Claim Mate AU

14/04/2026

How do you track your vehicle expense deductions? Do you use the 88 cents per km method?

It's important to know that the Cents per KM method caps out at 5000 km per year, meaning your entire deduction maxes at $4400.

Compare that to the Logbook method:
Keep a logbook for 12 weeks, recording every trip's purpose, start/end odometer, and km. That gives you a business-use percentage. You then claim actual annual car costs × that percentage. No km cap.

You can literally be leaving thousands worth of deductions on the table by not using a logbook.

The logbook wins for almost every sole trader who drives regularly to jobs. The only scenario where cents per km makes sense is if you drive fewer than about 5000 business km a year and your running costs are low.

So, if you drive more than 5000 km a year, you really need to be using your logbook!

12/04/2026

The ATO has 3 golden rules for what they accept as a valid business deduction.

Rule 1: The expense must be for your business, not for private use.
Important to note here that payment method is not taken into account.

Rule 2: If the expense is mixed (part business, part personal), you can only claim the business portion.
This is how phone bills, internet, and vehicles work. You calculate the work-use percentage and claim that fraction of the total cost. Claiming 100% of a mixed-use expense is one of the most common errors the ATO sees.

Rule 3: You must have records to prove it.
The ATO's position: written evidence must show the supplier's name, the amount, the nature of what was purchased, and the date. A bank or credit card statement on its own is explicitly not enough.

08/04/2026

If you've lost the receipt, can you still claim it?

The honest answer is: it depends.

Here's what the ATO actually accepts as valid records:

A digital photo of a receipt
An invoice or tax invoice from the supplier
A replacement copy from the supplier

A bank or credit card statement must be combined with something else

Here's where it gets tricky. A bank statement alone is not enough, something the ATO is explicit about this as it doesn't show what you actually bought. But a bank statement combined with a supplier confirmation, or a diary note can be sufficient together.

For small expenses of $10 or less, a diary record noting the supplier, amount, nature of the purchase, and date is accepted, provided total diary-recorded small expenses don't exceed $200 for the year.

The safest record is still a receipt. Everything else is a workaround for when that's failed.

01/04/2026

Ever got this from your accountant? 👇

"Hi, I can't read a few of these receipt photos. They're too blurry. Can you send clearer ones?"

And you don't have a clearer one. That photo in your camera roll was the receipt.

The problem isn't the blurry photo. It's finding out about it six weeks later.

With Claim Mate, you snap the receipt and the app reads it instantly - amount, merchant, date, GST. You see exactly what it captured before you've walked away. If anything looks off, you fix it on the spot.

No follow-up emails. No scrambling to find originals. Just clean records from the moment you spend.

Beta is free — join at claimmate.com.au 👉

Drop a 😅 if you've had that accountant email

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.

01/04/2026

BAS is due April 28th!

That's right, the BAS deadline is quickly approaching. Not sure whether you need to file, or what you need to do?

Don't leave it to the last minute. Check out our explainer on what exactly a BAS is, whether you need to file one, and how!

Link in the first comment 👇

31/03/2026

Here's when I expect Claim Mate to actually get used:

Not at a desk. Not on a Sunday. Not "when I get a chance."

In a car park after dropping off materials.
In the cab of a ute before driving to the next job.
At the counter of a trade supplier while the receipt is still in hand.
In the 60 seconds between finishing a quote and heading inside.

These are the moments receipts exist. These are also the moments they disappear - into pockets, dashboards, the bin.

Every expense app I looked at was designed for someone with time to sit down. Claim Mate is designed for the gaps.

Snap a photo. It takes less time than replying to a text. The receipt is logged, categorised, and sitting in your quarterly report - ready when your accountant asks for it.

If this sounds like how your days actually run, beta access is free 👇
👉 claimmate.com.au

Tag a tradie or contractor who does their tax prep in a panic 😅

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.

31/03/2026

BAS Q3 is due 28 April. 👇

If you're a sole trader and you're not sure whether you need to lodge one — or you've been doing it for years and still find it painful — I put together a full guide.

