Progress notes

Progress notes software: Written on the shift. Final means final.

A progress note is the written record of one shift: what support was given, how the person responded and what the next worker needs to know. In Corella the worker writes it on their phone before they leave, in the sections your organisation sets, and it is attached to that shift. Once it is final, nobody can change it — a correction is added beneath it, with a reason and a name.

Book a demo Try the NDIS demo

The New note dialog on Corella's Progress notes screen, from the NDIS demo: client, type of note set to Progress, an optional shift, subject, when, the note itself, a Check my note button with the line saying it is checked by an AI service in the United States with names, emails and long numbers taken out first and that Corella keeps no copy, then links to goals, photos and what was used

Six kinds of noteProgress is the default

Final means finalNo override — administrators included

How it flows

One shift, one note — from the door to final.

1Before the door
The worker opens the shift on their phone: the time and place, the office's instructions, the tasks, the goals to look out for and — if anything is recorded — the need-to-know brief, which they confirm when they press Clock on.
2Write it on the shift
The note box is on the same screen, in the sections your organisation set, with photos from the camera. What the worker types is kept on the phone as they type, and — where AI assistance is on — Check my note points out what the note could still say.
3Clock off
Where you require it, Clock off waits until there's a note on that shift — with at least the number of words you set.
4Read in the office
The office reads every note in the Progress notes workspace — by person, kind of note, dates or words — marks a note office-only where it should be, and adds a later note to one of the person's recent shifts.
5Final
When your organisation's window passes — or an author marks their own note final on the office notes screen — nobody can change or delete it. A correction becomes an addendum with a reason, a name and a time.

What people ask first

The short answers, up front.

Who writes the note?
The worker on the shift, on their phone, and it is attached to that shift automatically. The office can write any kind of note from the Progress notes workspace.
What kinds of note are there?
Six: progress (the default), handover, feedback, enquiry, phone call and general.
Can we set the headings?
Yes — up to twenty sections for each kind of note, each with a hint and a required switch, or start from a preset. N/A counts as an answer.
Can we require a note before clock-off?
Yes, across the organisation, with a minimum word count if you want one.
What if the phone loses signal?
What they've typed is kept on the phone, for that person and visit, for up to seven days — they press Save again once there's signal.
Can a note be changed later?
Until it's final, by its author or an administrator. Once it's final it stays as written, and a correction is an addendum.
Can workers see each other's notes?
Where the person's record allows it — on by default — the six newest team notes appear on the shift screen; office-only notes stay in the office.
Where do notes stay?
With your team. The family portal shows funding, invoices and the upcoming visits.
Who writes the note — the worker or the AI?
The worker. Check my note suggests what's missing and leaves every word to the worker; the visit scribe drafts from a recording the person agreed to, and the worker reads, fixes and saves it.

Whose screen

The same job, from each seat.

In the office

The Progress notes workspace shows every note across every person — filter by person, kind of note, dates or words, or show only office-only notes, twenty-five to a page — and a person's record shows their thirty most recent. Here a coordinator marks a note office-only and writes a later note against one of the person's shifts from the last thirty days; an author marks their own note final or asks a senior colleague to countersign it; and a final note gets its addenda.

On the phone

The worker writes on the shift screen they already have open, in your sections, with photos straight from the camera. On a shift with more than one person, one note is filed on each person's record. They can edit their own notes on that visit until they're final — marking final, addenda and countersign requests are on the office notes screen, so a worker's notes lock by your window. On the shift they see their own notes on the visit and, where you allow it, the team's recent notes about that person.

For families

The portal shows the person's funding, the invoices to approve where you manage their plan, and their upcoming visits — and what a worker writes stays inside your organisation.

A worked example

The shift summary preset — eight sections, every one required.

One of the two presets an administrator can start from under Settings → Attendance rules → Note sections. These are the product's own headings and hints; from there each heading, hint and required switch can be changed, sections added or removed, and the order moved.

Shift start time: Exact time of shift commencement
General progress notes: Summary of events throughout the shift
Activities completed: Activities completed throughout the shift
Behaviours: Behaviours of concern, and the techniques used to de-escalate
Area of interest: Activities the participant has shown interest in
Positive achievement: Achievements and goals the participant has displayed
DSW communication: Specific communication to alert the rest of the team
Shift end time: Exact time of shift conclusion

A DSW is a disability support worker. A note in these sections saves once every required section has something in it — N/A counts, and each section has an N/A button. The other preset is an incident note in five sections: when, who, witnesses, what happened and the impact.

In detail

The detail, on the real screens.

