Background

Origin of SBR

Rethinking Regulation, The Report of the Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business (the Banks Report), was released in April 2006. The report found that regulatory compliance cost Australian business tens of millions of dollars each year and diverted time and resources from core business activities. Some submissions to the taskforce indicated that compliance activities could sometimes take up to 25 per cent of senior management's time. In response, the Australian Government approved the development of SBR.

SBR relies on a collaborative methodology which will deliver capabilities that when incorporated in businesses software will reduce the reporting burden. SBR is not a single product. SBR is simplifying business-to-government reporting by:

removing unnecessary or duplicated information from government forms
using business software to automatically pre-fill forms
adopting a common reporting language (SBR Taxonomy), based on international standards and best practice
making financial reporting a by-product of natural business processes
providing an electronic interface to agencies directly from accounting software, which will also provide validation and confirm receipt of reports
providing a single secure sign-on for users to all agencies involved.

Business case

The SBR business case (2007) provided a detailed cost-benefit analysis and outlined the design of the proposed solution and implementation plan and strategies. It estimated a net benefit to the business community of approximately $800 million with a total cost to government of $320 million over six years. The costs would be concentrated in the first three years, with the benefits starting in year three.

COAG endorsement

In March 2008, COAG incorporated SBR into its new regulation reform agenda. COAG's Business Regulation and Competition Working Group, co-chaired by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Services Economy closely monitors SBR's progress.

SBR Program

Treasury is the lead agency for the SBR Program, which started in August 2007. Participating agencies include:

Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) (from July 2011)
all state and territory revenue offices (SROs)
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

SBR is governed by the SBR Board, chaired by the Secretary to The Treasury, and includes the heads of all agencies involved in the Program and representatives from business and industry. A Business Advisory Forum, comprising government representatives and business and industry organisation leaders, is the Program's key advisory body providing a communication channel between the program and the business reporting community.

Major work streams

harmonise (or standardise) reporting terms
create the SBR Taxonomy using the international business language XBRL. Iterations of the taxonomy have been released since March 2008
map the taxonomy to business accounts. More than 50 forms in scope, Business Activity Statements (the Australian Taxation Office), financial statements (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) and payroll tax (state/territory revenue offices)
create SBR-enabled software (commercial software developers)
create SBR core infrastructure services and a single secure sign-on or government authentication regime, known as AUSkey
connect government agency systems to SBR core infrastructure services
test all components from mid-2009
engage stakeholders (mainly business and reporting professionals) to promote SBR's benefits and encourage take up.

Software developer resources

SBR works in close collaboration with commercial software developers to develop the technical components of the SBR solution. SBR provides a range of specifications and components for use by developers and these are published on the SBR website as a Software Developers Kit. Software developers can use these to enable SBR within their products.

Software developers are progressively SBR-enabling their products. Developers are self certifying their products and, once certified, the products are listed in a publicly available register accessible from this website.

Implementation

Businesses and reporting professionals can register online for AUSkey - the new SBR single secure sign-on credential. See also www.abr.gov.au/auskey.

See the SBR Product Register.

Consultation and stakeholder engagement

SBR consults and collaborates widely with its key stakeholder groups. Many of these are members of the Business Advisory Forum (BAF). The Forum comprises representatives from industry groups and professional associations and provides input into SBR design, consultation, marketing and strategy implementation. SBR's key stakeholder groups are:

the business sector, including business and industry associations
reporting professionals, including accountants, bookkeepers, payroll specialists and tax agents and their professional associations
commercial accounting and business software developers.

Other groups included in the consultation process include:

ATO Small Business Advisory Group
ATO Software Developers Consultative Forum
Tax Commissioners Small Business Consultative Forum
The 'big four' accountancy firms
Australian Tax Practitioners Forum
Charities Consultative Committee
Financial Services Industry Partnerships
Individual Software Developers
Australian Accounting Standards Board
Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
Financial Reporting Council

The future scope of SBR

The current scope of SBR is business-to-government financial reporting for the SBR partner agencies. However, there is broad potential for SBR methodologies to ease regulatory burdens in other sectors.

A number of reviews and reports have indicated that SBR could potentially be applied to other business reporting. Similarly SBR is working with other government agencies to understand the potential application for SBR in their business reporting requirements. However, at this stage no decision has been made if SBR will be expanded and if so how. The SBR Program Board will evaluate a range of options over the coming months and provide, for consideration by government, advice about future directions.

SBR is also attracting considerable international interest, especially in New Zealand (with whom Australia has an MOU concerning SBR and its taxonomy) and Singapore. The SBR International Forum was established in 2007 to share knowledge about SBR among countries interested in implementing the methodology. It is jointly chaired by SBR program directors of Australia and the Netherlands.

Last updated 5 July 2010