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September 2022

BGL offers company secretary induction course

By Accountants Daily, In the Media, NewsNo Comments

Written by Josh Needs
Published by Accountants Daily
on 27 September 2022
Click here to read on Accountants Daily website

The free training supplies participants with an understanding of core duties and legal responsibilities, said the firm.

BGL Corporate Solutions is offering a free online company secretary course for accountants and others unfamiliar with the role.

Managing director of BGL, Ron Lesh, said he was pleased the firm was able to supply the education tool.

“We’re excited to offer this free live training course to help those new to a company secretary role find their feet in a complex and ever-changing compliance landscape,” said Mr Lesh.

“BGL has over 30 years of experience in the corporate compliance space and has developed this course to share its knowledge and expertise with the community and help pave the way for the next generation of company secretaries and administrators.”

The firm said that the course — Company Secretary 101: A Beginner’s Guide — would be useful for new ASIC registered agents, accountants, and administrators or those wanting to refresh their skills.

The course aimed to provide participants with an understanding of the core duties, legal responsibilities, tasks and activities of a company secretary and will provide attendees with two CPD hours.

Head of CAS 360 at BGL, Warren Renden, said the course could also help participants better understand the software.

“We developed CAS 360 to be the complete tool for managing company compliance requirements,” he said.

“This new training course will give participants an overview of company secretary duties, so they may better grasp their roles and responsibilities.”

BGL said the role of a company secretary was essential in monitoring and governing how a business operated and ensuring it remained compliant with corporate law.

The position involves maintaining a registered office and reporting any changes for the company to ASIC and because of its critical nature a company’s secretary could be subject to several legal obligations and duties.

Founded in 1983, BGL Corporate Solutions started with only two employees and has grown to become one of the largest developers of compliance software in the world, with more than 180 employees globally.

BGL provides cloud-based company compliance management, SMSF and portfolio administration software to over 8,000 businesses in 15 countries.

BGL’s clients range from major accounting and law firms to financial planners, as well as individual SMSF trustees.

Simple Fund Desktop end of product life date set

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

The end of life for Simple Fund Desktop will be on 31 December 2022.

Earlier this month, BGL advised its clients that the end of life for Simple Fund Desktop will be on 31 December 2022.

This is truly the end of an era...

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.
Continue to blog post >>> 

What does this mean?

  • Support and the ability to log support calls for Simple Fund Desktop will cease.
  • Clients will no longer be able to renew their Simple Fund Desktop subscription.
  • Clients will have access to Simple Fund Desktop until their subscription expiry date.
  • Clients will still have access to the BGL Wiki until their subscription expiry date.
  • BGL’s Client Success Team is here to assist clients with migration to Simple Fund 360.

What's next? Simple Fund 360!

Simple Fund 360 is the natural progression for Simple Fund Desktop clients. Migration is easy with our dedicated onboarding specialists and extensive resources and services available to help clients with their journey:

  • Migration of all data and reports from Simple Fund Desktop to Simple Fund 360.
  • Comprehensive learning resources to help clients get started.
  • A support team to deliver technical product help when clients need it.
  • A dedicated Account Manager to be clients’ go-to person at BGL.

Click here to watch our webinar recording: Migrating from Simple Fund Desktop to Simple Fund 360.

To learn how easy it is to migrate from Simple Fund Desktop or if you would like to discuss these changes, please reach out to your Account Manager today.

BGL now offers free corporate compliance training

By Australian FinTech, In the Media, IndustryNo Comments

BGL now offers free corporate compliance training

BGL Corporate Solutions now offers free corporate compliance training for ASIC registered agents, accountants and administrators.

“We’re excited to offer this free live training course to help those new to a company secretary role find their feet in a complex and ever-changing compliance landscape,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “BGL has over 30 years of experience in the corporate compliance space and has developed this course to share its knowledge and expertise with the community and help pave the way for the next generation of company secretaries and administrators.”

Warren Renden, Head of CAS 360 at BGL, said, “We developed CAS 360 to be the complete tool for managing company compliance requirements. This new training course will give participants an overview of company secretary duties, so they may better grasp their roles and responsibilities.”

