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Bookkeeping · Small business · Advice practices · Franchises

Books that balance. Numbers you can use.

Full-function bookkeeping for Australian small businesses, financial advice practices and franchises: reconciliations, payables, receivables, payroll, activity statements and a monthly report pack that tells you how the business is actually travelling. The work is the same trade whoever you are. What changes is what the numbers have to answer to.

Because Countique is a business management consultancy first, your numbers arrive with a reading of them rather than just a file.

Get a fixed monthly quote See what's included

New this financial year

Payday Super started 1 July 2026

Super is no longer a quarterly job. Contributions must now be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of paying the employee, with limited extended timeframes for new employees and out-of-cycle payments. Late payments trigger the super guarantee charge.

How we handle it →

Who we do it for

One trade, three kinds of client

The reconciliations, the payroll and the activity statements are the same discipline in every business. What differs is who else is reading the numbers, and what they are entitled to ask for.

Small business

Books current enough to decide on

Trades, professional services, retail, hospitality, not-for-profits. Reconciled monthly, a report pack by the tenth, and a rolling thirteen-week cash view so the next quarter is never a surprise. We scale the scope to the business, you are not paying for payroll if you have no employees.

What is included →

Advice practices

Where the two halves of Countique meet

We know what revenue per client, cost to serve and adviser capacity mean, because we build the tools that measure them. Your books come out coded so the Pricing, Profitability and Capacity work has something real to run on, and so the management pack answers the questions a principal actually asks.

See the tool suite →

Franchises

Books with two readers

A franchised business answers to the ATO on one timetable and to its franchisor on another, in a different chart of accounts. Franchisors have their own accounting deadlines under the Franchising Code, and since April 2025 those carry civil penalties. We work both sides of the agreement.

The franchise work →

Standard scope

What full-function bookkeeping covers

This is the standard scope. We scale it to the size of the business, you are not paying for payroll if you have no employees.

Daily and weekly

  • Transaction coding to your chart of accounts
  • GST code application and review
  • Bank and credit card reconciliation
  • Accounts payable, supplier bills, approvals, payment runs
  • Accounts receivable, invoicing, debtor tracking, collections follow-up
  • Receipt and document capture

Each pay cycle

  • Wage and salary calculation
  • PAYG withholding
  • Superannuation guarantee at 12%
  • Single Touch Payroll reporting on or before pay day
  • Leave accruals and entitlements
  • Pay slips and employee records

Monthly, quarterly and annually

  • Month-end close and balance sheet reconciliations
  • Management report pack
  • BAS and IAS preparation and lodgement
  • PAYG instalments
  • STP finalisation by 14 July
  • Year-end file handover to your accountant

The monthly report pack

Where bookkeeping stops being data entry.

Anyone can hand you a trial balance. What a business owner needs is a short pack, on the same day every month, with one page that says what changed and what to watch.

Because Countique is a management consultancy first, your numbers arrive with a reading of them, not just a file.

See a sample pack
  • Profit & loss, month, year to date, versus prior year and versus budget
  • Balance sheet, with every control account reconciled
  • Cash flow statement and a rolling 13-week cash view
  • Aged receivables, who owes you and how long they have owed it
  • Aged payables, what is due and when
  • GST and PAYG position so the next BAS is never a surprise
  • One-page commentary, what moved, why, and what to do about it

A specialty within the service

Franchise bookkeeping, both sides of the agreement

A franchise is not a small business with a logo on it. It is a small business inside a contract, and the contract has its own accounting deadlines, ones that now carry civil penalties. We work for franchisees, for franchisors, and occasionally for both in the same network with the walls that requires.

Two deadlines most networks miss

31 October and 14 November

Under the new Franchising Code a franchisor must update its disclosure document and prepare its specific purpose fund statement within four months of the financial year end, then confirm its Franchise Disclosure Register profile by 14 November. Both run on numbers a bookkeeper produces.

