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Simple Invest 360 free, live webinar series!

By BGL Update, Simple Invest 360No Comments

Last month BGL launched Simple Invest 360, an intelligent cloud-based software to help accountants streamline CGT compliance administration for Trusts, Companies and Individuals. 

One of the primary drivers behind the decision to develop Simple Invest 360 came from BGL clients; those who were looking for a non-super investment solution which provides the same level of automation and artificial intelligence as our cloud SMSF administration software, Simple Fund 360. 

Simple Invest 360 provides a comprehensive portfolio solution with smart CGT to handle all different investment asset types in one unified solution. Be it listed or unlisted securities, ETFs, property trusts, wrap accounts, crypto currencies or direct property, Simple Invest 360 can handle it all. The software automates all tedious CGT record-keeping as well as providing simple and financial and tax reporting saving time and money no matter what the tax structure – trusts, companies or partnerships or individuals. 

All existing BGL clients have been provided the opportunity to trial 5 entities on Simple Invest 360 for free until 31 August 2021. 

To access the free trial, Simple Fund 360 clients can simply login to their Simple Fund 360 software and select “Add New Entity” from the Entity Workflow screen (click here to learn more). For all other existing BGL clients, please contact your BGL Account Manager. 

Attend our free, live webinar series!

To learn more about Simple Invest 360, follow the links below to register for our free, live webinars.

Can’t make it to the live webinars? Register anyway to get the recordings.

Why did BGL develop
Simple Invest 360?

Presented by BGL’s Founder and Managing Director Ron Lesh and the Head of Simple Fund 360, Matt Crofts.

Monday 26th July at 10:30 AEST

Register Now

Simple Invest 360 accounting
and tax features

Presented by Simple Invest 360 Product Manager Andrew Paszko alongside Simple Invest 360 Business Analyst, Andrew Perera.

Wednesday 11th August at 11.30 AEST

Register Now

Simple Invest 360 for
accountants and planners

Presented by Simple Invest 360 Product Manager Andrew Paszko and the Head of Simple Fund 360, Matt Crofts.

Wednesday 25th August at 10.30 AEST

Register Now
July 20, 2021
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BGL Launches SMSF Auditor Panel

By BGL Update, Simple Fund 360No Comments

BGL is proud to announce the launch of the BGL SMSF Auditors Panel.

The BGL SMSF Auditors Panel will feature BGL client firms and specialist SMSF Auditors who either use the BGL API to access Simple Fund 360 data or who log into Simple Fund 360 to complete audits. The BGL Auditors Panel can be found on the BGL website or through links within Simple Fund 360.

“We often get requests for recommendations of SMSF Auditors who are integrated with Simple Fund 360. So, we have decided to relaunch and rebrand our Auditors List as the BGL SMSF Auditors Panel.” says BGL Managing Director Ron Lesh. “We invite all our clients who perform SMSF audits to join!”

“Most importantly – being listed and accessing the list is FREE!” add Lesh. “That’s right, BGL is providing this list FREE for auditors to list and FREE for clients to access“.

Over the next few weeks, our clients will also see enhanced functionality for the “Send to Audit” function in Simple Fund 360. This too will be available FREE to all firms listed on the BGL Auditors Panel.  

For more information on the SMSF Auditors Panel or to be included in our list, visit www.bglcorp.com/marketplace/auditors-list

July 14, 2021
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End of an era – Simple Fund Desktop team releases final tax update

By BGL Update, Simple Fund 360No Comments

On 8 July 2021, the BGL Team released the last tax update for Simple Fund Desktop. While no date for the end of Simple Fund Desktop software support has been set, this signals the upcoming end of product life for Simple Fund Desktop.

“It’s the end of an era at BGL” said BGL’s Managing Director, Ron Lesh. “Simple Fund Desktop was the market leading product for its time and even today has some sensational features many years ahead of their time.”

Launched in 1997, Simple Fund Desktop changed the game when it came to SMSF administration, offering an alternative to completing calculations in Excel and very manual and cumbersome processing and report generation through general ledger software.

However, with a number of significant changes to superannuation law in 2021, BGL made the difficult decision not to implement these changes in Simple Fund Desktop. Instead, focusing its resources and development on its award-winning cloud solution, Simple Fund 360.

“I want to thank the hundreds of people who have worked on Simple Fund Desktop at BGL over the past 24 years” says Lesh. “We should all be very proud of our achievements in paving the way for today’s SMSF administration software.”

