Need a hand?

We specialise in providing proactive tax and business advisory services for small and medium enterprises, typically with revenue above (or working towards) $1 million. Our services and ways of working are geared towards those in business, so while we do process income tax returns for individuals within business groups, we typically don’t provide services to salary & wage / investor clients directly.

Our taxation and compliance services for business clients typically involve: 

– Annual compliance including preparation and lodgement of financial statements & income tax returns

– GST review and reconciliation

– Structuring review and asset protection

– General accounting, financial and taxation advice, including looking for ways to streamline your internal systems and processes to save time, maximizing technology to work smarter

– Company secretarial services to maintain your company register

– Fringe Benefits Tax return preparation & lodgement

– Pre-financial year-end tax planning review/assessment 

– Quarterly meeting, including financial position review, commentary on results and needs analysis (to identify important macro issues), including following up actions

– Proactive review of your current situation to see if any proactive suggestions can be made in relation to taxation, business improvement, etc, noting for future discussions.

If you’re looking for a new perspective and want to partner with us for your tax and accounting compliance needs, it’s really easy to switch across from an existing accountant.

All we need to get started is a copy of your most recent financials and tax returns, and then we liaise with your existing accountant to transfer any physical and electronic files and cloud accounting subscriptions they may hold on your behalf.

If concern about losing the history and knowledge of your business is getting in the way of you making the switch, you needn’t be worried. We pride ourselves on developing an indepth understanding of your business and more often than not, we find a fresh set of eyes across your business structure can usually lead to a win or two from a structuring, asset protection, and/or estate planning point of view.

If you can provide us with a copy of your most recent financial statements & income tax returns, and the details of your previous accountant, that’s usually all we need to get started! We will then liaise with them on your behalf to organise the transfer of any physical or electronic files and cloud accounting subscriptions, and any critical knowledge we might need on your business.

We typically kick off all of our new engagements with a proactive review of your structure and asset protection plans, so having access to your most recent financials will assist us in identifying any opportunities that you might not have realised.

In short, no. While direct costs such as cloud accounting software subscriptions, ASIC fees, and other external charges (eg legal fees) incurred in the course of providing services to you are charged at cost, we don’t provide a price list or menu of services without first meeting with you.

Once we have an understanding of your situation, we’ll provide a detailed proposal of recommended services, typically with a fixed price, or an estimated range, based on the complexity and scope involved in helping you to focus on what matters.

Yes! We are big believers in ensuring there are no surprises when it comes to our fees, so in general our engagements with clients are based on a fixed price for services, or an estimated range will be provided for your approval where a fixed price may not be appropriate.

Benefits and key elements of our fixed price packages include:

• a fixed price that removes any uncertainty in your dealings with us and helps you manage your payments
• an element of phone and email support for day-to-day matters / business as usual matters
• access to our proven network of contacts in a variety of disciplines
• placing you in the best tax position possible with proactive planning and actions
• allowing you to “rest easy” in the knowledge that your tax and statutory obligations have been taken care of
• comfort in knowing your work will be handled within the required timeframes
• regular newsletters, including timely updates and year-end checklists

Once we have a good understanding of your personal situation, we’ll provide a proposal outlining our recommended services.

For a growth-focused business with multiple entities (eg trading company, trust, individual owners, and any related family members etc) common services we include in the proposal are:

• Proactive review of your current situation to see if any suggestions can be made in relation to taxation, business improvement, asset protection, retirement and estate planning strategies, etc.
• Annual compliance, including preparation of financial statements and income tax returns for the previous financial year
• Pre-30 June year-end Tax planning review, considering items such as group structure, trust distributions, dividend payments, expense claims to ensure you have utilised all available tax planning opportunities now and going forward.
• Year-end meeting to discuss your financial position and follow up any actions.
• Preparation and lodgement of monthly/quarterly Business Activity Statements
• Preparation and lodgement of Fringe Benefits Tax returns or reimbursement documentation.
• Review of assessment notices issued by the Taxation Office.
• Maintenance of company registers, including preparation of annual company statement.
• Xero software subscriptions, after 25% discount we pass onto you.
• Xero file review, to help identify efficiency gains or improvements to save you time and potential costs.
• Phone and email support for day-today matters / business as usual matters

Our agreements typically run over a complete financial year, at the end of which we review the agreement annually, make any adjustments as needed and taking in to account any changes in your circumstances, and then re-engage on that basis.

Most commonly clients choose to pay for their services monthly, although other frequencies (eg quarterly) are possible.