If you hold a franchise

Your books answer to the ATO and to your franchisor

  • Royalty and levy reconciliation. Royalties and fund contributions are usually struck on gross sales taken from your point-of-sale system. If the mapping from POS to ledger is wrong, you are either overpaying every week or carrying a shortfall claim you do not know about. We reconcile the two and keep the working.
  • Two charts, one ledger. Your franchisor wants its chart of accounts so it can benchmark you against the network. Your accountant wants one that works at year end. We maintain the mapping so both reports come out of the same file, and your network comparison is actually comparing like with like.
  • Award coding that will survive being asked about. Since Bakers Delight Holdings Ltd v Fair Work Ombudsman [2025] FCAFC 144, franchisors have a direct interest in your payroll and will start asking for evidence. Better that it exists.
  • Capital expenditure and refurbishment. The new Code makes the franchisor state the rationale and timing of significant capital expenditure. You need the asset register, the depreciation and the cash timing to answer it.
  • Books a buyer or the franchisor can approve. Transfers and renewals stall on messy files more often than on price.

If you run the network

The Code turned several bookkeeping jobs into legal deadlines

  • Specific purpose funds. Marketing, cooperative, technology, training and refurbishment funds are now one concept under the Code. Contributions must sit in a separate account, and the annual statement has to show receipts and expenses in meaningful detail. That is a second ledger, kept properly, all year, not a reconstruction in October.
  • Audit-ready by default. The fund statement must be independently audited unless 75% of contributing franchisees vote otherwise. Assume the audit and the vote becomes a saving rather than a scramble.
  • Solvency statement and financial reports. Your disclosure document needs a solvency statement supported by two years of financial reports, or a current independent audit. Both come out of the close.
  • Network payroll oversight. Section 558B of the Fair Work Act makes a responsible franchisor entity liable for a franchisee's contraventions unless it took reasonable steps. Reasonable steps have to be documented, and much of the evidence is payroll data.
  • Franchisee reporting you can actually use. A network benchmark is only as good as the coding underneath it. We can standardise the incoming files so the comparison means something.

The franchisor's annual calendar

Dates shown for a 30 June financial year end. Every one of these obligations now carries a civil penalty of up to 600 penalty units, $218,400 at the penalty unit value from 1 July 2026.

DateObligationWhat has to be true
ContinuouslySpecific purpose fund accountFranchisee contributions to a marketing, cooperative or other specific purpose fund must be kept in a separate account. This has applied since 1 November 2025.
30 SeptemberAudit vote, if you are taking oneThe vote to dispense with the fund audit must be held within three months of the end of the financial year, and needs 75% of the Australian franchisees who contribute to the fund.
31 OctoberFund financial statementPrepared within four months of the end of the financial year, showing the fund's receipts and expenses in meaningful detail, including what proportion went on administration.
31 OctoberAudit reportUnless the franchisees voted it away, the statement must be independently audited.
31 OctoberDisclosure document updateUpdated within four months of the first day of the financial year, including the solvency statement and the supporting financial reports.
Within 30 daysGive it to the franchiseesThe fund statement goes to contributing franchisees within 30 days of being prepared, and the audit report within 30 days of being received.
14 NovemberFranchise Disclosure RegisterThe franchisor's profile must be confirmed or updated before the fourteenth day of the fifth month after the end of the financial year.
What this page is and is not. Countique is a bookkeeping and management consulting practice, not a law firm. We keep the records and hit the dates that these obligations run on. Whether your disclosure document, your franchise agreement or your fund rules comply with the Code is a question for your franchise lawyer, and we will happily work alongside one.

Payroll & compliance

The obligations that carry penalties

These are the ones that cost money when they slip. Every figure below is current as at August 2026 and referenced at the bottom of this page.

Current

Payday Super, from 1 July 2026

Super guarantee contributions must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days of the payment of salary or wages. Extended timeframes apply to a new employee's first contribution or a new fund (20 business days) and to out-of-cycle payments. Late contributions attract the super guarantee charge, including interest and an administrative component. Because clearing houses take time, we pay on payday itself.

