Monday, December 13, 2010

Lodgement becomes a reality

The live links for GovDirect went up on 1 December and we are now processing a number of BAS's and TFN Declarations on behalf of subscribers. The pleasing aspect is in that time not a single support enquiry has hit our support desk. Now I dont anticipate this to be the norm, especially when we start to process the more complicated forms such as the Income Tax Return, but it is vindication of the hard work the team have put in to make the application as simple as possible to use and to keep the more technical aspects of the technology tucked away under the hood.

From an XBRL purist point of view this should be seen as somewhat of a milestone. We actually have users of XBRL technology who have not had to spend hours upon hours studying what a "taxonomy", "context", "dimension" or an "instance" is!

With our early adopter program well underway we will be looking for as much feedback as possible in order to improve the user experience as well as present a series of case studies to share with those inquisitive businesses out there who want to know "what's in it for me".

From what we have observed so far, the WIFM is:
  • Save time by lodging the TFN Dec electronically, rather than handwriting the details into a paper version of the form.
  • Same for the BAS or if you are re-entering the details in the ATO's Business Portal, why not interpose GovDirect in the process to prefill the form from your accounting system and the ATO.
I'm sure this list will grow longer as we add more forms and additional functions such as the ability to invite your advisor to review and lodge information on your behalf.

Feel free to comment on this blog post if you have anything to share on how you're using GovDirect to save time and money or what you would like to see added.