Guides

Straight answers for Australian small businesses.

Short, practical guides on the parts of running a small business that nobody explains properly — written for people who'd rather get back to the work.

6 min read

What to put on an Australian invoice

The information a tax invoice must legally include, what changes above $1,000, and the difference between an invoice and a tax invoice.

7 min read

Tap to Pay for sole traders

How phone-based contactless payments work, how they differ from an EFTPOS terminal, and when they make sense for a one-person business.

What we write about

Three things that trip up small businesses.

We're not trying to publish a magazine. These are the areas where a wrong assumption actually costs money, and where the available advice tends to be either too vague or written for companies with a finance department.

Getting the paperwork right

What legally belongs on an Australian invoice, the difference between an invoice and a tax invoice, and why a missing ABN can delay your payment.

Read the invoice guide

Getting paid faster

How phone-based card payments work, how they compare to an EFTPOS terminal, and how to think about processing fees on your actual job sizes.

Read the Tap to Pay guide

Keeping records as you go

Why expense records fall apart, and how capturing receipts at the moment you get them changes what tax time looks like.

See receipt scanning

A note on our guides

General information, not advice.

Our guides are written to be genuinely useful, and where we state a requirement we check it against an official Australian source and say which one. But they are general information — not financial, accounting, tax or legal advice.

Tax and regulatory requirements change, and your circumstances matter. Always confirm anything affecting your obligations with the ATO, business.gov.au or a qualified adviser before you rely on it. We would rather tell you to check something than have you act on a number that moved.

Put it into practice.

ZappInvoice brings quoting, invoicing, payments and expenses into one app. Join the early access list to be among the first to try it.

Be among the first to try ZappInvoice.