Frequently Asked Questions

AffordBooksTax is built exclusively for small businesses generating under $500,000 in annual revenue. This includes sole traders, partnerships, companies, and trusts across a wide range of industries - tradies, cafés, NDIS providers, retailers, healthcare workers, freelancers, and more.

If your business is turning over more than $500K, our parent firm PremierOne Tax & Accounting may be a better fit. We're happy to point you in the right direction.

The easiest way is to book a free 30-minute consultation. We'll talk through your business, what services you need, and give you a clear monthly price based on your revenue.

Once you're ready to proceed, onboarding looks like this:

• You nominate AffordBooksTax as your tax agent via ATO Online services for business
• You grant Xero Advisor access to our team
• We set up your Xero file (or connect to your existing one)
• You sign your Letter of Engagement and we get started

Most clients are fully onboarded within a week of their first call.

Not at all. AffordBooksTax is 100% cloud-based, which means we work with small businesses across Australia - Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, and everywhere in between.

Everything runs through Xero and our client portal, so there's no need to ever come into an office. You can share documents, view your compliance status, and message our team from anywhere.

No. If you're not on Xero yet, we can set it up for you as part of onboarding. We also offer a Xero Setup & Migration service if you're currently on MYOB, QuickBooks, or another platform.

All of our clients work in Xero - it keeps everything in one place and makes collaboration between you and our team much smoother.

Yes, and you're not alone. Many businesses come to us with months or years of unreconciled transactions, missing receipts, or books that haven't been touched since they were set up.

We offer a dedicated Catch-Up & Clean-Up service to bring everything back up to date before we move to regular monthly bookkeeping. We'll give you a fixed quote for the catch-up work before anything starts.

Our pricing is based on your business's annual revenue - not a flat rate that ignores your actual size. Bookkeeping is charged at $49/hr, packaged into a fixed monthly amount per tier:

• $0 - $50K revenue: $98/month (2 hrs)
• $51K - $100K revenue: $147/month (3 hrs)
• $101K - $150K revenue: $245/month (5 hrs)
• $151K - $200K revenue: $343/month (7 hrs)
• $201K - $500K revenue: $392- $490/month

See the full breakdown - including BAS lodgement, tax returns, and payroll - on our pricing page.

None. There are no setup fees and no lock-in contracts. You can cancel at any time - we don't believe in trapping clients into long-term agreements they don't want to be in.

We'd rather earn your business every month by doing great work.

You can mix and match services entirely. Some clients come to us for bookkeeping only. Others want bookkeeping plus BAS lodgement. Some want the full suite - bookkeeping, BAS, payroll, and tax returns.

We'll build a package based on what you actually need. Nothing is bundled together unless it makes sense for your situation.

Payroll is a flat $14 per employee per pay period, regardless of your revenue tier. This covers payroll processing, STP lodgement with the ATO, emailing payslips, and superannuation reporting.

Pay periods available are weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. So a business with four employees on fortnightly pay would be $56 per fortnight.

We'll chat with you about it. If your revenue grows to the next tier, we'll update your monthly fee accordingly. We review this with clients annually or when there's a significant change in the business.

We'll always give you advance notice before any price changes take effect.

Our monthly bookkeeping service covers all the core tasks to keep your records accurate and up to date:

• Bank feed reconciliation
• Accounts payable management
• Customer payment allocation to sales invoices
• Month-end journal entries
• Bank reconciliation
• Critical general ledger account reconciliation

At the end of each month, your books are clean, reconciled, and ready to give you an accurate picture of how your business is performing.

Our BAS lodgement service covers preparing your Business Activity Statement, lodging it with the ATO on your behalf as your registered tax agent, and providing GST reporting for the quarter.

If there's a GST liability, we'll tell you the amount and when it's due so you can plan your cash flow accordingly.

Yes. We prepare and lodge income tax returns for companies, partnerships, and trusts. Pricing starts at $478/year for businesses under $50K revenue and scales up to $1,449/year for businesses between $301K and $500K. Sole trader and individual returns are priced separately — see personal tax returns.

As a registered tax agent, we benefit from extended lodgement deadlines - giving you more time to get your records in order compared to self-lodging.

Yes. Our Xero Setup & Migration service covers setting up your Xero file, configuring your chart of accounts, connecting bank feeds, and setting up payroll if needed.

If you're migrating from MYOB, QuickBooks, or another platform, we handle that too. We'll make sure your opening balances are correct and your data is properly structured before we hand it over.

We use a dedicated client portal at portal.affordbookstax.com.au for document sharing and ongoing communication. Through the portal you can:

• Upload and download documents securely
• Track compliance items like BAS and tax return status
• View and manage tasks
• Message our team directly

For quick questions we also use WhatsApp. Formal documents, quotes, and onboarding materials go through email.

Fast response times are something we take seriously. Unlike larger firms where you might wait days to hear back, we aim to respond to all client queries within one business day - and usually much sooner.

Our hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST, with on-call availability on weekends for urgent matters.

Once your Xero is connected and bank feeds are set up, most of the work happens automatically. Transactions flow through from your bank each day and we reconcile them against your invoices and receipts.

Where we need input from you is for transactions we can't categorise automatically - unusual purchases, personal expenses run through the business, or anything needing clarification. We'll flag these via the portal or WhatsApp rather than letting them pile up.

Yes. AffordBooksTax is a CPA-registered practice and a registered tax agent with the Tax Practitioners Board. This means we're legally authorised to prepare and lodge tax returns and BAS on behalf of our clients.

Being a registered tax agent also means your BAS and tax returns benefit from extended lodgement deadlines not available if you self-lodge.

Your data is yours. Since all records live in Xero (which you own), you take everything with you if you move on. We simply remove our Xero Advisor access and your file stays intact with all its history.

We'll also delist as your tax agent with the ATO. No complications, no data held hostage, no exit fees.

You must register for GST if your business turnover reaches $75,000 in any rolling 12-month period - not just the financial year. You need to track this continuously throughout the year.

Some businesses must register regardless of turnover. If you drive for a rideshare platform like Uber or DiDi, or operate as a taxi driver, you must register for GST from your very first dollar earned.

You can also register voluntarily below the $75,000 threshold, which can be beneficial if you have large input tax credits to claim. We can help you assess whether that makes sense for your situation.

BAS is lodged quarterly for most small businesses. Standard due dates are:

• Q1 (July - September): 28 October
• Q2 (October - December): 28 February
• Q3 (January - March): 28 April
• Q4 (April - June): 28 July

As a registered tax agent, we receive extended deadlines on our clients' BAS lodgements - giving you extra time compared to self-lodging through ATO Online services for business.

The superannuation guarantee rate is 12% from 1 July 2025. This applies to all eligible employees and most contractors paid mainly for their labour.

From 1 July 2026, Payday Super comes into effect. Super must be paid on each payday and received by the fund within 7 business days - a major shift from the current quarterly arrangement. If you have employees, this is worth planning for now.

If you're a sole trader lodging your own individual return, the deadline is 31 October each year. Through a registered tax agent, you typically receive an extended deadline.

For companies and trusts lodged through a registered agent, the deadline is generally 28 February in the following year. We manage all of this for you as part of our service.

The ATO requires most business records to be kept for a minimum of five years. This includes:

• Income records - invoices, sales receipts, bank statements
• Expense records - receipts and invoices from suppliers
• Employee records - payroll records, super payments, STP reports
• Tax records - BAS lodgements, tax returns, ATO correspondence

For any purchase over $82.50 (GST inclusive), you need a valid tax invoice to claim the GST credit. Xero makes this much easier - you can photograph receipts on your phone and attach them directly to transactions.