What is bookkeeping with CapEasy?
Bookkeeping is the layer everything else rests on. Get it right and reporting, compliance and funding conversations become straightforward. Get it wrong and every one of them costs more than it should, usually at the worst time of year.
Bookkeeping in Australia is built around the Business Activity Statement cycle. Most businesses lodge a BAS quarterly, some monthly, and every lodgement needs a ledger where GST has already been coded transaction by transaction — GST collected on sales, GST credits on purchases — reconciled to the bank before anyone touches the BAS itself. That coding is bookkeeping mechanics: applying the correct GST tax code to a transaction based on its nature. It is different in kind from ascertaining or advising on what the BAS liability actually is, which is the registered BAS agent's function under TASA 2009.
Payroll runs on its own reporting obligation. Single Touch Payroll sends year-to-date wage, tax and super figures to the ATO on or before each pay run, and at financial year end that data has to be finalised so employees' income statements are correct. STP finalisation only works if every pay run through the year has already been reconciled to the payroll ledger — a discrepancy discovered in July, after the year has closed, is far harder to fix than one caught in the quarter it happened.
The services inside bookkeeping & accounting
8 services, each with its own page — scope, process and the licence line stated before you buy anything.
| Monthly bookkeeping | Transactions recorded, coded and reconciled every month, in the same shape. |
| Month-end close | Accruals, prepayments and closing entries so the month is finished, not just recorded. |
| Catch-up bookkeeping | Working back from the last clean period to current, with an honest read on how far the records support. |
| Bank reconciliation | Every account tied to the statement, with discrepancies explained rather than plugged. |
| Multi-entity bookkeeping | Separate ledgers, intercompany entries and a consolidated view that agrees. |
| Multi-currency bookkeeping | Foreign-currency transactions, revaluation and realised gain or loss handled consistently. |
| Chart of accounts cleanup | A chart that produces a readable P&L instead of ninety accounts nobody uses. |
| Startup bookkeeping | Books built to survive diligence, from the first transaction. |
Why it matters
| Without a system | With CapEasy |
|---|---|
| Month-end arrives whenever someone gets to it | Books closed on a fixed date, in the same shape every month |
| Unexplained transactions pile up in a suspense account until year-end | Every account reconciled to the statement, with discrepancies explained not plugged |
| Your accountant bills you to fix bookkeeping before they can do their own work | A short questions list instead of a year-end archaeology project |
| You cannot answer "how did we do last month" without a week of digging | Whoever files opens a finished file |
What we need from you
Financial
- Bank and card statements
- Sales invoices
- Supplier bills
- Expense receipts
- Payroll summaries
- Loan statements
System
- Chart of accounts
- Opening balances
- Accounting software access (read/write, least privilege)
- Multi-currency details if applicable
Context
- Prior period financial statements
- Your accountant’s coding preferences
- Anything unusual we should expect
How it runs, step by step
- Transaction recording & classification
- Daily transaction entry
- Revenue and expense categorisation
- Capital vs operating classification
- Ledger & trial balance
- General ledger review
- Sub-ledger reconciliation
- Chart of accounts restructuring
- Reconciliation
- Monthly bank and card reconciliation
- Discrepancy investigation, with a written explanation
- Multi-account and multi-entity reconciliation
- Catch-up & clean-up
- Working back from the last clean period
- An honest read on how far back the records support
- Rebuilding to current
What lands with you, every cycle
- Reconciled ledgers
- Trial balance
- Month-end close pack
- A questions list, not a suspense account
- A file your accountant can work from without chasing you
Who does what
Coded to the GST codes and accounts you and your registered agent have set. We apply their treatment; we do not determine it. Here is the licence line in Australia, stated before you buy anything — each of these is carried out by your registered BAS or tax agent:
- Work out what goes on your BAS, or advise you on it — under TASA 2009 that requires registration we do not hold.
- Lodge anything with the ATO, or deal with the ATO on your behalf.
- Determine your GST treatment, or calculate your superannuation guarantee.
- Report Single Touch Payroll as your agent.
- Give advice a registered tax agent is required to give.
Bookkeeping in Australia
TASA 2009 s.90-10 — why coding is not the same as advising
Section 90-10 of the Tax Agent Services Act defines a BAS service as ascertaining or advising on liabilities, obligations or entitlements under a BAS provision — not merely lodging the form. That means applying a GST tax code to a transaction as a bookkeeping mechanic is different from determining what that transaction's GST treatment should be when the answer is not obvious. The moment a coding decision requires a judgment call about GST treatment rather than a straightforward application of an existing rule, that call belongs with your registered BAS agent.
BAS lodgement — quarterly or monthly
Most small businesses lodge BAS quarterly; businesses with higher GST turnover lodge monthly. Either way, the ledger needs to be GST-coded and bank-reconciled before the BAS agent can review and lodge it — a ledger that is only "cleaned up" at lodgement time forces the agent to do bookkeeping work under a lodgement deadline.
Single Touch Payroll — reporting and year-end finalisation
STP requires wage, PAYG withholding and super figures to be reported to the ATO each pay run, and finalised after 30 June so employees' income statements are accurate for their own tax returns. A payroll ledger that has not been reconciled to actual pay runs throughout the year means finalisation surfaces discrepancies that should have been caught months earlier.
