underneath both4
- Therapy line items since 1 July 2026
- Six per discipline: the base item plus short notice cancellation, non face to face, provider travel, NDIA requested reports and telehealth5
- Travel and non face to face time
- Account 423 in the template, GST free where the travel is in the participant's plan and tied to a listed support, taxable where it is tied to a non listed one4
- The default for a non listed support
- Taxable, until all four of the ATO's requirements are confirmed for that specific support: a plan in effect, the support named in the statement of supports, a written agreement, and cover by one of the NDIS Determination tables2
- Clearing accounts in the template
- Four: the NDIA, plan managers, card and EFTPOS, and online payments, each a bank type account in Xero4
Split the chart by funder first, then by line type
An occupational therapy practice bills the same hour to four or five different payers, and the payer decides the revenue account, the clearing account and the wait. It does not decide the tax rate on a listed occupational therapy hour; the line type and the recipient of the supply do. A chart built around clinicians answers none of that. A chart built around funding source answers all of it, and it survives a practitioner leaving.
The second cut is the line type. Since the therapy items were unbundled, one plan managed participant can produce a session, a travel claim, a piece of non face to face work, a report and a cancellation claim in the same fortnight. Those five lines do not share a tax rate and they do not belong in one account.
Income tracked by funding stream and support category, cancellations and travel on their own codes, taxable side-income separated from GST-free supports, debtors split between plan managers and self-managed participants, and accrued income recognised for delivered-but-unclaimed work at each month end.6
The revenue accounts the template ships
This is the revenue side of the canonical NDIS provider template, printed from the file itself rather than retyped. Read it as three groups: a pair of accounts per NDIS funding stream, one for listed supports and one for the rest; the other payers a practice sees; and the line types that behave differently whoever funds them.
| Code | Account name | Xero tax rate |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Clinical services, private patients | GST Free Income |
| 401 | NDIS agency-managed, listed supports | GST Free Income |
| 402 | NDIS agency-managed, non-listed supports | GST on Income |
| 403 | NDIS plan-managed, listed supports | GST Free Income |
| 404 | NDIS plan-managed, non-listed supports | GST on Income |
| 405 | NDIS self-managed, listed supports | GST Free Income |
| 406 | NDIS self-managed, non-listed supports | GST on Income |
| 407 | Clinical services, other third-party payers | GST Free Income |
| 420 | Reports, assessments and progress notes for third parties | GST on Income |
| 421 | Training and capacity-building workshops | GST on Income |
| 422 | Cancellation and short-notice claims | matches the original invoice line's tax type (not a fixed Xero code) |
| 423 | NDIS travel and non-face-to-face supports | GST Free Income |
| 424 | Group programs, listed supports | GST Free Income |
| 425 | Group programs, non-listed supports | GST on Income |
| 460 | Other income | GST on Income |
One row states a sentence where a Xero code belongs. A cancellation claim follows the tax treatment of the support it replaces, so the template holds that rate open and asks for an item override per support type instead of printing a code that would often be wrong.
The six therapy line items and where each one posts
From 1 July 2026, therapy billing runs across six items per discipline rather than one. Five of them are the base item plus a suffix, and each suffix is a different kind of work at a different rate. The account column below is the template's own, so a practice that adopts the chart has already answered the question for every claim after the first.
| Line item | What it covers | Account in the template |
|---|---|---|
| Base item, no suffix | The session delivered face to face, at the full hourly rate | 403 NDIS plan-managed, listed supports |
| _TH telehealth | The same therapy delivered by telehealth, at the full hourly rate | 403 NDIS plan-managed, listed supports |
| _NF non face to face | Work away from the session tied to a named participant, which the service agreement has to authorise | 423 NDIS travel and non-face-to-face supports |
| _PT provider travel | Travel time, claimable at half the hourly rate | 423 NDIS travel and non-face-to-face supports |
| _RR NDIA requested reports | An assessment or report the NDIA asks for | 420 Reports, assessments and progress notes for third parties |
| _CA short notice cancellation | A cancellation claim at the full hourly rate, following the tax of the support it replaces | 422 Cancellation and short-notice claims |
The one to watch is report writing, which straddles two items. An NDIA requested assessment is claimed on its own item; a participant report written as part of the therapy is claimed as non face to face time. Which of them is plan funded documentation and which is work for a third party decides the account, and the template carries a confirm note on that row rather than an answer.
Four neighbouring rows of the standing map
One funder, four accounts, three different tax outcomes. The session and the travel both post GST free, the report posts at the standard rate, and the cancellation row holds its rate open. What separates them is the category on the line, not the funder on the invoice, which is why a rule written against the funder alone sends every one of these four the same way.
Occupational therapy is on the ATO's list, which settles one condition of three
Occupational therapy appears by name in the closed list of health services in the GST Act, so an occupational therapy practice clears the first condition without argument. The ATO adds that a service has to be one of the listed services and cannot just be similar to one of them, which is what keeps the answer clean for this profession and messy for its neighbours.
- It is a listed health service. Occupational therapy is on the list.
- It is performed by a recognised health professional in that listed health service, or under certain circumstances their assistant.
- The profession generally accepts it as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply.
- Who pays is not one of the conditions, which is why an NDIS therapy hour and a private one post at the same rate to different accounts.
That is why the chart splits NDIS revenue by management type without splitting the tax rate. Agency managed, plan managed and self managed change who sends the money and how long it takes. They do not change which test the hour passes, and is NDIS income GST free runs that argument in full.
What the list does not reach
The listed service route covers the therapy. It does not cover everything an occupational therapy practice bills, and the accounts that catch the rest are the ones a practice usually forgets to open. Each of these has its own page, because each is a question rather than a rule.