“I also want to take this opportunity to thank the thousands of clients that put their trust in us and allowed us to come on their SMSF administration journey. We hope that we made your lives just a little bit easier and we hope we can continue to do so with Simple Fund 360” added Lesh.

BGL currently has large numbers of Simple Fund Desktop clients making the transition to Simple Fund 360 with great results. The process is simple, automated and complete ensuring all your valuable data and documents move to Simple Fund 360.

To learn about the benefits of Simple Fund 360 or find out just how easy it is to migrate from Simple Fund Desktop, reach out to your Account Manager today.

You can also check out the below resources:

July 13, 2021
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Simple Invest 360, our investment portfolio platform, is now available!

By News, Product Updates, Simple Invest 360No Comments

Today we announce the launch of Simple Invest 360, our intelligent cloud-based software to help accountants streamline CGT compliance administration for Trusts, Companies and Individuals.

This exciting NEW product wraps several disparate investments and CGT based tools under one unified solution. We are automating the tedious process of CGT record-keeping and Financial Reporting. In layman’s terms, Simple Invest 360 saves an accountant time no matter what the tax structure: Trust, Company, or Sole Proprietor. Simple Invest 360 uses the same proven and award-winning smart engine that powers Simple Fund 360, the No. 1 SMSF solution.

Simple Invest 360 achieves time savings by leveraging automated corporate actions, smart machine learning categorisation and integrated accounting work papers.

Many clients go to their accountants for tax advice only to find out that they may have already made a mistake with major investment decisions. Primarily, this happens because people did not keep or could not explain to the accountant their multiple asset classes and tax structures. Simple Invest 360 solves this problem, with the Client, Accountant, and Planner, now working entirely in the cloud on daily automated wealth positions.

Simple Invest 360 transpires into spending less time on the preparation and thereby reducing costs. Accountants can spend more time on other matters & increase fees, as when your clients are making better investment decisions, they will value the advice. With more value delivered, clients are less likely to switch accountants. Reduced preparation and switching costs enable more time to acquire new customers for those looking to expand their services.

”Early on we knew that we had to move fast while really listening to what the client’s end goal was. Having open and honest communication not only between ourselves but also with our beta clients meant that we were able to understand at a deeper level how to solve the issue of not only providing the client with a robust CGT engine for tracking their investments, but also a seamless year end workflow which makes allocating accounting profit and tax to beneficiaries a breeze.

Andrew Paszko - Simple Invest 360 Product Manager

But don’t take my word, here’s what our beta clients are telling us about why they love using Simple Invest 360:

“

Makes it easy to track shares and dividends, especially when clients may not supply all of the documentation you can reconstruct history. Quickly do CGT calcs and reports.

Amber Williams, Trident Business Group
“

Easy to use cloud base software with smart transactions matching, great for keeping CGT records. "Live" portfolio reports and review function to keep you up to date with your current investments, projected CGT and tax planning.

Olga Petrovskaya, Sinclair Wilson

The Simple Invest 360 team led by Andrew Paszko started with just a single developer: Yang Huang, and a software tester: Mario Blagejovic. From the get-go, the small group were laser-focused on only combining value-added features while staying close to the customer.

Once the plans were drawn up and a challenging roadmap set by myself and Ron Lesh, the Simple Invest 360 team combined forces with the larger Simple Fund 360 team to working collectively through 2020 & 2021 on the new project. Critically, the Simple Fund 360 teams provided valuable advice and experience to the younger team. The additional resources were needed to decouple some of the SMSF related functions and deal with the complexity of multiple tax structures to support Trusts, Companies, and Sole Proprietors.

The newer Simple Invest 360 team had the added challenges of Melbourne 2020 and 2021 lockdowns and needed to form good bonds as a second Software Developer, Nathan Mitchell, and new Business Analyst, Andrew Perera, completed the team. While the Simple Fund 360 team still had to deliver major compliance changes including TBAR, Superstream and COVID early release. Despite the added challenges, both teams hit every milestone. In many cases, earlier than planned.

With the early Beta Launch of Simple Invest 360 last October, valuable feedback from our beta clients was delivered into today’s successful product launch two weeks ahead of schedule.

Now the good news. All current Simple Fund 360 clients from today have free access to 5 entities until the 31st of August 2021. No catches, no drawn-out signup process. Simply login using your existing Simple Fund 360 credentials and add a New Entity. Choose from a Trust, Company or Individual and get started today. For all other BGL clients or new to BGL clients, contact your account manager on 1300 654 401 or navigate our website and enjoy the same free trial.

