Your Australian entity is too small to justify a local finance hire and too regulated to run from a group shared service centre. Our Sydney-based Chartered Accountants run the local function and report into group in your format, on your deadline.
We are not the cheapest Australian compliance shop. Engagements run $2,500 to $6,000 a month for a subsidiary that needs reliable monthly reporting into a parent, rolling monthly with no lock-in.
Group needs the local P&L and balance sheet by a set date so it can consolidate. A local bookkeeper delivers when the reconciliation happens to be finished, which is a different thing. We set the close timetable from your reporting date, in your chart of accounts, and tell you in advance if something is at risk rather than on the day.
GST on a cycle set by the ATO. Superannuation that must reach the fund within seven business days of payday. Payroll tax administered separately by each state. Workers compensation, also state by state. Single Touch Payroll on every pay event. Award coverage that overrides the employment contract. That knowledge sits in the CA-qualified review layer, which is the point of the arrangement.
The usual arrangement is a local bookkeeper, a payroll bureau and an accountant who appears at year end, none of whom talk to each other and all of whom you supervise from another time zone. One team on one compliance calendar removes the supervision problem, which is the part that actually costs a parent's finance team time.
For a new entity we configure Xero to match the group structure, map the chart of accounts to your reporting lines from the start, connect bank feeds and set up the compliance registrations. For an existing entity we take over the file and tell you what condition it is in.
Where a previous provider has left the file behind or coded to their own structure, remapping comes first and is scoped as its own job. Reporting from a chart that does not match group is a translation exercise every month.
Clients typically have a clean, mapped Xero file inside three to four weeks, including registrations.
Weekly reconciliation rather than monthly, so the file is current when the close starts rather than becoming a scramble. Multi-currency accounts are reconciled in their own currency with foreign exchange movement recognised separately.
Intercompany is where consolidations fail. Recharges, management fees and loan balances have to agree on both sides and be treated consistently, and where a recharge affects GST the agent versus principal question changes the answer. We agree the treatment with group once and document it.
Clients typically see intercompany balances agree from the first close, with historical differences quantified rather than carried.
Payroll for Australian employees on Xero or Employment Hero, including award classification, which regularly surprises parents because award coverage sets minimum conditions above the employment contract regardless of what both parties signed.
Superannuation is the obligation most often underestimated. Since 1 July 2026 contributions must be received by the fund within seven business days of payday, calculated on qualifying earnings, and it is generally payable for contractors paid mainly for their labour.
Clients typically get a written position on award coverage and contractor superannuation exposure in the first month.
Activity statements prepared and lodged under registered BAS Agent 26298194, on the cycle the ATO sets rather than the one that suits group reporting. Payroll tax is registered and lodged in each state where the entity has a liability.
Everything sits on one Australian compliance calendar, visible to group. That is usually the first time a parent can see the full local obligation set in one place, including the items nobody budgeted for.
Clients typically move from an unclear obligation picture to a documented calendar with owners and dates inside the first month.
The pack comes in your format and your chart of accounts, on the date you set. Where group works to a fifteenth-of-the-month consolidation, the close timetable is built so that date is met with room rather than approximately.
Commentary is included, because a parent's finance team reading a local P&L cold has no way to know whether a variance is timing or structural. Where a number is an estimate, it says so.
Clients typically get the group deadline met from the second month, with commentary that answers questions before they are asked.
Statutory accounts and the Australian income tax return are coordinated through our independent tax agent partner, who contracts with you directly. We prepare the file they work from, which is usually the difference between a smooth year-end and a long one.
Transfer pricing sits with a specialist adviser, not with us, and we will tell you when the intercompany arrangement has reached the point where you need one.
Clients typically report a shorter year-end because the file arrives reconciled with intercompany agreed.
Our experts will discuss your business, your finance pain points, and the services we can offer
We take your requirements and send a fixed proposal with pricing options within 24 hours. Free, no obligation
We will schedule a kick off meeting, give access to our online communication and project management tools
Deliverables start in week one and we take the function off your plate, so you get time back to run your business the way you want
30 minutes with our team.
We'll review your current finance setup, compare the full cost of an internal hire against our embedded team, and show you exactly what your finance function should cost at your stage of growth.
You'll leave with a clear view of what's working, what's missing, and where you'd save.
No lock-in contracts. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Prefer to book directly? Grab a time here.
Typically $2,500 to $6,000 per month for a subsidiary that needs reliable monthly reporting into group, priced in Australian dollars and ex GST. Employees, multi-state obligations, multi-currency and group reporting depth move it up.
We are not the cheapest option and we will say so on the first call. For a very small entity with almost no activity, a local bookkeeper plus an annual accountant can be a rational choice, and we have lost work to providers charging roughly half. The cost parents usually underestimate is not the accounting fee, it is the compliance items nobody budgeted for, which we set out in hidden costs of running an Australian subsidiary.
At minimum an ABN and usually GST registration, activity statement lodgement, PAYG withholding, superannuation under Payday Super, Single Touch Payroll, workers compensation, an ASIC annual review and an income tax return. Payroll tax applies once wages exceed the threshold in a given state.
Award coverage catches most parents out, because a modern award can set minimum pay conditions above what the employment contract says, and the contract does not override it. Our Australian reporting calendar for foreign-owned subsidiaries sets out the dates across the year.
Yes, and this is the part most local providers do not do. We map the Australian chart of accounts to your group structure, produce the pack in your format, and build the close timetable so your consolidation date is met.
The difference is where the deadline comes from. A local bookkeeper works to their own rhythm and delivers when the reconciliation is finished. We work backwards from your date and tell you in advance if something is at risk. If group needs numbers by the fifteenth, that is the constraint the whole month is built around.
Yes, including loan account reconciliation, management fee and recharge treatment, and making sure both sides agree. Where a recharge affects GST, the agent versus principal question changes the treatment and the reported revenue, so it is decided once and documented.
Transfer pricing is a different discipline and sits with a specialist adviser. We will tell you when your intercompany arrangement has grown to the point where documentation is needed rather than leaving it for an auditor to raise. Background is in our guide to pass-through costs and client recharges.
No. We are a registered BAS Agent, not a registered tax agent. The return, the statutory accounts and any structuring work are done by an independent partner firm that contracts with you directly.
We prepare the file they work from and coordinate the engagement. In practice this is cleaner than it sounds, because you deal with one team monthly and one specialist annually, and the specialist receives a reconciled file rather than a shoebox. If your group requires a single provider holding both registrations, we are not that provider.
Employers pay a compulsory contribution on top of salary into a fund the employee nominates, and since 1 July 2026 it must be received by the fund within seven business days of each payday.
Two things surprise parents. It is calculated on qualifying earnings rather than base salary, so allowances and commissions matter. And it is generally payable for contractors paid wholly or principally for their labour, which means a group treating Australian contractors as outside the superannuation base is often wrong. Parents used to quarterly cycles overseas are the group most often caught by the seven-day rule.
An Australian proprietary company must have at least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia. That is a corporate services function rather than a finance one and we do not provide it, though we can explain what the requirement means in practice.
If you have not incorporated yet, the sequence matters: entity and resident director first, then registrations, then the finance function. Setting up the entity is covered in setting up an Australian subsidiary.
Usually not yet, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a retainer. At one employee and minimal activity, what you need is an incorporation agent, a resident director service and a bookkeeper, or an employer of record if you have no entity at all.
We have told prospects exactly that and walked away. Come back when the entity has real activity, several employees or a group reporting obligation, because that is the point where a monthly function earns its fee. The employer of record route is compared in employer of record explained.
