Who this is for
SMSF software for trustees, not another admin platform
Nearly all SMSF software is sold to accountants and administrators: the practice holds the licence, the trustee sees a portal. That model works when someone else runs your fund. It leaves a gap when you run it yourself, which is the whole point of an SMSF. SMSF Core sits on the trustee's side of that gap.
Priced and licensed per practice; trustees get a read-only portal at best
Priced per fund, owned by the trustee; your accountant gets access when you grant it
Compliance output appears once a year, after the accountant's processing
Franking, 45-day status, caps and thresholds update as you record events, all year
Figures arrive as an end result; the working stays inside the platform
Every calculated figure cites the ATO source it derives from, on the screen it appears
The audit pack is assembled by the administrator at year end
You generate the audit package yourself, with a secure account-free link for the auditor
If the fund owns property
A property fund keeps a different pile of paper, and it is covered too. The property sits on a register with its own evidence: each year's market valuation with the comparable sales, appraisal or report you relied on, kept as a history so a later correction is added rather than overwritten. The lease and the rent that arrives against it are matched as the agent statements come in, so a period that never arrived is visible during the year instead of at the end of it. Rates, insurance, repairs and capital works are filed against the property as they are paid.
Two things are not in the product yet, and it is better you hear it here: limited recourse borrowing records and depreciation schedules. If the fund holds a property under an LRBA you can still keep the property, valuation, lease and expense records here, and the loan paperwork stays wherever you keep it today.
The two are not substitutes: your fund still needs its annual return and audit, and your accountant's software still does that job. SMSF Core is the layer you use the other 364 days. When you grant access, your accountant sees the same cited figures you do. If you are the accountant, here is the practice side.
Not a licensed financial service. Information only. Comparisons describe product categories, not any named provider.