Can I cancel my membership?

Yes. The quarterly membership can be cancelled after the initial three-month term, and the annual membership after its initial 12-month term. Both memberships continue automatically after that period until you cancel them yourself from your account.

Is there a guarantee?

Yes. Our annual membership comes with a 100% satisfaction, 21-day money-back guarantee. If the program and resources aren't meeting your expectations, contact us within 21 days for a full refund of the subscription purchased.

Do I have to sign a long-term contract?

No long-term lock-in beyond your chosen membership term. The annual membership runs for 12 months, and the quarterly membership has a minimum of 3 months.

How much will a membership cost?

We offer two options for Long Day Care, Preschools, OSHC and FDC Schemes: an Annual membership at $770/year (best value), or a Quarterly membership at $250/quarter.

What's included in my membership?

Full access to our library of 1,800+ compliance resources — policies across all seven Quality Areas, plus the supporting procedures, forms, checklists and audits — all in editable Word format, reviewed routinely and updated whenever regulations change.

How do I download member resources?

Simply navigate to your desired resource and click the hyperlinked title of the document. An automatic download will begin, saving to your downloads folder.

What happens after I sign up?

You'll be taken straight to your members area — the Desktop Dashboard — when you log in. From there you can browse the full library and download any document you need, right away.

How do I know if a resource has been updated?

Each Monday we send out member alerts to notify you when a resource or policy has been reviewed and updated, a new resource has been posted, or a location has changed. Amendments within documents are clearly marked: yellow highlight for text that has been updated, strikethrough for text that should be deleted, and red text for statements that may need to be contextualised to your own circumstances, location or physical environment.

Any questions before you join?

We'd love to hear from you. Send us a message via the Contact page, or book a free 15-minute walkthrough to see The Desktop in action.

How do I get support as a member?

As a subscribed member you can reach our team via the Contact page.

I need to change the email address on my account.

Please contact us with your preferred email address and we'll have it updated within 48 hours.

Help & FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about membership, resources and your account. Can't find your answer? We're always happy to help.

How is this different from a policy library?

A library hands you documents and leaves the rest with you. The engine runs the work that comes after a change: The Desktop team updates the master policy, every service is shown exactly what changed via linking to The Desktop documents, the service runs the comparison tool to update their library, the Regulatory change becomes a short course your team completes, and each staff member's training record and attestation update from it. You end up current on policy, people and evidence.

Is the full Compliance Loop available today?

Yes, the Compliance Loop runs from the day you join, on PolicyDesk alone. We identify and prioritise each regulatory change, our team reviews and contextualises the affected policies, and your service sees exactly what changed and approves it. Every staff member can be notified, signs off that they've read and understood it, and their record updates automatically, time-stamped evidence for Regulation 170. Your QIP feeds what works in practice back into the next cycle. TrainingDesk takes your team deeper into training, development and understanding all your Policies in Practice and more.

How quickly does a regulatory change reach my service?

Usually before it reaches you. Most change is announced well ahead of commencement, so our team is drafting amendments while it's still being consulted on rather than reacting once it takes effect. By the time a new requirement applies to your service, the updated policy is generally already there.

Commencement is rarely a single date. A national change is often staggered across states and territories, taking effect at different times and in different ways — so what matters isn't everyone getting the same update on the same day, it's the right version reaching the right service at the right time. That's the part we manage for you.

We also have something a document library can't build on its own: thousands of services using these policies, many of them sitting with assessors on any given day. When an assessor interprets a requirement a particular way, that comes back to us and sharpens the document for everyone.

How do you make sure no Regulatory change gets missed?

The Desktop Compliance team of five works on nothing else. Our content and compliance specialists, including former regulators, Directors, and industry experts monitor the National Law and Regulations, ACECQA, and each state and territory regulatory authority, along with the adjacent obligations that reach into a service. Knowing about a change is the first step, subsequently interpreting and applying the change to our library of documents is the next step, and this is what we have done and perfected over 16 years.

In addition to monitoring for change, every policy (and related document) also sits on a scheduled review cycle regardless of whether anything has changed, because documents go out of date quietly as well as loudly.

Do we have to accept your document changes, or can we keep our own wording?

