Tax Return Software for Accountants: Client Setup

Xero Tax is a strong choice of tax return software for accountants running a cloud practice with clients already on Xero. Choose on the complete client handover, including entity records, prefill and lodgement, rather than the return screen alone.

Which Tax Software Suits Which Practice

The best tax software for your practice depends on its client mix and the accounting work around each return. A sole practitioner preparing individual returns has a different job from a team handling interconnected companies and trusts.

Product	Best fit	Reason for the fit
Xero Tax	A cloud-first sole practitioner or small Xero-based practice	Broad entity returns, individual prefill and imports from Xero accounts
HandiTax	A practice keeping an established Handisoft tax workflow	Individual prefill within the familiar return and connected Handisoft products
LodgeiT	A small practice with clients using different accounting products	Cloud tax preparation with accounting imports and financial-statement preparation
MYOB Accountants Office tax	A smaller practice already using MYOB AO	Client records and tax work remain together in the existing installation
MYOB Accountants Enterprise tax	A team with MYOB client accounting and many business entities	Tax work connects with the practice’s existing client accounting and workpapers
Access APS Tax	An established APS practice considering continuity	Retain the existing client-record connections before committing to a separate tax product
CCH iFirm Tax	A practice wanting cloud accounting, tax and signing within one suite	Financial-statement imports, ATO prefill and connected portal/signature apps
BGL Simple Fund 360	A practice with a substantial SMSF workload	Fund accounting and annual-return preparation sit together

For mainly individual returns, Xero Tax is a practical first choice when you already work in Xero. LodgeiT is a useful alternative when your clients use several accounting products. Existing HandiTax users gain less from switching if their current prefill and review steps already work well.

For company and trust groups, favour the product that preserves each entity’s accounting records and relationships. CCH iFirm suits a cloud suite approach. MYOB AE or APS can be the better continuity choice when the practice already depends on their surrounding tools.

Products change between tax seasons. Form coverage, conversion services and signing arrangements can change independently of the main tax subscription.

Tax planning software compares possible outcomes before a transaction or year-end decision. Return-preparation software records what happened and prepares the lodgement. A return’s tax estimate does not automatically provide group-wide scenario planning. Depreciation software also has a separate job when you need a continuing asset register rather than a worksheet for one return.

Setting Up a Newly Onboarded Client

Set up the taxpayer as the correct entity and establish the ATO relationship before requesting prefill. A client record in your tax software does not itself add that client to your ATO client list.

Collect the following details for the client record, where they apply:

• TFN and legal name.
• Entity type, ABN and any registration details.
• Date of birth for a person or registration date for an entity.
• Postal address and the return’s balance date.
• The agent nomination and completed client-to-agent link required on the ATO side.

These fields support different parts of setup. They are not all prerequisites for every prefill request. Individual income prefill and a company’s activity-statement obligations are also different services.

Onboarding establishes who the client is, checks their details and collects the authority for the work. For businesses subject to nomination, the client nominates the practice and staff complete the link. Your tax software then holds the client record, requests the available ATO information and prepares the return.

Use the ATO agent-linking steps for that separate ATO task. Complete the ABN and TFN checks before the details reach the return.

Setup method	What arrives	Error to prevent
Type the client manually	Details taken from the client’s form	A swapped TFN digit or the trustee company entered as the trust
Import a spreadsheet	Several client records at once	Columns mapped to the wrong fields or leading zeros lost
Import the ATO client list	Records available through the product’s supported import	Assuming the list includes private contact details or every related entity
Receive checked onboarding details	Approved fields through the supported handover	Updating the wrong existing record or assuming a file export contains a TFN

In a fictional example, a trust has a corporate trustee. The trust’s return belongs to the trust record. The trustee company has its own record and obligations. Entering the trust as a company selects the wrong return even when the contact person is correct.

If two TFN digits are swapped, correct the identifier before retrying. If a new client’s prefill request fails, check the ATO relationship, agent number and permissions. An empty report can also mean information has not reached the ATO, so do not treat it as proof the client has no income.

