Dogbox Accounting 2.4 is out. It's built around how trade jobs actually run: across several days on site, claimed as the work gets done, with a calendar you check on your phone. To update, open the app and click Update on the banner at the top.
Google Calendar sync
Connect your Google Calendar in Settings → Google Calendar and your Dogbox Schedule syncs both ways. Book a site visit in Dogbox and it's on your phone. Add an appointment on your phone and it shows up in Dogbox with Sync now. Jobs and visits appear on the same calendar.
Your data stays in your company file on your computer. Dogbox only reads and writes events in the one calendar you choose, and you can disconnect at any time. Google has reviewed and approved how Dogbox uses your calendar.
Job visits
A job can now have as many visits as it takes, each with a date, start and finish time, hours and notes. Before you go, pick which of the job's tasks the visit is for and print a one-page worksheet to take on site. Afterwards, tick off what got done, or enter how much, like 6 of 24 fence panels. The job's task list keeps track across every visit.
Progress claims from the work done
+ New Claim now builds the claim for you. Tick the visits it covers and Dogbox fills in:
- Fixed-price tasks, in full or part-done (e.g. 14 of 24 panels, less what you've already claimed)
- Labour from the visit hours at the job's hourly rate
- Materials from the job's list, or from its bills and purchase orders with your markup
Check it, adjust anything, and it creates the invoice and the claim together. Nothing can be claimed twice, and if you void the invoice, everything on it is free to claim again.
A better Schedule
The Schedule opens in Month view. Drag a job or event to another day to reschedule it. Add your own appointments, meetings and reminders alongside your jobs, and when an enquiry turns into work, Convert to Job keeps the booking as the job's first visit.
Ready for BAS season
The July–September BAS is due on 28 October if you lodge it yourself. Version 2.3.4, included in this update, makes sure the messy cases land in the right box:
- Credit notes and voided invoices come off your total sales (G1) and GST on sales (1A). Voided bills come off the GST you claim (1B).
- Cash basis, paid in parts: each payment reports only its share of the GST, not the whole invoice's GST again.
- Point of Sale refunds come off your sales and GST in the quarter you paid them out.
- Invoices with several lines or a discount always balance to the cent.
If you've already run a BAS for this quarter, run it again after updating and compare.
Also new
- Work Diary: record the day's hours across every job, then approve them. Find it in the Jobs hub.
- ABN check as you type: Dogbox tells you straight away if an ABN isn't valid, so a typo doesn't end up on an invoice.
- Easier Windows install: the installer no longer trips Microsoft Defender. If it stopped you before, download it again from the website.
- Updated guides: the user guides and in-app Help cover all of the above, including a step-by-step guide to visits and progress claims.
Jobs, visits, claims and Google Calendar sync are part of Pro. Register free for a 6-month Pro trial with every module.
Dogbox Investments update
Dogbox Investments, our free share and CGT tracker, has a new release too:
- Watchlist trade analyser: for any stock on your watchlist, work through Build (how many shares your cash buys, and your break-even price), Balance (rebalance across your holdings) and Divest (sell down over several weeks, with an estimate of the capital gains tax). Each gets a buy / sell / hold signal against the All Ordinaries.
- Division 296 for SMSFs: if your SMSF is in accumulation phase, the CGT summary, tax summary, CSV export and PDF include a Division 296 earnings section from the 2026–27 year.
To update, run the installer again from the website. Your portfolio file is kept.
Your books aren't online. That's the point.
This month the Prime Minister confirmed that an AI agent, on its own initiative, got into a Medicare statistics system. No patient records were reported accessed, but it's a fair prompt to ask where your own business records live. Dogbox keeps them in a file on your computer. There's no online portal to log in to, no central server holding everyone's books, and no AI reading your data. You choose where it's backed up and who sees it.
No subscription. No server. Your data, your file.