Supporting document · For Essential Care Victoria

Reconciled financial facts

A single canonical ledger of every financial figure used across the audit, each cited to its exact Xero source. Where any other audit document quotes a headline number, the source of truth is here.

MR Labs · Operational Audit Pulled 4 May 2026 · 10-month YTD Author: Muq Rohaizak
Source basis. All figures are sourced from a Xero MCP pull on 4 May 2026, period 1 Jul 2025 – 30 Apr 2026 (10-month YTD). Annualised figures are calculated as YTD × 12/10. Grant figures are sourced from the Schedule of Grant Activity (SGA) provided by Essential Care. Citation format: Xero acct <code> / <name> / YTD <date> / pulled <date> for Xero data; SGA Item D / Activity <id> for grant agreement data.

Key reconciliations applied in this revision (4 May 2026):

  1. Grant envelope corrected from inc-GST to ex-GST. Headline grant revenue (ex-GST, which is what hits the P&L) is $18,361,306.90 over 24 months = $9.18M/yr. SGA confirms three streams: DA $3.47M, HM $10.37M, Transport $4.52M (all ex-GST).
  2. Payment cadence confirmed from the SGA. Monthly in arrears. No holdback. Specific monthly instalments per stream. The Department can adjust payments based on DEX-reported delivery vs the Activity Work Plan.
  3. Grant under-receipt re-quantified. Against the SGA-scheduled monthly amounts, EC has received ~$556K less than scheduled over 10 months — a 7.3% shortfall.
  4. Transport unit confirmed: trips. AWP target is 7,998 trips per service area per year × 7 service areas = 55,986 trips/yr. Per the Transport-coordinator interview, EC delivers ~1,000 trips/month = 21% of contracted volume.
  5. ATO payment plan is in place for the Dec 2025 BAS. 12 weekly instalments totalling $234,228 created 8 Apr 2026; 6 paid ($114,228), 6 outstanding ($120,000).
Section 1

Income — by Xero account

Xero accountYTD (10 mo)Annualised (× 12/10)
261 — CHSP Govt Grant Received$7,094,891.68$8,513,870
SQ-200001 — Square Sales (client co-contributions, Amaka integration)$259,261.56$311,114
201 — Age Care Clients Payments (bank transfer)$77,665.26$93,198
270 — Interest Income$254.38$305
TOTAL INCOME$7,432,072.88$8,918,487

Source: Xero P&L by account, period 1 Jul 2025 – 30 Apr 2026, pulled via MCP 4 May 2026 02:24 UTC.

Section 2

Operating expenses — by stream

2.1 Home Maintenance (HM) — total annualised $6.32M (53.9% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
470 — Client Expense — Garden Maintenance$3,770,224.15$4,524,269
471 — Client Expense — Maintenance and Handyman work$1,497,068.74$1,796,482
556 — Maintenance — Purchases (Xero description: "Garden maintenance")$2,597.95$3,118
HM TOTAL$5,269,890.84$6,323,869

Account 470 includes a long tail of HM contractors. The data does not yet show a per-supplier breakout from the face of the P&L — see Section 8 for the open data items.

2.2 Domestic Assistance (DA) — total annualised $2.35M (20.0% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
472 — Client Expense — Cleaning Services$1,951,911.52$2,342,294
476 — Client Expense — Unassisted shopping$3,019.38$3,623
DA TOTAL$1,954,930.90$2,345,917

Account 472 captures cleaning services across all DA suppliers. A per-supplier breakout is required to validate stream-level concentration.

2.3 Transport — total annualised $658K (5.6% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
474 — Client Expense — Transport taxi$548,146.46$657,776
TRANSPORT TOTAL$548,146.46$657,776

Account 474 captures 13Cabs, Uber, and other taxi services. Per Business Bank Account #1867 transactions, the suppliers are PAYPAL *13CABS and UBER* TRIP, with daily small-amount entries.

