Accounting groups welcome start of Standard Business Reporting regime

Accounting industry bodies and software providers have welcomed the launch of the Federal Government’s Standard Business Reporting regime, which aims to cut business compliance costs by making it easier for companies to lodge reports with governments.

The SBR regime allows businesses to pre-fill and complete government reports via their own accounting software systems, using a single secure login, known as an AUSKey.

Since registrations began five weeks ago, the Government says 51,000 AUSKey logins have been provided to over 36,000 businesses.

CPA Australia chief Alex Malley says the SBR regime will allow a streamlining of business-to-government reporting requirements through the harmonisation and standardisation of government forms, and will also help to make financial reporting easier to understand by establishing a single reporting language.

“Businesses will spend less time in the gathering, analysis and re-keying of what is often the same information,” he says.

“Many Australian businesses compete globally against businesses from jurisdictions with less cumbersome compliance regimes and SBR will help boost their international competitiveness.”

Listed accounting software provider Reckon said that its QuickBooks software will be its first product to be SBR-enabled and will be released to certain partners later this month.

The CEO of Reckon’s business division, Gavin Dixon, says the product will be tested in “real-world” conditions before being released to accountants, bookkeepers, tax agents, business owners and payroll specialists.

“As we have been conducting our compliance testing of the application I have seen how the software interacts with the SBR portal,” Dixon said in a statement.

“Through SBR our QuickBooks customers will get instant feedback on their BAS lodgement, so if something is incorrect they’ll know straight away, making their lives more efficient and less complex. For the first time, they will also be able to download and review previously lodged BAS returns.”

SBR is voluntary to adopt. The Government expects the regime will deliver nearly $800 million worth of savings once fully implemented.