12.00%

Superannuation guarantee

The SG rate is 12.00% for 2025–26, 2026–27 and onwards, it has reached its legislated ceiling, so there are no further scheduled increases. From 1 July 2026 SG is calculated on each eligible employee's qualifying earnings. The maximum contribution base for 2026–27 is $270,830 annually.

Single Touch Payroll Phase 2

STP Phase 2 has been mandatory since 1 January 2022. A pay event must be reported to the ATO on or before pay day, and the finalisation declaration is due 14 July each year. Phase 2 requires gross to be disaggregated into its components, plus employment basis, tax treatment, income type, cessation date and reason. We check that your payroll file is genuinely Phase 2 compliant, many that were "switched on" in 2022 still carry mis-mapped pay items.

Record keeping, two clocks, not one

The ATO requires most business records to be kept for five years from when the record was prepared or the transaction completed, whichever is later. Fair Work separately requires time and wages records to be kept for seven years, readily accessible, legible and in English. If you employ people, both clocks run. We keep the file so that both are satisfied.

GST & activity statements

Know the dates before they know you

Registration and reporting

  • GST registration is required at $75,000 GST turnover ($150,000 for not-for-profits), within 21 days of becoming required to register. Taxi and ride-sourcing drivers must register regardless of turnover.
  • Monthly reporting applies at $20 million turnover or more; quarterly below that; annual reporting is available to voluntarily registered businesses under the threshold.
  • PAYG withholding: small withholders ($25,000 or less withheld a year) report quarterly; medium withholders ($25,001 – $1 million) report monthly.
  • An IAS is used where there is PAYG withholding or instalments but no GST reporting.
QuarterStandard dueVia BAS agent
Q1 · Jul–Sep 202628 Oct 202625 Nov 2026
Q2 · Oct–Dec 202628 Feb 202728 Feb 2027
Q3 · Jan–Mar 202728 Apr 202726 May 2027
Q4 · Apr–Jun 202728 Jul 202725 Aug 2027*

Concessional dates apply to registered BAS agents lodging electronically. Q2 carries no concession. *Q4 date is provisional pending the 2027–28 lodgment program.

Registered BAS agent services. BAS preparation, lodgement and dealings with the ATO on your behalf are provided through a registered BAS agent. Bank reconciliation, data entry and general bookkeeping are provided directly. [Registration number to be inserted]

We work in your stack

XEROMYOBQUICKBOOKS ONLINEDEXTEMPLOYMENT HEROANNATURE

Certification and partner status to be confirmed. If you are already on a platform we keep you there; if you are choosing one, we will tell you which fits the way you work rather than which pays us.

Pricing

Fixed monthly fee. No hourly surprises.

Priced on transaction volume and headcount, agreed in advance, reviewed every six months. Catch-up and rescue work is quoted separately.

Sole trader

Under 50 transactions a month

$295 / month + GST
  • Bank reconciliation
  • Transaction coding and GST
  • Quarterly BAS preparation and lodgement
  • Quarterly P&L and balance sheet
  • Year-end handover to your accountant
  • Payroll
Enquire

Small business

50–150 transactions · up to 5 employees

$695 / month + GST
  • Everything in Sole trader
  • Accounts payable and receivable
  • Payroll, STP Phase 2 and Payday Super
  • Monthly report pack with commentary
  • Monthly 30-minute numbers call
  • Rolling 13-week cash flow
Enquire

Growing business

150–400 transactions · 6–20 employees

from $1,450 / month + GST
  • Everything in Small business
  • Multi-entity and inter-company
  • Budget build and variance reporting
  • Job or project costing
  • Quarterly business review with Johann
  • Board or lender reporting pack
Enquire

Getting started

Four weeks from first call to a clean set of books.

Most businesses come to us with something behind, a quarter of unreconciled bank, a payroll file that never quite made it to Phase 2, a debtor list nobody has looked at. That is normal. We start by telling you what we find.

