As of writing, we've lodged three times as many returns as we had this time last year. Well done team!
A heads up though: August was our busiest month last year, and there's no reason to think this one will be different. Prepare early. And if you've got a big batch coming, tell me now rather than when it lands, so we can resource it properly.
A few quick notes:
1. I will be in Adelaide on the 13th of August. We will meet in the CBD and do a session together and we will go to dinner afterwards. I have sent out invites. If you haven't received one, let me know.
2. I am running a refresher of the tax return workflows on Monday 3 August. You can join here.
There's also been a fair bit of discussion around processes and turnaround times, so let's get into it.
Feedback and Community Guidelines
We're here to build a supportive community, and we've always been open to feedback. Two things to tell you about.
1. WhatsApp house rules
We've written house rules for the WhatsApp group (Read Here). They're on the knowledgebase. I expect that you will have a read and accept them before posting again.
They're about using the right channel, keeping the technical discussion sharp, and making sure the group stays worth reading. Nothing complicated.
We all get overwhelmed and have a moan — that's fine, we all do it. Let's make sure we also get to a solution. We don't want people worrying or stressing on their own. We want you getting the support you need, so we all get to the actual goal: getting your tax agent licence, and your own practice run your way.
2. Community feedback
From this week, the last part of every drop-in belongs to you.
I'll hand over and jump off the call. You discuss among yourselves, and one person is nominated to bring the feedback back to me. That person then hosts the following week's session, and a new person is nominated after that.
Two reasons for doing it this way.
First: everyone gets a turn presenting, and a direct line to me.
Second: and this is the important one, some things are easier to say when I'm not in the room. I'd rather hear it straight than not hear it at all.
What I'll commit to: you'll hear back. If it's something we can fix, we'll fix it and tell you. If we can't, I'll tell you why. Feedback that disappears into a void is worse than no feedback.
Tomorrow Bianca will host the first community feedback session for the last 10 minutes of the drop in.
Tax Agent Hub and Turnaround Times
Thank you all for your feedback on Tax Agent Hub and patience as we get everyone set up.
I know a few things have come out of this:
Turnaround times: We've now got live data instead of guesses. First two weeks: 7.7 days from submission to lodgment.
Our part of that is 5 days: 4 to approve, 1 to lodge. That's the turnaround we've always committed to, and we're hitting it.
The other 2.7 days is waiting on client signatures. That's the piece you control, and it's where the time goes. Chase your client early and the whole thing shortens.
As a comparison, in HubSpot it was 4 days to first review and almost 2 to lodge. So we're about a day quicker, and now we can actually see where the time goes. We could never track signing time in HubSpot at all.
This means we can look at ways of speeding up these times, and give you visibility so you can set expectations with your clients.
Experience Hours: The hours are designed to give more weight to the complex returns. A simple ITR will be an hour, but a rental schedule will add another hour, as would a business schedule, and companies and trusts start at a higher base to reflect what is expected in your application to the TPB.
Supervision Fee: For anyone who signed up from 2025, paying the supervision fee upfront is part of your agreement. We haven't had a system to track it until now, which is why you may not have seen it applied consistently.
This also has another benefit that makes life easier for you too: I now pay you the full client fee rather than working out a cut. Your bookkeeping and AR get much simpler, and so does ours.
Lodgment Dates
When do we lodge?
We lodge Monday - Friday 5pm. Anything submitted after those times is lodged the following business day.
Due Dates
Income Tax Returns FY 2026 – Starting 31 October 2026, with due dates ranging between then and 15 May 2027. Make sure you are keeping an eye on LodgeIQ to know when your clients returns are due.
BAS Lodgment Dates
June 2026 Quarter – due 25 August 2026
Send for review by 7 August 2026.
IAS Lodgment Dates
July 2026 – due 21 August 2026 Send for review by 7 August2026.
Super Payment Dates
June 2026 – due 28 July 2026 Remember form 1 July all super payments are payday super.
Client Acquisition
We're still in the testing phase, and I want to be straight with you about where it's at.
So far: 231 leads, 3 converted. That's 1.3%. It sounds low, and it is.
These leads arrive cold through Meta, so it's effectively a cold call. They often won't reply to a first email or call, which is normal for this kind of marketing. There's no clean industry benchmark for lead-to-client conversion on cold traffic, so I'll treat 1.3% as our baseline. That's the number we're trying to beat, and I'll report back either way.
Here's what we're changing:
Recognition before contact. We're creating more content and retargeting across Facebook and Instagram, so that by the time we make contact we're a familiar name rather than a stranger.
Speed of follow-up. The evidence on this is consistent across every source I've looked at — how fast you respond to a lead matters more than almost anything else. A lead contacted within minutes converts dramatically better than one contacted the next day. We're tightening that up.
We're investing heavily in this because it's about helping you build your hours and, longer term, find your own clients. We want to lift the conversion rate before we push it out to everyone, and we'll know by the end of August whether it's working.
Upcoming
We have a lot of things coming up:
Training and Education
Reviewer training
Educator Program
CPD tracking
Software
Client hub - client onboarding, payments and AML - Expected late August or early September
Supervision Portal - This will have all your training, simulated returns, CPD etc - Already live, need to invite existing participants.
WorkpaperIQ - Will replace Xero Workpapers - Expected end of year