2.4 Cross-cutting subcontractors — total annualised $117K (1.0% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
475 — Sub Contractor Fee$43,960.95$52,753
480 — Sub Contractors — NO GST$53,735.00$64,482
SUBCONTRACTOR TOTAL$97,695.95$117,235

Cannot be allocated to HM/DA/Transport without per-supplier line-item review. Account 480 specifically holds non-GST-registered subcontractors.

2.5 Wages & on-costs — total annualised $2.03M (17.3% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
477 — Wages and Salaries$1,512,463.10$1,814,956
478 — Superannuation$176,396.53$211,676
440 — Workcover$461.75$554
WAGES TOTAL$1,689,321.38$2,027,186

This is office-staff payroll only. Care delivery is overwhelmingly via contractors billed through the Client Expense accounts (472, 470, 471, 474), not via wages. The Workcover figure of $462 YTD looks materially low — confirm the correct policy and premium.

2.6 Admin & overhead — total annualised $257K (2.2% of expenses)

Xero accountYTDAnnualised
412 — Consulting & Accounting$118,573.74$142,288
469 — Rent$49,943.70$59,932
489 — Telephone & Internet$14,525.93$17,431
485 — Subscriptions$9,643.75$11,573
453 — Office Expenses$4,038.42$4,846
473 — Repairs and Maintenance (office)$4,331.90$5,198
SQ-300000 — Square Fees$3,684.42$4,421
400 — Advertising$2,448.75$2,939
510 — ATO Interest Expense$1,565.02$1,878
442 — Website / Online Services$1,210.49$1,453
404 — Bank Fees$1,042.15$1,251
408 — Cleaning (office property)$938.00$1,126
413 — HR & Workplace Advisory$776.73$932
401 — ASIC Fee$740.00$888
433 — Insurance$426.42$512
465 — Business Expenses Reimbursements$94.22$113
SQ-300002 — Square Chargebacks$52.00$62
ADMIN TOTAL$214,033.64$256,843

The insurance line at $426 YTD is implausibly low for an organisation with vehicles, premises, public liability and professional indemnity exposure. Likely either pre-paid or recorded in another account.

2.7 Grand total

$11.73M
Total operating expenses (annualised)
$8.92M
Total income (annualised)
($2.81M)
Net loss (annualised) · 31.5% of revenue

Cross-check: Xero P&L "Net Profit" line at YTD reports −$2,341,948.29. Matches the calculated figure exactly.

Section 3

CHSP grant cadence — confirmed

The question raised in early conversations was whether grants were being paid on time, or whether there was a structural payment issue. The SGA has now been read in full and the cadence is documented.

3.1 What the SGA says about payment structure

Payment in arrears, monthly, no holdback. Each month is paid for the previous month's performance, on a fixed instalment schedule per Activity (DA, HM, Transport). Specific monthly amounts ex-GST per stream:

Stream 31-day months 30-day months Total annual ex-GST
Domestic Assistance$144,753.10$144,579.53$1,735,648.66
Home Maintenance$432,236.72$431,718.45$5,182,694.51
Transport$188,676.68$188,450.45$2,262,310.28
TOTAL$765,666.50$764,748.43$9,180,653.45

The final June 2027 payment is the same as any other 30-day month — paid 31 July 2027 in arrears for services delivered 1–30 June 2027. The Activity Completion Date is 31 July 2027 specifically to enable this final payment. The Agreement End Date of 31 October 2027 allows time for the final acquittal.

"The Commonwealth will monitor activity levels as reported in the Data Exchange and in proportion to expected service levels according to the Activity Work Plan and may adjust payments according to achieved service delivery levels. Any variation to the payment amount or schedule will only arise if the Commonwealth notifies the Grantee."

Schedule of Grant Activity, payment-monitoring clause

Translation: the schedule is fixed unless the Department writes to EC to vary it because of delivery shortfalls.

