Stay on top of your books - without the stress.
Simple, reliable bookkeeping for sole traders and small businesses. From $80 per week +GST, everything stays clean, compliant and under control. No more chasing receipts, falling behind on BAS or messy books.
Rated 4.9 from 120+ Google reviews · Registered BAS Agents · Xero Platinum Partner
From $80/week +GST
One package, one price, for sole operators who need basic compliance done properly and nothing more. Your Xero subscription sits on top at Xero's own price. Deliberately narrow - the criteria are below, in full.
Everything you need. Nothing you don't.
Cash coding & transaction allocation
Income and expenses categorised correctly, so your numbers make sense.
Monthly bank reconciliations
Accounts reconciled every month, without fail. Monthly is the rhythm the package is built on - the $80 is how it is billed, not how often the books are touched.
Receipts through Crunchr
One photo at the counter and your part is done. Crunchr is the simple Australian capture app we use for businesses this size, and it is how you meet your own record-keeping obligations.
Quarterly BAS, prepared & lodged
Accurate, on time, lodged with the ATO by registered BAS agents. Not registered for GST yet? The package still fits - there is simply nothing to lodge.
Profit & loss reporting
Clear, readable reports so you always know where the business stands.
Email support
A short list of coding queries once a month, and an email at quarter end. Questions beyond that are charged - that trade is what keeps the price where it is.
Do you qualify?
Six questions, no typing. The package is deliberately narrow, so this answers the only question the price raises - whether it applies to you.
1 of 6
~15 seconds, nothing typed
Who Basic Books fits.
The package is priced for one shape of business. If one of these is not you, it is not a no - the fee estimator prices the package that does fit.
Basic Books fits when
- One business entity - a sole trader or a single company
- Up to about 150 bank transactions a month
- No employees on payroll. A single director's own wage is fine
- Quarterly BAS, or not registered for GST yet
- No stock, shop, online store, foreign currency or job tracking
- You do not need us paying bills, sending invoices or chasing debtors
- A business bank account used for business
And how the package runs
- Worked monthly, not weekly
- Coded, reconciled and reported every month, with BAS every quarter. The $80 is how the fee is billed, not how often the books are touched - that rhythm is part of how the price holds.
- Receipts through Crunchr
- Crunchr is the simple Australian capture app we use for businesses this size, and it is a requirement rather than a preference: it is how you meet your own record-keeping obligations. One photo at the counter and your part is done.
- Your books live in Xero
- Kept by the same Xero Platinum Partner team as every other LINK client. The Xero subscription is yours and sits on top of the $80 a week +GST - we can bill it through us if that is easier.
- Email support
- A short list of coding queries once a month, and an email at quarter end. Questions beyond that are charged, which is the trade-off that keeps the price where it is.
- A business bank account used for business
- Separate banking, and ideally one card used only for the business. The occasional personal transaction is normal and that is what the monthly query list is for - it is a mixed account as a habit that makes a simple file expensive.
Set up in three simple steps.
- 01
Quick chat
Fifteen minutes on the phone to confirm Basic Books fits your business and lock in your fixed price.
- 02
Setup & health check
We connect (or tidy) your Xero file, set you up on Crunchr and check nothing is lurking in the history.
- 03
Ongoing bookkeeping
Your books run on a steady monthly rhythm from then on - coded, reconciled and reported every month, BAS every quarter.
What keeps a simple file simple.
Packages at this price live or die on boring, predictable things, and almost none of them are the bookkeeping itself. They are the inputs. Here is what keeps a simple file simple.
A bank account for the business alone
The single biggest reason a small file gets expensive. Groceries, the phone bill and a supplier payment all land in the same account, and someone has to decide what each of them was. That decision takes a second when you make it at the time and half an hour when a bookkeeper makes it in arrears by asking you. A separate business account, and one card used only for the business, is most of the difference between a package that holds its price and one that quietly needs more hours.
