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Attaché Software has been certified CO2 free by Australia's leading carbon audit organisation, Carbon Planet.
To achieve the certification Attaché Software has completed comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions auditing, offset those emissions, and made a long term commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.
In a recent article for The Daily Telegraph, small business reporter Andrew Carswell discusses with Attaché Software Managing Director Mike Rich the many environmental benefits of Attaché 7.
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EXTRACT from Tower of strength by Andrew Carswell:
Attaché Software has invented the world's first zero carbon footprint accounting and payroll software, creating a paperless office.
Mike Rich has saved the height of Sydney Tower in paper this year.
Next year, he hopes to save double the height of the tower in paper. No mean feat for any office - that height in paper equates to four million documents per year.
Entitled Attaché 7, the software specifically targets growing small businesses, giving them an environmentally-minded accounting and payroll system that eliminates the need for paper. |
- View the full article Tower of strengthby Andrew Carswell, The Daily Telegraph 3 December 2007.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has developed a new online calculator to assist employers with administering changes to employment termination payments.
Use the Employment Termination Payment calculator to determine the tax free and taxable components of an employment termination payment made on or after 1 July 2007.
To access the calculator click here or visit the ATO website at www.ato.gov.au and in the left-hand menu click on Rates, calculators & tools | For superannuation. Then on the Rates, calculators & tools for superannuation professionals page click Calculators | Employment termination payment calculator.
In recent months email has surpassed fax as the most popular Attaché Alex delivery method, increasing to 56% of all documents in October. One reason for the shift is the recent inclusion of PDF output in emailed documents. Plus, shifting from paper (faxed) documents to emailed documents reduces paper usage which is good news for the environment. Use the electronic document savings calculator to discover how much you can save on costs to your business and the environment.
A new upgrade for Attaché 7 is now available for Attaché 7 users to download from the CBP Members website. Attaché 7 version 7.00.300 includes new and enhanced features for both Accounts and Payroll.
Enhancements include Employment Termination Payments (ETPs) and new Magnetic Media file for reporting payment summary information, which comply with new Australian Tax Office regulations, as well as improvements in invoice generation and document printing, and considerable enhancements to Keystroke File Import (KFI).
Semester 2 Classroom Training is now underway at our North Sydney Training Centre. Courses include Payroll Processing, Payroll Setups, General Ledger and Bank Reconciliation, and Attaché ODBC with MS Office. In addition, two new courses have been added in both Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. Debtors Level 1 and Creditors Level 1 are two-hour courses that cover the fundamentals of these important roles — ideal for staff who are new to Attaché. Debtors Level 2 and Creditors Level 2 then go on to cover more advanced topics.
- You can view the full list of courses, including venue and registration details, in the Training area.
Smarter use of resources can deliver immediate cuts in emissions and reap significant economic and productivity benefits. The Australian Conservation Foundation's National Agenda for a Sustainable Australia states that a comprehensive Government review found that Australia could immediately reduce our energy use by up to 30% using off-the-shelf cost-effective technologies, with immediate economic benefits and an average "payback" of four years.
With this in mind, Attaché Software has recently created an online savings calculator. Utilising greenhouse gas emissions and
car distance formulae from Carbon Planet Australia, the savings calculator not only lets you discover how much Attaché 7 's electronic document delivery service can save you in time and money, but also calculates your potential savings in paper/GHG emissions.
Australian tax scales 2007/08 are now available for download. The tax scales are suitable for users of Attaché Payroll for Attaché 7, Business Partner and Attaché Catapult. The file is dated 1 July 2007 and should not be used in the calculation of any payroll for payments before that date. The tax scales for 2007/08 will also be included in the next release of Attaché 7 (version 7.00.201), scheduled for release shortly.
A recent survey of more than 90 businesses by the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) showed that small business wanted to do more to improve their performance, but needed the tools to help them.
“What small business has been looking for is an easy, low cost way of identifying how they could improve their operating practices to the benefit of the environment and their own bottom line,” said VECCI CEO Neil Coulson.
The Attaché Alex document delivery service is one way you can help the environment. Attaché Alex not only saves time and money on postage, stationery and handling, it also reduces a business’s impact on the environment. Users of the Alex service can be proud of the fact that in the month of April alone, they saved around 250,000 sheets of paper by sending their documents electronically instead of printing them.
