The 245D service-planning clock, deadline by deadline.

• Prior to or upon initiating services — abuse prevention plan developed, documented, and implemented (Minn. Stat. 245D.071, subd. 2).
• Within 15 days of service initiation — preliminary support plan addendum, based on the case manager's support plan (subd. 3(a)).
• Before 45 days of service are provided, or within 60 calendar days of initiation, whichever is shorter — required assessments complete (subd. 3(b)).
• Same window — initial planning meeting held with the person, their legal representative, the case manager, and the support team (subd. 3(c)).
• Within ten working days of the initial planning meeting — service plan documenting outcomes and supports (subd. 4(a)).
• Within 20 working days of the meeting — assessment and support plan addendum submitted, with dated signatures obtained from the person or legal representative and case manager (subd. 4(c)).
• No signature or written changes within ten working days of submission — the submission is deemed approved and takes effect (subd. 4(c)).

One definition matters for every working-day deadline: a working day is Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays (Minn. Stat. 245D.02, subd. 37). Ten working days is roughly two calendar weeks — build internal due dates off that definition, not a plain ten-day count.

The initial planning meeting turns assessments into a plan. The statute lists what it must determine: scope of services, the person's desired outcomes and the supports to reach them, preferences for how services are provided — including control of their own schedule — whether the setting is the most integrated available and appropriate, and opportunities for skills, community access, relationships, and competitive employment, plus coordination across providers (Minn. Stat. 245D.071, subd. 3(c)). The meeting must also include a technology discussion, summarized in the support plan or addendum (subd. 3(d)).

The service plan due ten working days later has required contents: the methods or actions to be used, measurable and observable criteria for when an outcome is achieved and how data will be collected, projected start and review dates, and the staff or positions responsible (subd. 4(b)). If your progress notes are written against those criteria from day one, the annual review largely writes itself.

Practice guidance, not statute: dates are the easiest thing in a client file for a reviewer to check. The file either shows a planning meeting inside the window or it does not — no judgment call required, just a calendar. That is why review-date drift is such a routine write-up in licensure reviews. The failure mode is rarely defiance; it is an anniversary living in a spreadsheet nobody opens, a coordinator who left, or a meeting held on time but never documented. Two habits close most of the gap: compute every person's due dates from the statute the day services start, and have someone own a weekly look at everything coming due. Our review readiness tool shows where these dates sit in the broader file.

Timing context: DHS stopped accepting new 245D license applications on January 1, 2026, and the pause is expected to run through December 31, 2027. Existing licenses operate normally — and licensure reviews continue while new entry is paused, so file discipline matters more during the window, not less. See our guide to the 245D licensing moratorium.

ClientCentric changes no deadline above — the statute does not care what software you run. It changes whether deadlines are visible: each person's record carries the service initiation date, so addendum, assessment, and review due dates are computed instead of remembered, and plan documents and case notes sit on the same record with an append-only audit history. If your current system is a spreadsheet and a memory, that is the specific problem we built for.