Mr Bungard told SMSF Adviser this is a fairly tight requirement that’s been mandated and is part of the government’s longer term expectations that businesses use electronic channels for communicating with each other and with the government.

“We first started to see this through SuperStream – the government is now expecting firms to be able to deliver information in an automated fashion,” he said.

“We’re only going to see more of that going forward. [SMSF practitioners] will need to get use to electronic reporting and the government mandating it because there’s only going to more of it.”

Mr Bungard said the government will also expect information from businesses more frequently.

“Doing things at the end of the year in an Excel spread sheet is really not going to cut it moving into the future,” he warned.

Firms operating this way could find it increasingly difficult to meet their obligations.

“The government obviously sees [technology] as important in terms of what they’re doing and they’re raising their level of expectations in terms of what practitioners are doing,” Mr Bungard said.

The expectations of clients for firms to provide automated data are also rising.

“Clients want mobile access, they want engagement, they want that through the devices that they’re using, and they want that to be at their fingertips so I think you’ll see a lot more of that tight client engagement in the future,” Mr Bungard said.