Learn more about Simple Invest 360 >>>

June 15, 2021
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Make your Tax Planning time less stressful and more efficient with Simple Fund 360!

By Industry, Simple Fund 360No Comments

Simple Fund 360 makes your Tax Planning less stressful and more efficient - enabling you to wow your clients!

As another financial year draws to a close, thoughts of lodgement due dates drift away (hopefully), and focus shifts to Tax Planning time. Ensuring your clients have maximised contributions, meet their minimum pension requirements and end the financial year in the best possible tax position is front of mind. 

Simple Fund 360 is the perfect tool to assist with making sure you have their SMSF covered during this process. 

The first notable feature is the filter options on the Entity Workflow screen. These can be used to really filter through your funds, whether that be by Member ages, TSB, Concessional Cap status, NCC status, Pension or Non-Pension Funds, and Pension Status. 

Next, we move onto transaction data! If you find yourself looking at a fund with no data in it (as you have no bank feeds set up), and you’re needing to get those transactions in and allocated to gain a clear picture, look no further than Smart Docs. Once you have obtained copies of the bank statements from the client, whether that be in PDF or paper form, simply scan them or take a photo of them and upload them into the software. Ta-da! Transactions in! From here, the use of the Smart Matching rules can help quickly sort through contribution or pension transactions and allow you to match multiple transactions at a time. 

Once transactions are allocated, you can view fund by fund visuals using the dashboards to check contribution and pension status’. With the contribution dashboard, you can now also include contributions that may have been made to an external fund, whether it be in the current year or previous years, potentially impacting bring-forward rules. The Pension Dashboard can also be used to check if minimum pensions have been withdrawn from the fund. The reduction in the minimum pension due to Covid has also been built into the software, so it will take this into account when looking at the minimum. 

Whilst going through this process, you might also want to create a specific tax planning report pack, ensuring you have supporting documentation saved for any details you are providing to your clients. This can easily be done from the reports screen by following the steps: Clear any current selections and create a new report pack by dragging and dropping the required reports – Contributions Summary, Contribution Breakdown, SuperStream Contribution Data and Minimum Pension reports are good ones to keep a copy of on file when preparing and providing any advice. Once selected, simply hit save new report pack on the bottom, and you will be able to generate the report pack for any fund that you have selected. 

You are also able to create Custom Reports. These could be used to potentially put together a cover letter in order to present your client with their current fund stats. Think merge fields that pull member names, current contribution or pension data from the software! The easiest way to implement one of these is to take your standard email/letter template that you would ordinarily send to the client and download the document template from Simple Fund 360 that contains all the merge fields from the software. You can find this template in the Reports tab, under the ‘Custom Reports’ heading. Then you want to select the relevant merge fields to replace your data with, things like Member Name, Total Superannuation Balance, Contributions received to date are good ones to include. 

Starting with your own already existing document will mean that you have any of your firm’s disclaimers included or any standard paragraphs used by the firm. 

The above are just a couple of tricks that Simple Fund 360 has in order to make your tax planning time less stressful, more efficient, and ultimately enabling you to really be able to wow your clients!

For more tips and tricks, check out our Tax Planning webinar recording >>>

June 1, 2021
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The benefits of transitioning to Simple Fund 360 are invaluable! – Bedford story

By Case Study, Homepage, Industry, Simple Fund 360No Comments

”The intuitive and easy to use interface has led to processing efficiency. Especially for complex funds with lots of transactions, the processing time has reduced by more than half, which is incredible.

About Bedford

Bedford CA is a highly skilled and proactive firm of professional accountants and business advisors with over 70 years of history behind them.

The team at Bedford CA pride themselves on their proactive, personalised service to their clients. They partner with their clients to set goals and develop strategies to achieve them, from start up to retirement, as well as managing their client’s compliance requirements effectively every year.

About Diana Porta

Diana Porta, client manager at Bedford, is an experienced, knowledgeable, pro-active and engaging accountant with proven skills in Tax Preparation, SelfManaged Superannuation Funds, Auditing and Business Process Improvement.

Diana holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce from University of Western Sydney, where she was awarded the 2010 Dean’s Medal. She is also a Chartered Accountant through the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and is currently working towards her Masters in Economics and Finance through Sydney University.

