The workspace for accounting and tax practices, and the clients they sign for.
Client evidence arrives by WhatsApp, upload or statement. The engine reads it, matches it and names the section of the Act behind every claim. A registered practitioner reviews the gaps and signs off. Nothing files itself, nothing skips a human.
Evidence in. Gaps named. Practitioner signs.
the engine
mapped
your gaps
auto-filed
Counted from the engine as this page was drawn. It will not promise a refund, and it does not file: a registered practitioner does that, with their name on it.
Your tax, tracked
Evidence in, gaps flagged, every claim with its section named.
Your books, your position
Bank lines matched, VAT kept honest, every business claim named.
Your book, in one queue
Every client's evidence, gaps and sign-offs, worked from what needs a decision.
A slip goes in. A section comes out.
This is the engine reading the pile below, line by line, in the order it reads them. Every value in the log is on the slip beside it, and the last counter says nothing was filed, because nothing ever is.
WHICH ONE ARE YOU?
Choose the one that fits and the workspace only asks what applies to it. The engine works in the right set of rules and section codes from the start, and the sign-up lands you on the dashboard built for that kind of account.
Client, personal tax
Salaried, or salaried with a bit on the side. The everyday return, with the small deductions found, added up and named.
- IRP5, medical aid, retirement annuity
- Home office, travel and cell phone
- Slips by WhatsApp, all year
Small business, SME
A company or sole trader doing its own books. Strongest on the expense and evidence side, and honest about where a practitioner takes over.
- Bank statements read and reconciled
- VAT position and input claims
- Its own dashboard, its own entity
Accountant, practice
Run your whole book from one queue. Invite clients, receive their evidence, work the exceptions, sign off as the registered practitioner.
- SARS practitioner number and controlling body required
- Clients assigned to your team
- Reviewed before it goes live
White label
Your practice name on the portal, the invitation and the report. The OptiTax engine and its working paper behind it. Your practitioner keeps the sign-off.
- Your brand on the client portal
- Invitations and email in your name
- Same engine, same rule base
It was paid. It was never claimed
Nobody loses a refund on one big thing. It goes in forty small ones: the litres, the forty percent of a phone bill, the medical the scheme did not cover, the retirement annuity the employer never saw. They sit in slips and statements the client already has, and nothing adds them up.
An auto assessment will not do it either. It only knows what was reported to it. For a practice the cost is different but the same: the time goes into finding the documents instead of deciding on them.
Claims from memory
Eleven months later, in a hurry. The small ones never make it.
The rule exists, nobody named it
A claim without a section behind it is a guess, and a guess is what gets reversed.
SARS cannot see most of it
If it was not reported by an employer or a fund, the auto assessment simply does not have it.
The pile reaches the accountant unsorted
Email threads, forwarded photos, a folder of PDFs. The review starts with filing, not deciding.
This is deduction, not refund: what it saves depends on the bracket. R1 331.80 left out 4 items refused, and we say which and why.
A tool that claims everything is not on your side.
Pick the one that is you
Nine situations, nine rules. Each one has been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, and each one is invisible to an auto assessment: if no employer and no fund reported it, SARS has no way to know. This panel is reading the same knowledge base the engine reads.
Retirement annuity not reported by the employer
A retirement annuity funded personally is invisible to the employer payroll and therefore invisible to an auto assessment.
What people assume
People believe SARS already has it.What actually gets missed
This is the single most common cause of a taxpayer accepting an auto assessment that costs them thousands.Additional medical expenses tax credit
A further credit for qualifying medical costs the scheme did not pay, plus scheme contributions above a multiple of the section 6A credit.
What people assume
People hand in the scheme certificate and stop there.What actually gets missed
Everything the scheme did not cover: specialists, dentists, optometry, psychology, physiotherapy, chronic medication bought cash, and hospital shortfalls. SARS has no way to see these.Travel allowance deduction against business kilometres
Where a travel allowance is received, the business portion of motoring cost is deducted against it, based on kilometres actually travelled for business.
What people assume
The allowance shows on the IRP5 under code 3701 and 80 percent of it is taxed through PAYE.What actually gets missed
Without a claim the taxpayer simply pays tax on the allowance. The refund sits entirely in the logbook.Commission earner business expenses
Where more than half of remuneration is commission or other variable payment based on work performance, the general restriction on employee deductions falls away and real business expenses become claimable.
What people assume
Sales people hear about it by word of mouth.What actually gets missed
The more than half test is a cliff edge. Many commission earners qualify and claim nothing, and many who do not qualify claim anyway and get caught.Home office for a sole proprietor
A self employed person working from home faces the same exclusivity test as an employee, but not the additional restriction that blocks most employee deductions.
