Home topics small-business-resources legal Legal Managing Legal Federal Government simplifies reporting process Lorna Brett August 12, 2011 The Federal Government’s new Standard Business Reporting (SBR) reforms mean SMBs and accountants no longer need expensive software to report electronically, thanks to the implementation of cloud technology. From the 1 July last year Standard Business Reporting has simplified business reporting by providing an electronic lodging channel directly from a business’s accounting software. However, existing accounting software doesn’t facilitate SBR advantages as it isn’t SBR-enabled. Currently electronic lodgement occurs via the Electronic Commerce Interface (ECI), the filling in of e-forms and the Electronic Lodgement Service (ELS) for ATO reporting. Even with ELS, the ATO has reported receiving a huge number of paper forms from businesses that wish to save on new software. GovReports is designed to bridge the gap between the benefits available through SBR and the hassles involved with moving from traditional accounting software and processes used by business. To achieve this, GovReports will offer a ready-to-use electronic lodgement tool free of charge until the end of this year. Paper forms users can now register with GovReports and lodge their reports via an SBR channel to the ATO free of charge. It will also allow businesses using a manual system to lodge activity statements, PAYG annual summaries or TFN declarations to use the free lodgement service to lodge from any computer using the range of benefits SBR and cloud technology has to offer. GovReports features include: Intermediary Lodgement: This allows agents to