Care Intelligence that helps teams capture better care records
A good progress note is usually one sentence away
A progress note should record what was done, what was observed as a result, and anything that needs to carry to the next shift. Notes that fail review usually log an action with no observation, or describe a behaviour without what preceded it. When a support worker saves a note in ShiftCare, Smart Note Coach reads it against that participant’s care plan and asks about what was left out. The worker answers in their own words and the note stays theirs.
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The same shift, written twice
Nobody writes a poor progress note on purpose. They write it at two in the morning, straight after settling someone back into bed, with the rest of the shift still to run. The difference between these two is about ninety seconds of questions at the point of saving.
Margaret had a fall in the bathroom. Helped her back to bed.
Not completed
Seemed okay after.
Not completed
Assisted Margaret to the bathroom at 2:00am. She slipped on the wet tiles near the shower and landed on her left hip. Helped her up, settled her back in bed and put a towel down over the wet patch.
Checked her over after the fall. No bleeding and no visible injury. She could bear weight on the leg when she stood.
Said the hip was sore. Settled back to sleep about twenty minutes after the fall.
Rang the team leader at 2:20am to let her know. Morning staff should watch how she is walking and record whether the hip is still sore.
Two questions got there. “You recorded a fall; did you check her for injury, and what did you find?” and “a fall with pain afterwards usually needs someone told. Who did you tell, and when?” The coach asks questions. It never invents an observation, a behaviour or an outcome the worker didn’t describe, it doesn’t block the note, and it doesn’t grade anybody. The worker wrote both versions.
The saved note then went past Care Signals, which reads every progress note as it is submitted. A fall with pain afterwards is High severity, so it was tagged, confidence scored and routed to the triage queue for somebody to confirm or clear. One note, two jobs: better written, then read for risk.
Illustration, not a product screenshot.
What the record is for
Four things a participant’s record has to do, and where each one lives.
The note is finished before the driveway
A blank text box has no opinion about what is missing from it, and a longer form only produces a faster, emptier answer. When a support worker saves a progress note, Smart Note Coach reads it against that participant’s care plan and asks about what the note left out: the support the participant is funded for, and whether the note evidences it. The worker answers in their own words. Notes can be dictated rather than typed, which is usually the difference between three lines and eight sentences.
Progress notesThe plan the support is actually against
The Practice Standards put the pre-shift information obligation on the provider, not the worker: needs and preferences documented and provided before work commences. In ShiftCare that arrives on the shift itself. The care plan and goals, the tasks set for the shift, the forms attached to it and the previous shift’s notes are on screen before the worker knocks. Care plan tasks and goals are carried onto the shift, so progress is recorded where it happened.
Care plansThe thing mentioned in passing
Incidents rarely arrive with the word incident attached. Care Signals reads every progress note and shift form response as it is submitted, against the shift it covers and the participant’s profile, tags what it finds High, Moderate or Low with a confidence score, and routes it to one triage queue. An admin confirms or clears it. This is the Risk Intelligence layer reading the same notes this page is about.
Care SignalsWhat the family can see
A family portal for the participant’s family or advocate: the upcoming schedule synced from your roster, who is providing the care, a record of completed visits with times and outcomes, and email notification of key updates so nobody has to log in to stay current. Families can request additional support or a change to the care plan, which lands with your team to action. What each person sees follows your access settings.
The family portalSee it on notes you already have
A note finished on a shift, and the flag it raises. The sequence runs once when it scrolls into view and resets when it leaves.
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Who decides what runs
Smart Note Coach and Care Signals both sit behind an admin-only master toggle, with a switch for each feature underneath it. Turn the master off and everything stops. Care Signals carries independent switches for progress notes and for shift form responses, and its categories, confidence thresholds and custom keywords are set per account rather than handed down as a generic template.
Nothing is added to a participant’s record without the person who delivered the support putting it there. The coach asks questions and never writes clinical content. Every Care Signals flag is a suggestion for a person to confirm or clear, and every triage decision is logged with a timestamp, a user and an action.
Notes are never used to train AI models, and there is no setting that turns this on. For Australian accounts, processing runs in Australia, and Australian customer data including backups is stored in Australian data centres.