3.2 What the Xero data shows vs the schedule

YTD CHSP grant received ex-GST (Xero acct 261, YTD Credit pulled 4 May 2026): $7,094,891.68

Expected per SGA schedule for the 10 months (Jul 2025 – Apr 2026):

$7.09M
Actual received YTD
$7.65M
SGA-scheduled YTD
−$556K
Variance · 7.3% shortfall

April 2026 alone: actual receipt $782,198.19 against an SGA-scheduled $764,748.43. April was actually $17,450 above schedule — the Department appears to be partially catching up.

3.3 Most likely explanation for the 7.3% shortfall

Given the SGA's delivery-linked monitoring clause and what the AWP shows about expected unit volumes vs actual delivery (see Section 5), the dominant explanation is:

The Department has reduced earlier tranches to reflect Transport under-delivery. EC is contracted to deliver 55,986 Transport trips/year (7,998 per service area × 7 service areas) but per the Transport-coordinator interview, EC handles "~1,000 receipts/month" = ~12,000 trips/year = 21% of contracted volume. A Department that monitors DEX submissions and notices systemic under-delivery on one stream would adjust payments downward.

If the Department has reduced Transport-stream payments by ~30% to reflect the delivery shortfall:

This is a working hypothesis, not confirmed — the FAM should be asked directly whether tranche adjustments have been notified.

3.4 What it means

The grants are arriving roughly on time, monthly. The under-receipt is a delivery problem on the Transport stream, not a payment problem. The fix is operational: deliver the contracted Transport trips, or formally vary the agreement to redistribute the Transport budget into HM/DA where there is actual delivery capacity.

Section 4

Critical exposures — balance sheet

These are liabilities and exposures, not P&L expenses.

ItemAmountSource
PAYG Withholdings Payable (total balance)$252,496.03Xero acct 825, YTD Credit balance
ATO BAS Dec25 payment plan — outstanding$120,0006 of 12 weekly $20K instalments still owing (see §4.1)
ATO BAS Dec25 payment plan — paid to date$114,2286 instalments marked PAID in Xero
BMW Wagon (asset)$52,144.90Xero acct 740
Accounts Payable$328,555.38Xero acct 800, YTD Credit balance
Holding Bank Account #5275 balance$1,280,708Xero acct (BANK). Internal cash movement from Business Account #1867 (see note below).
Square Other Payment Clearing$16,528.19Xero acct SQ-600010, YTD balance
Vic Payroll Tax (annualised est.)~$51,400/yrCalculated; SRO not yet registered

Note on Holding Account #5275: the records confirm this is not external grant funds — bank transactions show $2M was transferred IN from Business Account #1867 on 22 Sep 2025, with subsequent partial transfers OUT back to #1867 (Sep, Nov, Dec 2025, Jan 2026). It is an internal cash movement, not unspent grant.

4.1 ATO BAS Dec25 payment plan — full schedule

The original Dec25 BAS bills ($114,111 PAYG withheld + $114,281 GST + $5,836 PAYG income tax instalment = $234,228 total) were created 10 Feb 2026, then voided on 8 Apr 2026 and replaced with 12 weekly instalments:

#Invoice #Due DateAmountStatus (4 May 2026)
1BAS DEC25 - 110 Apr 2026$20,000PAID 24 Apr 2026 (14 days late)
2BAS DEC25 - 217 Apr 2026$20,000PAID 24 Apr 2026 (7 days late)
3BAS DEC25 - 324 Apr 2026$20,000PAID 29 Apr 2026 (5 days late)
4BAS DEC25 - 41 May 2026$20,000OVERDUE (3 days as at 4 May)
5BAS DEC25 - 58 May 2026$20,000Outstanding (due in 4 days)
6BAS DEC25 - 615 May 2026$20,000Outstanding
7BAS DEC25 - 722 May 2026$20,000Outstanding
8BAS DEC25 - 829 May 2026$20,000PAID early (15 Apr 2026)
9BAS DEC25 - 95 Jun 2026$20,000PAID early (15 Apr 2026)
10BAS DEC25 - 1012 Jun 2026$20,000Outstanding
11BAS DEC25 - 1119 Jun 2026$20,000Outstanding
12BAS DEC25 - 1226 Jun 2026$14,228PAID early (29 Apr 2026)
Total$234,228$114,228 paid; $120,000 outstanding

Findings on the payment plan

4.2 Combined ATO exposure

Total live ATO/SRO exposure: ~$270–340K.