Superannuation guarantee — quarterly due dates, per-employee accuracy
Super guarantee is due quarterly, calculated on each employee's ordinary time earnings, and paid to each employee's nominated fund. The bookkeeping task is tracking the accrual accurately per employee per pay run and reconciling what was accrued against what was actually paid — a gap here is a compliance liability, not a rounding error.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A bank-reconciled general ledger for the full BAS period, with no unexplained variance against statement balances.
- Transactions coded to the correct GST tax code — GST-free, input-taxed, taxable, or capital — applied per the established rule for that transaction type, with anything ambiguous flagged rather than decided.
- A BAS-ready summary report showing GST collected and GST credits by code, structured so the registered agent can review and lodge without re-deriving it.
- Payroll data reconciled to actual pay runs, ready for STP reporting each cycle and for finalisation after 30 June.
- A super guarantee accrual schedule matched to payroll, showing what was accrued per employee against what was actually paid to each fund.
- A debtor and creditor ageing schedule current as of the handoff date.
Questions worth asking before you start
Will you deal with the Australian Taxation Office on my behalf?
No. We are a consulting firm — lodgments and agent work run through registered BAS and tax agents. Anything that means dealing directly with ATO — filing, correspondence, representation — stays with your registered BAS or tax agent. What changes is how much work it is for them: they open a file that is already reconciled and coded, not one they have to rebuild first.
Exactly what lands with your registered BAS or tax agent at the end of a cycle?
Reconciled ledgers, Trial balance, Month-end close pack, A questions list, not a suspense account, A file your accountant can work from without chasing you. All of it goes to your registered BAS or tax agent — or straight to you, if you are the one reviewing before it moves on.
Who actually does the work — a person or an AI tool?
A named person on our team owns your file and reviews everything that leaves it. Software does a real share of the grinding underneath it — coding, matching, flagging the obvious gaps — but nothing regulated happens without a person’s judgement, and nothing here is signed or filed by an algorithm.
Our books are months behind. Can you still take this on?
Usually yes. We read the actual file first and tell you honestly how far back it supports rebuilding, then work back from the last clean period to now. It is a common starting point, not an unusual one.
Do you use our existing software, or move us onto something else?
We work inside what you already run. Migrating platforms is disruptive and rarely necessary — the improvement is in the process, not the tool.
What happens to access when the engagement ends?
Access is granted per person, least-privilege, and revoked the day it ends. Your books stay in your system throughout — we never copy them into one of our own.
Can you lodge our BAS for us?
No. Lodging a BAS, and ascertaining or advising on what the BAS liability actually is, are reserved under TASA 2009 s.90-10 to a registered BAS or tax agent. We reconcile the ledger and code transactions to the correct GST tax code, then hand that off to your registered agent to review and lodge.
Isn't coding a transaction to a GST code the same thing as advising on GST?
Not when the code is a straightforward application of an existing rule to a clear transaction type — that is bookkeeping mechanics. It becomes a BAS service the moment the GST treatment is not obvious and requires a judgment call. We flag those transactions and route them to your registered BAS agent rather than deciding ourselves.
We just want you to "prepare it" and have our agent "lodge it" — can we set it up that way?
That framing does not track how the boundary actually works. TASA 2009 s.90-10 defines a BAS service by what it covers — ascertaining or advising on a liability — not by who clicks lodge. If preparing the figures involves that kind of judgment call, it sits with the registered agent regardless of who submits the form.
Do you determine our GST treatment on unusual transactions?
No. We code routine transactions against established GST rules and flag anything unusual or ambiguous for your registered BAS agent to determine. That call is made by your registered BAS agent.
How does Single Touch Payroll finalisation work with your bookkeeping?
We reconcile the payroll ledger to actual pay runs every cycle throughout the year, so when finalisation happens after 30 June, the figures already tie out rather than surfacing a year's worth of unreconciled discrepancies at once.
What happens if super guarantee is paid late?
It creates a liability with its own penalty exposure under the super guarantee charge regime. Our role is tracking the accrual against actual per-employee payments each quarter and flagging the due date early — calculating the super guarantee charge, if a shortfall has already occurred, is your registered agent's work.
How does AI fit into this — is a machine coding our GST transactions?
AI handles the repetitive matching: pulling bank feed data, suggesting a GST code based on prior transactions of the same type, flagging anything that does not match an established pattern. A named bookkeeper on our team reviews every suggestion before it posts, and anything genuinely ambiguous goes to your registered BAS agent — AI never determines a GST treatment.
Do you calculate our super guarantee liability?
We track the accrual per employee per pay run against ordinary time earnings and reconcile it to what was actually paid to each fund. If a discrepancy or shortfall needs a formal calculation of what is owed, that determination sits with your registered agent.
What do you hand off before a quarterly BAS lodgement?
A bank-reconciled ledger, transactions coded by GST tax code, a summary of GST collected and GST credits by code, and a list of anything flagged for the agent's judgment. The agent reviews that and lodges — the lodgement itself is theirs alone.
Our books are a mess going into 30 June — can you get us to a clean trial balance in time?
We treat 30 June as its own reconciliation pass, checking that income and expenses sit in the correct financial year before the trial balance goes to your accountant or BAS agent, rather than folding it into an ordinary month-end close.
Do you handle the ASIC annual review as well as BAS?
We keep the books current enough that the annual review — which runs on your incorporation anniversary, separate from the financial year — is supported by accurate figures whenever it falls. Filing the review itself is a company-secretarial function, not bookkeeping.