BGL’s Company Secretary 101: A Beginner’s Guide live online training course is ideal for new ASIC registered agents, accountants and administrators or those wanting to refresh their skills and will provide attendees with an understanding of the core duties, legal responsibilities, tasks and activities of a company secretary. The course is complimentary for all and provides attendees with 2 CPD hours.

A company secretary has an essential role in governing and monitoring how a company operates to ensure the company is compliant with Australian corporate law. It involves maintaining a registered office and reporting any changes for the company to ASIC. Because of this critical role, a company secretary is subject to several legal obligations and duties.

To learn more about BGL’s Company Secretary 101: A Beginner’s Guide live online training course or to register, visit www.bglcorp.com/company-secretary-course

BGL offers FREE corporate compliance training

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

BGL is proud to offer free corporate compliance training for ASIC registered agents, accountants and administrators.

“We’re excited to offer this free live training course to help those new to a company secretary role find their feet in a complex and ever-changing compliance landscape,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “BGL has over 30 years of experience in the corporate compliance space and has developed this course to share its knowledge and expertise with the community and help pave the way for the next generation of company secretaries and administrators”.

Warren Renden, Head of CAS 360 at BGL, said: “We developed CAS 360 to be the complete tool for managing company compliance requirements. This new training course will give participants an overview of company secretary duties, so they may better grasp their roles and responsibilities.”

BGL’s Company Secretary 101: A Beginner’s Guide live online training course is ideal for new ASIC registered agents, accountants and administrators or those wanting to refresh their skills and will provide attendees with an understanding of the core duties, legal responsibilities, tasks and activities of a company secretary. The course is complimentary for all and provides attendees with 2 CPD hours.

A company secretary has an essential role in governing and monitoring how a company operates to ensure the company is compliant with Australian corporate law. It involves maintaining a registered office and reporting any changes for the company to ASIC. Because of this critical role, a company secretary is subject to several legal obligations and duties.

To learn more about BGL’s Company Secretary 101: A Beginner’s Guide live online training course or to register, visit www.bglcorp.com/company-secretary-course.

Accounting Industry News: 3 things you should know this week!

By BGL UpdateNo Comments

An ATO Crypto Tax update, a BGL – XPM update, and one small change that can save your client from ASIC fines.

Industry News

Crypto Accountants felt the adrenaline pumping through them on Monday morning as the ATO provided further guidance on airdrops and how these should be handled from a tax perspective.

Airdrops are used as a way for adoption of a token to increase through a group of users by providing them with ‘free’ tokens. Think of it as a form of marketing. If the token is part of an existing project then the recipient needs to consider the token as income and declare it using the market value at that time.

The change now is that for brand new tokens, or “initial allocations”, these airdrops do not need to be considered as income at the time they are received and are to be recorded with a zero dollar cost base. The rationalisation being that since it is an initial allocation, there is no ‘market value’ that can be attributed.

I’m not an accountant and don’t pretend to play one on the internet, so make sure you speak to your local professional before making any crazy tax decisions!

BGL News

Another three week cycle, another release for the combined Simple Fund 360 / Simple Invest 360 teams with the headline item being the new integration feature.

The new “Practice Management Version 2.0” gives you a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to connecting integration between Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360, CAS360 and your chosen Practice Management solution. Hate duplicates? So do we! You can now choose if you want to sync your data one-way, two-way or for the control freaks detail oriented: manual sync.

BGL Hint

Probably no surprise that this hint relates to integration: Turn on your Simple Fund 360 integration with CAS 360 to sync any changes made to corporate trustees. This will generate a notification for you in CAS 360 to then prepare the associated ASIC form – never be caught off guard ever again and help your client to avoid ASIC fines!

Learn more about CAS 360Learn more about Simple Fund 360Learn more about Simple Invest 360

Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 Product Update – September 2022

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

We are excited to announce another sensational Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360 update! You can learn what’s new at our New Features Webinar on Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 11:00 AEST. Register Now!

Check out the full release notes and join the conversation on the BGL Community.

What's New?

Ensure your client/contact data is always in sync with the BGL + XPM integration!