- A support NDIS funds that is not itself a listed health service has to pass four requirements before it is GST free, and the template's default for one is taxable. Non listed NDIS supports sets out the four.
- Travel and non face to face time follows the support it is tied to, so the same account can carry both rates across a year.
- Report writing splits on who the report is for, and the template carries a confirm note rather than an answer.
- Cancellation claims inherit the rate of the session they replace.
- Assistant delivered hours are inside the professional's service only where the ATO's supervision and billing conditions are all met.
Clearing accounts, one per rail
Revenue accounts answer what was earned. Clearing accounts answer what has been paid but not yet banked, and they are the half of the chart that makes a bulk deposit reconcilable. The template opens four, because four different things arrive on four different rhythms and every one of them is BAS excluded.
- 100 NDIA clearing, for the lump sum electronic funds transfer that pays a batch of agency managed claim lines.
- 101 Plan manager clearing, for the payment a plan manager makes once it has checked the invoice against the participant's budget. Plan managed NDIS money covers that wait.
- 102 Private and self-managed card and EFTPOS clearing, for a self managed participant paying at the desk like any private client.
- 103 Online payments clearing (Stripe), for money taken online.
A shortfall is a separate event again. Where the NDIA or a plan manager pays at a ceiling rather than the invoiced amount, the template posts the difference to its own expense account at the tax type of the original line.
One account in the chart has no row pointing at it
Worth knowing before setup rather than after. The template's chart carries account 424 for listed group programs, and the shipped rows include one for group programs that are not listed but none for the listed case. Resolve a listed group line through the product's cascade and it falls back to the plan managed default, 403, alongside individual therapy.
Setting it up in Xero
- Create the revenue accounts first, with the tax rate set on each one, so a coded line cannot pick up the wrong rate later.
- Create the clearing accounts as bank type accounts, one per rail, with payments enabled on each.
- Open the shortfall account before the first remittance, because the first short payment is when it is needed and not before.
- Decide the group program row and the report row, and write down which way each went and why.
- Spend the two tracking category slots on practitioner and location, and leave funding source and line type to the account codes, where the tax rate already lives.
- Reconcile one real deposit end to end before turning anything on for the whole practice.
What Ledger Map does with it
Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, approved before anything syncs. An occupational therapy line resolves to its account and tax rate through that map on the funding source and the service category together, so travel, a report and a cancellation claim stop inheriting the session's code just because they share a participant.
When a deposit lands, the batch is posted as one balanced document set against the rail's clearing account with the claim lines underneath it, and one exact match is left in the bank feed for the practice to accept. Where the map cannot resolve a line, it becomes a question with the options laid out rather than a silent posting. See how it works, or the learn hub.
Questions
Which income accounts does an occupational therapy practice need in Xero?
Enough to keep each funder apart and each taxable line type apart from the therapy it sits beside. The canonical NDIS provider template ships fifteen: a listed and a non listed account for each of the three NDIS management types, private patients, other third party payers, then reports, training, cancellations, travel and non face to face time, group programs and other income.
Is occupational therapy GST free?
Occupational therapy is one of the listed health services, so the first of the ATO's three conditions is settled. The other two still have to hold: the hour is performed by a recognised professional in that listed service, and the profession generally accepts it as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply. Who pays is not part of the test.
Where do NDIS travel and non face to face hours post?
To their own account, 423 in the template, rather than to the therapy account. Travel is claimed on its own line item at half the hourly rate, so leaving it on the therapy code makes the therapy account read high and the average session rate read low. The tax rate follows the support the travel is tied to.
What account does a short notice cancellation claim go to?
Account 422 in the template, and the rate on that row is not a fixed Xero code. A cancellation claim follows the treatment of the support it replaces, so the template asks for an item override per support type rather than printing one code that would be wrong for half the practice's items.
Can tracking categories replace separate income accounts?
They answer a different question. Xero gives a practice two tracking category slots, and most practices spend them on practitioner and location. Funding source and line type decide the tax rate and the BAS label, and the tax rate lives on the account, so those two belong in the account code.
Sources
Open questions
- Whether a participant report the therapist writes as part of the therapy is plan funded documentation or third party work. All three canonical templates carry a confirm note on that row rather than an answer, so this page does not settle it and the account follows the practice's own call.
- Whether a given therapy assistant arrangement meets every one of the ATO's assistant conditions, which include billing in the professional's name, involvement in part of the service and direct supervision through the treatment. That is a per practice question.
- Supervision hours sold to another practitioner. The corpus leaves the treatment open, so nothing here resolves it.
- Whether a listed group program belongs on the template's group programs account or on the plan managed therapy default. The shipped rows resolve it to the default, because no row routes to the group account.
- The six therapy line item suffixes are cited from a compliance vendor rather than from the NDIA pricing document, because ndis.gov.au blocks automated fetches. Confirm the suffix set against the pricing arrangements in force on the date of service.
- No SERP snapshot exists for this page's target query, so the current answer landscape was not captured and the FAQ was written from the material rather than from People also ask.
- No practitioner account of setting this chart up was found. The quote on this page is an adviser's, not a therapist's or a practice manager's.
- GST and health: other health services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
- GST and health: National Disability Insurance Scheme
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 13 Jun 2024.
primary
- GST and health: supply of services through a third party
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
- NDIS billing for non face to face allied health
Clinic Comply. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 5 Aug 2026.
secondary
Review
Last reviewed 3 Sep 2026 by Shane
General information for Australian allied health practices, not tax advice. Confirm a treatment with your BAS agent or accountant before you post it.
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