What your business has to keep current.
By industry, by state, and by the question owners actually type. Written to be read in five minutes and kept.
Start here
Free compliance register template
The workbook, blank. Excel, opens in Google Sheets. No email required.
Case study: 31 items, one register, one day
An Illawarra design and landscaping studio, real numbers, name withheld.
Get a price for your business
Tell me your industry and what you want; a fixed price per level and a Snapshot booking within one business day.
The twelve modules
Compliance and registers
Every dated thing the business depends on, in one list, with a named person told before it lapses.
Quotes and price book
Your prices, margins and inclusions in one place, and a quote drafted in your words from a voice note in the ute.
Jobs, bookings and schedule
What's on, who's on it, and what's slipping, read from the system you already use.
Money view
Cash today, who owes you, what's due out, and whether last month made money, read from Xero or MYOB.
Clients and pipeline
Every enquiry, where it is, and who to follow up this week, with the message already written.
Knowledge base and procedures
How it's done here, written once, findable by anyone, answered by the assistant.
Staff onboarding and training
The first week, laid out; the documents collected; the sign-offs recorded.
Morning brief and reports
One email at 6am. Only what needs you. If nothing does, it says so.
Inbox and admin
Enquiries sorted, routine replies drafted, certificates and invoices filed. Nothing sent without you.
Suppliers, stock and purchasing
Who you buy from, on what terms, what's changed and what needs reordering.
Marketing, reviews and content
A calendar that gets done, reviews asked for and answered, and an honest count of where work comes from.
Handover and owner-away
Who does what, where everything is, what to do when it goes wrong. Written before you need it.
Automations library: 40 things a small business can stop doing by hand →
Problems owners bring to the Snapshot
With the tools you already use
Xero · MYOB · QuickBooks Online · ServiceM8 · Tradify · Simpro · AroFlo · Cliniko · Halaxy · Square · Lightspeed · Mindbody · FareHarbor and Rezdy
Questions by industry
Trades and construction
How to quote faster as a tradie without under-pricing · How to put together a head contractor prequalification pack without losing a week · Tradie cash flow: retentions, progress claims and the month that looks busy but loses money · How to run a crew without being on every site
Hospitality
How to see wages and food cost percent daily in a café or restaurant · How to get more Google reviews and reply to every one, without it becoming a job · Supplier price rises are eating my café's margin and I only see it at BAS time · Rostering a venue against RSA, first aid and the Award without a spreadsheet war
Allied health and clinics
How to reduce no-shows and fill same-week gaps in a physio or allied health clinic · Claims ageing: why a busy clinic is short of cash and what to watch by funder · Onboarding a new clinician: the checklist that stops the practice manager chasing for a month · What a practice owner should see every morning: the clinic dashboard that isn't another report
Professional services
Work in progress that never gets billed: the leak in every small firm · A client deadline calendar for a small accounting or bookkeeping practice that doesn't depend on memory · Rent roll dates, trust account audit and licence CPD: the real estate office register · Getting the engagement letter signed before work starts, every time
Retail and e-commerce
What sold out and what hasn't moved: the two stock reports a small shop needs weekly · A content calendar that actually happens, built from what's selling · The renewals that take an online store offline: domain, SSL, payment gateway, marketplace, apps · Shop leases: the option window, the rent review and the outgoings reconciliation you should be checking
Fitness and wellness
Members at risk: the 14-day no-visit list that stops quiet cancellations · Contractor instructors: the agreement, the insurance and the certificate file a studio must hold · Class fill rate by time slot: the numbers behind a timetable change · Pre-exercise screening and member records: what a studio must keep and for how long
Tourism, events and venues
Capacity, weather calls and payouts: what a tour operator should see each morning in season · Rostering guides and crew against tickets, first aid and permits · Vessel, vehicle and equipment maintenance register for a small operator · Reviews and repeat bookings for a tour operator: the request after the trip and the reply the same day
Creative studios and agencies
Retainer hours are overrunning and I find out at month end · Proposals with no reply: the follow-up a creative studio never sends · Projects in flight and capacity: the one page that shows whether the studio can take the next job · Client domains, hosting and licences the studio manages: the renewals register
Definitions
What is a compliance register?
A compliance register is a single list of every dated obligation a business holds (licences, tickets, insurances, registrations, policies, inspections), with who holds it, when it expires, where the document is, and who gets warned before it lapses.
What is an operating board?
An operating board is a one-page live view of a business (cash, jobs or bookings, people, compliance) read from the tools it already uses, paired with a short morning brief that lists only what needs the owner's decision today.
What is a Business Brain?
A Business Brain is the organised, written version of what a small business knows (how things are done, prices, suppliers, contacts, decisions), kept in one folder the team and the business's AI assistant can answer from, so the owner stops being the search engine.
Specific questions
By question
What a compliance register for a NSW trade business should hold
A plain guide to the licences, tickets, insurances and plant items a NSW trade business has to keep current, and how to set up a register that warns you before any of them lapse.
How to track staff licence and certificate expiry dates
Three ways small businesses track staff licence, ticket and certificate expiry dates, what each one costs, and why a spreadsheet with a form and automatic warnings beats most paid software for teams under 30.
Does Xero track licences and compliance?
Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks cover money, not compliance. What accounting software does track, what it doesn't, and what a small business needs beside it.
By industry
Hospitality
A venue with 15 staff carries somewhere between 30 and 60 dated items, and two numbers decide whether the month was any good. This is the list, the numbers, and the system that keeps both in view.
Health
A practice with six clinicians carries around 40 dated items, and the two that hurt most are a registration nobody noticed lapsing and claims ageing past 30 days while everyone is with patients.
Professional
For a firm, the expensive leaks are deadlines that depend on one person's memory and work that is done but not billed. Both are dates, and both belong in the same register.
Retail
A shop has fewer licences than a venue or a clinic, and more money sitting on the shelf. The dates that matter are in the lease and the supplier terms; the numbers that matter are what sold out and what hasn't moved since winter.
Fitness
For a studio, the two silent losses are a member who drifts away before anyone notices and a certificate that lapses on a rostered day. Both are visible a month ahead if anyone is looking.
Tourism
For an operator, the risk isn't the busy weekend; it's the survey, permit or guide ticket that quietly lapses before it. Tourism carries more regulators than almost any other small business.
Creative
For a studio, the money goes missing in retainers that overrun and proposals that go quiet. The compliance list is short; the dates list is not.
Trades
Licences, tickets, plant and subcontractor insurance for a NSW trade business, and the register that keeps them current.
Where we work
In person: Wollongong · Shellharbour · Kiama · Shoalhaven · Southern Highlands.
Online, everywhere: New South Wales · Victoria · Queensland · South Australia · Western Australia · Tasmania · Australian Capital Territory · Northern Territory.
Start with a free Snapshot.
Thirty minutes, and a one-page map of how your business runs today, where things fall through, and the three changes that would matter most. Yours to keep.