We have released Version 2 of the integration between the BGL Suite (which includes CAS 360, Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360) and Xero Practice Manager (XPM). This new and improved two-way integration allows firms to efficiently manage client and contact data across the four applications in a single database! With features such as:

  • Real-time client and contact synchronisation
  • Prompts to review a client/contact before synchronising
  • Notification of duplicate client/contacts
  • Ability to add clients/contacts in bulk 
  • Ability to view client/contact relationships and change history
  • A dedicated screen to view and filter the integrated client list

Plus, when client/contact details are changed in any app, CAS 360 will prompt clients to prepare all the relevant compliance documents and forms for lodgment with ASIC. 

Corporate Actions: The following mergers have been added to Corporate Actions:

  • VMY.AX
  • UWL.AX

The Alphabet (GOOG.NDQ/GOOGL.NDQ) 1-20 Share Split is also now supported.

Entity Dashboard: Labels have been added to the Entity Dashboard. These are displayed next to the Financial Year. 

Contacts: A Find Matches function has been added to the Contacts screen, allowing clients to view any contacts with matching names for simplified management (Learn More).

Exclusive to Simple Fund 360

BGL's SMSF administration software solution

Fund Dashboard: A new Members panel has been added to the Fund Dashboard to provide a snapshot of all members in an SMSF including a breakdown of member balances and pension cap limits (Learn More).

New Documents: 2 new SMSF documents are now available via PAYG or a subscription with our document partner, Smarter SMSF. Click here to learn more about the documents available via Smarter SMSF

SuperStream Dashboard: A new Superstream Contribution Report is now available on the Superstream Contribution tab in Simple Fund 360 to provide easier access to contribution data. 

Plus, the Superstream Contribution tab will display the last update date and a sum total for all members.

Exclusive to Simple Invest 360

BGL's investment portfolio management software solution

Reports: Clients now have the ability to add any liability account to the Notes to the Financial Statements. This is controlled by the badge setting (Learn More).

Want to learn more about BGL’s end-to-end investment portfolio solution, Simple Invest 360? Attend our live Discovery Webinar with Simple Invest 360 Product Manager, Andrew Paszko on Tuesday, 13 September at 11:00 AEST. Register Now!

Plus, many more new features and improvements. Don’t forget to check out the full release notes and join the conversation on the BGL Community. Previous months’ 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 reinvents integration with Xero Practice Manager

By Australian FinTech, In the Media, IndustryNo Comments

BGL reinvents integration with Xero Practice Manager

BGL Corporate Solutions have announced the release of its new two-way integration with Xero Practice Manager (XPM).

“We have been running Version 2 of our Xero Practice Manager integration in BETA for several months and are excited to start rolling this out to all BGL clients,” said Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “The integration allows clients to efficiently manage client and contact data across four applications in a single database – a dream for any professional firm.”

In 2017, BGL released Version 1 of its integration with Xero Practice Manager, which automatically synchronised contacts with BGL’s product suite (which includes CAS 360, Simple Fund 360 and Simple Invest 360) with clients in Xero Practice Manager.

“For some firms, Version 1 of this integration worked extremely well,” said Lesh. “However, we listened to client feedback and decided to rebuild the integration from the ground up.”

“The new integration with Xero Practice Manager is more dynamic and keeps data records across apps consistent,” continued Lesh.

“Features include both client and contact synchronisation, prompts to review a client/contact before synchronising to a product, notification of duplicate client/contacts, the ability to add clients/contacts in bulk and to view client/contact relationships and change history. Plus, a brand-new user interface to view and filter the integrated client list.”

“So, if a client’s details changed in BGL’s product suite, this change is automatically updated in Xero Practice Manager, providing seamless practice management integration for professional firms,” noted Lesh. “Plus, when client or contact details changed in any of the apps, BGL’s company compliance software, CAS 360 will prompt clients to prepare all the relevant ASIC compliance documents.”

This integration will be rolled out to our other practice management integration partners in the coming months.

BGL will be at Xerocon Sydney 2022 this week. Visit the BGL booth E+19 to watch a live demonstration of this new two-way integration and how it creates a single database between BGL’s product suite and Xero Practice Manager.