What is a record?

A record explains the transactions conducted by your business.

Your records used for tax and super-related purposes:

  • need to contain enough information for the ATO to determine the essential features or purpose of the transactions. They need to understand the relevance of the transactions to your business’s income and expenses. 
  • must contain enough information for you to be able to accurately calculate and substantiate the income, expenses and other amounts you report in your income tax return and other returns you lodge with the ATO. At the minimum, it needs to include the: date, amount, character (for example, sale, purchase, wages, rental) and purpose of the transaction; relevant goods and services (GST) information and the relationships between parties to the transactions, if that’s relevant. 

The ATO may review your tax return and ask for copies of your records to check the information provided. If they’re unable to verify your claims, they will contact you to discuss and may need to adjust your return.

Record keeping

Steps Progress

Record keeping overview

10 mins

Tasks and tips

6 mins

Starting your business records

2 mins

Digital record keeping

5 mins

Manual or paper record keeping

2 mins

Banking records

2 mins

Income records

3 mins

Accounting for private use of assets

9 mins

Motor vehicle deductions records

2 mins

Home-based business deductions records

1 mins

Other deductions records

1 mins

Stock and asset records

5 mins

GST records

1 mins

Employee records

7 mins

Car fringe benefits records

1 mins

Expense payment FBT records

2 mins

Contractor records

2 mins

Sharing economy records

1 mins

Cryptocurrency records

1 mins

Records for other taxes

5 mins

Sole trader structure records

4 mins

Partnership structure records

3 mins

Company structure records

3 mins

Trust structure records

1 mins

Changing your business structure records

1 mins

Selling or closing your business records

2 mins

Related courses

1 mins

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