Xero bookkeeping built for trades and construction, job margin tracking, progress invoicing, subbies and TPAR, BAS and payroll. For tradies scaling beyond $500K who are done running the business from the ute at 9pm.
True Tally does bookkeeping for Australian trades businesses: job costing and margin per job, TPAR, GST and BAS, progress claims and cash flow, and award-compliant payroll including apprentices, all in Xero. Fixed monthly fees, nationwide.
Big jobs, full calendar, money coming in, and somehow there's never enough for the BAS, the super, or you. That's what happens when nobody's tracking margin per job, invoices go out late, and the paperwork lives in the passenger seat. The work isn't the problem. The back end is.
Every job tracked in Xero so you know which work makes money and which just keeps you busy. Quote smarter, price harder, walk away from the losers.
Progress claims out on time, deposits taken up front, and a fortnightly chase on every unpaid invoice, so you're not financing your clients' renovations.
Subcontractor payments tracked and your Taxable Payments Annual Report lodged right, an ATO focus area most tradies don't know exists until the letter arrives.
Quarterly BAS on time, every time, with GST on materials, margins and deposits handled correctly. No June scramble, no penalties.
Your crew paid right under the right award, super on schedule, STP lodged. With Payday Super coming, we'll have you compliant before it costs you.
Behind on lodgements, super or ATO payments? No judgement, it's more common than you think. We rebuild the books, negotiate realistic payment plans, and get you back in front.
A trade business came to us after years of operating with no real financial setup, overdue tax debts, unpaid super, no idea which jobs made money. We rebuilt everything.
"She takes on tasks that look impossible on paper and somehow makes them work. No drama, no excuses, she just figures it out and gets it done."Travis Presley, Vaquero Flooring Pty Ltd
The difference between a trade business that grows and one that just stays busy is almost always job costing. If your bookkeeping only produces a single lump-sum profit and loss, you know whether the whole business made money last month, but not which jobs made it and which quietly lost it. We set Xero up to track labour, materials and subcontractor costs against what you quoted for each job, so you see real margin per job. That turns quoting from a guess into a decision: you price the work that pays, charge properly for the work that is hard, and walk away from the jobs that only ever break even once you count the ute, the fuel and the hours chasing payment.
If you pay subcontractors and your business is in building and construction, you must lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) with the ATO each year, by 28 August, listing each subbie's ABN and the total you paid them. The ATO data-matches it against what those subcontractors report, so a missing or wrong TPAR is one of the easiest things for them to flag. The fix is not a scramble in August, it is coding subbie payments consistently all year so the report is one you run, not one you reconstruct. Collect every ABN before you pay, keep labour separate from materials where a subbie bills both, and the TPAR looks after itself. There is a full explainer in our guide to TPAR.
Trades businesses move a lot of money through materials, and GST coding is where it goes wrong. Materials, tool purchases, fuel and subcontractor labour all have GST treatment that has to be coded correctly, or your BAS is out before you lodge it. We keep the file reconciled through the quarter so the BAS is prepared from real numbers, lodge it on time (with the extra time a registered BAS agent gets), and make sure the GST you claim on big material buys and equipment is actually captured rather than missed.
Cash flow is what sinks profitable trade businesses. The work is done, the money is owed, but it is sitting in someone else's account while your BAS, your super and your wages are due. We set up deposits and progress claims so you are paid as the job moves rather than all at the end, retentions are tracked so you actually chase the money held back, and a fortnightly follow-up runs on every unpaid invoice so you stop financing your clients' renovations. The single biggest cash-flow fix is also the simplest: move your GST and PAYG into a separate account as you are paid, so the BAS money is there when it is due instead of being spent twice.
Payroll in trades carries real award complexity: apprentice and adult rates, overtime, travel and tool allowances, and the line between an employee and a genuine subcontractor. Get the classification wrong and it is both an underpayment risk and a Single Touch Payroll problem. We configure pay items and the correct award rules in Xero, run STP Phase 2 so every pay reports to the ATO correctly, and keep super paid on time, which matters more than ever now that super is policed closely. Where someone is genuinely a subcontractor, we make sure they are on the TPAR, not the payroll.
Tools, equipment, the ute, protective gear, licences, training, phone and home-office time are all deductions tradies routinely under-claim because the receipts are in the glovebox and the logbook never got started. We set you up to capture receipts into Xero as you go and keep the work-versus-private split clean, so your accountant claims everything you are entitled to at tax time. The common claims, and the records you need for each, are set out in our tax deductions for tradies guide. This is general information, and your registered tax agent confirms what applies to you.
A one-person trade business and a business with a crew of eight need very different books, and the change usually sneaks up on owners. When you hire your first employee you take on PAYG withholding, super guarantee, workers compensation and Single Touch Payroll overnight, and the ATO expects all of it from day one. When your turnover grows you may outgrow the sole-trader structure and need to look at a company, which changes how you pay yourself and how your tax works. We keep the bookkeeping steady through those transitions so growth does not become a compliance mess: payroll set up correctly the first time you hire, the right numbers in front of you when it is time to decide on sole trader versus company, and a fixed monthly fee the whole way so the cost never surprises you mid-job. Whether you are a sole operator who wants the paperwork gone or a growing crew that needs real job margin, the aim is the same: books you can trust and numbers you can actually use to run the business.
Yes, catch-up work is half of what we do, and there's no judgement. We rebuild the file, get your lodgements current, and if there's ATO debt we help set up a payment plan you can actually keep. The relief clients describe after that first clean BAS is the best part of this job.
If you pay subcontractors in building and construction, the ATO requires a Taxable Payments Annual Report each year listing what you paid them. Miss it and you're flagged. We track subbie payments all year so lodgement is automatic.
We set up job-level tracking in Xero: labour, materials and sub costs against what you quoted. You see margin per job, not just a lump-sum P&L, so pricing stops being a guess.
It is the single best habit a trade business can build. Move your GST and PAYG into a separate account every time you are paid, and the BAS money is already there when it is due. It turns BAS time from a scramble into a non-event, and it is why we set clients up this way from day one.
It depends on how the person actually works, not just what the contract says, and getting it wrong is an underpayment and super risk. We keep genuine subcontractors on your TPAR and employees on payroll with the right award rules, and flag anyone whose arrangement looks risky so you can get advice before it becomes a problem.
A fixed monthly fee based on your volume: jobs, crew size, payroll. Bookkeeping starts from $300 a month, BAS from $150 per lodgement and payroll from $20 per payslip, all ex-GST. We confirm your fee after a proper look at your books, so the number is right the first time. No hourly billing.
Book a call, we'll look at where your books are at, tell you what needs fixing first, then quote your fixed fee after a proper look at your books. No pitch, no jargon, no judgement about the shoebox.
Book My 15-Minute Call or call 0468 159 950