6 Reasons Bookkeepers Charge BAS Lodgment Fees - FREE TEMPLATE!

Ever been asked to justify why you charge lodgment fees? It’s annoying, but “just because” is not a good enough reason.

Here’s a template I created in 2016 to explain this fee to a client who wasn’t impressed with my response “it’s industry-standard”. It got me thinking that unless I have a good reason to charge a certain fee, I shouldn’t be charging it!

Normally this template is for sale in the shop for $15, but for a limited time I’m posting it here as a freebie. Feel free to use all, or parts of it, or adapt it to send to clients if they question your lodgment fee.

Conditions of use:

1. Do NOT post it on your blog/website. I’ve already got it on mine - and unfortunately duplicated online content can cause Google to penalise your website (and mine!). We receive plagiarism alerts when someone copies our stuff onto their website. Sadly, this does happen 😞

2. If you love this template, click the share button at the bottom of this email, and share it with a fellow bookkeeper!

Enjoy!

Amy Hooke x

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6 Benefits Of Lodging Through A BAS Agent That Will Make Your Bookkeeping Stress Disappear

So, a bookkeeper has told you that you have to pay a BAS lodgment fee and now you're looking around online to see if this is "standard practice". (Aka, hoping you don't actually have to pay that ridiculous fee).

They told you that the fee doesn't even include time. A fixed-price, non-time-based fee for "clicking a button". That's outrageous!

Or is it....?

Did you know that..

Your BAS Agent works their butt off so you don’t have to!

Yup! That's right. That wonderful person you hired to crunch your numbers spends time, money and tonnes of brain-power every year doing seminars, webinars, workshops, courses and other educational activities like research, writing and presentations so that you don’t have to.

1. Reconciliations

To make sure your BAS is correct, every quarter you don't just need to reconcile the bank and credit card accounts. You need to reconcile the GST, PAYG, wages payable, super payable, wages expense, super expense and ATO integrated client accounts. As well as any intercompany loans, hire purchases and chattel mortgages.

Because a BAS Agent is a highly-skilled bookkeeper, you don't need to worry about any of that.

Just handball it to us and we will take care of it.

2. Ongoing study

For 45 hours every three-year your BAS Agent is studying their little heart out and forking out cash to learn topics (ones that would probably make you fall asleep and start snoring) just so they can stay registered.

That's great news because it means that you never have to study bookkeeping, BAS, updates to legislation related to GST, superannuation and payroll.

Leave it all to the numbers-nerd!

3. Safe harbour

If you lodge your own BAS you can get in trouble if there are mistakes. You might even have to pay fines. But your BAS Agent will have you covered by Safe Harbor laws. 

Honestly, we know you can probably do some of the work yourself, especially when it comes to, for example, knowing what to write at G1 on the BAS form.

Kidding! It's all done online these days.

What I meant to say was, I know you're perfectly capable of clicking that button to lodge - but if you can be covered by safe harbour laws, why would you want to?

I know, right.

4. Code of conduct

The Code of Conduct requires your BAS Agent to be professional, honest, independent, confidential or competent. If your BAS Agent isn't you can report them to the Tax Practitioners Board.

But you hire someone who is not registered, you are not covered or protected by any code of conduct. If they don’t know what they’re doing, or make a mess, you will left out of pocket.

5. More time to lodge

If you lodge your own BAS then you always have to lodge and pay by the due date, but because your lucky-ducky BAS Agent gets extra time to lodge then so will you.

Who doesn't want more time to lodge their BAS, seriously? Unless it's a refund, then you might want to wait. But I'm assuming you will eventually be making a profit, so... let's not worry about those GST refunds.

6. Qualifications and insurance

Just to get registered your BAS Agent needs minimum qualifications:

  • 1400 hours experience
  • Cert IV in bookkeeping
  • PI insurance
  • Professional membership
  • Ongoing study

These are big investments of time and money that your BAS Agent makes in ensuring that your BAS is up to scratch.

You must feel exhausted just reading this article about how much your bookkeeper has to do just to get to the point where they can legally, and competently lodge your BAS.

So there you have it: 6 Benefits Of Lodging Through A BAS Agent That Will Make Your Bookkeeping Stress Disappear

Now you understand why your BAS Agent charges a lodgment fee! So let’s get started with your BAS :)

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We hope you love this template and that it’s help you understand the value of your lodgment fees as a BAS Agent.

Savvy has plenty more valuable content waiting for you in my private community, which is where Amy Hooke share resources and provides mentoring.

Join a Community of Business-Minded Bookkeepers here:

https://community.thesavvybookkeeper.com.au/

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