Six kinds of note, and who writes which

A progress note is the default kind; handover, feedback, enquiry, phone call and general sit beside it. A support worker writes from their shift screen, which always saves a progress note attached to that shift — and only for people they're rostered with. Coordinators and administrators write any kind from the Progress notes workspace, and can attach a note written later to one of the person's shifts from the last thirty days; it then reads On the shift of, with the date. In the office a note can also be linked to the person's goals.

The Type list open in Corella's New note dialog, from the NDIS demo: Progress, ticked as the default, then Handover, Feedback, Enquiry, Phone call and General — The office's New note dialog — the six kinds (NDIS demo)

Sections your organisation names

An administrator can give each kind of note up to twenty named sections, under Settings → Attendance rules → Note sections, each with a hint shown under the heading and a switch that makes it required — or start from a preset: a shift summary in eight sections, or an incident note in five. A note saves once every required section has something in it; N/A counts, and each section has an N/A button. The sections are stored as bold headings inside the note, so everything that reads notes reads them the same way.

The Note sections card in Corella's settings, from the NDIS demo: its explanation, Kind of note set to Progress note with sections on, Start from a preset and Add section, then the first two sections of the shift summary preset — Shift start time with the hint Exact time of shift commencement, and General progress notes with the hint Summary of events throughout the shift — each switched to required — Settings → Attendance rules → Note sections, the shift summary preset loaded (NDIS demo)

A note before clock-off, if you want one

Switch on Require a progress note before clock-off and, if you like, set a minimum number of words — up to five hundred. The worker's own Clock off then waits until they have written a note on that shift that meets the minimum. It works the same on a phone and at a desk, because it's one application.

Four attendance-rule switches in Corella's settings, from the NDIS demo: auto-approve timesheets within the variance, off; Require a progress note before clock-off, switched on; the draft roster, off; and the warning when a casual is rostered onto the same weekday week after week, off — Settings → Attendance rules — the note before clock-off, switched on (NDIS demo)

Written on the phone — and kept if the signal drops

The note box sits on the shift screen the worker already has open. Photos come straight from the camera — several to a note. What they type is kept on that phone as they type it, for that person and that visit, so it survives a reload or a dead spot; if a save can't get through, the phone says the note is kept there, and to press Save again once there's signal. On a shift with more than one person, the worker writes one note and it's filed on each person's record, attached to the shift; each copy can then be edited on its own.

The note on a nurse's visit screen, from the wound care demo: the visit scribe's card saying the patient hasn't signed permission to be recorded yet, with Get permission signed now above a Record the visit button that waits for it and Upload a recording; then the note box asking how the shift went and what the next nurse needs to know, with Add photo, Dictate and Save note — The note on the visit screen, with Add photo and Dictate (wound care demo)

Speak it instead: dictation and the visit scribe

Two separate switches, both off until you turn them on. Dictation adds a Dictate button: the worker's own speech becomes text in the note, for them to read and correct, in clips of up to two and a half minutes. The visit scribe goes further. With the person's signed permission, the worker records a one-person visit, and a few minutes later a draft note arrives in your sections. Nothing is saved until they read it back, fix anything wrong and press Save — and they can discard it instead.

The end of the recording permission form on a nurse's phone, from the wound care demo: the versioned wording the patient agrees to, that permission can be withdrawn at any time, and that text already made from recordings stays in the care record, signed on the device or on paper — The permission the person signs before the visit scribe records (wound care demo)

Final means final

A note becomes final when your organisation's window passes — twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight or seventy-two hours, or seven days — or when its author marks it final on the office notes screen. From then on nobody can edit or delete it: not the author, not a coordinator, not an administrator. A correction is an addendum beneath the note, added on the office notes screen, with a required reason, its author and the time. Separately, an author writing in the office can ask a senior colleague to countersign; they countersign it, or send it back with a reason. Export notes, on a person's Notes tab, gives every note about them for the days you choose, up to two years — as a spreadsheet straight away, or as a branded PDF filed in their documents. And a deleted note leaves every list and is kept: an administrator sees it under Deleted notes, with who deleted it and when, and can restore it exactly as it was.

The Lock progress notes after setting in Corella, from the NDIS demo, with its list open: Never — notes stay editable, ticked, then 12 hours, 24 hours — end of the next day, 48 hours, 72 hours and 7 days — Settings → Roster display → Lock progress notes after — the window you choose (NDIS demo)

Straight answers

Safety built in: what warns you, and what it stops.

