Are you feeling a growing sense of dread? Has tax time come around yet again?

It’s the “BAS blues”, that sinking feeling of knowing you have a mountain of bills, invoices and receipts to try and sort out so you can submit your Business
Activity Statement.

Most small businesses, those with an annual turnover of less than $20 million, report quarterly rather than annually. But it still seems never-ending
. As soon as one lodgement has been made, the next date is creeping up on you.

If only there was a way to take the stress and hassle away. A way that you could just push all the paperwork to one side and forget about it, and yet it would
get magically done without you even realising.

Well, you can have your cake and eat it too!

Automatic data entry

Tax returns become infinitely easier if your finances are organised through professional accounting software. By entering your data as you go, everything will be more or less ready come tax time, and the entire tax
process will be greatly simplified.

In fact, you don’t even have to enter a lot of data: if the software is automatically taking in your bank feeds, it’s all there ready for you. All the informati
on you need is at your fingertips, up to date. You can pull up the figures for any specific period of time, depending when you report.

Updated tax compliance

As you know, legislation evolves all the time and it’s a nightmare even for tax and accounting professionals to stay on top of it. Every budget brings new
changes, for example increased super rates, or changes to individual tax rates such as the 2% Temporary Budget Repair Levy introduced in 2014.

Software providers will update the relevant areas of software for you, such as payroll. Online accounting software is always current with the latest changes,
you don’t need to download a new version or an update patch.

Avoiding costly mistakes

As any accountant or tax official will tell you, a business’ responsibilities to the ATO, whether tax, GST or BAS lodgement, are a very serious matter. No
matter how small the business, or how accidental the mistake, the penalties can be severe, and the ATO is increasingly sophisticated at catching them. In the past
year alone it has identified 270,000 businesses as potentially under-disclosing income.

Your accounting software can check things for you. It reconciles different areas of financial data: for example your payroll and your BAS, to ensure you’re
submitting the correct details to the tax office.

While much non-compliance is due to the complexity of the tax system rather than an intention to cheat, you can still face heavy fines. A key advantage of
online accounting software is helping your business stay compliant amid all the constantly evolving tax laws.

Easy collaboration

Once you’ve prepared your BAS return, you probably want to pass it to your professional accountant for a final check and tidy. If it’s already entered into
accounting software, it’s quick and easy for your accountant to access. They won’t need to spend much time sorting it all out, which saves you money.

BAS lodgements really don’t need to be the terrible headache and chore that they are for so many small businesses. By letting software do the heavy lifting, you
can sit back and relax, and also use your quarterly statements as a way to check on the health of your business.