Best solution for replacing ATO Small Business Super Stream

LolSearle1964

What is the better solution to replace the Small Business Clearing House. I have read all about Colonial First Choice but today when I looked at Learn about Services there was a Superstream solution where Reckon is working in conjunction with Superstream Beam. It is saying no extra cost for Beam. What is the best solution here.

Acctd4

Hi @LolSearle1964

Beam doesn't integrate with RA desktop or Hosted, only the cloud products. This is why Reckon were hoping to secure an alternative - particularly with the ATO's SBSCH closing - hence their partnership with Colonial. Unfortunately, Colonial also doesn't have direct integration either though. Reckon's primary partnership purpose is for RA/RAH users to just have a free-access solution.

The reason for the integration difference for RA/RAH is due to a few things ….

• The base coding structure of RA/RAH is owned by Intuit as they are the original creators of the program. Reckon has exclusive licence to develop the product for AU & NZ for the next 80-odd years, but not having built it themselves, there are some limitations in what is hard-wired v what can be changed.
• RA is one of few desktop accounting software still around now with Reckon actually being the ONLY commercial accounting software provider to have all 3 - desktop, hosted & cloud product - options ! 😊
• RAH is actually just that same desktop program - the top, Enterprise version - but is "hosted" on Reckon's servers (hence the name!) Therefore the technology is very old & a lot of 3rd-party cloud solutions are unable to easily communicate with it, due to incompatibility.
• Lastly - & following on from the last point - because it's desktop technology, not as many 3rd party providers can or want to invest the additional time &/or money in integration - as it's difficult, time-consuming & costly - & cloud is where the world is heading 😢

Because of all this, any technical updates/changes - like SuperStream, STP, Payday Super etc - are a lot more challenging for Reckon than what any of the competitor providers would be dealing with 😞

On a more positive note, there are a number of free & low-cost clearing house options - Most of the Super Funds have their own SuperStream clearing house feature now, which you can often use for free, particularly if you're already a "registered employer" with them.

Also, … Whilst exporting the SAFF file is the recommended Payday Super option, my understanding is that this electronic method is NOT compulsory - As long as you're ensuring Super is reported & paid each pay run, you can still log-in to your particular clearing house & enter/submit your employee super contributions manually, as you are currently 😊