You stay in control. When we update a master document you see your version side by side with ours and accept, modify or decline each change individually. The Compliance Engine tells you what moved and why, it does not overwrite what your service has written. You always decide and control the process, we have just made it easier for you.

What is staff attestation and why does it matter?

Each team member is assigned a policy to attest to when it is new or updated and signs off that they have read and understood it, with a time stamp against their name and the version of the document. That gives you a record for Reg 170 instead of a verbal assurance that everyone is across it and it is generated as a by-product of the update, not as a separate administrative job to chase.

What do families see in the parent portal?

Current published policies, forms and newsletters are available to families by selecting them in your Library. In addition the 14-day notice period for policy changes under Reg 172 is handled for you too. You are also able to ask for their feedback on QIP goals that are attached to a key practice and show this as evidence within your planning cycle.

Who writes and reviews your policies?

Our in-house compliance team, early childhood teachers, former Centre Directors, ex-ACECQA staff and regulatory experts. Every document is drafted and reviewed by people who have worked in services and with the Dept and Regulator. Nothing is generated from a generic template or with AI.

Can we edit them to suit our service?

Yes. Every policy is editable as a Word document or within The Desktop App and are written as a strong first draft, not a locked file. Services may adjust wording to reflect their philosophy, community and physical environment.

Are your policies state-specific?

Where a jurisdiction legislates its own requirements, we publish a separate variant rather than a generic national document. That includes Victoria; Child Safety and Wellbeing, Reportable Conduct, Information Sharing, Family Violence Reforms and Kindergarten enrolment and fees and South Australia; including Child Safe Environment and Recruitment. We add new variants as jurisdictions diverge.

What about requirements that differ between states but aren't separately legislated?

They're handled inside the national policy rather than split into eight versions of it. Members can remove information that is not relevant to their state. Immunisation and Sun Safety are good examples: the requirement isn't state-based legislation, but what each state expects does differ, so those differences sit within the one policy.

We already have our own policies. Is this still worth it?

Most services that join already have policies. The problem is rarely writing them once - it is the ongoing updates and keeping every document aligned as the Law, Regulations and NQF change, and knowing which ones have quietly gone out of date – that is a challenge.

When you import your documents into the App you can analyse your documents against ours and find the gaps you may be missing and get up to date quickly and then on an ongoing basis.

Will these policies get us through Assessment & Rating?

Assessment & Rating looks at your practice as well as your documentation, so no document library can promise a rating. What we can do is make sure the documents you're assessed against are current, complete and aligned to the Law, Regulations and NQF. We have found over the years that services tell us that removing the last-minute document scramble is what changed the experience for them.

We manage fine with notes and reminders, why do we need this?

Most services run on a whiteboard, a few post-it notes and someone's memory. It works until that person is on leave, or the note gets lost or nobody sees it. The Task module gives every job an owner, a due date and one place the whole team can see - so you know what's outstanding, what's overdue and who it sits with, without having to talk to someone to find out.

What do services actually use it for?

More than compliance work. Facility maintenance and repairs, marketing and enrolment activity, meetings and calls, reminders to purchase nappies etc, categorised so it works for your service and organisation. You could use it for HR tasks e.g., onboarding: a new educator's first fortnight laid out as a sequence of tasks, so it runs the same way every time instead of living in the Director's head.

Can Head Office/Multi-location operator assign work to a service?

Yes. Head Office can assign tasks directly to managers and administrators at each service, with due dates and priorities, and track them through to completion across every location from one view.

Can we assign a task to a room instead of a person?

Yes. Tasks can be assigned to people, rooms or departments, and categorised by type - meetings, calls and so on - so the right person is notified without you having to name an individual every time. You have the freedom to create your own priorities, categories, rooms etc in your settings, so it works the way you do.

How much can we rely on the Compliance GPT, QIP Mentor and Policy Buddy's answers?

These tools are built for the sector rather than being a general chatbot, and it is the fastest way to get oriented, understand terminology and find the right part of the Regulations, Framework, Documents etc. It is not legal or regulatory advice. For a decision with regulatory consequence, check the source it points you to or ask our team. The tool is designed to show you where an answer comes from so you can verify it. Any content is generated with artificial intelligence and should always be verified through human oversight and a human in the process.

