Tax position
Your tax position, every day. Not just in July.
Bilbee keeps a running estimate of what the year will cost you (your business, your day job if you have one, your investments) and shows the working line by line. As invoices are paid and receipts come in, the number moves. You always know roughly where you stand, and roughly what to keep back.
Estimated tax still to pay at 30 June
$3,120
Set aside so far $4,410 · you're ahead
The extra tax from your business profit, before payments and credits. The bill above is what remains after tax withheld and instalments paid.
Estimate. Based on the figures entered, using ATO rates for FY 2026–27, rounded to the dollar. Not tax advice.
A whole-of-return estimate, not a rule of thumb
A flat "put 30% aside" is wrong for almost everyone: too much if you're under the second bracket, too little once a day job pushes you up one. Bilbee models the return the way it'll actually be assessed.
Income it accounts for
What it works out
Taxable income · tax at the FY 2026–27 rates · the low income tax offset and the small business income tax offset (non-refundable, applied the way the ATO applies them) · Medicare levy, with the low-income threshold and the family threshold · Medicare levy surcharge if there's no hospital cover · HELP repayment · PAYG withheld and instalments already paid · the result: an estimated bill or an estimated refund.
Bilbee compares your tax estimate with and without your business profit to show how much tax your business adds. Tax withheld and instalments paid are then accounted for in your remaining bill or refund.
What it doesn't do yet
Trust and partnership distributions, foreign income, and personal work-related deductions from your day job aren't modelled. If those are a big part of your return, the estimate will be rough there and the working will say so.
Estimate. Based on the figures entered, using ATO rates for FY 2026–27, rounded to the dollar. Not tax advice.
Set-aside
How much of this payment is yours?
When a client pays, Bilbee shows the slice to keep back for tax and GST. The rate isn't a number you typed in and forgot. It derives itself from the estimate, so it moves with your year. Your running set-aside total also counts what you've already paid the ATO: record a PAYG instalment or last quarter's GST and it drops to match.
- Per payment, not per year. $2,640 comes in, $912 is flagged. You move it or you don't. It's your account.
- Instalments count. Record a PAYG instalment or a GST payment and the running total drops to match.
- A refund position looks different. If your day job is over-withholding, the estimate says refund. The set-aside on each payment still covers the tax your business adds.
This is the part people love about tax-withholding services. Bilbee does it without holding your money.
Record a payment
INV-0042 · Ember Press
Sample data: Jamie, illustrator, Brunswick.
Simpler BAS
The worksheet fills itself
Bilbee keeps cash-basis books, which is what most sole traders report on. So when a quarter ends, the Simpler BAS worksheet is already there: G1 total sales, 1A GST on sales, 1B GST on purchases. If you've invoiced a client overseas or sold something GST-free, a breakdown sits underneath for your records; Simpler BAS doesn't lodge it. Reconcile the last few bank lines, check it, and take the figures to myGov or your agent.
Registered or not.
If you're not registered for GST there's no worksheet to fill and no GST on your expenses. Bilbee zeroes it server-side, even on receipts that come in by email.
Lock the quarter.
Once you've lodged, lock the period. A payment dated inside it can't quietly rewrite a BAS you've already submitted.
Record it as paid.
Tick "record as paid" when you lodge and the GST and instalment you paid come off your running set-aside total.
Bilbee prepares. You or your registered agent lodge. We think that's the right split, and it's also the law for software that isn't a tax agent.
Deductions
Know what counts, as you go
Every expense category comes with a one-line hint about what it usually means for your money, right where you're categorising. A few categories never count (fines, entertainment, anything private), so Bilbee keeps them on the books and off the return, and says so on every P&L.
We'll never tell you something is deductible. We'll tell you what most people like you claim, and suggest you check with your accountant when it's close.
The method deductions, done properly
Working from home. Log your hours and Bilbee applies the ATO's fixed rate per hour. That rate already covers phone, internet and stationery, so those expenses stay on your books but are added back in the estimate rather than counted twice.
Driving for work. Log kilometres and Bilbee applies the cents-per-kilometre rate: 91 cents for FY 2026–27, capped at 5,000 km. Same add-back for your car running costs.
Equipment. A laptop, a camera, a tablet: under the instant asset write-off threshold, the business-use share can usually be written off in the year you buy it. Bilbee keeps the asset register.
Super. Personal contributions are tracked against the cap so you can see the room, and they're kept out of business deductions, where they don't belong.
EOFY
One export your accountant can work straight from
In July, download the pack: invoice register, payments ledger, expenses by category with receipts attached, the P&L, each quarter's BAS worksheet, the whole-of-return estimate with its income sources, the asset register and the TPAR if you need one. Or skip the download: invite your accountant and they see the same thing, read-only, free.
EOFY pack
Sample data: Jamie, illustrator, Brunswick.
Verified every July
This is unglamorous, and it's the reason the estimate is worth having.
Every rate, threshold and cap Bilbee uses (tax brackets, Medicare thresholds, HELP bands, cents per kilometre, the write-off threshold) lives in one table, with the date it was last checked against ato.gov.au. If a financial year's table is missing or stale, the build fails rather than shipping a wrong number. When the ATO changes something mid-year, the table changes and the estimate follows.
Questions about the estimate
Is this tax advice?
No. Bilbee is software. It calculates an estimate from the figures you've entered using the ATO's published rates, and it shows how. Whether the figures are complete, whether a deduction applies to you, what to actually lodge: that's for you and a registered tax agent.
My income is lumpy. Does that break it?
No. It's the reason the estimate updates as you go rather than once a year. A quiet month lowers the year's estimate; a big invoice raises it. The set-aside on each payment reflects where the year stands at that moment.
I have a day job and a side business. Does it handle both?
Yes. Add the job as a salary source with the tax actually withheld (from your payslip or income statement) and the estimate combines them. If the second job hasn't claimed the tax-free threshold, that's exactly the case the estimate is for.
I'm not GST-registered. Do I need any of this?
The estimate and the set-aside, yes. Income tax doesn't care about GST registration. The BAS worksheet simply won't appear until you register. When your turnover heads for the $75,000 threshold, flip the setting and Bilbee starts tracking GST from that date.
What about PAYG instalments?
Once the ATO puts you on instalments, record each one in Bilbee. The estimate credits them against the year's bill, and the set-aside drops to match.