The Challenge

Inefficient and difficult to use software

Prior to making the transition to Simple Fund 360, Bedford CA legacy systems were hard to manage – everything from digital usability to simple fund processing was difficult.

“Our previous super fund software was not very intuitive and after investing a considerable amount of time and money, there were still inefficiencies in processing super funds across the firm.”

The team at Bedford CA knew they needed a much simpler solution– and they found that in Simple Fund 360.

Why Simple Fund 360

Intuitive, innovative software that adds value to our firm and clients

“We really wanted to move to a leading software provider that demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvements to their product. Other key considerations included: If the software features were intuitive and easy to use? If the reports were easy to understand? And most importantly, if the new software would add value to our firm and our clients?”

The Solution

An intelligent, automated solution - Simple Fund 360

“We were a bit worried about the transition to Simple Fund 360, but the process was very easy. The BGL team imported all the data from our previous software and generated all the documents to set up bank and broker feeds”.

“Now, with the bank and broker feeds up and running, we are able to obtain a lot of information from directly within the software, which has considerably reduced the volume of queries to clients”.

“Processing transactions and year-end adjustments is also really easy and BGL’s Online Help is a great resource for information on processing corporate actions and matching transactions”.

Using Simple Fund 360’s Matching Rules Screen, Bedford’s CA team can now easily view, create and manage funds’ transaction matching rules – which determines the logic Simple Fund 360 uses to automatically code transactions that feed into funds through bank feeds, CSV or other file uploads.

“My favourite time saving features in Simple Fund 360 are the “Drag and Drop” file import feature and the “Transaction Matching – Create New Rule’’ feature. I love being able to “Drag and Drop” csv files into the file import feature and by “Creating Rules” in the Matching Rules Screen, most of the work is done for the current and future years”.

“Finally, the BGL Support Team has been quick and responsive to any issues we have faced so far, and the Simple Fund 360 Product Development Team is continually adding new helpful features”. 

The Results

Our processing time has reduced by more than half and now we can focus on what really matters - our clients!

“The benefits of transitioning to Simple Fund 360 are invaluable.”

“As we continue to automate as much as we can, not only are we saving time on processing, but we’re also streamlining other internal procedures. This helps us to keep a competitive price structure for our clients.”

“Now we can focus on what really matters – our relationships with our clients and assisting them with their compliance.”

May 6, 2021
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CAS 360 Software Update Release April 2021

By BGL Update, CAS 360No Comments

Introducing Multi Annual Reviews Processing!

In the April 2021 CAS 360 release we have focused on improving the most commonly used feature in CAS 360, the Annual Review.

Since the launch of CAS 360 we have focused on completing Annual Reviews quickly, while still treating them with the care and attention that is required to make sure the information you deliver to your clients is correct and shows the quality of your firm’s work.

In this update, you can now process these Annual Reviews in bulk. Allowing the processing of the Annual Reviews to be done once. Per day, per week or per month.

It starts with being able to select all the Reviews you want to process in bulk, you can do this easily from the new drop down menu. You can focus on just the Reviews that are “Passed” or all Reviews ready to process.

Once the Companies are selected, you are now ready to process the Reviews. We have developed a new Multi Company Document production process; step 1 is to select the document pack and templates for each company. This also includes great existing features, such as Digital Signing, Document Order and Annual Review deadline alerts.

Once you are ready to proceed, CAS 360 will then validate all companies and all document templates in the background, a huge task across so many companies, and if there are any validation issues you are able to correct these issues in the workflow, without leaving.

Once the validations have all passed, you are now ready to proceed to see who you are sending the reviews out to. As part of this process we will show you who is going to receive the review for each company. Again, we have built in validations of email addresses, and users are able to add email addresses from within the workflow.

We have also built in the manager review process, if these reviews are required to be signed off, then this process has also been included.

Once the reviews have been sent to the client, you will receive a new notification that allows you to track the progress of the Annual Review delivery. This is a new notification!

The Multiple Annual Reviews Tracking screen will also show you each company, and a delivery status per recipient, so you can have confidence that each client has received their Annual Review.

Watch our video below to see this incredible new feature in action!

April 29, 2021
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Price vs Cost: What to think about when considering your options?

By BGL Update, In the Media, Industry, No Drama with TrammaNo Comments

Price vs Cost: An interesting point of consideration and discussion

On a daily basis, we are confronted with choices about price. As ingrained in all of us, when looking at a product or software to perform a function, we are often drawn to the cheaper option. Let’s admit it: We all love a good deal and price point!

