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CAS 360 Product Update – March 2022

By BGL Update, CAS 360No Comments

The CAS 360 March 2022 update release is a huge release, to coincide with the BGL REGTECH 2022 running across the country we have released some of the most exciting features for our users. 

What's new?

Automated Debt Reminders

The time for an automated, set and forget ASIC debt management (pictured right) has arrived. CAS 360 can now automatically remind your clients of their outstanding debts to ASIC. 

In the settings menu, Automated Reminders has been added. This feature needs to be activated by your firm before it starts sending reminders. 

You have control over the frequency of reminders, who the sender is, the email template used, the invoice attached and who the emails are sent to. 

The reminders will be sent throughout the day, and almost always within business hours. The reminders will be sent when the debt checking and verification process with ASIC has been completed.

We have also implemented an Automation report (pictured right) that will be shown to users who have the automated reminders activated. 

If you have set up automated reminders, and no email address has been provided for the contacts in that company, you will be notified that an email could not be sent from CAS 360. 

The automation report will also include Automated Document Reminders that have been sent sine the last time the user logged in. 

The automation report can also be exported to PDF or MS Excel. 

The automation report will be shown to the user on login, if there have been reminders sent by CAS 360 on the account since their last log in.

Purchase Constitutions 

In 2021 Changes were made to CAS 360 to allow all firms to lodge company incorporations with ASIC, directly from CAS 360. All that is required, is your agent to have a direct debit account with ASIC. That’s it. 

Building on that great enhancement, we have now added the ability for you to purchase a company constitution directly from within CAS 360 (pictured right). 

We have partnered with Entity Makers, LightYear Docs and Smarter SMSF to bring this great feature to you. 

If you have considered registering companies in CAS 360, you now have all of the documents required, including a company constitution, and the software to do it 😃

Advanced Document Screen Filters

The Global Documents screen (pictured right) in CAS 360 is one of the most used and frequented screens, and we have now added a powerful search to help you find anything you need on this screen.

From the documents screen, you can now create your own filters and even save that as the default, did anyone ask for label filters? Yes, you did, you know who you are. We have label filters and much more.

You can now filter document records by:

Company Name, Trust Name, Agent, Document Type, Due Date, Penalty, Trace Number, Document Status, Partner and Labels!

All filters can be saved, and all saved filters are accessed at the click of a button.

The document screen has never been so powerful.

2-Factor Authentication for Digital Signing

Users can now require 2-factor authentication on digital signing documents. This can be a requirement for the whole document pack or just for individual signatories.

As part of this feature, we have also re-designed the whole Electronic Signing Options screen (pictured right).

From this screen, you can toggle on the 2-factor authentication requirement. You are also able to select which signers have this requirement.

From this screen, you can also add email and phone numbers to the contact record, as well as see the documents that the contact is going to be required to sign.

As the 2-factor authentication for digital signing is handled by CAS 360, there is no additional cost to use this.

Also in this update is the ability for users to void a Digital Signing document from within CAS 360, this can be done on the documents screen, via the Options dropdown.

Lastly with digital signing, now when selecting for the signers to receive the completed signed document pack, the preparer will also receive the completed document pack via email.

Director ID added to Annual Review screen

The Director ID features from the Companies screen have now been added to the Annual Review screen, this allows users to check the Director ID status of each company prior to the annual review being sent out. 

A number of other Director ID features have also been added to this release, now we will validate the Director ID number that is entered in, this will be checked with the Director ID algorithm. Also when preparing Officer appointments and Company Registrations the Director ID letter will be included.  

Ability to CC company contacts in Multi-Annual Review process

Users now have the ability to automatically include important company contacts such as Billing Contacts, the Partner or the Manager when processing Annual Reviews.

This can be done on the Email Validations step, where you can see all the emails that are going to be sent out. Toggling on these options will add the email addresses for each company’s annual review.

All of this and so much more includes the ability to remove lodgement permissions for users, enhancements for Joint Members and Trusts via multi-company documents, improvements to our Officers API, a new consent to short notice for the AGM, and improved support for more than one Annual Review per year when a company changes it review date.

