Specialist SMSF administration service provider Class Super is launching a service that will allow all contributors to self-managed funds to be SuperStream compliant.
The application, SMSF DataFlow, will be available to professionals working in the SMSF space and fund trustees at no cost.
Class Super had intended to make the facility available exclusively to its clients, but decided to open the application to a wider audience after a deeper examination of the SuperStream requirements.
“The solution is complicated and there are various scenarios that are going to be hard to deal with, so really it’s going to be a lot better if it is an open and portable solution rather than a solution that ties you to one provider,” Class Super chief operating officer Kevin Bungard told selfmanagedsuper.
Bungard said offering the service beyond Class Super’s client base turned out to be a more cost-effective exercise and had made the offering agnostic to particular SMSF administrative products.
“We decided to provide the solution as an industry-wide open portable solution. So you don’t have to be using Class as your administration software, you don’t have to be using administration software at all,” he said.
“If you’re an actual DIY trustee doing all the work yourself, you’ll be able to log in and collect the data yourself or you can allow your accountant to use it, which means they can then extract the data and load it into the particular administration system they’re using to do the work. If it happens to be Class, we’ll integrate that.”
The design of the application also means switching from existing advisers or accountants to new ones who are using different administration platforms creates no issues for users either.
“If you happen to be with Class and you leave or perhaps go to a different accountant and they’re not using Class, you’ll still be able to get your SuperStream data and you’ll still be able to use that service,” Bungard said.
“We just thought that was going to streamline a whole bunch of scenarios for our users in terms of making it open and portable, and making it free means it’s easier for people as they will not have to overcome any cost hurdles involved.”
Class Super will launch the service at the 2014 SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia National Conference in Brisbane later this month.
Bungard said the intention was for SMSF DataFlow to be available when the first SuperStream communication from the Australian Taxation Office was sent to around 150,000 SMSF trustees at the end of February.
“We want to have the service there, so as soon as the trustees start to get this communication they will be able to go to the SMSF DataFlow website and be able to register and find out the information they will need to provide their employer,” he said.