What people assume
Confused with the employee position.What actually gets missed
A freelancer with a dedicated room has a genuine and often substantial claim covering a share of rent or interest, rates, electricity, cleaning and repairs.Bond interest, not the bond instalment
The interest portion of a bond used to acquire or improve a let property is deductible. The capital repayment is not.
What people assume
Landlords know interest is claimable.What actually gets missed
Many deduct the full instalment, which is wrong and gets reversed, and others deduct nothing because they cannot find the interest figure. The annual bond statement has it.Base cost includes far more than the purchase price
Transfer duty, conveyancing fees, bond registration costs, agent commission, advertising, valuation fees and the cost of improvements all form part of base cost.
What people assume
Purchase price is remembered. Everything else is not.What actually gets missed
Twenty years of improvements on a family home is often the single largest missed number in a South African tax return.Renewable energy allowance for business
Machinery used to generate electricity from solar, wind, hydro or biomass in the course of trade attracts an accelerated write off, with an enhanced rate for assets brought into use in the defined window.
What people assume
Well publicised during load shedding.What actually gets missed
The enhanced allowance is time limited by when the asset was brought into use, not when it was ordered or paid for. That date needs proof. And NO apportionment applies for a part-year of use, even if brought into use on the last day of the tax year - the full percentage is still claimed.Credit for foreign tax paid
Tax paid to another country on income also taxed in South Africa can be claimed as a rebate, limited to the South African tax on that income.
What people assume
Known in principle, applied badly.What actually gets missed
The credit is often left unclaimed entirely, which means the same income is taxed twice. Excess credits carry forward for up to seven years, not indefinitely, so an unused credit can still expire.Eight ways in, one file
Each one is a real screen, not a roadmap. A client opens the ones their own year needs; a practice sees all of them across the book. Everything they collect lands on the same file.
WhatsApp slips
What it reads →A client photographs a slip and sends it on WhatsApp. It lands on their file, tagged, matched to a supplier and a section.
s11(a)Bank statements
What it reads →FNB, Absa and the discovery parser read line by line. Every line is matched to a merchant and posts a journal before it can become a claim.
s11(a)IRP5 and certificates
What it reads →Employer certificates, medical aid and retirement annuity certificates read for the figures the return needs, per employer.
s6A, s11FHome office
What it reads →Measured on floor area in square metres, not a guessed percentage, and warned where the exclusivity test breaks the claim.
s23(b)Evidence
How it works →Every claim points at the document that proves it. A claim with no proof is flagged, never silently kept.
Review queue
How it works →The practice works from what is missing, unclear or worth a second look, instead of re-reading a whole file.
Sign-off
What it reads →A registered practitioner reviews and signs off. The engine sorts; it does not file and it does not sign.
s240 TAAThe rule base
How it works →Look a thing up by the thing itself. Every rule cites its section; a countersign desk records who re-read the source.
Invite to sign-off, five stages
Always in the same order. The line draws as you scroll; on the practice side it is the same line every client file walks.
Invite the client
One link, one WhatsApp number. The client lands on their own file and nothing else.
Receive the evidence
Slips, statements, IRP5s and certificates arrive where the client already is.
Process and classify
Every line matched to a supplier, a category and the section of the Act behind it.
s11(a)Review the gaps
The practice works from what is missing, unclear or worth a second look.
Communicate and sign off
A registered practitioner signs, with their name on it. Nothing files itself.
s240 TAAWhat your team sees
Three screens, one file. The client sees their own file, a business sees its own books, and the accountant works from a queue of what is missing, unclear or ready. Nothing reaches "signed off" without a practitioner's name against it.
Interface preview, not live data
Claims by month, illustrative
Latest slips, from the pile above
Bank lines matched, illustrative
What the engine checks
Built around a practitioner sign-off, not around removing one
No auto-filing
SARS has no public e-filing API. Every return is keyed and submitted by a registered practitioner, never by the software.
Practitioner gate
A practice signs up with a SARS practitioner number and a recognised controlling body (Tax Administration Act s240), and is reviewed before it goes live.
POPIA and document handling
Uploads travel over an encrypted connection and are stored outside the public web area. Opening a document means signing in as its owner or their practitioner.
Audit trail
Every sign-off, request and status change is logged against the client and the staff member who made it.
EVIDENCE IN.GAPS NAMED.
See what is sitting in your own numbers first. A walkthrough runs the whole path, from invitation to sign-off, against a client file you already know.