March 7, 2022
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BGL collaborates with Cointree to provide cryptocurrency price feed NBOC

By BGL Update, Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360No Comments

BGL in collaboration with Cointree, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, is proud to announce the release of NBOC; an Australian based solution providing a daily price feed for hundreds of cryptocurrencies.

“This is an industry first solution, and we are extremely proud to have developed NBOC together with our long-term friends and partners at Cointree” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Unlike stocks on the ASX that cease trading every afternoon and have a single price, cryptocurrencies are traded 24/7 across multiple exchanges and in multiple countries. This makes accurate valuation challenging. So, BGL and Cointree developed NBOC to solve this problem for our clients with the goal of making cryptocurrency valuations reliable and more accessible for everyone.”

“We have witnessed a significant increase in SMSFs and trusts investing in cryptocurrency over the last five years,” said Shane Stevenson, Cointree’s CEO. “There is an increasing need to value cryptocurrency trades accurately and with confidence. The BGL team has been fantastic to work with and we are all very excited to deliver an industry-first solution to SMSFs.”

Cryptocurrencies are a growing asset class in BGL’s Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 which now administers $100’s of millions in cryptocurrencies. NBOC’s exclusive daily automated data feed will provide Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 clients with up-to-date prices for cryptocurrency for SMSFs, companies, trusts and individuals. The cryptocurrency valuation is used for calculating values for financial reports and member balances at 30 June.

NBOC aggregates the public pricing data from five of Australia’s largest and longest-running crypto exchanges; Cointree, BTC Markets, CoinSpot, CoinJar and Independent Reserve. Combining this data provides a ‘fair and reasonable’ valuation. As each exchange may have differing prices, NBOC will generate valuation taking into account these differing prices. 

“The BGL Ecosystem has 350+ partners and we are thrilled to add Cointree NBOC to the list” added Lesh.

For more information, visit: https://www.nboc.com.au/ 

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March 7, 2022
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Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 Product Update – March 2022

By BGL Update, Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360No Comments

We are excited to announce another major update for Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360! You can learn what’s new at our New Features Webinar on Thursday 14 April 2022 at 11:00 AEST. Register Now >>>  

The full release notes can be found on the BGL Community >>>

What's New?

BGL in collaboration with Cointree, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, is proud to announce the release of NBOC; an Australian based solution providing a daily price feed for hundreds of cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies are a growing asset class in BGL’s Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 which now administers $100’s of millions in cryptocurrencies. NBOC’s exclusive daily automated data feed will provide Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 clients with up-to-date prices for cryptocurrency for SMSFs, companies, trusts and individuals. The cryptocurrency valuation is used for calculating values for financial reports and member balances at 30 June. Click here to learn more >>>

Exclusive to Simple Fund 360

SuperStream Improvements: A new SuperStream Rollover / Release Authorities report has been added to Simple Fund 360 for audit / workpaper purposes. We continue to work to improve the SuperStream process for clients.

Smarter SMSF Integration: Two new documents have been added to Simple Fund 360 via our integration with Smarter SMSF. Click here to learn more about our seamless two-way integration >>>

Rollover In (PAYG – $55)

Generates documents to support a super benefit rollover or a super death benefit rollover for a member into the SMSF in accordance with the SuperStream requirements. The following documents will be generated as part of the order:

  • Trustee minute confirming receipt of the rollover and allocating to member’s account within prescribed time frame
  • Member notification of rollover received

Rollover Out (PAYG – $77)

Generates documents to support the payment of a super benefit rollover or a super death benefit rollover for a member from the SMSF in accordance with the SuperStream requirements. The documentation provides for:

  • full and partial rollovers,
  • transfers to APRA funds and other SMSFs.
  • Payments made by cash and in-specie.

The following documents will be generated as part of the order:

  • Member request to rollover benefits
  • For full rollover, a pre-populated ‘ATO Request for rollover of whole balance of super benefits between funds’
  • Trustee minute confirming requirements to pay the rollover and meet the SuperStream requirements within prescribed time frame.
  • Member notification confirming payment of the rollover.

