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BGL confirms it’s full-speed ahead for BGL REGTECH 2022

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

BGL is proud to announce the return of BGL REGTECH 2022 as live and in-person event in March 2022!

“This will be one of the first BIG in-person accounting conferences in almost two years and we cannot wait to reconnect with our clients and partners face-to-face” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “We feel there really is no substitute for human interaction and have missed coming together with our community. So, we’re excited to get back to enjoying the small, special moments that only live events can offer.”

BGL has invited industry experts David Boyar FCA – CEO of ChangeGPS, Aly Garrett FCA – Founder and Principal of All In Advisory and Rebecca Mihalic – Director of Business Depot as well as its own gurus to add their expertise to the program exploring the evolution of the accounting industry.

“This year we will explore the evolution – how we are turning big ideas into action; unveiling the challenges of the practice of the future and learning how to supercharge practices with digital transformation for better customer experiences. We also have a huge surprise in store for delegates” added Lesh. 

Aly Garrett, Founder + Principal of All In Advisory and BGL REGTECH 2022 presenter, said: “I am super excited to be joining the BGL REGTECH roadshow. I will be working through how our businesses and clients have evolved over the past couple of years, looking at the implementation of technology, our role in the evolution and how we can circumnavigate it in a COVID-19 environment, with the focus on how we need to evolve in the future to not only survive but thrive.”

BGL REGTECH 2022 will be held in Sydney (1 March), Brisbane (2 March), Adelaide (9 March) and Melbourne (16 March), followed by virtual BGL MASTERCLASSES for our cloud software solutions CAS 360 (22 March), Simple Fund 360 (24 March) and Simple Invest 360 (31 March). 

Registrations are now open! Learn more and register now at www.bglregtech.com

BUY TICKETS!

Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 Product Update Release – February 2022

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

We are excited to announce the first major Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 updates for 2022! You can learn what’s new at our New Features Webinar on Tuesday 8 February 2022 from 14:00 – 15:00 AEDT. Register Now >>>  

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

Simple Invest 360 New Features

Part 1 of the Trust Tax Return is now available in Simple Invest 360!

We are thrilled to announce the release of the most highly requested feature for Simple Invest 360 – the Trust Tax Return!

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

Today’s release includes:

  • A brand new Trust Tax Return populated from the Simple Invest 360 tax calculation engine.
  • Support for the 2021 Trust Tax Return (paper/printed copy ONLY).
  • Associated schedules (CGT Schedule, Losses Schedule, Rental Schedule and Attachment Schedule).
  • Dynamic link to ATO help.
  • Invalid field navigation to help speed up validation.

Electronic lodgement coming soon!

Stay tuned for the release of Part 2, which will provide clients with the ability to electronically lodge the 2021 Trust Tax Return from within Simple Invest 360!

Simple Fund 360 New Features

SuperStream Improvements: A number of improvements have been made the help streamline SuperStream Rollovers including the ability to:

  • Validate the Unique Superannuation Identifier (USI) entered via the Fund Validation Service (FVS).
  • Automatically populate APRA Fund Name and ABN on entering USI.
  • Capture the receiving fund’s ABN and USI for use in Rollover Benefit Statement (RBS).
  • Receive an error message where an APRA fund does not have Rollover v3 enabled.
  • Check if a contact already exists before creating a new one – preventing duplicate data.

Plus, further improvements have been made to the Fund Validation Service (FVS) responses.

New Member Reports and Wishlists: New alternate Member’s Statement and Consolidated Member’s Statement reports have been added to Simple Fund 360 based on client feedback. The new reports have additional sub-headings, a summary account balance section, a detailed member section and a new graph design.

New Trustee Minute / Resolutions: The Trustee Minute / Resolutions have been improved and now provides clients with the ability to add custom text paragraphs.

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

Scare, scare, scare…

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

I am really concerned.

Australia has become a hostile place where our governments and the media – especially the left wing media like the ABC  – are trying to divide us.