However, should price be the determining factor when making a decision?

I am from the accounting software world. I love software that makes my life easy. I love software apps that save me time, effort and ultimately money. While I focus on what to look for and consider in making software decisions, some of these considerations can be used across a broad range of decisions and choices we make every day.

Knowing what problem you need to be solved is a great place to start and it will provide you with a clear understanding of exactly what is required to deliver optimal outcomes. Understand the issue at hand, the outcomes, and ultimately, the end customer experience you want to deliver.

Here’s my list of what to think about when considering your options:

1

Features:

Do your due diligence and thoroughly compare features. Line the products against each other. Be clear on your must-haves, don’t need and the nice to have. Features differences can end up costing you a lot of money later down the road.
2

Support:

What help is available and how readily available the help is. When it comes to learning and using software, we at all times will come across questions. Having access to the right resources and support can save you a lot of downtime, reduce write-offs and can help reduce WIP.
3

Updates:

Great software companies are continually updating, improving and adding new features to further delight their clients and the experience. A lack of updates is a red flag on many fronts including, but not limited to, a lack of commitment to the product, the state of the underlying technology, potentially the wrong people leading products, culture, or lack of focus. Do your research!
4

Processing Times:

Great technology reduces the manual time required to complete tasks. Run products in parallel and compare what it takes to achieve the same outcomes. Remember, time saved equals a reduction in costs that is often far, far greater than price differentials.
5

Tasks replaced:

Technology should replace repetitive, predictable and mundane tasks. You do not need people doing these. Great technology will free your people up to focus on value-added services and relationship building which we know are so important in today's space.
6

Integrations:

Beware of software companies that claim to do it all. Great software companies are focused on their core competency. They focus on their strengths and integrate well with other products and services that you may need to fully complete required tasks. The strength of a software company and product is closely aligned to who they play well with.
7

Brand:

An extremely important consideration. Look at their reputation, trust, track record, longevity of employees and leaders. Develop an understanding of the Why they exist and ensure that it aligns with your values and how you want to position your business and services.
8

Customer Experience:

Great software delivers a great internal and external customer experience. Internally, software can equip and empower employees to better perform their tasks while at the same time embracing and learning great technology. Externally, great software will deliver to your clients an experience that generates a greater appetite for engagement, which promotes client longevity and loyalty.

Wow! That’s an extensive list and hopefully it provides you with a little more direction when making purchases.

Yes, price is a factor but just because something is priced less, it does not mean that it costs you less!

At BGL, we have never designed our products to be the cheapest. Our products are designed to drive value and reduce inputs that allow users to deliver superior outcomes and maximise the return for their efforts and investment. At BGL, we love clients who engage with us for who we are, what we represent, and the value we deliver to our clients. That my friends, is foundational to a longstanding and loyal customer base.

April 14, 2021
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CAS 360 launches in Singapore!

By BGL Update, CAS 360, In the Media, Industry, News, TechnologyNo Comments

BGL is proud to announce the launch of the CAS 360 Company Compliance Solution in Singapore!

“The CAS 360 team has been working tirelessly to build CAS 360 Singapore”, said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “I’m excited to announce the BETA version is now available for our Singapore clients. CAS 360 Company Compliance and Trust Management software will help Singapore company compliance professionals streamline their processes with innovative and unique technology. It will save them heaps of time so they can focus on their many, many other responsibilities.”

“BGL is the first business approved by Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) to lodge Company Annual Returns electronically in Singapore” added Lesh. “Our CAS 360 Team has worked tirelessly with ACRA to help make the Singapore electronic filing system work for software providers. The first stage is Annual Returns and company data downloads with the electronic lodgement of company change documents available later in 2021.”

“CAS 360 Singapore supports the preparation of the forms and documents required for Company Address, Company Officers and Company Shareholder changes in Singapore” noted Lesh. “CAS 360 also supports the Singapore XBRL for the preparation and lodgement of XBRL Financial Statements with ACRA. CAS 360 is the complete package and will provide the same incredible efficiencies for our Singapore clients as we do for 500,000+ companies in Australia”.

BGL has been operating in Singapore for over 20 years and has over 400 businesses using our market-leading CAS Desktop Singapore software. “CAS 360 is the natural progression for our clients” says Lesh

“As a trusted company with over 30 years of experience and innovation in Regtech, BGL can guarantee our clients will always be compliant with ACRA’s requirements”.

April 12, 2021
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