Does it know our own policies, or only the general rules?

It is trained on both and helps interpret your service's own policies and procedures in context.

Are the lesson plans aligned to the EYLF and My Time, Our Place?

Users are able to select the Framework relevant for them. Current available frameworks are EYLF V2, MTOP V2 and AERO (Australian Early Development Responsive Organisation).

Is it acceptable to use AI-generated lesson plans?

The generated plan is a starting draft, not a finished program. What an assessor looks at is the thinking behind the planning and how it responds to the children in your room - the educator shapes that, the same as they would from any template. The Toolkit gives back the hours spent on the blank page, and is not designed to replace the professional judgement of a trained Early Childhood Educator.

Do we need PolicyDesk to use QIPDesk?

Yes. PolicyDesk is the foundation every service starts with, it holds the policies your QIP measures practice against, so the two work as one system rather than two subscriptions. QIPDesk is added on top.

Can the whole team contribute, or is the QIP one person's job?

Every goal and action can be assigned with an owner, priority and deadline, and progress updates are time-stamped against the person who made them. That matters beyond convenience: assessors look for evidence a QIP reflects genuine team input rather than being written by management alone, and this produces that evidence as a by-product of using it.

All stakeholders (including parents, families and team members at your service) are able to comment on key practices. Team members can see all key practices and submit their feedback, parents and families can see the feedback you have asked for in the Parent Portal and submit their responses there.

We already do our QIP in Word — why change?

A QIP in word format is a snapshot. It's accurate the week it's written, then it sits in a folder until someone remembers it before an assessment, and the version being worked on is rarely the version anyone else has seen. QIPDesk keeps it live: goals and actions with owners, priorities and dates, progress updated as it happens, and evidence attached where it belongs. When an assessor asks, you're showing them what your service has been doing all year - not reconstructing it.

How does it connect to our policies?

Directly, and that's the point. Your QIP measures how well your policies work in practice, so QIPDesk sits on top of the same library PolicyDesk maintains - you can link a goal to the policy it relates to, and the evidence you gather feeds back into the next cycle of the compliance engine. In a standalone QIP tool that connection doesn't exist; you'd be assessing practice against documents the tool knows nothing about.

What is the AI mentor, and can we rely on what it tells us?

Writing a QIP can be overwhelming for some Educators. Where do you start? Which element does this practice belong to? How can I extend on this activity we are currently doing to exceed the Standards? And so on.

There are many steps to get to the point where you can demonstrate you are self-assessing your performance, celebrating your strengths, and planning ongoing improvements at your service. The AI mentor is your guide to get you there. It is not designed to write the QIP for you, but to help and assist, brainstorm ideas with…you can take these to your team for further discussion or plan in the way that works for your organisation.

It is trained on industry specific data and as with all AI tools works well when there is a human in the loop. AI content is generated with artificial intelligence and must always be verified through human oversight.

Can we produce something the regulator will accept?

Yes - you can generate a QIP report at any time, backed by the evidence sitting behind each goal. Because it's current rather than assembled, what you hand over reflects where your service actually is on the day you hand it over.

What's included in PolicyDesk?

The complete policy library - 1,800+ policies, procedures, forms and checklists across all seven Quality Areas. The Compliance Engine, which tracks every regulatory change and keeps your documents, your team and your records current, with version control, staff attestation and the parent portal built in. The Task module and the Toolkit, with The Compliance GPT and AI-assisted lesson plans. All four are included in every subscription, along with your first 10 Policy in Practice courses.

Do we need PolicyDesk to use QIPDesk or TrainingDesk?

Yes. PolicyDesk is the foundation every service starts with. It holds the policies and related resources that your QIP measures practice against as well as the Training records of all staff at a service, so the three work as one system rather than seperate subscriptions. QIPDesk and TrainingDesk are added on top of PolicyDesk.

Is it priced per service or per organisation?

Our Terms and Conditions provide that each subscription is per service. Policies, evidence and records are held at service level so each service holds its own subscription and the rate reduces as your group grows.

If you add TrainingDesk, 15 seats are included with each service, with additional seats available if your team is larger. And if you operate more than one service, 1 Area Manager seat is included and additional seats available, so you only pay for the oversight roles you actually need.

Annual or quarterly?