Be it stupid vaccine mandates, identity politics or even having a beer after you win a grand slam, people are out to get you. When did we become like this ?

During one of the lockdowns in Melbourne I as out walking with my wife and god forbid I was not wearing a mask. Some d**khead told me that by walking around without a mask, I was going to kill his children as they rode their bikes around outside his house. Yesterday I came down in a lift and a woman refused to get in. I should say she was wearing a cloth mask that provides little protection and I am of course double vaccinated and had to test negative to get into Queensland (thank god that stupidity is behind us). She was scared and paranoid – what have we done to people ? We are divided.

But it is the language of our so called leaders and the talking heads in the media that really concerns me. Their language is killing Australia. Theirr language is dividing Australia.

Even people who I thought were more sensible, like Neil Mitchell on 3AW, concern me. I listed to him on Tuesday morning and within the first hour he repeated the COVID numbers at least 3 times, seemed to bask in reports some schools had COVID cases and continued to talk like it was the end of the world. I was really disappointed. He is perpetuating the scare.

If it was not for COVID, the media seems to think it has nothing to talk about. How about one of these talking heads analyse where Albanese’s 600,000 climate policy jobs are going to come from ? I can’t see how going from Shorten’s 45% to Albanese’s 43% is going to create 6000,000 jobs. Maybe they can ? Maybe they can tell me ?

Yet the press was more interested in private texts between the ex NSW premier and an unnamed minister, who don’t like Morrison. Honestly, who cares. This from a lefty reported from Channel 10 who himself is the subject of a claim he “humiliated” a female colleague, in a claim filed against the network in the Federal Court. This is the level of in depth reporting by our media.

When is he media going to actually focus on the things that are important to Australian’s rather than the crap that is important to them ?

The scare, scare, scare is killing business. The lack of leadership from our politicians on both sides of all the house is breath-taking, When are our state premiers going to tell their public servants to go back in the office ? When are the hopeless woke CEO’s at our major companies going to do the same ?

I am also glad to see I not the only one who thinks the language of our so called leader is dreadful. It was great to hear Chris Lucus of Chin Chin fame say the same thing on 3AW last week – Grave fears held for Melbourne’s iconic hospitality scene https://www.3aw.com.au/grave-fears-held-for-melbournes-iconic-hospitality-scene/

Our leaders have spent 2 years scaring everyone about – a virus. Melbourne is depressed. If you don’t believe me come up to Queensland and feel the difference. While Brisbane is still slow, the attitude of people is just so different.
I remember being told last year – get vaccinated – when we get to 90%, life will go back to normal. Well when ? When are the bedwetters going to get out of our lives ?When are ALL the restrictions going to be lifted ? When do we start to live with COVID ? When do we get back control over our own lives and our own health ?

I know it is hard to get into the city in Melbourne now because of the ridiculous bike lines installed by Sally Crap – sorry Capp – and her human unfriendly council. Large numbers will not return to the city until this is fixed and the Council is living in fairyland if they think 750 electric scooters will fix the problem.

But, this scare, scare, scare has to stop. We need leaders that are NOT interested in daily COVID numbers – but are interested in rebuilding Melbourne and instilling confidence back into people,

At BGL, we encourage our team to come into the office. As we all know culture and mental health is just as important as physical health. You cannot teach culture over Zoom. I encourage all of you to get your people back in the office. They need it – and so do you!

CAS 360 Product Update Release – January 2022

By BGL Update, CAS 360No Comments

We are excited to announce the first CAS 360 update of 2022! You can read the full release notes on the BGL Community >>>

What's new?

Annual Report and Documents: The Directors Report and Directors Declaration has been added to the CAS 360’s Annual Reports and Documents screen.

Director ID Improvements: A new Director ID ABRS Letter has been added to CAS 360’s Document Production screen for Annual Reviews. This means users can now send the ABRS Director ID letter to their clients as part of the Annual Review process.