Tax Genie collects guided client answers and checks ABNs against the Australian Business Register. Rules and AI review return fixable issues to the client, with TFNs removed before AI review. Automatic reminders chase missing information before approved details go into your tax software.

Tax Genie guides and tracks ATO agent nomination. Staff confirm the completed link in ATO systems. Tax Genie works with HandiTax, Xero and QuickBooks. Its LodgeiT client-data export excludes TFNs. Collect a TFN through the authorised secure route when the handover needs it.

Xero Tax

Xero Tax suits practices that want cloud tax preparation alongside Xero client accounts. Clients can use another accounting product and still have their returns prepared in Xero Tax.

Xero names individual, company, partnership, trust and SMSF returns in its Australian coverage. Its forms documentation also includes FBT. Activity statements can receive ATO prefill, and individual returns can receive income and deduction information.

Xero Tax is included for eligible Xero partners at bronze status or above. Other practices use a paid subscription with user-based tiers. Xero Sign bundles are a separate consideration, so compare the tax access and declaration-signing arrangements together.

Xero’s practice tools now sit under Xero Partner Hub branding, bringing together tools previously accessed through Xero HQ, Practice Manager and Xero Tax. Keep the taxpayer in the practice’s client records and use that record when creating the return. A client onboarded outside Xero needs the supported record import or update before staff start tax work.

Xero documents ATO-list and CSV conversion routes. Importing a contact creates the starting record. It does not nominate your practice or guarantee that every field from an onboarding form reaches a return.

The main benefit is the accounting-to-return handover. Xero documents trial-balance imports from a client’s Xero organisation. That reduces manual copying for a practice already preparing accounts there. Workpapers and electronic declaration signing support the work around the return.

The limitations depend on the form you need. Xero’s forms list excludes APRA-regulated superannuation fund returns and attribution managed investment trust returns. It also excludes consolidated or grouped BAS and standalone family trust or interposed entity elections.

Xero documents a limit of 200 beneficiaries in its trust return. Its trust tax estimate does not cover tax payable by a trustee outside a deceased estate. Those are concrete reasons for some group practices to choose another product. Having many company or trust clients alone does not establish that a practice has outgrown Xero Tax.

HandiTax, LodgeiT, MYOB and the Other Products

Compare the return product with the accounting and document tools you actually buy. Tax coverage does not mean that ledgers, full workpapers and a client portal are included in the same licence.

HandiTax

HandiTax has an established desktop workflow, while Access also has cloud tax software. Keep those editions distinct when comparing coverage or conversion. HandiTax’s documented individual prefill requests use SBR and require an existing agent-client relationship and valid TFN.

Handisoft’s broader product family includes accounting tools. Access documents transfers from Final Accounts into its cloud tax product and an electronic-signing connection. Decide whether you are retaining desktop HandiTax or moving to Access Tax before matching client imports and supporting schedules.

LodgeiT

LodgeiT is a cloud choice for practices with mixed accounting products. Its published form list includes individual, company, trust and partnership returns, FBT and activity statements. It also documents SMSF annual-return imports from BGL Simple Fund 360.

LodgeiT has accounting imports and financial-statement templates across entity types. Its ATO-connected forms support prefill, and its help system documents electronic signing. For a practice retaining separate workpapers or client management, the import handover can matter more than buying another complete suite.

MYOB AE and AO

MYOB AE and AO combine desktop tax work with the practice’s existing client records. MYOB’s return types cover individuals, companies, partnerships, trusts, funds and SMSFs. MYOB’s support system covers client accounting, workpapers, assets and financial statements as separate parts of the surrounding software.

MYOB documents individual prefill through PLS and return-level validation and lodgement reports. Its cloud Practice Compliance activity-statement work can import GST data from MYOB Business or AccountRight. Clients can approve statements through a configured portal and digital signature.

For an existing MYOB practice, the continuity benefit is keeping tax work connected to those accounting records. A switch must account for document management and signing as well as the tax return itself.

Access APS Tax

The product formerly described as Reckon APS belongs to Access. The ATO product register names APS Tax under Access Software Australia, so use Access APS when identifying the vendor.

