Quarterly Financial Report

About the QFR

The Quarterly Financial Report (QFR) was introduced from 1 July 2022 as part of broader initiatives to improve financial reporting transparency and strengthen prudential compliance for approved aged care providers, the QFR provides:

• Financial oversight – enabling more timely analysis of the sector’s financial performance and viability.
• Consumer choice and transparency – informing the Star Rating system that allows older Australians and their families to make informed choices.
• Policy development – policy planning and development by the department is informed by accurate data from the providers
• Funding – informing the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model and pricing studies
• Viability monitoring – enabling the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) to monitor provider financial viability and the earlier identification of providers at risk
• Quality standards regulation – Risk-based regulation of services and providers performance against the Quality Standards and other provider responsibilities.

All approved providers must submit a QFR and the annual Aged Care Financial Report (ACFR).

Due dates

Approved providers must submit the QFR 4 times throughout the financial year. Legislated submission dates for the 2024–25 financial year are as follows:

Reporting requirements

What you report in the QFR depends on the type of service you deliver.

Residential aged care service providers

Residential aged care service providers must complete:

• viability and prudential compliance questions
• year to date financial statements, at the approved provider level
• residential care labour cost and hours reporting, at the facility level
• quarterly food and nutrition report for each approved residential aged care service
• information around outbreak management expenses.

Home care service providers

Home care service providers must complete:

• viability and prudential compliance questions
• year to date financial statements, at the approved provider level
• home care labour cost and hours reporting, at the Aged Care Planning Region level.

Providers of Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP)

Providers of Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP) must complete:

• quarterly food and nutrition report for each approved residential aged care service.

State and territory government providers

State and territory government providers must complete:

• residential care labour cost and hours reporting, at the facility level
• home care labour cost and hours reporting, at the Aged Care Planning Region level.
• quarterly food and nutrition report for each approved residential aged care service.

Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP)

Providers who only deliver Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) services do not have to submit a QFR.

Scope of the QFR

There are 5 parts to the QFR.

• 1. Viability and prudential compliance questions

We use the viability and prudential compliance questions for residential and home care providers to:

• identify emerging financial viability issues
• allow the department and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to proactively work with providers to support their compliance and address financial risks.  

Provider engagement will help us to:

• assess the challenges and risks to a provider’s viability
• identify the options or strategies available to the provider that could reduce viability risks
• establish future contact with providers to monitor the progress and outcomes of government support and action.

The Commission will also use a provider’s viability to inform other risks and develop effective regulatory responses.

The Commission will assess compliance with the Prudential Standards over the reporting period to inform future regulatory responses. Reporting will also enable detailed sector-wide insights to support providers’ and senior Australians’ understanding of compliance risk.

• 2. Year to date financial statements

The year to date Financial Statements include an income statement and a balance sheet at the approved provider level. This is segmented into residential care, home care, community, retirement living and other categories.

Based on feedback from providers for the Aged Care Financial Report, cash, financial assets and equity are only collected as a total and not required to be segmented. The department and the Commission will use this financial information to understand sector performance and communicate it back to the sector.

• 3. Residential care labour cost and hours reporting

The residential care labour cost and hours reporting section captures both facility-level direct care related labour expenses and hours.

This is broken down into care types, including:

• registered nurses
• enrolled nurses
• personal care workers.

Assistants in nursing are considered ‘personal care workers’ for the purposes of direct care reporting.

We use this information to inform Star Ratings and costing studies for the AN-ACC funding model.

The care hours in conjunction with other qualitative information will be used to inform Star Ratings for individual aged care services.

From Quarter 4 2023–24, additional information is being collected on outbreak management expenses, including the cost of planning for, and managing outbreaks, including:

• COVID-19
• influenza
• gastroenteritis
• respiratory syncytial virus 
• other infectious diseases. 

This is important to ensure the Government can assess the financial impacts of preparing for and managing outbreaks on the aged care sector. 

Providers who fail to submit a QFR by the due date will receive a 1 Star Staffing Rating. This will affect the service’s overall Star Rating.

• 4. Home care labour cost and hours reporting

The home care labour cost and hours section is similar to the residential care labour cost and hours section. It collects information on the direct care cost and hours delivered in home care.

The information is collected at the Aged Care Planning Region level and includes a balance sheet and income statement at the approved providers level.

These reporting requirements will bring greater transparency and accountability to the home care sector by better aligning the reporting requirements with residential care.

• 5. Quarterly Food and Nutrition report

We introduced reporting on food and nutrition in July 2021 as a requirement to receive the 2021 Basic Daily Fee (BDF) supplement.

In October 2022, the 2021 Basic Daily Fee supplement was combined into the AN-ACC funding model, and reporting requirements included into the QFR. This includes service level information on Internal and Contract Catering costs and hours.

For more information, see the Basic Daily Fee (BDF) supplement.

Resources and training

The QFR resources include:

• Reporting guidance
• Data Definitions
• System user guidance
• Webinars.

You can also watch the most recent  QFR – what’s changed webinar recording from October 2023. 

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