Our typical package of services for annual compliance generally runs for a period of 12 months and commences 1 July covering services provided through to 30 June, with invoices issued at the end of each month (unless agreed otherwise) and payment automatically taken from your nominated bank account or credit card.

Our standard fixed price agreements include services that will be provided over a period of 12 months, so there may be some quieter months where no services are being undertaken.  

The purpose of the agreement is to provide you with a comfort of a known, fixed fee that you can pay over a period of 12 months, and assurance that you will receive all the services outlined in the engagement, even though there may be some times throughout the period with little to no services.

It’s important to remember that all of our fixed price packages include a level of phone and email support for day to day matters, so please don’t shy away from picking up the phone, sending us a text, or shooting through an email when you need us.

We pride ourselves on our responsiveness, so if you do reach out and can’t get through to us, please leave a detailed phone message and we will endeavor to get back to you within 1 business day.

If the assistance you need falls outside of the scope of our agreed engagement we’ll let you know, and we’ll never commence any work until an indicative or fixed price has been provided and accepted.

We can accept payment by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or direct debit from a nominated bank account.

When you come on board as a client you’ll be asked to nominate your preferred payment method upfront. We ask for these details for a number of reasons, including:

– Streamlining payment processes for our clients so you only need to enter your payment details once, and from then on, you won’t need to worry about manually paying each invoice. Our system will automatically charge your nominated credit card or bank account after you are invoiced, so you can focus on the important things in your business.

– Implementing automations and efficiencies that ensure our team our free to support you with proactive advice and compliance services, rather than following up unpaid invoices.

We utilise a secure, online platform called Ignition to manage our proposal, invoicing, and payment systems. This is to help streamling our administrative process to make things easier for you, while freeing up our team to focus on delivering proactive advice.

When you come on board as a client you’ll be asked to nominate your preferred payment method upfront. We ask for these details for a number of reasons, including:

– Streamlining payment processes for our clients so you only need to enter your payment details once, and from then on, you won’t need to worry about manually paying each invoice. 

– Implementing automations and efficiencies that ensure our team our free to support you with proactive advice and compliance services, rather than following up unpaid invoices.

For fixed price agreements with monthly or quarterly payment terms, you will receive your invoice and your nominated account or credit card will be charged on the same day.

For fee for service arrangements / services billed upon completion, you will receive your invoice and your nominated account or credit card will be charged 14 days later.

Day-to-day matters/business as usual matters include:

• Request for information to be provided to external parties (i.e. ATO portal reports)
• Xero coding queries
• Liaising with external parties on your behalf (i.e. for refinancing)
• Questions that only take 5-15 minutes to answer

Anything that requires further consideration or advice will fall outside of the scope of the agreement. In this case, we will provide you with an upfront price or will charge on an hourly rate – we’ll discuss this with you prior to commencing any work that falls outside of the scope of our existing agreement. 

The phone and email support time will be based on what your expected needs are and priced accordingly. For example, if you are new to business, it may be expected you will have questions about day-to-day bookkeeping or record keeping. Your support time may in this case be higher to give you the freedom to pick up the phone at any time. However, we will also recommend the most cost-effective solution for you, for example up-front Xero training, to save you costs in the long-run.

If a service is not specified in our initial proposal, this will be considered outside of scope and incur an extra cost. This may include special projects, such as restructuring for asset protection or estate planning purposes, or providing advice on a complex tax matter. 

Additionally, you may choose which services are included in your annual engagement, and which ones fall outside and will be billed on completion at an hourly rate. 

We will let you know when a service falls outside of your annual engagement and, where possible, provide an upfront price.

Of course!

Regardless of when you come on board as a client we’ll provide an outline of any recommended services you may need, with either a fixed price that you can choose to pay monthly, or an estimated price that we’ll invoice on completion.

Once those services have been completed and a new financial year commences, we’ll provide an updated agreement or estimate for any new and existing services that will be provided over the coming 12 months.  

In most cases, we will do our best to deliver what we have promised to you under the service agreement. However, it is ultimately up to you whether you make use of the inclusions or not. 

We will review your agreement at the end of each financial year before we send you a new proposal for services for the following year, and discuss with you any adjustments as necessary if your circumstances have changed.

Yes! We can certainly invoice you upon the completion of work.

We will be able to provide you with an estimate of costs for some of the work such as preparation of financial statements and tax returns, but the day-to-day matters will be charged at our hourly rates.