Receipts captured as they happen
Bank data gives us an amount and a merchant name. It does not tell us what was bought, whether GST applied, or whether it was for the business at all. Without the document the safe treatment is usually the conservative one, so claims get missed rather than overstated. Above the substantiation threshold the ATO expects the receipt to exist. Photographing it at the counter takes four seconds. Reconstructing a year of them the week before a deadline takes a weekend you will not enjoy.
Scope agreed, and revisited out loud
Fixed pricing works because the work is defined. Then a third employee starts, or subcontractors appear, or stock gets added, or a second entity opens, and the file is doing something the package was never priced for. Nobody notices for a while because the bookkeeper absorbs it, which is bad for them and eventually bad for you. We would rather raise it in month two and reprice than let the service quietly degrade to fit the fee.
A price that matches the scope
Cheap bookkeeping usually costs the same money in a different order. Coding done at speed with no query list means expenses land in whatever account looks close, so the profit and loss tells you very little and your accountant redoes the work at year end at a higher rate. Ask any fixed-fee provider what is excluded before you ask what is included. If the answer is that nothing is excluded, the number is not real.
Doing it yourself, counted properly
Most sole traders who keep their own books lose an evening or two a month to it, plus a longer sitting each quarter for BAS. Put your own charge-out rate against those hours and compare. Then add the parts that never show up as time: GST credits missed because a receipt was never coded, a deduction claimed wrongly and unwound later, and the lodgment that slipped because a big job landed the same week. The hours are the visible cost. They are rarely the largest one.
Reports worth ten minutes a month
A profit and loss that arrives every month and gets read twice a year is a compliance artefact rather than something useful. It is worth ten minutes: this month against the same month last year, what your margin did, and who still owes you. On a small file that conversation is short, and it is usually where a pricing problem or a creeping stack of subscriptions first becomes obvious.
What the first three months look like.
This is where the habits set. After that it runs quietly, and you mostly hear from us when something needs a decision.
- 01
Week one: connect and look back
Bank feeds live on every business account and card, the receipt app on your phone, and a look over recent history so we know what we have taken on. If there is a real backlog sitting in there, you hear about it now, with a separate fixed quote for catch-up work, rather than later as a surprise.
- 02
Week two: settle the coding
Regular suppliers, subscriptions and income lines get coded once, correctly, and then repeat themselves. A short list of questions comes to you about anything genuinely ambiguous. Answering that list properly once is what stops the same query arriving every month for a year.
- 03
First month end: reconciled and reported
Accounts reconciled to the actual statements, not just to the feed, and a profit and loss you can read without a glossary. For plenty of owners it is the first clean monthly number they have seen for their own business. If something in it looks wrong to you, say so - you know the business, we know the file, and the two together find it quickly.
- 04
First BAS: prepared and lodged
Built from a reconciled file rather than assembled in a rush, checked, sent to you for approval, and lodged by a registered BAS agent (agent 26865001) on the agent deadline, which is later than the one you get lodging it yourself. From that point on, BAS is a quarterly non-event.
Frequently asked questions.
Who is Basic Books for?
Sole operators who need basic compliance handled properly and nothing more: one entity, no employees on payroll, up to about 150 bank transactions a month, quarterly BAS. Freelancers, consultants, contractors and one-person trade businesses. It is deliberately narrow - if your business has staff, stock, a second entity or a shop, the package will not fit and we would rather say so here than on the first invoice.
What does it cost?
From $80 per week +GST. The exact figure is confirmed in a quick chat once we've seen your volume - and it stays fixed once agreed.
What if my business grows?
You graduate, and it is a conversation rather than a migration. When you take on an employee, pass about 150 transactions a month, open a second entity or the ATO moves you to monthly lodgement, the circumstances have changed and we reassess on the normal model - same bookkeeper, same file, a new fixed fee agreed before anything moves. Nothing has to be rebuilt, because nothing was ever set up as a temporary version.
Is BAS really included?
