Methodology & sources.
Three data sources underpin this document. Every figure below is tied back to one of them so EC's accountant or incoming CFO can reproduce or extend the analysis without re-doing the audit.
- Xero ACCPAY (Accounts Payable) bill data, queried live 25–26 April 2026. Each cited bill carries its Xero Invoice ID for verification in Xero's UI.
- Sample PDF invoices attached to each Xero bill (the "Files" tab on each bill). PDFs give the reference text — aged care worker, client, time spent — that the Xero bill record alone does not surface.
- Xero P&L FY25–26 YTD (1 July 2025 – 24 April 2026), used as the upper bound per expense account.
Where exact totals could not be derived line-by-line from the API (because the aged-payables endpoint returns more data than fits in a single response for high-volume suppliers), the document reports estimates with explicit error bars and flags the one-click Xero UI report (Account Transactions, grouped by Contact) that gives the exact figure in 30 seconds.
Anything not tied to a verifiable source is flagged "TBC" (to be confirmed).
P&L expense lines — the upper bounds.
From the live Xero P&L pull (1 Jul 2025 – 24 Apr 2026), the four client-service expense accounts that frame this analysis:
| Account | P&L FY26 YTD | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| 470 Client Expense — Garden Maintenance | $3,611,902.57 | HM gardening |
| 471 Client Expense — Maintenance & Handyman | $1,478,390.37 | HM handyman |
| 472 Client Expense — Cleaning Services | $1,936,842.10 | DA cleaning |
| 474 Client Expense — Transport / taxi | $531,843.04 | Transport |
| 476 Client Expense — Unassisted shopping | $3,019.38 | DA shopping |
| Combined client-service expense | $7,561,997 | — |
These are the totals every per-supplier figure below should roll up to within each stream.
HM Garden Maintenance — where the rate spread is widest.
Account 470 · $3.61M YTD across multiple providers. Three providers were bill-sampled with PDFs attached. The effective hourly rates between them vary by 2.4×.
2.1 — Iron Landscaping (Riyan Yusuf Mohamed, sole trader)
ABN: 72 351 775 955 · Worker crew per dispatch sheet: Mounir, Jamie, Zuheb, Ranil, Damon, Baris.
Confirmed sample bill — Xero INV-2697:
| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice date | 13 Apr 2026 | Xero |
| Sub-total | $220.00 | Xero |
| GST | $22.00 | Xero |
| Total | $242.00 | Xero |
| Account code | 470 Garden Maintenance | Xero |
| Status | PAID (20 Apr 2026) | Xero |
| Aged care worker | Mounir | PDF reference field |
| Client | Enayet Ullah, Cairnlea | PDF reference field |
| Time on site | 1.00 hour (09:30–10:30) | PDF reference field |
| Service | Lawnmowing, weeding, whippersnipping, hedging, pruning, blower | |
| Effective hourly rate | $220 / hour | derived |
Across 10 more recent bills (Mar–Apr 2026): sub-totals range $200–$250, average ≈ $232. If each bill represents ~1 hour of service (consistent with INV-2697), Iron Landscaping's effective rate sits at $200–$250/hour, averaging ~$232/hour.
Estimated total YTD AP: $1.0M – $1.4M (one-click confirmation via Xero UI Account Transactions report grouped by Contact).
2.2 — YK Home Maintenance & Cleaning Pty Ltd (Yusuf Mohamed)
ABN: 93 688 520 461 · Entity: Australian Private Company, active from 1 Jul 2025 · GST status: not currently registered for GST (which is why YK bills carry no GST). Worker crew: Pasindu, Quentin, Sirag, Madu, Abdul, Abdulalim Omar, Mohamed (~4 active).
Confirmed sample bill — Xero INV-2036:
| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice date | 22 Apr 2026 | Xero |
| Sub-total | $270.00 | Xero |
| GST | none (EXEMPTEXPENSES) | Xero |
| Total | $270.00 | Xero |
| Account code | 470 Garden Maintenance (coded here despite "Cleaning" in the company name) | Xero |
| Status | PAID (24 Apr 2026) | Xero |
| Aged care worker | Abdul | PDF reference |
| Client | Cumar/Vinay, Tarneit | PDF reference |
| Time on site | 1 hour 45 minutes (08:45–10:30) | PDF reference |
| Service | Cutting trees, trimming front yard, cleaning | |
| Effective hourly rate | $154.29 / hour (270 ÷ 1.75 hr) | derived |
Across 10 recent bills (21–22 Apr 2026), every single one was $270.00 flat, no GST. YK appears to charge a flat $270 per visit regardless of duration. If each visit is ~1.75 hours (per the confirmed INV-2036), the effective rate is ~$154/hour. To verify duration across other visits, pull 9 more PDFs.