Section 5

Stream-level economics

What each stream is costing relative to its grant envelope (annualised, all ex-GST):

Stream Annual cost (Xero) Annual envelope (SGA) Variance Implied unit price1 Annual unit volume contracted
Home Maintenance$6,323,869$5,182,695($1,141,175)$83.38/hr62,154 hrs/yr
Domestic Assistance$2,345,917$1,735,649($610,269)$67.81/hr25,594 hrs/yr
Transport$657,776$2,262,310$1,604,534 (under-delivered)$40.41/trip55,986 trips/yr

Stream-level findings

The stream-level imbalance compounds the headline loss: HM and DA are losing money on every unit delivered (contractor cost exceeds grant rate), while Transport is leaving money on the table by under-delivering. Both problems compound; both are addressable.

Section 5A

Monthly trend per stream

Sourced from 10 individual monthly P&L pulls from Xero (one call per month, fromDate/toDate per calendar month, all pulled 4 May 2026).

Month CHSP grant Sq + Other Total income HM DA Transport Wages Total exp Net P/L
Jul 25$0$40,980$40,980$408,598$323,843$43,519$153,211$971,517($930,508)
Aug 25$765,667$20,958$786,625$525,316$472,055$61,412$127,386$1,225,365($438,709)
Sep 25$765,667$18,526$784,193$633,883$407,309$58,792$184,449$1,346,299($562,081)
Oct 25$765,667$10,210$775,877$561,478$205,684$58,591$150,389$1,056,793($280,910)
Nov 25$765,667$2,805$768,472$593,256$157,304$50,884$112,847$977,304($208,819)
Dec 25$1,529,497$24,694$1,554,191$592,667$78,966$49,477$169,096$933,909$620,323
Jan 26$87,973$25,310$113,283$391,982$72,858$40,259$124,331$673,015($559,689)
Feb 26$782,198$70,133$852,331$408,764$125,829$54,551$154,881$783,225$69,124
Mar 26$850,359$77,053$927,412$626,289$51,813$64,407$147,538$935,691($8,229)
Apr 26$782,198$46,256$828,454$527,553$59,269$66,255$188,335$873,396($44,942)
TOTAL$7,094,892$336,925$7,431,818$5,269,786$1,951,911$548,147$1,512,463$9,776,514($2,344,440)

5A.1 Stream trend findings

HM (Garden + Handyman): volatile $390–630K/mo. Highest Sep ($634K) and Mar ($626K). Lowest Jan ($392K). Trend: roughly flat with seasonal variation.

DA (Cleaning Services) — important data finding: the records show two things happening in parallel.

  1. Billing volume reduced from its peak. The Aug–Sep 2025 peaks of $400–472K reduced from October 2025 onward.
  2. In March 2026, the largest DA supplier's invoices were re-coded from acct 472 (DA / Cleaning Services) to acct 470 (HM / Garden Maintenance). Confirmed via line-item account codes on individual supplier invoices:
    • INV-0151 (10 Nov 2025): acct 472 (DA stream)
    • INV-0200 (19 Feb 2026): acct 472 (DA stream)
    • INV-0235 (25 Mar 2026): acct 470 (HM stream) — switch point
    • INV-0244 (9 Apr 2026): acct 470
    • INV-0248 (14 Apr 2026): acct 470
    • INV-0256 (29 Apr 2026): acct 470
    April 2026 billing alone from this supplier (INV-0238 through INV-0256) is ~$170K incl GST = ~$154K ex GST, all coded to acct 470. If still coded to 472, April Cleaning Services line would be ~$213K instead of $59K.
  3. The invoice descriptions are notable. INV-0151, INV-0200, INV-0235 and INV-0244 all carry the description: "Due to shortage of staff during the transactions, invoice was created later for intra-accounts payment." This signals retrospective bookkeeping — invoices created in batches after the fact, not at point of service.

