Audit preparation guide
Care Minutes Audit Preparation: Evidence and Control Checklist
Care-minute audit preparation is the work of making a reported value reproducible from original records. The provider should be able to show what was included, what was excluded, who reviewed it, what changed, and why the final statement differs from earlier reports.
01
Start with the audit objective
The auditor expresses an opinion on whether the Care Minutes Performance Statement is prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Aged Care Rules 2025. The required level is reasonable assurance under ASAE 3000.
That does not mean the auditor checks only the arithmetic in the final template. The auditor uses professional judgement to assess risk, understand the provider’s systems and controls, gather evidence, test the reported information, and form an opinion.
The provider remains responsible for maintaining sufficient records, preparing accurate information, explaining differences, and engaging an eligible external auditor in time.
02
Build an evidence register by assertion
A folder of exports is not yet an audit trail. Organise records around the information the statement is asserting: completeness, occurrence, accuracy, classification, cut-off, and reconciliation.
| Statement area | Source evidence | Control or working paper |
|---|---|---|
| Employee labour hours and costs | Payroll, timesheets, rosters, leave, employment records and general ledger | Home and role mapping, worked-hour exclusions, pay-cycle completeness and cost reconciliation |
| Agency labour hours and costs | Agency invoices, shift details, rosters and approvals | Invoice-to-shift matching, duplicate checks, accruals and late-invoice treatment |
| Role eligibility | AHPRA identification, position descriptions and duty statements | Classification register, decision owner, effective dates and unresolved-role treatment |
| Occupied bed days | Resident census, admissions, discharges and leave records | Daily ledger completeness, system reconciliation and exception review |
| RN coverage | RN roster, attendance, replacement, leave and agency records | Continuous timeline, gap register, monthly calculation and submission record |
| Reported results | QFRs, 24/7 RN reports, ACFR data and GPMS records | Calculation versions, approvals, QFR-to-CMPS bridge and variance explanations |
03
Test the controls before the auditor does
- Population completeness
Can every home, calendar day, pay cycle, agency source, and reporting period be accounted for?
- Worked-time treatment
Are leave, training, voluntary time, duplicates, and unsupported hours excluded consistently?
- Role decisions
Are new, ambiguous, changed, and ineligible roles reviewed by an appropriate person and supported?
- Cut-off and adjustments
Are cross-quarter pay cycles, late invoices, reversals, and corrections recorded in the correct period?
- Occupied bed-day integrity
Does the daily resident ledger reconcile to the quarterly denominator used in the calculation?
- RN coverage continuity
Can the monthly percentage be reproduced from an actual timeline, including every reportable gap?
- Change control
When a source or decision changes, is the recalculation attributable and is the previous version retained?
- Management review
Is there evidence that a suitable reviewer challenged unusual values, missing data, and unexplained variances?
04
A 90-day preparation plan
Establish scope and ownership
- Confirm homes, periods, systems, source owners, and key reporting contacts.
- Engage the auditor and agree timing, access, milestones, and information requests.
- Freeze the evidence index structure and identify known data limitations.
Reconcile and test
- Complete source completeness, role, occupied bed-day, and RN coverage checks.
- Reperform calculations for selected homes and periods from original records.
- Prepare the bridge between QFR, monthly RN reports, and final actual values.
Close exceptions and prepare access
- Resolve open classifications and document every remaining limitation.
- Complete management review and retain approval evidence.
- Test that indexed evidence can be retrieved and read by the audit team.
Control the query record
- Log requests, owners, due dates, responses, and evidence supplied.
- Do not overwrite source records to answer a query; add an attributable correction.
- Record findings, remediation, final adjustments, and the signed audit report.
05
Questions to settle with the auditor early
- 01
Which provider entities, homes, periods, and statement fields are in scope?
- 02
What system access, exports, walkthroughs, and control evidence will the audit team need?
- 03
How should AHPRA status, position descriptions, and direct-care duties be supported?
- 04
How will employee, agency, occupancy, and RN coverage populations be tested?
- 05
What form should QFR and RN-report variance explanations take?
- 06
What are the request, escalation, clearance, representation, and report-signing dates?
06
How CareMin supports audit preparation
CareMin keeps source files, import receipts, original row references, evidence status, role decisions, calculation versions, and exported outputs in a connected record. Unverified and withheld data remains visible rather than being absorbed silently into a result.
The external auditor decides what evidence and testing is sufficient. CareMin supports the provider’s preparation process; it does not conduct the audit or provide an assurance opinion.
Sources
Primary sources used for this page
- Care Minutes Performance Statement – guidance for providersProvider responsibilities and examples of supporting information
- Audit requirements for Care Minutes Performance Statement – guidance for auditorsReasonable-assurance objective, planning, evidence and reporting guidance
- Care Minutes Performance Statement – templateCurrent department template for the provider statement
- Aged Care Rules 2025Current legislative text
Source links and page content were checked on 11 August 2026. Government guidance can change; follow the linked source for the current position.
Review CareMin against your current process.
See how source records, calculations, monitoring, and evidence remain connected.