These are written for someone doing this for the first time, and for someone who does their own books between jobs — not for a bookkeeper. Start with Starting out if you have not registered anything yet; the rest is for once the invoices are going out. Where a rule has a number attached, we say what it is and where to check it, because the ATO changes them more often than any article gets updated.
Starting out
- How to start a business in Australia Pick a structure, get a free ABN, register a business name, decide on GST — the steps in the order they depend on each other.
- Sole trader, partnership, company or trust? Who carries the liability, how each structure taxes your profit, what it costs to run, and the signals it is time to change.
- How to get an ABN Who is entitled, what to have ready, how long it takes, and why you should never pay a third party for a free registration.
- Do I need to register for GST? The $75,000 rolling turnover test, the 21-day rule, and when registering voluntarily is worth the quarterly BAS.
- How to register a business name When you actually need one, how to check a name is free, and why it protects far less than a trade mark does.
- ABN vs ACN One identifies a business, the other a company. Which structures need which, and why a company ABN contains its ACN.
Invoices and payments
- What is an invoice? What goes on an Australian invoice, how to number and send them, and the point at which one must become a tax invoice.
- Invoice vs receipt One asks for money, the other proves it arrived. What you must give a customer, and which one supports a GST credit.
- What is a purchase order? The document a corporate client sends first — and the reason an invoice with no PO number sits unpaid for a month.
- What is a proforma invoice? Invoice-shaped, but a request for payment in advance. What to put on one, and why it can never be a tax invoice.
- What is a credit note? How to reverse an invoice you have already sent, what an Australian adjustment note must contain, and the BAS effect.
- What is a remittance advice? The note that tells you which invoices a lump-sum payment covers, and how to use it to reconcile in minutes.
- Recipient created tax invoices When the buyer writes the tax invoice instead of you: who may, the written agreement required, and what you still report.
- Credit card surcharges You may pass on the cost of taking a card — but only your real cost, per card type, disclosed before the customer commits.
Bookkeeping basics
- What is bookkeeping? What Australian law requires you to keep, how bookkeeping differs from accounting, and the smallest system that works.
- Chart of accounts The categories every transaction sorts into, and how designing them from your tax return saves a weekend in June.
- Cash vs accrual accounting Count money when it moves, or when the invoice is raised? What each does to your GST timing and your profit figure.
Tax and GST
- What is a BAS? What a Business Activity Statement is, who has to lodge one, what goes in each box and when it is due.
- Sole trader tax deductions What a sole trader can claim, what records the ATO expects, and the deductions most people miss.
- How much tax does a sole trader pay? There is no separate sole trader tax rate. How the calculation runs, why GST is not income, and how much to set aside.
- PAYG instalments Why the ATO entered you without asking, the two ways the amount is worked out, and the year-two squeeze to plan for.
- Can a sole trader have employees? Yes — but PAYG withholding, Single Touch Payroll, super and workers comp follow, and the liability is personal.
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