Material implications of the re-coding

Recommendation: sample 5–10 more invoices from this supplier across each month Jan–Apr 2026 to confirm the pattern is consistent (all March+ invoices to 470, all earlier to 472). Then either re-code historically (clean up the books) or document the re-coding decision and rationale for the acquittal.

Transport: flat $40–66K/mo with mild seasonal variation. Average $54,815/mo. No significant trend.

CHSP grant cadence — actual receipts month by month

The pattern is not "monthly clockwork" — it is "monthly with corrections". The cumulative result ($7.09M actual vs $7.65M scheduled) is a 7.3% shortfall, and the running balance has been moving toward schedule but has not fully caught up.

5A.2 Transport trip count — estimate

A direct trip count requires reading the master operational sheet (Transport completed log). The trip-count below is estimated from monthly Transport spend ÷ average trip cost (sample of 14 PAYPAL *13CABS / UBER* TRIP transactions on acct 474 averaged $62/trip, range $21–$137).

Avg trip cost assumptionTotal trips (10 mo)Avg trips/monthvs contracted 4,665/mo
$4013,7041,37029.4% delivery
$5010,9631,09623.5% delivery
$62 (sample mid)8,84188419.0% delivery
$757,30973115.7% delivery

Action to confirm exactly: open the Transport completed-log sheet, count Transport rows by month, replace the estimate with a hard count.

5A.3 What the trend tells us strategically

  1. Transport is genuinely under-delivered. Either way, EC is delivering 16–29% of contracted Transport volume. The unused budget is $1.5–1.8M/year. The fix is operational, not financial.
  2. The DA cliff is the single biggest unexplained operational change in the data. From $472K to $59K monthly without working memos noting it. This needs a direct conversation with leadership to explain before the FY 25-26 acquittal.
  3. Grant tranche irregularity confirms delivery-linked monitoring. The Jan 26 tiny payment ($88K) and the Dec 25 double payment ($1.53M) suggest the Department is reconciling tranches against DEX-reported delivery. EC is not on a rigid schedule — they are on a "pay per units delivered" arrangement in practice.
  4. December 2025 was the only profitable month (+$620K) — and that was because of the double grant tranche, not improved operations. Underlying P&L is consistently loss-making.
Section 6

Implications — what changes from earlier framing

These reconciled figures supersede earlier estimates in companion working memos. Specifically:

Section 7

How to use this ledger

Section 8

Outstanding data items

These items need information from outside Xero to fully resolve:

  1. Grant agreement Schedule of Payments / Cash Flow Statement — needed to determine whether tranches are delivery-linked, holdback-based, or late-start. Source: SGA from Grant Documents.
  2. DEX submission records vs unit commitments — to determine whether the under-receipt is delivery-linked. Source: DEX portal at dex.dss.gov.au, EC's submission audit trail.
  3. Per-supplier breakdown of accounts 470, 471, 472 — to confirm supplier concentration and validate stream-level allocation. Source: Xero AP transactions by contact.
  4. Workcover policy & premium — to confirm whether $462 YTD is correct or under-recorded. Source: Workcover certificate of currency, EC's broker.
  5. Insurance coverage — $426 YTD on acct 433 is implausibly low. Source: insurance schedule from broker.
  6. Holding Bank Account #5275 purpose — confirmed $1.25M came from Business Account #1867 in Sep 2025; the intent for the transfer is to be confirmed with the CEO.
  7. PAYG, BAS and Payroll Tax filing history — to confirm exact arrears and structure ATO disclosure. Source: ATO portal, EC's BAS agent.
  8. FY24-25 grant acquittal status — was there one? Were there carryover funds? Source: EC's accountant, FAM correspondence.

1 Based on HCP-program rules published October 2025. Equivalent CHSP-to-SAH transition mechanics have not yet been published by the Department. We are using HCP as the best available proxy. Where this document references units, billable units, classification levels, or price caps in the context of the transition, the same caveat applies. The transition itself is expected no earlier than 1 July 2027.