How to prepare for a Stage 1 desk audit

What Stage 1 actually is

Stage 1 is a desk-based document review. The auditor reads your evidence remotely and assesses it against the relevant Practice Standards before deciding whether to recommend you to Stage 2 (site visit, certification audits only) or recommend approval (verification audits stop here).

You typically don't meet the auditor at Stage 1. They want clean, organised, complete evidence - not a meeting.

What the auditor wants to see

Broadly four buckets:

• Governance + organisation policies.Constitution / company structure, key-personnel suitability declarations, conflict-of-interest register, complaints policy + register, incident management policy + reportable incident register.
• Worker compliance. NDIS Worker Screening Check clearances for every worker, NDIS Worker Orientation Module certificates, Code of Conduct acknowledgements, employment contracts, induction checklists, role-specific training (medication competency, mealtime/dysphagia, manual handling, etc.).
• Participant files. Service agreements with schedules of supports, current NDIS plans, person-centred support plans, individual risk assessments, emergency plans. For higher-risk participants: medication charts, behaviour support plans, restrictive-practice authorisations.
• Operational evidence. Daily progress notes, incident reports, mealtime management plans, and anything that shows your policies are actually being applied day-to-day - not just sitting in a folder.

Common reasons Stage 1 stalls

• Policy without evidence of practice. "We have a medication-management policy" + zero medication charts or training records = the auditor asks for evidence staff are following the policy. This is the single biggest reason providers fail first time.
• Expired worker documents. One worker's NDIS Worker Screening Check expired six months ago and hasn't been renewed. The auditor will flag it.
• Inconsistent date stamps. Service agreements dated last year with no review since, support plans signed three years ago. Auditors look for a current, signed-and- dated paper trail.
• Missing per-participant evidence for triggered requirements. Participant has diabetes flagged but no diabetes management plan in their file. Auditor flags it.

What "prepared" looks like

• All worker compliance docs current (no expiries within the audit window).
• All participant files complete for the documents triggered by their flags (medication chart if they take meds, BSP if they have one, etc.).
• 6+ months of dated progress notes per participant in the sample - not just one screenshot.
• Policies and register entries showing the policies are being lived (incident register has incidents logged + closed; complaints register has complaints logged + responded to; etc.).
• A clear, named index of where each Practice Standard outcome is evidenced. Auditors love a road map.

How Checkbase helps

The Tier 1 Evidence Pack PDF gives your auditor a single organised bundle covering every artefact mapped to the Practice Standards. Combined with the time-boxed sharing link and the per-doc expiry tracking, you walk into Stage 1 with the paperwork side already handled - your time goes into reviewing the bundle, not assembling it.