Plus, CAS 360’s new Director ID report allows users to quickly and easily export all the Director ID information in CAS 360 to Excel.

Notifications: The performance of the Notifications and Inbox screens in CAS 360 have been improved. Users can also now prepare a Notifications report from the Inbox screen.

ASIC Balance Merge Field: CAS 360’s Annual Review company letter now supports a ${companyAsicBalance} merge field.

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

Delays in the delivery of BGL’s live software support

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

We would like to provide you with an important update on BGL’s live software support services.

Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the BGL Support Team is currently experiencing staff shortages. As a result, you may experience some unavoidable delays in the delivery of BGL’s live software support including telephone, email and live chat services. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and your business.

Rest assured the team is working hard and will endeavour to respond to your support tickets as soon as possible.

In the meantime, check out the BGL Resources Hub

BGL provides our cloud software users with a myriad of resources and services which can be used to self-resolve software issues including:

  • Online Help: Quickly search help articles, FAQ’s and training manuals. 
  • BGL Community: Connect with BGL users in a supportive online forum.
  • Learning Channel: An extensive self-paced online training platform.
  • YouTube Channel: Check our product feature videos, webinars and more.
VISIT THE BGL RESOURCES HUB

For BGL desktop software users, the BGL Wiki is available for you as usual.

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

Simple Fund 360 / Simple Invest 360 Updates – December 2021

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

We are excited to announce the last Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 updates for 2021!

You can learn what’s new at our New Features Webinar on Tuesday 14 December 2021 from 11:00 – 11:45 AEDT. Register Now >>> 

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

What's new?

Corporate Actions: Simple Fund and Simple Invest 360 now support 14 new corporate actions.

New Data Feed: A new broker data feed has been added to the BGL Share Data Pack for AustAsia Financial Planning.

Director ID: The Australian Director ID field (added to the software last month) can now be exported using the new Contact List CSV export function.

Exclusive to Simple Fund 360

Report Improvements: Several improvements have been made to the Reports screen. The Reports Index will now exclude failed reports as part of a report pack. Plus, a new binding/non-binding field has been added to the Binding Death Benefit Nomination Form.

SuperStream Improvements: The product team continue to improve SuperStream Rollovers validations including improved Members names, Receiving Fund / Transferring Fund names and Death Benefit details. Plus, a new warning to notify clients if the new BGLSF360 ESA has been added to the Fund Details screen without first being registered.

Exclusive to Simple Invest 360

Report Improvements: The General Ledger Audit View reporting setting can now be filtered by Account Type. Plus, the Statement of Financial Position Net Assets section will now display when Net Assets is zero.

Company Tax Reconciliation: 3 new tax labels have been added to Company Tax Reconciliation Report:

  • 7 – Reconciliation to taxable income or loss (total profit or loss amount shown at 6T)
  • 8P – Opening franking account balance
  • 8M – Closing franking account balance

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:

Check out our Resources Hub!

We provide Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 users with a myriad of resources and services which can be found in the Resources Hub. The Resources Hub provides practical stuff to help you in your Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 journey.

Visit Resources Hub >>>

BGL announces the launch of CAS 360 Hong Kong

By BGL Update, CAS 360No Comments

BGL is proud to announce the highly anticipated launch of its corporate compliance solution, CAS 360 in Hong Kong. 

“BGL has had a presence with our CAS Desktop software in Hong Kong since 2000” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Our clients have been hanging out for information on when CAS 360 will be available to them in Hong Kong so I’m proud that we can today announce this will be Quarter 2, 2022.”

“The CAS 360 team has been working tirelessly to build CAS 360 for multiple jurisdictions” added Lesh. “We have released New Zealand, are in BETA in Singapore and next off the rank is Hong Kong. I’m excited we can bring this sensational software to Hong Kong in mid-2022. CAS 360 will streamline our client’s processes with innovative and unique technology. It will save them heaps of time so they can focus on their many, many other responsibilities.”