Estimated total YTD AP: $0.7M – $1.1M.
2.3 — I Mow 4 U / Total Garden Care (Kieran Darby)
ABN: 77 951 492 672 · Entity: Sole trader, active from 22 Nov 2020 · GST status: registered from 25 Nov 2022 · Region: Ballarat (VIC 3358).
Confirmed sample bill — Xero Invoice 13747:
| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice date | 22 Apr 2026 | Xero |
| Sub-total | $180.00 | Xero |
| GST | $18.00 | Xero |
| Total | $198.00 | Xero |
| Account code | 470 Garden Maintenance | Xero |
| Client | David O'Connor / John Angwin (Lake Gardens) | |
| Service date | 22/04/26 09:00–10:00 | |
| Quantity | 2 (= 2 hours billed) | |
| Unit price | $90.00 / hour | |
| Confirmed effective rate | $90 / hour |
Across 10 sample bills the rates are clean: $90 (1hr), $180 (2hr × 8 bills), $191.36 — all consistent with a flat $90/hour rate.
Estimated total YTD AP: $80K – $150K (small relative to Iron and YK).
2.4 — Other HM Garden providers (not yet bill-sampled)
Account 470 also includes the providers below. Per-bill rate sampling is listed as an on-site verification task.
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| Lawnlux Maintenance | Riyan Mohamed (same name as Iron — same person or different — TBC) |
| Zu Gardening | Zuheb Mohamed |
| Aquavit | Kifah El Houli |
| BZ Property Maintenance + Grand Property Maintenance | Burak Uslu (multiple Xero contacts, same person) |
| Lawn Empire Solutions | Reported tab only |
| Jims Mowing — Joshua / Taylor | Reported tab |
| Clean Embrace Vic, Bajabros / Corey, Larry / Geelong, Ethan / Gippsland, GDAC / Damien Kiss, Josh Watkins, David Connect Service Solutions | Reported tab |
2.5 — HM Garden — first-pass rate comparison
Three providers, three bills with PDFs attached. The headline:
| Provider | Hourly rate (effective) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| I Mow 4 U | $90 / hour | Bill 13747 PDF: 2hr × $90 + GST |
| YK Home Maintenance | $154 / hour | Bill INV-2036 PDF: 1.75hr × $154 |
| Iron Landscaping | $220 / hour | Bill INV-2697 PDF: 1.00hr × $220 + GST |
Iron Landscaping is being paid 2.4× I Mow 4 U's hourly rate for the same service category. YK is paid 1.7×. Same EC, same service stream, same expense account.
Three plausible explanations for the rate spread, in descending likelihood:
- Geography. I Mow 4 U operates from Ballarat / regional Victoria; Iron and YK operate metro Melbourne. Regional rates run lower. Partially explains the gap.
- Pricing model. Iron and YK appear to charge a per-visit rate; I Mow 4 U charges by the hour. A short visit looks expensive on a per-visit model.
- Scope. Iron's bill lists six services in one go (mowing, weeding, whippersnipping, hedging, pruning, blower) — the $220 may cover a broader scope than I Mow 4 U's basic mowing line.
The rate spread is not necessarily an overpayment — it could be entirely explained by geography, pricing model, and scope. But it is a renegotiation lever. If Iron and YK could be brought toward the I Mow 4 U regional rate (or onto a standardised hourly schedule), the spend implications run into seven figures annually. The question is whether that's a real renegotiation conversation, a market-data issue, or a different mix of services. This is a finding; the solution work happens in Phase 2.
HM Handyman / Maintenance — account 471 — $1.48M YTD.
Per the reported-jobs tab and the KY Home Maintenance / Essential Care dispatch sheets, account 471 covers:
- KY Home Maintenance — handyman work; account-coding split between 470/471 needs confirmation
- Essential Care general handyman crew — workers per dispatch sheet: Kifah, Omar, Aysha, Crystal, Sundas, Kira, Maysa, Basima
- Burak Uslu — operates as BZ Property Maintenance, Grand Property Maintenance, plus two other Xero contacts (same person)
- Ahmad / PPG, Ahmed / AFR
- Naim Hassen — Building Care Solutions + a second contact
- Ilhan Canbolat — Gardening (despite the contact name, probably HM-Handyman per coding)
- Adnan, Alim, Jama, Ilyas, Forefront / Tony, dgb REF
Per-bill sampling for this stream has not yet been completed. Listed as a verification task in §6.
