The ATO publishes benchmark ranges for around 100 industries, built from more than two million tax returns, and uses them to decide which businesses are worth a closer look. Sitting outside the range for your industry is not proof of anything — but it is the signal that gets you noticed. Here is where you sit.
Enter your turnover and total expenses to see your score. Both are on your last tax return or profit and loss — the rest are optional and make the comparison sharper.
Accounting software is built to record what happened. It is very good at telling you that you spent $48,000 on materials. What it will not tell you is that businesses like yours typically spend 28 to 38 per cent of turnover on materials, and you are at 61.
The ATO knows that number. It publishes it. And it uses the gap between the two to work out where to spend its attention. Being outside the range is often completely innocent — a bad year, an unusual job, a genuine difference in how you operate. But you are better off knowing before they ask than after.
Where the numbers come from. The ATO Small Business Benchmarks for 2023-24, published on data.gov.au and drawn from over two million tax returns. Each industry here names the specific ATO benchmark it is compared against, so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
You can also read the published ranges directly — the ATO benchmarks by industry, with the specific benchmark each one maps to.
Not that you have done anything wrong, and not that an audit is coming. It means one or more of your ratios sits outside what the ATO expects for your industry, and that is the trigger it uses for a closer look. The useful response is to make sure the number is substantiated — that you can show why it is what it is — rather than to change it.
This page is a snapshot from figures you typed. Inside Vaulco the same engine runs against your actual ledger, every time it changes, so a ratio drifting out of range surfaces while you can still do something about it. Vaulco is a registered ATO Digital Service Provider and passed the ATO's Operational Security Framework certification in July 2026 — books, BAS, invoicing and payroll for Australian sole traders and small business.
See VaulcoIndicative only, and not financial, tax or audit advice. A comparison to published industry benchmarks is not a prediction of ATO action. Benchmarks are the ATO's 2023-24 Small Business Benchmarks; your own circumstances may justify sitting well outside them. Check with your accountant or at ato.gov.au.