Plus, many more features and improvements. Don’t forget to check out the full release notes on the BGL Community >>>

Previous release notes can be found below:

Regards, The BGL Team

March 4, 2022
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Important update on BGL REGTECH 2022 – Brisbane

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

Due to the ongoing weather emergency in Queensland and the inability to access the Convention Centre, we need to cancel BGL REGTECH 2022 - Brisbane.

All registered attendees, sponsors and partners have been emailed with further information.

Our team is here to help answer any questions you may have, so please do not hesitate to email us at [email protected] for more information.

We appreciate your understanding during this time and thank you for your continued support.

Stay safe.

Regards, The BGL Team

February 28, 2022
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BGL celebrates CAS 360’s 5th anniversary

By BGL Update, CAS 360No Comments

BGL celebrates CAS 360's 5th anniversary

BGL is proud to celebrate the 5th anniversary of its cloud-based ASIC corporate compliance and trust management software solution, CAS 360.

“I’m incredibly proud of the team and their achievements over the past 5 years” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “When we launched CAS 360 on 22 February 2017, our product team consisted of 7 members: Warren Renden, Andy Tam, Mark Flynn, Adam Polat, Dubi Laviati, Jeremy Hofsteede and Olly Weinmann. And in just 21 weeks, the team added over 600 clients and 100,000 companies to the platform. It’s been full steam ahead since then.”

“Today, the CAS 360 product team has grown to 23 members supporting 2,600+ clients, 640,000+ companies and 100,000+ trusts across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore” continued Lesh.

CAS 360 has revolutionised the way ASIC corporate compliance work is managed in Australia with its streamlined Annual Review process, including automated tracking, downloads, database comparison review and delivery of the annual statement pack to clients. Plus, daily automated smart alerts help users easily manage Annual Review dates, document deadlines and company debt.

In the past 5 years, CAS 360 clients have added 2.2m contacts, prepared 5.4m document packs, sent 2.1m emails and processed 230k dividends. Quite an incredible achievement!

“The future is bright for CAS 360” added Lesh. “We have big plans for 2022 including the official release of CAS 360 Singapore (currently in beta), the release of CAS 360 Hong Kong, the start of work on CAS 360 United Kingdom and further development in Australia and New Zealand. Certainly, watch this space!”

Watch CAS 360 DemoCheck out the TOP 50 CAS 360 features
February 22, 2022
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BGL celebrates Daniel Tramontana’s 25 years

By BGL Update, CultureNo Comments

BGL is proud to congratulate Daniel Tramontana, our Chief Operations Officer, who recently celebrated 25 at BGL.

“It’s not something that happens often these days” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Daniel joined BGL on 10 February 1997 in the support team. I would never have thought he would still be with us after 25 years”.

1997 was a big year at BGL. Not only did Daniel join the team, but BGL released Simple Fund, Simple Invest and Simple ledger. Previously, our only software product was the Corporate Affairs System (CAS). Daniel added a new area of competency to our support and training teams as he brought with him a Bachelor of Computer Science & Accounting.

Through his time at BGL, Daniel obtained a Master in Business Administration and a Six Sigma Black Belt qualification.

Daniel’s contribution to BGL has been enormous. From support to client and team training, to helping BGL grow from a business of 10 people to a business of 180 people – he has had his hand in every pie and BGL would not be where it is today without him.

“My BGL journey has been extraordinary” noted Daniel Tramontana. “Our success is directly attributed to the incredibly loyal and committed team of people. To be able to serve and work alongside such talented people has been an honour and a privilege that I do not take for granted. It is with great anticipation that I am able to take the next step and continue to drive and grow the business.”

“I would personally like to thank Daniel” added Lesh. “His contribution over the 25 years has been incredible and I am so privileged to have worked with someone of his calibre for such a long period of time”

February 21, 2022
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BGL releases portfolio consolidation with AVA Systems

By BGL Update, Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360No Comments

BGL is proud to announce Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 are now integrated with advisory and reporting software solution, AVA Systems.

“It’s great to add AVA Systems to the BGL Ecosystem” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “The integration between Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360 and AVA Systems provides consolidated portfolio reporting for fund, trust, company and individual portfolios giving our clients and their clients a holistic portfolio view.”