Free file review

We look at your current file and tell you honestly what state it is in and what it will take to fix.

Fixed quote and engagement

Scope, monthly fee and any catch-up work, in writing, before anything starts.

Clean-up and setup

Reconciliations brought current, chart of accounts tidied, GST codes checked, payroll mapped correctly, approvals and access set up.

Business as usual

Same rhythm every month: reconciled by the 5th, report pack by the 10th, BAS lodged on time, nothing chased twice.

Questions

Before you switch

Do you replace my accountant?
No. Your accountant handles tax returns, structuring and year-end. We keep the books in a state where their job is quick and their bill is smaller. We work directly with whoever you already use.
We are behind. How far behind is too far?
We have picked up files two years behind. Catch-up work is quoted separately from the monthly fee so you can see exactly what the history costs versus what going forward costs.
Can you work with our existing bookkeeper?
Yes, some clients keep day-to-day data entry in house and use us for the month-end close, activity statements, payroll compliance and reporting.
We are a franchisee. Will you talk to our franchisor?
Yes, and in most networks that is the point. We can report into the franchisor's chart of accounts on their timetable while keeping your file right for your own accountant, and we will handle the queries so you do not have to translate between the two. If your agreement nominates an approved bookkeeper or accounting platform, tell us before you switch, some networks do.
We are the franchisor. Can you do the fund without doing the whole network?
Yes. Specific purpose fund accounting is a discrete engagement: a separate ledger against the separate account, kept all year, with the annual statement prepared to be audited rather than defended. Plenty of franchisors keep their own books and use us only for that.
Do you work for a franchisee and its franchisor at the same time?
Sometimes, and only with both of them knowing. The franchisor sees what the agreement entitles it to see and nothing else, on separate files with separate access. If either side is uncomfortable with the arrangement we will not take the second engagement, the fund and the franchisee's own numbers are not the same information.
What about advice practices, can you do our books?
Yes, and it is the one place where the two halves of Countique meet. We know what revenue per client, cost to serve and margin look like in an advice business, so the reporting is built around the numbers that actually run the practice.
Where is our data held?
In your own cloud accounting file, which you own and can revoke access to at any time. We never hold your books hostage.

References

Regulatory information on this page is current as at August 2026 and drawn from the following primary sources. It is general information, not tax or financial advice.

  1. Australian Taxation Office, Paying super on payday and Payment deadlines for Payday Super, ato.gov.au
  2. Australian Taxation Office, Super guarantee rates and thresholds, ato.gov.au
  3. Australian Taxation Office, Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 employer reporting guidelines, ato.gov.au
  4. Australian Taxation Office, Registering for GST and Options for reporting and paying GST, ato.gov.au
  5. Australian Taxation Office, Due dates for lodging and paying your BAS and BAS agent lodgment program 2026–27, ato.gov.au
  6. Australian Taxation Office, Overview of record-keeping rules for business, ato.gov.au
  7. Fair Work Ombudsman, Record-keeping, fairwork.gov.au
  8. Tax Practitioners Board, BAS services and TPB(I) 38/2023 What is a BAS service?, tpb.gov.au
  9. Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes, Franchising) Regulations 2024 (Cth), in force 1 April 2025, legislation.gov.au (F2024L01605)
  10. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Specific purpose funds for franchise businesses and Franchising Code of Conduct, accc.gov.au
  11. The Treasury, New Franchising Code of Conduct: table of key changes, March 2025, treasury.gov.au
  12. Franchise Disclosure Register, Information for franchisors and professional advisers, franchisedisclosure.gov.au
  13. Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 558B; Bakers Delight Holdings Ltd v Fair Work Ombudsman [2025] FCAFC 144
  14. Crimes (Amount of a Penalty Unit) Instrument 2026 (Cth), penalty unit $364 from 1 July 2026

Send us your file. We will tell you what we find.

A free review of your current accounting file, with a written summary of its condition and a fixed monthly quote. No obligation either way.

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