Yes - quarterly BAS preparation and lodgment by a registered BAS agent (agent 26865001) is part of the package. Quarterly is the cycle it is priced for: if the ATO ever moves you to monthly lodgement, that is twelve statements a year instead of four and it is one of the signals you have outgrown Basic Books.
What does it cost on top of the $80?
One thing: your Xero subscription. Your books live in Xero, kept by the same Xero Platinum Partner team as every other LINK client, and that subscription is yours - paid at Xero's price, not marked up, and we can bill it through us if that is easier. Crunchr, the receipt app, is part of the package. Catch-up work on prior years is quoted separately as a fixed one-off, never absorbed into the weekly price.
Why Crunchr and not something that feeds Xero automatically?
Because at this volume, automation is capability you would be paying for and not using. Crunchr is the simple Australian capture app we rate for small operators - one photo and you are done - and it deliberately does not pipe into Xero. It does not need to: your bookkeeper works the file monthly and brings the receipts across as part of that. Using it is a requirement rather than a preference, because it is how you meet your own record-keeping obligations - above the substantiation threshold the ATO expects the receipt to exist. When a business outgrows the package, moving to an integrated tool is part of the step up.
What does email support actually mean?
A short list of coding queries comes to you once a month, and there is an email at quarter end when the BAS goes in. That is the support the price covers, and answering the monthly list properly is most of what keeps a file cheap. Questions beyond that are charged. It is a real limit and we would rather publish it than have you discover it - if you want a bookkeeper you can ring whenever something comes up, that is the full service, and phone calls are never charged on it.
How is this different from doing it myself in Xero?
Xero makes bookkeeping possible; it doesn't make it correct. Basic Books means a professional codes it, reconciles it and lodges it - and the errors, missed claims and late-lodgment penalties that DIY quietly accumulates stop happening.
What is not included at $80 a week?
Quite a lot, and knowing it up front is the point. No payroll at all - a sole trader taking drawings fits, and so does a single director paying themselves a wage, but employees do not. No bill paying, no invoicing, no debtor chasing. No monthly BAS or IAS. No weekly or fortnightly bookkeeping - the file is worked monthly. No second entity or trust, no inventory or stock valuation, no shop, point-of-sale or online store, no foreign currency, no job costing. Support is the monthly query list and a quarterly email, not a phone line. Your Xero subscription is yours, on top of the fee. Cleaning up prior years is catch-up work, quoted separately once we have seen the backlog. And it is not your tax return - your accountant still does that, from a clean file we hand over. If any of that is your business, the package will not fit and we would rather say so now than on the first call.
How can the price be fixed before you know how messy it is?
Because the scope is fixed, not the effort guessed. Basic Books covers a defined list of work for a defined shape of business, and we check the file against that shape before agreeing a price rather than after. Nothing is being cut - the reconciliations are done properly and the BAS is lodged by a registered agent - but the package will not absorb a year of unreconciled history or a payroll that grew to nine people. That is why the health check comes first. If the file is worse than expected, you get a separate fixed quote to bring it current, and the weekly price starts once it is.
What do you need from me for it to work at that price?
Three things, none of them heavy. Business banking that is actually separate from your personal accounts, because untangling mixed spending is the single biggest driver of extra hours. Receipts through the capture app as they happen, which is a photo at the counter rather than a shoebox in July - and for anything over the substantiation threshold, no receipt means no deduction and no GST credit. And replies to the coding queries, which normally amount to a short list once a month. Clients who do those three things sit at the base price for years.
How do I know when I have outgrown Basic Books?
The usual signals are your first employee, transaction volume past about 150 a month, the ATO moving you to monthly lodgement, subcontractors that bring TPAR with them, stock you have to value, or a second entity. You will normally hear it from us first, because your bookkeeper is the one processing it. The move up is a conversation and a new fixed fee, not a migration - same file, same bookkeeper, wider scope. Nothing has to be rebuilt because nothing was ever set up as a temporary version.
Ready to simplify your books?
From $80 a week, the books stop being your problem. Call 07 3899 8311 or book your quick chat.