Andrew Quinn, CEO and Founder of AVA Systems, said: “We’re thrilled with this partnership and to be able to offer BGL clients AVAs grouped reporting tool straight from their platform. Personally, I have been in the corporate advisory and insolvency sector for over a decade and saw the niche for accountants needing software to become more hands for their clients. Coupled with AVAs family grouped reporting ability and AVAs integration with BGL, AVA can now allow accountants to advise on how their clients are doing swiftly and efficiently. Superannuation, investments and businesses all tied into one.”

Apart from integrating with the BGL product suite through Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360, AVA also allows clients to consolidate Xero ledgers with more integrations coming in the near future. “This is a real win-win for our clients” added Lesh.

BGL currently has over 350 partners in our Ecosystem and it is great to be able to add AVA Systems to the list.

For more information about this seamless and intelligent integration, visit: http://ava-systems.com/trynow 

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February 15, 2022
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Cryptocurrency War Blog

How fighting against cryptocurrency is an unwinnable war

By BGL Update, TechnologyNo Comments

Despite the best efforts of financial regulators and threatened centralised institutions, the war on cryptocurrency seems to be unwinnable.

While cryptocurrencies may have come off the boil recently, there have been a few key events that have presented themselves that would imply they are not going to disappear completely from public view – and definitely not from investor portfolios.

Is it all a Ponzi scheme? Is it enabling criminal activity? Despite the best efforts of financial regulators and threatened centralised institutions, the war on cryptocurrency seems to be unwinnable.

In November 2021 the RBA’s head of payments, Tony Richards, was quoted in an AFR article with the usual concerns raised by institutions that are threatened by the decentralised finance movement. These were shots fired in a war against the perceived evil empire of cryptocurrency.

I too was a non-believer, silently snickering in early 2018 as Bitcoin lost almost half of its value. Since then I started small, and in more recent times there have been some key events that have made me double down on what I believe is a real area of opportunity.

Three stories that may change your mind about cryptocurrency

The CEO of Bitcoin

It must have been during a ‘snap reopening’ we had in Victoria in 2021, around August, when my daughter came home from school and told me that her friend’s mum was the CEO of Bitcoin. Wow, I thought, while Nakamoto Satoshi’s true identity is still up for debate, let’s have a look on Linkedin.

As tends to happen with news from the playground, there was some truth and some over-simplification. It turned out that the parent was a Financial Controller of a publicly listed payment and compliance company that specialised in digital assets.

Why was this significant to me? This was significant because this person had a family, a mortgage, bills to pay, and their livelihood was dependent on digital assets (cryptocurrencies) being the real deal.

Senator Jane Hume tells it how it is

During her address to the Australian Financial Review Super & Wealth Summit (Nov21), Jane Hume was direct and very clear about people who were either ignoring or trying to kill off innovation in decentralised finance – just don’t:

“Don’t be the person who thought the iPhone would never take off because people would prefer to have their music and telephone on separate devices. Don’t be the person who was still doing their financial models by hand in 2001, rather than using Excel.
Don’t be the person in 1995 who said the internet was just a place for geeks and criminals and would never become mainstream.
And don’t be the person who argued that email was a passing fad.”

~ Senator Jane HumeMinister for Women’s Economic Security, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy.

This showed to me that at least some government officials get it and are willing to stand up for what they see as an inevitable area of innovation.

The great rotation

In December 2021 a New York Times article provided evidence of a rotation that was taking place in Silicon Valley. No longer were the prestigious roles at big tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple exciting or rewarding enough for the tech workforce.

The entrepreneurial spirit is real, and these visionaries were moving on to where they saw the biggest area of opportunity: blockchain technology:

“There is a giant sucking sound coming from crypto,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, chief executive of search engine start-up Neeva and a former Google executive, who competes with crypto companies for talent. “It feels a bit like the 1990s and the birth of the internet all over again. It’s that early, that chaotic and that much full of opportunity.”

The keyword being ‘chaotic’ – with many aspects of the new world of decentralised finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrency resembling the wild west where anything goes and with great opportunity also comes great (calculated) risk.

