No More Excuses! The Victorian Government will now pay to transform the business system to XERO.
To support small businesses, the Victorian Government introduced a Small Business Digital Adaptation Program Which Designed to increase digital capability, the program encourages small businesses to trial new software such as Xero with a rebate of $1,200 after purchasing a business edition subscription.
What are the eligibility requirements for this program?
The Small Business Digital Adaptation Program is for small businesses, sole trader, and micro businesses. To be eligible for the program an applicant must:
- operate a business located in Victoria
- hold an Australian Business Number (ABN)
- have held that ABN on 13 September 2019
- be registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 13 September 2020.
Note: Businesses that are not required to be registered for GST are eligible to apply.
How does the program work?
To progress through the program, businesses need to follow three steps:
- Complete the online application to confirm eligibility and participate in product trials and workshops.
- Sign up for and purchase their preferred digital product through one of the partner product suppliers available under this program.
- Apply for the purchase rebate of $1,200 to cover 12 months’ access to the product of choice.
What online software does the program cover?
The Victorian Government is currently partnering with six digital product suppliers for this program. These include:
- Mr Yum — food and beverage
- MYOB — business management
- Xero — business management
- Shopify — end-to-end retail
- Square — end-to-end retail
- Squarespace — website creation
Note: More suppliers expected to be added to the list in December 2020.
Products chosen by eligible businesses must be:
- a new product not currently used by the business, or
- an upgrade of an existing product with additional product features providing specific digital adaptation capability (for example, upgrading an existing website to an e-commerce site), or
- a product available under the program that has been used by the business before (more than one year ago) that it would like to resume using.
The Small Business Digital Adaptation Program will not cover the cost of:
- renewals of existing product or software licences, or
- minor updates to existing products (for example, a software version update), or
- products that are not available under the program.
Key Dates
The program will be open from 15 November 2020 to 31 March 2021.
Registrations for digital product trials and workshops will remain open from 15 November 2020 until 28 February 2021.
To participate in the program, businesses must register before the trial period closes on 28 February 2021. Click here to Register your business.
Applications for purchase rebates to cover 12 months’ product access will be open from 1 December 2020 to 11.59pm on 31 March 2021, or until funds are exhausted.
How Cloud8 Can Help?
At Cloud8, we are passionate about recommending useful apps to our clients. We want to be your business technology and applications advisors, implementing time or cost saving apps specifically for your business. We are here to help your business operate more efficiently and reach your goals.
We will help to set up XERO for your businesses properly and recommend the best suite of apps to:
- Unlock your business growth
- Boost operation efficiency
- Help to scale up your businesses