“CAS 360 will prepare all the forms, minutes / resolutions, registers and other documents required for the annual return and common changes made by Hong Kong companies” noted Lesh. “CAS 360 is the complete package and will provide the same incredible efficiencies for our Hong Kong clients as it does for 600,000+ companies in other jurisdictions”. 

To register your interest in CAS 360 Hong Kong, please visit https://pages.bglcorp.com/CAS-360-hk-express-interest 

Innovation starts by listening to your customers

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

Foundstone Conversations Podcast

Real-world strategy conversations with organisation & industry leaders about their latest challenges, learnings & insights.

Innovation starts by listening to your customers with Ron Lesh

In this episode of Foundstone Conversations, host Andrew Bird talks to Ron Lesh, Founder and Managing Director of BGL Corporate Solutions, about why listening to our customers is important for any business.

Having decades of experience under his belt, Ron also shares about common mistakes made by young businesses as well as other insights he’s observed over the years.

Tune into this episode to learn about how customer feedback is key to better innovation and customer relationships!

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3o1bLsd
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3rmliwc
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3p97AKp

Are SMSF software companies looking for a new way to charge clients ?

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

There have been a lot of changes in the SMSF software industry over the past couple of years.

With no new entrants to the market, some of the existing businesses think they are in a powerful pricing position. And we are seeing this already with 2 software providers charging for (or intending to charge for) API access and 1 adding a cut down external service in an upgrade and pay play. The upgrade, of course, leads to increased revenue to the software company through commissions. With the upgrade and recent charges introduced to API access (most of which will be passed on to clients), their price per fund will be almost $350 per fund per annum + GST.

But what I find more interesting is the suggestion SMSF software suppliers may start charging on the basis of funds under management.

Most of you would be aware, 1 SMSF software supplier has recently been purchased by a financial services platform. The other is already owned by a financial services institution. These businesses already earn much of their revenue from fees based on funds under management – so is this the future for their SMSF software businesses? I recently read an article in The Sentiment newsletter where an increase in clients and funds under management was being touted as a reason for the purchase of a SMSF software business. That financial software business already charges fees based on the funds under management  I do not think it is a bridge too far to suggest this business may ben considering charging SMSF software clients fees based on funds under management.

Those of us who have been in the SMSF software industry for a while know SMSF software providers have no control over the funds under management of their SMSF software clients.  One provider had to specifically exclude the distribution of their financial products through their SMSF software and through their SMSF administration network from their service agreements.

But maybe times are changing. So maybe in the future this will change,

BGL is not a financial services business and is not owned by a financial service business. While it would be great if we could charge subscription fees based on funds under management (our FUM is around $425b), we have no plans to do so. Nor do we think SMSF software providers should be changing for API access or providing products where forced upgrades are required.

Our pricing strategy is clear and simple. As we add new features and enhancements to our products and services providing our clients with greater efficiencies, we will look to increase our prices. We will never charge on the basis of funds under management – we operate on a subscription fee for service model.

Over time, as our costs increase, so will our product prices. When or how much is determined by us when the time is right.

But I am not so sure of the others.

Only time will tell!

BGL recognised as Most Innovative Fintech Company

By BGL Update, TechnologyNo Comments

BGL is proud to announce it has been recognised as Australia’s Most Innovative Fintech Company as part of the International Investor Business Awards 2021. 

“This is a great achievement by the BGL Team to be recognised as Australia’s Most Innovative Fintech Company” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Our team has worked tirelessly through 2020/21 producing heaps of sensational software for our clients and this award is a tribute to their hard work”.

BGL has received several other industry awards in 2021 including the Core Data SMSF Software Award for Simple Fund 360, AFR Australia’s 6th Best Technology Place to Work Award and an Australian Achiever Award for Excellence in Customer Service. 

“BGL won these awards as a result of the amazing work by our team,” added Lesh. “Over the past 30 years BGL has grown to become the leading provider of SMSF administration and ASIC company compliance software solutions in Australia and we would not be here without our amazing team of 180+ sensational committed professionals”.