What's New - May 2022
- Company incorporation forms - we have made a change across all company incorporation forms across the Smarter SMSF platform and also within the Simple Fund 360 document platform, whereby the new company name search is now the first step that must be completed to validate the order before completing the rest of the form. This will limit an rejections by ASIC as the search will check the name against the ASIC register to validate before you proceed any further in the form. Once the name is validated, it will populate the company name below in the form for you to continue with the order. See the screenshot below for more detail:
- Step 1 - check the company name and choose your legal element option:
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Step 2 - the name will either be validated or rejected after it has been submitted on the screen
- Step 3 - Once validated, it will auto-populate the chosen name and legal element into the form for you to continue with the company order.
- Primary / secondary saved users - we are excited to be releasing the first part of the user interface (UI) for firms that have a subscription, that allows for the primary account holder (parent) to access saved orders of other team members before submission. This has been a requested feature where an administration person (or graduate accountant) may complete an order that it to be reviewed prior to submission.
Changelog
What's new & updated on the Smarter SMSF platform
Platform
You can open the saved (incomplete) orders by clicking on the 'link' and review the order prior to submission.
- We have made fixes to the 'Add or remove a member' form where the member name was not populating when the new member was chosen from the drop-menu of existing trustees/directors.
- A number of fixes have been made to reported tickets during the month including:
- We have resolved an issue with the Class integration where users advised that it was dropping out -(
MX-322)
"Message": "An internal error has occurred, for further information please contact Class on support@class.com.au. Reference the following correlation id: MX-322"- An update has been made to the API to post the 5th and 6th director information when registering a new special purpose company with ASIC.
- We have fixed an issue in the LRBA documents ordered via Simple Fund 360 where the bare trustee director details were not passing through to the generated document.
- A bug has been fixed in the pension commencement documents regarding the minimum pension calculation.
- We have fixed a mapping issue in the Lost Trust Deed form via Simple Fund 360 that was impacting the document generation.
- We have resolved an issue with the Class integration where users advised that it was dropping out -(
- Company incorporation forms - We will be shortly releasing further updates to the company incorporation forms that will include a mandatory field to include a director ID. From 5 April 2022, it is a requirement that a new director of a company has obtained their director identification number (director ID) prior to their appointment. This will be shown as a required field in the Smarter SMSF forms to ensure that it has been obtained prior to the order, avoiding the potential for significant penalties under the Corporations Act 2001. BGL users will also be able to include the director ID as part of the 'push to CAS 360' integration that will automatically setup your new company information.
- Change of Trustee - we have released the updated Change of Trustee form into beta on the Smarter SMSF platform which provides the following combination of changes that may occur:
- Appoint a new individual trustee
- Remove an individual trustee
- Add and remove a trustee
- Individual trustees to Company
- Company to individual trustees
- Company to Company
- Note: we will be releasing this form within Simple Fund 360 from June 2022, following user feedback throughout the beta period.
- ECPI choice minute - we have now created a trustee minute that allows for the trustee to document their 'choice' of ECPI method where the fund has both segregated and unsegregated periods during an income year. This is not a formal election that needs to be lodged with the ATO, but does require the trustee to evidence the decision that they have made for the financial year where they choose to apply the unsegregated period for the entire financial year. These laws apply for the 2021-22 financial year and onwards.
- We recently reviewed the Smarter SMSF trust deed in light of the various superannuation changes from 1 July 2022, including the removal of the work test for voluntary contributions and changes to the downsizer contributions - you can read our member alert on the deed impact of legislative changes for 1 July 2022
- Webinars: The following CPD webinars have been uploaded onto the learning platform for members recently:
- March 2022: Changing Face of SMSF
- April 2022: Super unpacked (for licensing)
- May 2022: SMSF Tax Planning (incl. checklist)
- ABN / TFN integration - work has commenced on this project for a user to apply for an ABN, TFN and to become regulated after the completion of a new SMSF order. We are aiming for this project to be completed in July 2022.
- Primary / secondary user functionality - work continues to expand on the functionality available for various users within member firms (with subscriptions) to access the document subscription using their own login/profile. The primary account holder will be able to control the permission levels of team members (secondary users) - the primary user interface (UI) will give them the ability to add/remove secondary users and set permissions to generate documents, view their own orders or all orders of the firm. If existing subscribers would like access to be setup, please get in contact with us at support@smartersmsf.com to arrange for this to be completed manually at this time.
- Automated Deed Service - Final stages of testing is occurring internally on this project before moving into beta testing with a number of members. We expect to remain in beta until the end of January 2022 and have the service available from February 2022. This subscription-based service will allow users to manage their fund's trust deeds, along with any trustee changes and automatically update the fund's deed in line with any amendments made by the Smarter SMSF team. Permission levels will be granted that allow documents to be shared with staff (secondary users), trustees, auditors and other service providers.
- NB. It will be an inclusive for Create500 subscribers; all other subscription levels will be required to purchase as a separate product.
- The deed service platform is also being expanded to allow for users to upload trust deeds to Smarter SMSF to have manual reviews of deed for upgrade purposes.
- White label portal - we are moving to testing stage with this new service that will allow you to have a customised version of the Smarter SMSF platform to sell SMSF documents through to your adviser/accountant network. We expect to have testing completed over the next month, and then generally available to utilise. You can contact us team@smartersmsf.com should you wish to find out more about this service.
- Legal Support - later this year, we will be building legal support into the Smarter SMSF platform that will allow members and users to utilise a number of order forms to request the preparation of legal documents and other legal support via our support with Hill Legal. Using the existing ticketing system, you will be able to prepare and submit requests, then track and engage with the Hill Legal team for the completion of any specific work.
- Combined order forms - there are a number of order forms that we are looking to merge that will simplify the existing order process - these include:
- New SMSF and trustee company order form.
- Pension rollback and commencement (ie. pension reboot)
- Change of trustee & deed upgrade
- Investment Strategy Report - we are adding crypto-currencies into the single asset/heavy asset concentration minute that supports the investment strategy document. Please note that crypto-currencies as an investment option is already available for the Investment Strategy Review Statement as with the stand-alone minute for single asset/heavy asset concentration.
- Trust Deed PDS - we are updating the main product disclosure statement to incorporate the legislative changes to take effect from 1 July 2022.
- Pension PDS - we will be updating the product disclosure statement shortly to incorporate the legislative changes regarding the Government's red tape reduction measures.
- Trust Deed Upgrade - the team has been working on an updated upgrade form that will incorporate a number of enhancements including:
- Ability to add additional party - e.g. founder, employer sponsor
- Add order to Automated Deed Service
- Ability to request upload documents for Legal Support / Review - allowing you to easily upload and send through fund information and previous document to have the order undergo a comprehensive legal review as part of the upgrade.
- Future documents - a number of document templates are also in the pipeline to be added in the near future on the Smarter SMSF platform, including:
- Future Service Deduction - this will include a calculator and trustee minute
- Re-contribution strategy
- Death of a Member
- Family Law split (super splitting)
- ECPI choice minute (now available)
- Deed of debt forgiveness
- Acknowledgement of Trust
- Pension commencement request - unknown starting balance
New/Updated Documents
CPD Training / Courses
You can view our upcoming webinars on the events page on the Smarter SMSF website,