Despite the risks, the percentage of Australians that own some form of cryptocurrency continues to increase and the industry itself locally is expanding.

Ultimately everyone needs to come to their own conclusions. Personally, I hope that we can consider the possibilities of what is new, and not just be scared by it due to it threatening ‘how things have always been done’ – after all, who among us would want to admit that we thought email was just a fad?

February 11, 2022
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Celebrating 25 years of service

By BGL Update, CultureNo Comments

Today marks 25 years of service at BGL Corporate Solutions. That equates to 53% of my life being involved with a business, team and community that I love. Stop trying to guess how old I was when started. Ron Lesh says 15! I will take that.

As an individual, I am truly humbled and grateful to be able to be involved in and to serve in an organisation that is truly a remarkable success story.

From the greatest of moments to the darkest of times, central to all of this is people. And today it is the very people who have helped define me, believed in me, mentored me and stood by me that I want to celebrate.

The people that I have come to know, love and serve are the greatest part of the story.

BGL Corporate Solutions team, I thank and admire each and everyone one of you. Your relentless commitment to each other, our products, clients and community is amazing. You are the reason we are where we are today.

Matthew Crofts, Adriana Cavallo, Warren Renden, Jeevan Tokhi, Anthony Costa, S. Adrian Muscan , Ashley Avileli, James Luo + Dubi Laviati (so many more I could add) your friendship and support allows me to do what I do.

To the many great clients, prospects, partners and Ecosystem members that I have come to know and crossed paths with, it is an honor working with you and being of service to you. Your belief and support of BGL Corporate Solutions is an important part of who we are today. I applaud you.

One of the greatest joys has been, some of the friendships that have evolved. Friends that will be for life. You know who you are. Your constant check-ins, chats and trust are something I dearly value. Thank you!

Danni Tramontana my wife + friend, you are my rock.

Ron Lesh. I am grateful for your belief, loyalty, support, encouragement and friendship. You are an incredible #leader. You have been and continue to be an important figure and influence. You have helped define me, making me a better person and servant of the people. You have also positioned me for an exciting future that I look forward to stepping into knowing that I have had the best example and mentor.

And now, let’s bring on another 25 years! Yes, well past 65 years of age but with CAS 360 (Australia), Simple Fund 360 + Simple Invest 360, I will have most of my compliance matters automated so I can spend time doing that which I love and that is working at BGL Corporate Solutions.

Check out our video!

We had a lot of fun making this video and hope it makes you smile! Enjoy!

February 10, 2022
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BGL adds the Trust Tax Return to Simple Invest 360!

By BGL Update, Simple Invest 360No Comments

BGL is proud to announce the release of the 2021 Trust Income Tax Return in its investment portfolio software solution, Simple Invest 360.

“This is an industry first” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “No other investment platform in Australia automatically prepares income tax returns. This is a fantastic achievement by the BGL product teams and I am incredibly proud of them”

The Trust Tax Return will be released in two parts to provide BGL Simple Invest 360 clients with the opportunity to provide feedback on the functionality of the initial features in Part 1 – the paper trust income tax return, while our team works hard to release Part 2 – Electronic lodgement.

“This release includes the 2021 Trust Income Tax Return populated from the Simple Invest 360 tax calculation engine, associated schedules including the CGT Schedule, Losses Schedule, Rental Schedule, Distribution Schedules and much more” added Lesh.

“Part 2 of the release will provide clients with the ability to electronically lodge the 2021 Trust Tax Return from within Simple Invest 360. This will be the same functionality as is provided for the SMSF Annual Return in Simple Fund 360” noted Lesh.

Simple Invest 360 was launched in June 2021 to automate the tedious process of CGT record-keeping and financial reporting no matter what the tax structure – trusts, companies, partnerships or individuals. Simple Invest 360 is fully integrated with CAS 360 and Simple Fund 360 as well as providing integrated accounting workpapers, digital signing, over 350 data feeds, registry integration and BGL SmartDocs – our industry leading paper to data solution.

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February 9, 2022
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