Annual for a PolicyDesk subscription works out at about $64 a month, and saves $230 over the year, and is the only option carrying the 21-day money-back guarantee. The bundled option of all three modules on an annual subscription is the best value. A quarterly subscription commits you to three months rather than twelve – so the decision depends on your service.

Are we locked into a contract?

No. Annual runs 12 months, quarterly a minimum of three, and after that initial term you can cancel any time. If you don't cancel, the subscription continues on the same cycle.

How do we pay, and does the price include GST?

There are various payment methods available including via credit card (Mastercard, Visa), by direct debit on a bank account (BECS) and invoice payable via Stripe Link. Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. A tax invoice is issued and viewable via your Subscriptions page in Settings within the App.

What if it isn't right for us?

Annual subscriptions carry a 21-day, 100% satisfaction money-back guarantee - contact us within 21 days and we'll refund in full.

We already standardise policies across the group. What does this add?

Standardising your documents is the achievable half. The expensive half is everything that follows: each time the regulations move, the change has to be interpreted, the affected documents revised, published to every service, and each team's understanding recorded. One change, multiplied by every service you run.

The Compliance Engine gives your compliance manager the machinery to run that. We track the change and update the master policy, they decide how it lands. Which services publish independently, which route through approval, and where Head Office keeps the final say. Every service sees exactly what changed, staff acknowledge it, and the record is captured at each location.

It's the difference between managing compliance service by service and running it across the group from one place, with the same standard applied everywhere and the evidence to show it.

We already standardise policies across the group. What does this add?

It's the difference between managing compliance service by service and running it across the group from one place, with the same standard applied everywhere and the evidence to show it.

Can we control what individual services are allowed to change?

Yes. Head Office sets whether each service publishes independently or routes documents through an approval workflow, and you can vary it by service, allowing more autonomy where a service has earned it, tighter control where you need it. Every change is recorded in an audit trail, with who made it, when and why, so you can see what's happening across the group without having to ask.

Can we see every service's QIP progress from one place?

Managing compliance across multiple services can be complex, especially when it comes to staying on top of national laws and regulatory requirements. With QIPDesk, you gain a streamlined, enterprise-wide view of compliance across all seven Quality Areas, giving your Head Office team the visibility and ease to monitor performance in all of your services.

The Desktop mirrors all enterprise data with colour-coded bar graphs that provide an instant snapshot of compliance against both the National Laws and Regulations and the National Quality Standards. Whether you need a high-level overview of all your services or want to drill down into an individual service, QIPDesk makes it easy to identify compliance gaps and focus on areas that need attention.

Accessing each service's Quality Improvement Plan and Self-Assessment is seamless, simply switch between your head office profile and the individual service to review detailed compliance information.

What can an Area Manager see that a Director can't?

You can assign services to your Area Manager across your entire group. The area managers will be able to see an overview of QIP statistics so they can track quality improvement progress at a glance, tasks, documents and training for each of their assigned services and can access each service's data directly for a more in depth view.

How is Enterprise priced?

Your services are priced per service, with the rate reducing as your group grows - pricing for groups up to ten services is on our pricing page, and above ten we quote directly, because at that size the structure of your group affects the number. Area Manager access is licensed per seat, so you're paying for the oversight roles you actually have rather than a flat platform fee. And TrainingDesk, if you add it, is licensed per learner across the staff you want trained in a service – first 15 are included per service.

Is readiness really automatic at every service?

Yes and here's why. The cycle starts on its own. When a regulation changes, we identify and prioritise it, our team reviews and contextualises the affected policies, and the update lands at every service in your group.

Who acts on it from there is your call. Head Office can set each service to publish independently, or route the change through an approval workflow so it's checked centrally before it reaches the team and you can set that differently service by service, tighter where you need it, more autonomy where a service has earned it.

From there the engine carries each service through the rest of its steps: staff notified, signing off that they've read and understood the change, and the record captured, time-stamped, service by service, for Regulation 170. What a service learns in practice then feeds its QIP and shapes the next cycle.

Nobody at Head Office has to start it, chase it, or remember when it's due. And because you can see where each service sits in the cycle, a service that hasn't done its part is visible straight away, not discovered at assessment and ratings time.

Still have questions?

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