Websites for bookkeepers and BAS agents in Newcastle and the Hunter, built around the clients the region has: employers with monthly Coal LSL levy advices, earthmovers and farms claiming fuel tax credits, Pokolbin wineries with WET on the BAS, and sole traders from Charlestown to East Maitland.
Hunter bookkeepers handle returns a city practice may never see. An owner in Singleton or Cessnock who lands on your site wants two answers quickly: have you done their kind of work before, and will you look after them without a drive into Newcastle every month?
Coal LSL says eligibility turns on each employee's role and primary duties, and that employers report for eligible staff whether or not the organisation as a whole works in black coal mining. So a client that isn't a mining company can still owe the levy. If you prepare the monthly levy advice, say so on your payroll page in those words.
The ATO's examples of activities that can earn fuel tax credits include mining, quarrying, agriculture, construction and landscaping, with credits claimed at label 7D of the BAS. The TPB lists advising a client on fuel tax credits as a BAS service, so that offer sits next to your registration number rather than in a general bookkeeping list.
Wine makers and wholesalers report wine equalisation tax payable at 1C and WET refundable, such as producer rebate credits, at 1D. A Lower Hunter vineyard choosing a bookkeeper looks for those labels, or at least the word WET, and for some sign that you understand cellar door and wholesale sales.
Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Cessnock, then Singleton, Muswellbrook, Scone and Dungog further up. People type the name of their own town into the search box, so list the ones you visit and explain how clients beyond them work with you.
A grazier near Merriwa or a contractor on a roster may never sit in your office. Say which software they'll need, how receipts reach you, whether you use a shared folder or an app, and when you answer the phone. That settles most of the questions they'd otherwise ring about.
Membership of Business Hunter, a town chamber or a bookkeeping body such as the ICB belongs on your about page, with the logo only if that organisation allows it. Accountants who send you work can be named too, once they've agreed.
The rules, briefly. BAS agent registration is national, and our main bookkeeper page covers what the TPB expects a site to show. The NSW obligations a Hunter employer brings, payroll tax with Revenue NSW, icare wage declarations and the Long Service Corporation's cleaning and community services schemes, work exactly as they do in the capital, and our Sydney bookkeepers page sets out their dates and rates. This page covers what's different up the valley.
Coal LSL. The NSW Government's Hunter Regional Plan 2041 counts mining among the region's traditional sectors, and black coal has its own portable long service leave scheme, run by Coal LSL. National system employers with eligible employees must register and send a levy advice and payment every month, due within 28 days of the month's end. The levy is currently 2.7% of eligible wages, and a late payment attracts an additional levy at the RBA cash rate plus 2% a year, calculated daily. Where a company registers with a working director as its eligible employee, Coal LSL may ask for evidence such as BAS showing wages paid and tax withheld, payslips and workers compensation records, which is the paperwork a bookkeeper keeps in order.
Diesel and wine on the BAS. The ATO's examples of eligible fuel tax credit activities include agriculture, mining, quarrying, construction and landscaping, for fuel used on private roads, off public roads or for non-fuel uses; light vehicles on public roads don't qualify. Credits go at label 7D, and any overclaim at 7C. The same regional plan calls the Hunter home to one of Australia's most productive wine regions, and Wine Australia's register lists Pokolbin, Broke Fordwich and the Upper Hunter Valley as subregions of the Hunter wine region. Wineries that make or wholesale wine account for wine equalisation tax, 29% of the wholesale value, at 1C, with WET refundable at 1D. The TPB's guidance counts both the fuel tax law and the wine tax law as BAS provisions, so an unregistered practice should read it before advertising this work.
Where clients are. The NSW Government plans Greater Newcastle as five council areas: Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Cessnock. The Hunter Regional Plan adds Singleton, Muswellbrook, Upper Hunter, Dungog and MidCoast. Business Hunter, known as the Hunter Business Chamber until 2021, had about 20 aligned local chambers across 10 council areas when it took its new name, so a bookkeeper in Raymond Terrace or Kurri Kurri may well have a chamber close by; if you're a member, name it.
Working with us. We're an Adelaide team at Ste 3/110 Hutt St and work with Hunter businesses by phone and email, 30 minutes behind Newcastle time. Our client in the region, Phoenix Housekeeping, cleans across Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and the Central Coast. It isn't a bookkeeper, but its site has suburb pages across that service area, a layout that suits a bookkeeper with clients in three or four towns.
We haven't built a bookkeeping site in the Hunter. Phoenix Housekeeping is our client in the region, and Simple Engineers, in Adelaide, has a quote form with fee ranges and file uploads, which suits a bookkeeper quoting catch-up work. The review below is from a client who valued knowing the price before the build began.
A family-run cleaning business working across Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and the Central Coast. Its prices are published on the site, and it has suburb pages across its service area. A bookkeeper who visits clients in Maitland one week and Singleton the next can use the same pattern, with one page per town you cover.
Visit the Phoenix Housekeeping site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
Adelaide structural engineers whose quote form shows fee ranges and accepts file uploads. On a bookkeeper's site the same form could show a starting fee for catch-up work and ask how many months are outstanding; bank statements would still go through your own portal, not the website.
Visit the Simple Engineers site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“…Salem walked us through everything, gave us a fixed quote so we knew exactly what we were paying, and turned around the build faster than we thought possible.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
$399
A sole bookkeeper: packages, BAS agent number, the towns you cover, any Coal LSL, fuel tax or WET work and an enquiry form on one page.
Our suggestion for Hunter practices
$899
A home page, a services page split into payroll (Coal LSL included) and BAS work (fuel tax credits and WET), and an about page with your towns, registration and memberships.
$1,499
Room for pages aimed at mine contractors, farms and wineries, a page for each town or office you work from, plus team and contact pages.
If you'd take on more of that work, yes. A short line on your payroll page saying you prepare monthly Coal LSL levy advices helps the right owner find you. Link to Coal LSL for the rules rather than restating them, so the page stays accurate if the levy rate changes.
The TPB's guidance lists advising a client on fuel tax credits as a BAS service, and fuel tax law is a BAS provision. We build websites and don't give compliance advice, so read the TPB's guidance on what counts as a BAS service and tell us what you're registered to offer; we'll word the services list to match.
If wineries make up a real share of your work, a page in your own words about WET, the producer rebate and how you handle cellar door and wholesale sales tells a vineyard owner you've done it before. With only one or two, a paragraph on the services page is enough.
One website, with a short page for each area you cover or each office you work from. Each page names the towns, how often you're there and the phone number to ring. A Muswellbrook owner then sees an Upper Hunter page rather than a Newcastle address.
Entirely by phone and email. You send your services, registration details and a photo; we build the draft and send the link, and you request any changes before you pay. We're half an hour behind Newcastle and reply within 24 hours.
Tell us the towns you cover, the returns you prepare and whether you're a registered BAS agent. We'll quote first, build the draft, and you pay only once you've approved it.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au