This page is the Care Intelligence layer. Care Signals, which reads the same notes for safeguarding and audit risk, belongs to Risk Intelligence.
Any questions?
What should an NDIS progress note include?
What was done, what was observed as a result, and anything that needs to carry to the next shift. In practice that means the support delivered and the time it happened, the participant’s response in factual terms rather than impressions, any change from the last visit, anything relating to a goal in their plan, and any follow-up the next worker needs to pick up.
The most common gap is an action recorded with no observation: a task logged without what happened as a result. Our free progress notes template sets the headings out with worked examples.
What shouldn’t go in a progress note?
Opinions presented as fact, diagnoses the writer isn’t qualified to make, and judgemental language about the participant or their family. Information about other participants doesn’t belong in someone’s record either. Anything speculative should be written as what was observed rather than what it was assumed to mean.
A progress note is part of the participant’s record and may be read by the participant, their family or an auditor. Writing it as though they will read it is usually the right standard, and the template is built around it.
How long do progress notes need to be kept?
From 27 August 2026, records relating to the payment and receipt of NDIS funds must be retained for seven years, with a civil penalty for failing to. A note supporting a claim falls inside that. Notes describing an incident also become part of the incident record, which carries its own retention. Seven years from the date of the note is the practical floor.
Source: National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026. Your own obligations may run longer under state records legislation, so check them rather than a vendor’s summary.
What does Smart Note Coach check a note against?
That participant’s care plan. Rather than generic prompts, it asks whether the note evidences the supports this particular person is funded for, looking at care standards, the participant’s key care areas, whether each action has an outcome, and safety and risk. That is what makes the questions worth answering: they are about the person in front of the worker, not a template.
It doesn’t write the note. It never invents an observation, a behaviour or an outcome the worker didn’t describe, it doesn’t block a save, and it doesn’t grade anybody.
How soon after a shift should a progress note be written?
As close to the visit as possible, and ideally during it. Detail degrades quickly, and a note written hours later is reconstructed rather than recorded. Writing in the app on the shift also means the note is attached to the right participant and the right shift automatically, which is where most filing errors come from.
From 1 December 2026 the window to claim for a support drops from two years to 90 days, so an undocumented shift is a countdown rather than a to-do.
What is ABC recording and when is it used?
Antecedent, behaviour, consequence: a way of recording an incident or a behaviour of concern that captures what came before it, what actually happened, and what followed. It is used because the behaviour on its own rarely explains anything. A note describing a behaviour with no antecedent and no consequence is the second most common gap after a missing observation.
What is the difference between a progress note and an incident report?
A progress note records what happened on a shift. An incident report records something that requires a response, and it carries obligations a note does not, including notification timeframes under the Incident Management and Reportable Incidents Rules 2018. Describing an incident inside a progress note does not discharge those obligations. Raise the incident.
Who can see a participant’s progress notes?
Access follows the participant and your account’s permissions: the people supporting that participant, and the administrators who oversee the record. A note can be marked private so a sensitive entry is restricted rather than visible to everyone rostered.
Families see only what you choose to share. The family portal gives a participant’s family or advocate their own access to the schedule and to the records you make visible to them, which is a deliberate sharing decision rather than blanket access.
Already using ShiftCare? Step-by-step setup guides are in the help centre.
The progress notes template
A blank template built on the structure above, with worked examples of the two gaps that come up most: an action with no observation, and a behaviour with no context. Nothing to install.
The other three intelligence hubs
The same roster and the same notes, read for a different question.
The award decides the cost at rostering
Broken spans, rest gaps and overtime bands are fixed when the shift is placed, not when it is paid.
Read the hub Financial intelligenceWhat the shift costs before you save it
Cost, revenue and margin on the roster while it is still a draft, rather than three weeks later.
Read the hub Risk intelligenceThe incident that stayed in the note
Progress notes read as they arrive, with anything that looks like an incident raised for a person to confirm.
Read the hubTry it on one real shift
Have a support worker write one note in the app and see what comes back. It takes a shift, not a project, to know whether this changes what lands in your inbox.