NewsletterAutumn 2012

SBR CLOUD LODGEMENT PORTAL FOR BUSINESSES, BAS/TAX AGENTS & PAYROLL PROFESSIONALS

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DATA INTEGRATION WITH

SOFTWAREACCOUNTING/PAYROLL

GovReports

This is where GovReports Data Integrations comes in. GovReports will soon become a powerful data

integration tool to access, integrate and manage data from various accounting and financial systems. This

will help GovReports bond together the data and ensures accuracy in filling out forms by reducing data

entry errors.

For example, GovReports can read a MYOB data file and automatically fill all the values for Activity

Statements. By selecting an employee card in the payroll software data file, almost all the information

required to lodge the Tax File Number Declaration are automatically filled out within GovReports, reducing

the time it takes to fill out and lodge.

GovReports has established a new standard in direct

to government lodgement using cloud technology.

Using GovReports, users were no longer tied to their

desktops or had to rush to the office just to lodge their

Business Activity Statements. The Standard

Business Reporting technology which is part of

GovReports allows forms to be pre filled from

information already held by end agencies like ATO

and ASIC and that saves a lot of effort in filling out

these forms. What if we could save even more

time ?

Report

Starting from the first quarter of 2012, GovReports will progressively support the major accounting and payroll

software providers starting from MYOB (which has the largest user base) and possibly cloud accounting

providers later down the track.

As GovReports becomes an integral tool in the accounting professional's workflow, GovReports Data

Integration technology will simplify business reporting further.

As Fringe Benefits Tax [FBT] year starts from April 01, businesses

need to consider if any Fringe Benefits have been provided to

employees or their associates to prepare lodgement reports

and pay FBT before May 21 for the completed FBT year.

As a welcome change to the ageing and expensive ELS solution,

GovReports is the first SBR software to bring FBT electronic

lodgement to businesses and tax practitioners. GovReports is the

right choice in replacing intensive traditional paper based

reporting by offering a time and cost saving way to lodge FBT

using SBR.

LodgementFBT Online

ATO provides three types of FBT lodgement options:

By lodging FBT through GovReports, you can,

Electronic lodgement via SBR enabled software

Electronic Lodgement Service [ELS]

Paper form lodgement

Save time and money

Instant lodgement receipt

Use payment facility built within GovReports

Save your FBT forms for future lodgement

Keep track of your FBT and other reports lodgement history

GovReports provides SBR lodgement

service and is now ready with FBT

lodgement without the need to have

SBR enabled accounting software

with the capacity of FBT reports. The

service will be available from April for

businesses and accountants to lodge

FBT direct to ATO using AUSkey.

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The paper form lodgement via postal service is the affordable way of FBT lodgement but everything has

to be manually processed and is not an effective way of reporting to ATO.

* GovReports will be MYOB ready by April 2012

GovReports has the largest collection of SBR forms commercially available covering various government

agencies such as ATO, State Revenue Offices and ASIC. With the release of GovReports API, accounting,

payroll software developers and businesses with their own in-house system can integrate direct-to-

government lodgement capability within their products.

Tiana Tran, the marketing director of Impact Management Group said, "GovReports, released in June last

year saw meteoric adoption and soon we started getting queries if we could do this (API), since we had a

long established experience with XBRL and SBR.

GovReports API is a natural progression from this. It allows SBR adopters not to be caught up in the

complex delivery cycle of the various forms, understanding XBRL taxonomies or complex self testing cycles

but rather just connecting to GovReports infrastructure. We manage and do all the hard work. We estimate

that GovReports API would save six to twelve months of development costs on complex SBR forms.”

GOVREPORTS APIDirect-to-Government lodgement interfaceSydney, Australia - 17th January 2012: Impact Management Group, the leading provider of Standard Business

Reporting (SBR) solutions announced the release of Application Programming Interface (API) for their cloud

SBR lodgement product - GovReports.

"The real strength of GovReports API is that it removed the need to

understand SBR. You don't need to understand how Apple products

work to use an iPhone. You just use it. Users are excited about the

prospects of what the SBR technology brings but don't necessarily

want to understand about complex reporting terminologies rather than

concentrate on their own product. GovReports and GovReports API

bring that 'always on, use anytime' facility to lodgements - the first of

its kind " – she added.

GovReports API gives control to users what, when and how they want to

make a lodgement within the comfort of their own software. The APIs

are standards based so developers don't have to learn a new

programmatic style, and include a number of libraries to avoid writing

HTTP requests--which in the past have functioned as the interface into

applications. The code libraries are available in .Net web services.

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“As software developers and organisations develop more complex applications, users are demanding

direct-to-government lodgements from within their products. A number of companies work with our

professional services team to connect to GovReports API to their product but a few would rather do it

themselves." added Ms Tran.

MEDIA RELEASE

Since 2010 the Standard Business Reporting (SBR)

has been the preferred method of lodgement for the

ATO. SBR offers a far quicker and simpler way to

lodge reporting obligations using the latest

technologies. SBR however was just a new option

for the public to use alongside ageing and error

prone systems such as ELS and ECI.

Late last year, ATO presented the future of obligatory reporting. As part of this presentation, there was a

suggestion to sunset the outdated technologies and make SBR the mainstream technology that ATO

supports. ATO also started a project to consolidate all the existing portals (Business Portal, BAS Agent

Portal, Tax Agent Portal) into a new streamlined government portal called ATO Online. This new portal will

use SBR as its backbone for lodgements. As of January 2012, ATO has made the bold decision to

confirm the sunset of old technology ECI and ELS that is costing tax payers money to maintain. SBR will

become the only channel of lodgement by 2015.

For advisers, this means that they no longer have to maintain multiple lodgement systems and can just use a

single system, like GovReports to do all their obligatory reporting. They will also no longer be required to

edit data files for lodgements as the current practice is with ECI or wait for extended periods of time for

gateways during peak reporting periods. This also means ECI and ELS systems will no longer work come

the deadline set by ATO.

ATO Online will provide a single point of entry for personal and business transactions with the ATO. The

public will still be able to use this new portal to lodge Activity Statements for example however it will only

cater for ATO related business while products like GovReports maintain a "whole of government"

approach to reporting.

ATO Online and cloud lodgement solution GovReports will work as symbiotic products to deliver a new

era in obligatory reporting. One that is not looked upon as a burden to the government but a natural ongoing

transaction that fits into the current business patterns such as using cloud based technologies.

& THE FUTURE OF SBRATO ONLINE

Register for Free Access to GovReportsDiscover Government Reporting Made Simple

www.govreports.com.au

Want to learn more about GovReports? Check out some of the most commonly asked questions about this productive and versatile cloud software tool for your business or accounting practice.

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