Warns you

A shift with more than one type of support tells the worker their note should cover each of them.
Check my note — where AI assistance is on — lists up to three things the note could still say, and leaves the writing to the worker.
A signature the shift asks for — the person's or the worker's — that's still missing warns at clock-off rather than stopping it, so a sleeping client or a blackspot never traps a worker on the clock.
A note whose save fails — the phone says so, and keeps the note there to save again.

Stops you

Clock off, until there's a note on the shift that meets your minimum word count — where you've switched that rule on.
Clock off, while a must-do task on the shift is still open.
Clock off, while a form you've marked Needed before clock-off is still to be filled in — the refusal names it.
Saving a note while a required section is empty — N/A counts as an answer.
Editing or deleting a final note — for anyone, administrators included.
Countersigning your own note.
A support worker writing a note for someone they aren't rostered with.

Who stays responsible

The worker writes what happened, in their own words, and your organisation decides what a note needs. Corella keeps the note, shows it to the people who should see it, records who wrote it and when, and stops it changing once it's final. What a note means — and what happens next — stays with your team.

The rulebook

Questions, answered properly.

In the help centre

A young support worker in the driver's seat of his parked car on a leafy street, writing a note on his phone after a visit

Is a progress note required before a worker clocks off?

When you switch it on. Require a progress note before clock-off holds the worker's own Clock off until there's a note on that shift — with at least the number of words you set, up to 500 — across the whole organisation.

Can anyone change or delete a note after it's written?

Until it's final, its author or an administrator can edit it, and the audit log records that it changed, who changed it and when. Until then it can also be deleted, by its author within 24 hours or by an administrator. A note becomes final when your window passes — 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours, or seven days — or when its author marks it final on the office notes screen; a support worker's notes lock by the window. Once it's final, nobody can change or delete it, administrators included, and a correction is an addendum with a reason, a name and a time.

What does Check my note check?

The writing. Where your organisation has AI assistance on, it returns up to three things the note could still say — your own rules first, such as the minimum words or a required heading, then things like what support was given or how the person responded. A filter keeps every suggestion to the writing, away from diagnosis, risk or advice, and the worker stays in charge of every word and every save. The note goes to our AI provider in the United States with names, emails and long numbers taken out first, and Corella keeps no copy of what's sent; each person has thirty checks an hour, each reading up to six thousand characters of a note.

What happens if the phone loses signal while a worker is writing?

What they've typed is kept on that phone as they type, for that person and that visit, so it survives a reload or a dead spot. If a save can't get through, the phone says the note is kept there — press Save again once there's signal, any time within seven days.

Can support workers read other workers' notes?

Yes, where the person's record allows it — on by default: a worker sees the six newest team notes about that person on a shift they're rostered to, and office-only notes stay in the office.

Who reads an office-only note?

The office. An office-only note stays in the office: a worker on the shift sees neither its words, its subject nor that it exists. With Care Signals switched on, a signal raised from an office-only note reaches only team leaders and safeguarding leads who can already read office-only notes.

What does the family portal show?

The person's funding, the invoices to approve where you manage their plan, their upcoming visits and their notification settings. Progress notes stay with your team.

Who writes the notes when AI assistance is on?

The worker. Check my note, where AI assistance is on, suggests up to three things the note could still say and leaves every word to the worker. The visit scribe, where it's on, drafts a note from a recording the person has agreed to, and nothing is saved until the worker reads it, fixes it and presses Save. Text goes to our AI provider in the United States; speech is transcribed in the European Union.

What about outcome and progress reports?

The office writes them as documents prefilled from the person's goals and funding, and each renders as a branded PDF from the record.

What happens to a worker's notes when they leave?

They stay. Notes are never deleted automatically, and a staff member who has written notes is deactivated rather than deleted, so everything they wrote stays attributed to them and their sign-in ends.

Can one note cover a group shift?

Yes. On a shift with several people, the worker writes one note and it's filed on each person's record, attached to the shift; each copy can then be edited on its own until it's final.

Does anything read our notes automatically?

Care Signals, when you switch it on. It reads new and edited notes every hour — dictated ones straight away — and queues possible concerns for a person in the office to read, each quoting the note's own words, and every note stays exactly as its author wrote it. Care records explains it in full, and the text goes to our AI provider in the United States.

Guides for this

Read the rule behind it.

Sources

NDIS Practice Standards — NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission

Each link opens the original, so you can read the rule where it's written.

See progress notes software on a live instance.

Try the NDIS demo with a time-boxed pass, or book a walkthrough and we'll show you this part of Corella in your own words.

Book a demo Try a live demo