Covers:
✅ Whether you actually need to lodge a BAS (not every sole trader does)
✅ What's on the form and what applies to you
✅ The quarterly due dates for 2025–26
✅ How to lodge through myGov
✅ What happens if you're late
✅ Why PAYG instalments suddenly appear on your BAS
✅ The most common mistakes the ATO flags

Link in the comments. Share it if you know a tradie or contractor who'd find it useful. 🙏

28/03/2026

One thing I decided NOT to build into Claim Mate - and why:

Most expense apps ask you to connect your bank account. It makes sense technically - they can match transactions automatically and save you a step.

But here is what I kept coming back to: sole traders are already time-poor. The last thing someone finishing a job at the end of a long day needs is a setup process that asks for banking credentials before they can even try the app.

I wanted Claim Mate to fit into someone's life from minute one. Not after a 20-minute onboarding. Not after syncing accounts. Right now, today, on the first open.

So we built it without the bank connection. You download it, you open it, and you start. That is it.

The "trade-off" is that you snap receipts yourself instead of having them matched automatically. For a tradie between jobs, that is not a trade-off at all - it is just how it works.

If you've avoided expense apps because setup always feels like more hassle than it's worth - this one is different.

Beta is free and takes about 10 seconds to join 👇
👉

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.

25/03/2026

Quick question for any sole traders in here 👇

You pay for a work expense - fuel for a job run, a tool from Bunnings, lunch during a client visit. You paid with your personal card, or maybe even cash. You don't have a separate business account.

Can you still claim it as a tax deduction?

The answer is yes - as long as you have the receipt and the expense was for business.

The ATO's rules for deductions are about PURPOSE, not payment method. It does not matter whether you paid with a business card, personal card, or cash. What matters is:
✅ Was it for your business?
✅ Do you have a record of it?

No receipt = no deduction. That's the rule.

This is one of the biggest reasons sole traders miss legitimate claims every year - they assume having no business account or paying cash disqualifies it, and don't bother keeping the receipt.

Claim Mate is built for exactly this. Snap the receipt the moment you pay - regardless of which card is in your hand or whether you paid cash. It takes about 10 seconds and means you never lose a valid claim again.

Beta is free 👇

👉 claimmate.com.au

Drop a 🙋 if you've been leaving money on the table without realising it

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.

24/03/2026

Anyone else been putting off buying that new tool, phone or piece of gear for the business? 🙋

This is your reminder that the $20,000 instant asset write-off is now law, but it expires 30 June 2026.

Here's what that means in plain English:
✅ If you buy something for your business that costs under $20,000
✅ And it's bought and ready to use before 30 June
✅ You can claim the FULL amount as a tax deduction this financial year.

Not spread over years — all at once.

After 30 June it drops back to $1,000. So if you have been sitting on a purchase, now is the time.

The one catch? You need to be able to prove the purchase was for business. Which means keeping the receipt. Which means, ideally, not losing it in a pile somewhere 😅

That's the whole reason I built Claim Mate — snap a photo, AI reads the receipt, it's saved and categorised. Done.

Beta is free to join 👇
👉 claimmate.com.au

Tag someone who needs to know about this 👇

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.

22/03/2026

Heads up for any sole traders and tradies in here 👇

The ATO is now using AI to cross-reference your bank transactions, payment apps, insurance policies and contractor records in near real time against what you declared.

The government put nearly $1 billion into expanding these programs specifically targeting sole traders and small businesses. It's not a rumour. It's in the Federal Budget.

What gets you flagged?
❌ Deductions you can't prove with receipts
❌ Vehicle claims with no logbook
❌ Cash jobs that don't show up in your return
❌ Business and personal expenses mixed together

I built Claim Mate because managing all of this shouldn't take a weekend every quarter. But the timing of this news makes it feel more relevant than ever.

Receipts photographed and saved. Trips logged with Google Maps. One PDF for your accountant at the end of the quarter.

Beta is free. Join here 👇
👉 claimmate.com.au

Share this if you know a tradie or contractor who'd want to know 🙏

Track business expenses and trips effortlessly with AI receipt scanning. Generate ATO-ready BAS reports for Australian sole traders.