APS is the continuity choice for a practice already using its connected client records and accounting tools. Compare the installed tax edition’s required entity forms with the ATO register. Separate that tax-form decision from the choice of workpapers, portal and signing arrangements around it.

A move to cloud access does not itself prove that an existing desktop database, attachments and prior-year returns all convert. Keep the APS conversion scope explicit before replacing those connections.

CCH iFirm Tax

CCH iFirm Tax is cloud software for individual, company, partnership, trust and SMSF returns. Wolters Kluwer also lists FBT, IAS and BAS. ATO prefill and prior-year rollover support preparation.

CCH iFirm Client Accounting sends financial-statement data into tax returns. The suite’s Client Portal and Signatures apps handle sending and signing. This makes CCH iFirm a useful fit when the practice wants its accounting and tax documents connected within the same suite.

BGL Simple Fund 360

BGL Simple Fund 360 is an SMSF accounting product that prepares the fund’s annual return. A practice can keep it beside its general tax software because fund accounting has its own member and investment records.

BGL documents fund setup through year-end finalisation and lodgement. LodgeiT documents a supported annual-return export from BGL. Decide where the annual return will lodge, then retain one controlled preparation and review record for the fund.

Lodging Through SBR and the Practitioner Lodgment Service

Standard Business Reporting, or SBR, provides common reporting standards for sending information from software to government agencies. The Practitioner Lodgment Service, or PLS, is the ATO’s electronic lodgement channel for registered tax and BAS agents using SBR-enabled software.

Software support determines which PLS services a practice can use. The ATO’s PLS guidance explains the channel and distinguishes desktop permissions from hosted-software notification.

Desktop or locally hosted software that sends directly to the ATO needs a machine credential. A principal authority or machine credential administrator creates and manages it in Relationship Authorisation Manager. Follow the machine-credential guidance for the authorised role and installation route.

With cloud SBR software, the provider creates and installs its own machine credential. Your practice authorises the hosted software arrangement using the provider’s software ID. Staff permissions and the client relationship still govern what the practice can access.

Before changing products, record every lodgement and service your practice needs:

• Entity returns, amendments and the attached or standalone schedules you use.
• BAS and IAS, including any grouped activity-statement requirement.
• Available prefill reports and the agent-client update services.
• Lodgement status, validation responses and ATO messages returned to staff.

Xero Tax, LodgeiT and CCH iFirm include activity-statement preparation and lodgement. MYOB supports it through its tax and Practice Compliance tools. Access’s registered tax products also include activity-statement services, with coverage tied to the product and edition.

A registered BAS agent doing activity-statement work needs the BAS preparation and lodgement services permitted by their registration. A full income-tax-return product adds little when the practice does not prepare those returns. BAS accounting software that produces GST figures is a separate purchase decision from software that transmits the statement.

Changing Tax Software Between Seasons

Switch tax software between lodgement peaks, with time to reconcile records before your practice’s main due dates. The tax agent lodgment program helps separate the practice’s obligations from the conversion timetable.

1. Export the client list and retain copies of lodged returns, declarations and prior-year data. Use secure storage for files containing identifiers.
2. Agree which entities and years the new product converts. Distinguish client-record imports from return-data conversion and from usable workpaper conversion.
3. Reconcile the new client list against Online services for agents. Match the taxpayer and agent relationship, then check duplicates and related entities.
4. Compare imported opening balances, carried-forward losses and depreciation details against the retained records. Review lodged status so staff do not submit a duplicate return.
5. Keep the old product readable until the conversion is reconciled and all required historical records are accessible elsewhere.

Prior-year workpapers, document attachments and review notes do not necessarily move with return data. Keep the old read-access arrangement until each outstanding amendment and historical enquiry can be handled from the retained records. The length depends on your record obligations and the conversion, rather than a universal extra subscription term.

For a fictional company conversion, an imported client name is only the first check. Staff must also match the TFN securely, confirm the company entity type and reconcile carried-forward amounts. Start new work only after the new record and ATO relationship agree.