Instead of ATO SmartDocs
Stop renting ATO SmartDocs. Keep the ATO mail register your practice built.
Enterprise DNA builds your version around how your team downloads, reviews and passes on ATO correspondence, carries your SmartDocs history across, and runs it for you. The fee does not rise because you lodged more returns this year.
ATO SmartDocs publishes a flat fee by returns lodged, ex GST: A$399 a month for up to 500 returns, rising to A$699 a month for 1,501 to 2,000, plus a setup and onboarding fee of A$2,000 to A$3,000. Above 2,000 returns it is quoted privately.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the SmartDocs invoice covers
A fee pegged to your return count, and a setup charge before day one
At 501 to 1,000 returns the practice pays A$499 a month, A$5,988 a year before GST, after a A$2,000 onboarding fee. Underneath, the records are simple: clients, the letters the ATO sent them, the amounts and the dates they fall due.
Your growth moves the price
Four published bands by tax returns lodged a year: A$399, A$499, A$599 and A$699 a month. Pass 2,000 returns and the price becomes a private quote.
Onboarding paid up front
A setup and onboarding fee of A$2,000 on the smaller bands and A$2,000 to A$3,000 on the larger ones, before a single letter moves.
The download robot
The core of the product fetches documents from the ATO and reads them. Your team already downloads practice mail; the reading is the part an agent now does on your own machine.
Client emails on their templates
Documents go to clients through your Office 365 or mail server, after the product's own check and approval step.
A client vault that lives with them
The document vault and signing module sit inside SmartDocs. The history of what the ATO told each client is held by the vendor, not your practice.
Dashboards as the vendor designed them
Daily reports and partner and manager dashboards come as designed.
What you get instead
Every ATO letter logged, checked and followed up, at no cost per return
Intake
Your downloaded mail, read and filed against the right client
Save the ATO Online practice mail and scanned paper letters into one folder. Each one is read, tied to a client and logged with its amounts and due dates.
- check One morning pass over the folder, however many letters arrived
- check Anything it cannot place is held for a person, checked against the last three TFN digits
- check An oldest-first list of letters no client has seen yet
- check A turnaround standard your firm sets, with late items flagged
Review
Assessments compared with the return before anyone is told
What you lodged and what you expected back sit beside the notice of assessment. A difference needs a written reason before it goes further.
- check The gap between expected and assessed, shown with the reason recorded
- check Differences older than 30 days raised, so objection time is not lost
- check No client letter for a document that has not been reviewed
- check Practice rules, each with its source, checked across every record at once
Follow-up
Every amount owed, and whether the client knows
One view of each dollar owed to the ATO across your clients, the date it is due and whether the client has heard from you.
- check Due in the next 14 days and the client not yet told, first thing each day
- check Payment plan instalments tracked, so a missed one is caught
- check Letters drafted in your firm's name for a person to read and send
- check Lodgments outstanding, overdue ones at the top
Ownership
Your register, your questions, no full TFNs
The register is plain records in a database the practice owns, on one laptop or shared across the office.
- check Only the last three digits of a tax file number can ever be saved
- check Questions across family groups and staff workloads
- check Nothing to renegotiate when your return count crosses a band
- check Open source under the MIT licence, so leaving is never a project
Make it yours
Design your own ATO SmartDocs replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from ATO SmartDocs. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your ATO SmartDocs data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from ATO SmartDocs
Moving off SmartDocs is mostly a mapping job: getting your client list and document history out, fitting it to the new register, and running both systems together until you trust the numbers.
- 1
Export what SmartDocs allows
Ask ATO SmartDocs for an export of your client list and document register, in whatever format your account allows. Check with ATO SmartDocs on exactly what fields are included before you rely on it. This export is the source file everything else in the move works from, so get it complete before you go further.
- 2
Map it, then test the load
A SmartDocs export has its own column names and layout, so it needs mapping before it will load cleanly. Enterprise DNA does this mapping when they run it for you, or you can ask Claude Code to map the file yourself. Either way, run a test load first. That checks the file without loading anything for real, so you can catch problems before they land in your records.
- 3
Check what the import flags
When you do load for real, the import trims any tax file number down to its last three digits and tells you how many it trimmed, so review that count. Also compare the number of clients and documents that landed against what SmartDocs reported, so you know nothing was dropped or duplicated on the way in.
- 4
Run both side by side
Keep ATO SmartDocs running while you work from the new register too. Check that the counts and the day-to-day picture, who owes what, what has been sent, agree between the two. How long you keep both running is your call, but do not stop SmartDocs until they match.
- 5
Switch off SmartDocs
Once the counts agree and your team is comfortable working from the new register day to day, cancel your ATO SmartDocs subscription. Keep the original export you took in step one somewhere safe in case you need to check back against it later.
Where the real effort goes
The real work is not the file transfer, it is mapping your own fields, document types and rules onto the new register, and deciding how much history to bring across rather than leave behind in SmartDocs. That mapping and the count-checking take the most attention. Enterprise DNA does this part for you when they install and run it for your practice.
Not ready for a call?
Get your ATO SmartDocs switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off ATO SmartDocs, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your ATO SmartDocs switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardChoose how you start
Try the free version, or have Enterprise DNA build and run yours
Open source
Do it yourself
Free
- 1 Get the free version from GitHub
- 2 Run the demo practice and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask what needs attention across the sample clients
- 4 Point it at your own client list, and ask Claude Code to map your SmartDocs export
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We map your SmartDocs history and practice management client list across, and check the counts match
- check Your ATO Online downloads and scanned mail routed into the intake folder
- check Review standards and letter wording written for your practice
- check Run for you inside Omni, our managed Command Center, with the rest of your practice
Questions
Instead of ATO SmartDocs, answered
SmartDocs connects straight to the ATO. Does this? expand_more
Not in the free version. It works from the mail your team already downloads from ATO Online and from scanned paper letters, and no ATO credential is stored in it. If you want a direct feed, Enterprise DNA builds that for your practice under your own access.
Can we bring our SmartDocs records across? expand_more
Yes, with a mapping step. The free version imports a few standard layouts, and a SmartDocs export has its own columns. Enterprise DNA maps it and checks the counts against the original, or you can ask Claude Code to map the file yourself. Keep SmartDocs running until the two agree.
SmartDocs emails our clients for us. Why doesn't this? expand_more
Because a wrong assessment letter sent unread costs more than the minutes saved. Letters are drafted in your firm's name, a person reads and sends them, and the register records when that happened.
What happens to tax file numbers? expand_more
The database will not store more than the last three digits. Imports cut TFN columns down on the way in and report how many they trimmed, and letters never show one.
We lodge fewer than 500 returns. Is it worth switching? expand_more
At A$399 a month that is A$4,788 a year before GST, for as long as you subscribe. The free version costs nothing to try on your own mail. If you want it set up and looked after, we will tell you on the call whether our fee makes sense at your size.
Own the register of what the ATO tells your clients
Thirty minutes with Sam. We go through your SmartDocs band and setup fee, how ATO mail reaches your team today and who reviews it, and what your own version would look like. If it fits, we build it and run it. If not, the free version is yours.
ATO Correspondence for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for ATO SmartDocs?
Get your version built