DA Cleaning — account 472 — $1.94M YTD.
4.1 — Essential Touch Cleaning (related-party)
Essential Touch is a related party (operated by EC's COO, Kaltun Mohammed). Estimated total YTD: ~$916K, across approximately 252 bills June 2025 – April 2026.
Sample bill — Xero INV-0250:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Invoice date | 21 Apr 2026 |
| Sub-total | $24,545.45 |
| GST | $2,454.55 |
| Total | $27,000.00 |
| Account code | 472 Cleaning Services |
| Status | PAID (23 Apr 2026) |
| Description | Essential Touch Cleaning — INV-0250 |
Essential Touch bills differ structurally from Iron / YK / I Mow 4 U: they are lump-sum batched payments (covering a week of multiple workers' time billed together) rather than per-visit bills. A per-hour rate cannot be derived from the bill total alone — the supporting timesheet would be required.
Observed bill amounts range from $199 to $65,929.60. One bill (INV-0151, $65,929.60) carries the description "The money was wrongly paid for the previous paid bill" — a documented duplicate-payment incident.
4.2 — Other DA cleaning providers
Account 472 minus Essential Touch leaves ~$1.02M for other providers. Named providers from the client master sheet content include:
- Happy Helpers / HomeCare — workforce aggregator (7-digit invoice numbers like 7747269, 8159590)
- Layla (named worker)
- "Happy Helpers - HomeCare" entity per client master sheet
Per-bill sampling not yet completed. Listed in §6.
Transport — account 474 — $532K YTD.
Per interviews with Nawal and Alisya, transport runs through three platforms:
- Uber — booked via app, paid via EC's PayPal account, no bilateral aged-care agreement in place
- 13CABS — booked via app, similar arrangement
- Ararat Taxis — for trips outside 13CABS coverage
Per-supplier dollar split: TBC. The combined $532K/year spend across Uber + 13CABS is enterprise-tier volume. Both platforms have business / SMB programs:
- Uber for Business — volume pricing, central billing dashboard, departmental cost-codes
- 13CABS Corporate — enterprise tier with reduced rates
Initial enquiries with both is a low-effort, potentially high-impact lever. Listed in §6.
Verification list — what to confirm next.
The figures above are the cleanest derivable from API-pulled data. The list below covers the verification work that would tighten every figure further — most of which can be done in the Xero UI in minutes.
- I Mow 4 U bill 13747 — 1hr vs 2hr discrepancy. Bill quantity = 2 (= 2 hours), but the work was 09:00–10:00 (1 hour). Cross-check the corresponding Square invoice to John Angwin / David O'Connor: was it 1 hour or 2 hour service? Three-way reconciliation needed.
- 9 more Iron Landscaping PDFs. Pull from Xero ("Files" tab on each bill) to confirm the $220/hour rate holds across the bill range $200–$250.
- 9 more YK Home Maintenance PDFs. Verify the flat $270 per bill always represents ~1.75 hours.
- Xero UI Account Transactions report for accounts 470, 471, 472, 474, FY26 YTD, grouped by Contact — gives the exact $ per supplier in 30 seconds.
- Per-bill sampling for accounts 471 (Handyman), 472 (Cleaning non-ET), 474 (Transport) — verification is largely missing for these streams.
Client co-contribution — context for the cost.
EC's client-side revenue from Square Sales (Xero account SQ-200001) for FY26 YTD: $240,730.21. Plus Age Care Clients Payments (account 201): $77,665.26. Combined client co-contribution + direct payment: ~$318,395 for the 10-month period.
Compared against the four service-expense streams:
| Expense stream | FY26 YTD spend |
|---|---|
| HM Garden expense | $3,612K |
| HM Handyman expense | $1,478K |
| DA Cleaning expense | $1,937K |
| Transport expense | $532K |
| Total client-service expenses | $7,559K |
Client co-contribution recovers ~4.2% of client-service expense. The other ~95.8% is funded by the CHSP grant ($7,094,892 received YTD) plus any operating losses absorbed by EC.
This ratio is not unusual for a CHSP-funded provider — the grant is designed to be the dominant funder. But the small co-contribution share means every client billing error ($20 not collected, etc.) hurts disproportionately, and any systematic under-claiming of CHSP units multiplies the impact.
This document is the data-cited per-supplier rate comparison. Supplementary verification questions and on-site action items flow into the Phase 2 build plan once Stage A is signed.