# QuickBooks Online AU public-workflow observations

Observed: 2026-09-11, Australia/Sydney  
Method: browser observation of publicly accessible pages on the official Australian QuickBooks Online site.  
Not: a logged-in SoftwareHQ account, a trial, a purchase, a pay run, or a timed usability test.

## Buyer questions

1. **What is the standard Australian price?**  
   Found. Plan cards print a struck-through standard monthly figure and a promotional monthly figure. On 11 Sep 2026 those standard figures were Simple Start **$33**, Essentials **$60**, Plus **$84**, Advanced **$125**. Promotional figures were **$9.90 / $18 / $25.20 / $37.50** per month with “Save 70% for 6 months”. Important pricing details: **prices are in AUD and include GST**. Users: **1 / 3 / 5 / 25** plus accountant access. This is labelled list price, not a checkout total.

2. **What is the billed term?**  
   Found, with both monthly and annual described. Pricing FAQ “Is there a minimum subscription period?”: **no lock-in contracts**; monthly subscriptions pay monthly and can **cancel anytime**; **annual subscriptions** pay annually; after cancel, access lasts until the **next monthly or annual billing period date**. Offer-terms modal **Annual Billing**: pay **annual, upfront** for a discount on current monthly fees; payroll still billed monthly; cancel inside the prepaid 12 months is **not refundable** but access continues for the remainder; **auto-renew** on the 12-month anniversary at then-current retail. The older `/au/quickbooks-online/faq/` accordion titled “Can I pay the subscription annually?” did not expand in this observation. Checkout was not started, so the annual discount amount was not observed.

3. **What are the renewal / promotion conditions?**  
   Found, and conflicting. Banner and cards: **70% off for 6 months** (Simple Start savings printed as **$138.60**, which is 6 × ($33 − $9.90)). The same page’s **Important pricing details** heading is also “70% off for 6 months”, but the body says the 70% applies for the **first 3 months** and **from month 4** the then-current retail price applies. The same modal also lists **50% off for 12 months** (new subscribers) and **50% off for 3 months** (existing subscribers who upgrade). Payroll and Time are **not eligible** for those discounts. **30-day free trial** of QuickBooks Online and Payroll (any number of employees during the trial). Checkout was not started — which offer a new customer actually receives, and whether 70% lasts 3 or 6 months, is unresolved.

4. **What payroll / team cap applies to a small team?**  
   Found. QBO **users** (not payroll people): Simple Start **1**, Essentials **3**, Plus **5**, Advanced **25**, plus accountant. Payroll is an **add-on** on every plan (pricing FAQ). Payroll page: Standard **$0/mo + $6/employee/mo**; Advanced **$10/mo + $6/employee/mo**. FAQ: Standard **$6.00 (including GST) per every ‘active employee’**; no extra charge or forced plan change as headcount grows. A five-person employer matches **Plus** (5 users) plus payroll at **$6 × 5** (Standard) or **$10 + $30** (Advanced), not Essentials (3 users). No published employee cap. This is published copy, not a live pay run.

5. **Where are cancellation and export documented?**  
   Found without login, with a URL trap. The public AU article **What happens to my data after cancelling** is readable without login: paid export to Excel or desktop **up to a year**; trial export **within 90 days**; **read-only for 1 year** (the same article’s bullets also say trial data is available for **90 days** — those two retention claims were not reconciled). From that page, **Cancel your subscription** opens the AU cancel article: call **1800 350 468**; purchased-online cancel is **phone**, not an in-app form on that page. Navigating the same cancel URL (`L0MFTXlbw_AU_en_AU`) directly later landed on **Close your QuickBooks Time account** — recorded, not substituted with a US article. A guessed AU export URL without an article id rendered a **blank help shell**. The working export steps were on the **en-global** article: Settings → **Export data** → Excel zip of reports/lists. In-app cancel and export were not used. Signup (`locale=en-AU`, AU flag on the phone field) was opened; **no fields were filled**.

Ambiguity to leave unresolved: card/banner **70% off for 6 months** vs offer-terms body **3 months**; concurrent **50% off for 12 months**; trial data **90 days** vs **1 year** read-only; pricing-page support hours **8:30 AM–6:30 PM** vs other AU copy **8am–6:30pm**.