From Senior Receptionist to Practice Manager: Your First 90 Days
Your first 90 days as a GP practice manager: agree your authority, take over the PRODA, PIP, accreditation and payroll obligations nobody wrote down, roster a real desk, lead former peers, and turn a crowded inbox into a plan you can keep.
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Confirm your written authority and what the owner must decide.
- Name an owner, backup and next check for each live risk; count supervision and breaks in coverage.
- Choose a few measurable ninety-day outcomes, then check whether the change actually worked.
Open the lessons and tools. Use current local procedures and sources.
This optional refresher does not record a new completion. Certificates require the full course and its assessments.
For you if…
You are a senior receptionist stepping up, a new practice manager, a team leader or a second-in-charge. Owners can use the workbook to agree authority and support with their new manager.
What you’ll practise
- Agree decision limits with the owner and know who you ask for what.
- Build the GP handover index: PRODA and HPOS, certificates, My Health Record policy, PIP and ePIP, accreditation, insurance, the fridge alarm, renewals, leases, room rental and vaccine claims.
- Run a daily-to-quarterly rhythm, including Payday Super and the right to disconnect.
- Count a busy hour in minutes and roster a real desk.
- Raise concerns with former peers privately, and know the small-business dismissal rules.
- Recruit and induct with the checks a GP practice must do before day one.
- Watch the measures a practice actually uses and reconcile the money yourself.
- Plan 90 days within a real budget, and recover from an outage.
How it works
Nine short, case-based lessons, practical tools and two automatically scored quizzes. Try each decision before opening the worked example. Allow about 55 minutes for reading, activities and quizzes; longer if you work through the workbook.
Pass the knowledge quiz with at least 80% and the safety quiz with 100%. Read the feedback and retry as needed. The final case is a practice exercise with a checklist to check your reasoning.
The people and practice in this course are made up. This course is professional development, not accredited CPD, and supports your practice’s own procedures rather than replacing them.
Explore the lessons
- Define the job before doing it
- Take over the work, not just the passwords
- Build a management rhythm
- Plan work and coverage realistically
- Lead people who used to be your peers
- Recruit and induct for the actual job
- Read a small dashboard without being misled
- Delegate and make a ninety-day promise you can keep
- Final practice activity — Alex’s first Monday
Sources (checked September 2026)
- Fair Work: Hiring employees
- Fair Work: Managing underperformance
- Fair Work: Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) summary
- Fair Work: Changes to MA000027
- Fair Work: List of awards (Nurses Award 2020, MA000034)
- Fair Work: Unfair dismissal
- Fair Work: Right to disconnect
- Fair Work: Casual to permanent
- ATO: Payday Super payment deadlines
- ATO: Super guarantee rate
- ePIP eligibility requirements
- OAIC: My Health Record Rule 42 guidance
- ACSQHC: NGPA Scheme and the RACGP Standards
- Safe Work Australia: Psychosocial hazards in health care
- Safe Work Australia: Consultation when managing WHS risks
Keep a one-page desk guide
Open the printable desk guides (PDF), page 2. Print just that page for this course: three practical checks, a worked note and a common mistake.