With the official launch of Attaché 7, Attaché Software made a triumphant return to the spotlight at CeBIT 2007, Australia’s biggest computer tradeshow.
One of the busiest stands at CeBIT, Attaché Software held regular presentations on Attaché 7, and attracted a great deal of interest from both within the IT industry and SMEs. Attaché 7 was further acknowledged at CeBIT by being awarded a finalist in ZDNet Australia’s inaugural Emerging Technology Innovation Awards. Attaché Software was also invited to participate in CeBIT’s eCommerce Conference.
From 1 July 2007, New Zealand introduces a new non-compulsory savings scheme called KiwiSaver. All new employees are automatically enrolled into KiwiSaver (with provision to opt out within a specified timeframe) while existing employees aged under 65 may opt in. Employers may also make contributions to KiwiSaver if they wish.
Attaché Payroll was updated in April (Attaché 7 version 7.00.100) and again in May (version 7.00.200) to meet these requirements.
The NZ Government budget of 17 May announced even further changes to KiwiSaver which will take effect from 1 April 2008. Part of this appears to be a compulsory employer contribution to match at least part of the employee's contribution.
The Consensus Awards are an awards program exclusively for Australian and New Zealand designed and developed software. Recognising Attaché 7’s innovation and potential in both the domestic and international markets, Attaché Software was a finalist in this year’s awards.
Attaché 7 has also been selected as a finalist in the Financial Applications category of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) awards.
New Zealand Payroll tax scales for 2007/2008 are now available from the CBP Members website. The updated tax scales include changes that have been made to the ACC Earner’s Levy and the Student Loan Threshold, which come into effect from 1st April 2007. The 2007 tax scales will also be included in the next release of Attaché 7, version 7.00.100, which will be available shortly. Attaché 7 version 7.00.100 will also include other enhancements related to New Zealand payroll, including changes realted to the introduction of the savings scheme "KiwiSaver."
This year we will be running our popular end-of-financial-year training seminars throughout Australia in June. In addition to assisting you in completing your accounts and payroll end-of-year with ease, this year's seminars will also include the special extra session - Making the Most of Attaché 7.
In Making the Most of Attaché 7 you'll discover how to harness the power and flexibility of Attaché 7. This session is FREE if Payroll EOY and/or Accounts EOY session is paid for before April 30.
For the second year running, electronic tax return lodgments have exceeded those lodged on paper.
Over 1.6 million Australian taxpayers used e-tax, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) online lodgment service, to lodge their 2005-06 tax return – an increase of almost 18 percent on the previous year.
Commissioner of Taxation, Michael D’Ascenzo said “I’m pleased so many people are taking advantage of our online services which are designed to help them meet their obligations as easily and cheaply as possible.”
Over the past couple of years the ATO have been testing a feature where people can download information from the Tax Office and third parties directly into their tax return. After a limited trial in 2005, e-tax users in 2006 could download information from Centrelink, Medicare Australia, the Family Assistance Office and six major financial institutions.
This initiative has proved quite popular with e-tax users. In 2006, over:
- 80,000 people downloaded their bank interest details,
- 22,000 people downloaded information to claim their 30 per cent child care tax rebate,
- 100,000 people downloaded their out of pocket medical expenses from Medicare Australia, and
- 7,500 people downloaded information on their managed funds.
More information: http://ato.gov.au/corporate/content.asp?doc=/content/83847.htm
Changes to the reporting obligations of Australian employers, announced by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in mid-2006, took effect on January 31, 2007. From that date, all employers who use self-print payment summaries are required to use one of two new approved layouts for all Individual Non-business Payment Summaries issued for this financial year (2006/2007) and beyond. Old style payment summaries will not be accepted.
In line with the new requirements, the two new payment summary layouts have been added to Attaché Payroll. Attaché Payroll retains the old payment summary layouts for reprinting purposes only. To further comply with the latest ATO requirements, a new checkbox is now available in employee deductions to allow Workplace Giving deductions to be separately identified on employee payment summaries.
Attaché Payroll compliance — Users of Attaché 7 Payroll will have no problems meeting their obligations as this software (released in September 2006) meets the ATO requirements.
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