Queensland Government announces Round 5 of the Business Basics Grants

Registration of Interest opens at 9am, Wednesday 29 May 2024

Earlier this week, the Queensland Government released the details for round five of its Business Basics Grants Program. The Business Basics grants program provides support to businesses to increase core skills and adopt best practice. This round of Basics is focused on fostering resilience.

Business Basics Grants Program

Each round of the Business Basics grants program has specific information to help you prepare and apply for a grant, and if successful, manage your grant.

The Business Basics grants program provides support to businesses to increase core skills and adopt best practice. This round of Basics is focused on fostering resilience.

Applicants can apply for funding for grant funded activities under the following priorities:

1. Business continuity and succession
2. Security planning and solutions
3. Sustainability.

The program is administered by the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT).

Available Funding

You can apply for $5,000 (excluding GST) in funding. If successful, funding is paid upfront on approval. Successful applicants don’t have to co-contribute to this grant, but must pay for any related expenses in excess of the $5,000 grant funding.

The Queensland Government will not fund activities with either:

• a total cost of less than $5,000 (excluding GST)
  or
• payments made before submission of the Stage 2: Full Application (activity must not have begun significantly).

Eligible and Ineligible Activities

Business continuity and succession planning (including disaster preparation)

• Develop and implement a business continuity plan to ensure operations can continue in the event of disruptions.
• Develop an incident response plan, risk management plan and/or recovery plan.
• Develop a succession plan tailored to the business’s needs and goals.
• Develop an emergency evacuation plan or training program.
• Purchase emergency kit equipment and related software, such as first aid kit, flashlights, batteries, and portable radio for an emergency kit.
• Implement new or upgrade existing online or cloud-based accounting systems.

Security planning and solutions

• Plan and/or implement physical security measures, such as surveillance cameras, alarms, or access control systems.
• Conduct cyber security risk assessments and implement mitigation systems.
• Implement cyber security measures to protect data and systems, for example, anti-malware, antivirus, backups, data migration, encryption, firewalls, and modems/routers with enhanced security.

Sustainability

• Conduct sustainability assessments or audits to identify areas for improvement and develop action plans.
• Develop or revise a tailored business plan aligned to the business’s specific needs and goals.
• Implement energy-efficient practices or technologies to reduce operational costs and environmental impact.
• Develop a plan to localise the suppliers of your businesses.

The Queensland Government will not fund:

• activities bought via direct selling (e.g. by party plan or network marketing)
• delivery, credit card and transaction fees
• fleet vehicles
• franchise fees
• general business operating costs (e.g. bookkeeping/accounting, tax returns)
• goods and services paid using crypto-currencies, cash, barter, or services in-kind
• goods, services, or fees from related parties*
• GST, registration, and fees
• marketing/advertising services of any kind
• memberships and joining fees
• other equipment (e.g. televisions, EFTPOS, card/chip readers)¹
• purchase of stock
• real estate/property, hire, lease, or rental fees
• salaries and wages
• software and licences¹
• stand-alone computer hardware (e.g. servers, PCs, tablets/iPad, mobile phones)²
• travel and accommodation
• utilities (e.g. internet, phone, water and/or waste bills)
• website build/upgrades.
  
  * Related parties include companies with common shareholdings or directors, employees, or immediate family.
  ¹ not mentioned in the priority areas
  ² except if bundled with security solutions

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this grant, your business must meet the following criteria at the time of application submission:

• have less than 20 employees (by headcount*)
• be operating and have an active Australian Business Number (ABN)^{^}
• be registered for GST^{^}
• have a registered Queensland headquarters location^{^} (as per your Australian Business Register (ABR) record)
• have a minimum trading history of 1 year
• have a minimum turnover of $75,000 and maximum turnover of $300,000 for the last financial year (2022–23)
• not have been approved for funding under an earlier Business Basics round
  and
• not be insolvent or have owners/directors that are undischarged or currently bankrupt^{^}.

* Headcount includes all full-time, part-time and casual employees including Non-Executive Directors.

^{^} Your business must maintain this eligibility for the duration of the grant-funded activity.

Application Process

It is free to apply through the DESBT SmartyGrants portal when the grant round opens.

Applicants will be notified at the end of each stage (ROI shortlisting and full application) of their outcome.

This grant program is competitively assessed in 2 stages, meaning not all applications will be funded:

• Stage 1: Registration of Interest (ROI)
• Stage 2: Full Application

Stage 1:

• opens for ROI applications at 9am, Wednesday 29 May 2024
• closes for ROI applications at 5pm, Tuesday 11 June 2024

Valid ROIs will be assessed through a ballot system with a number of applications identified to move to Stage 2: Full application assessment.

There will be no appeal process for applications that have not been selected to move on to Stage 2.

Pre-launch notification of this grant and access to supporting documents was provided on 15 May 2024.

Next Steps

To check to see if you are eligible for Round 5 of the Business Basics Grant Program, a detailed eligibility checker is available here.

If you are eligible for the Business Basics Grant Program, we recommend you read more about the Grant and Round 5 requirements specifically on the Business Queensland website here.

If you have any questions about the Business Basics Grant Program or would like any assistance in the application process, please do not hesitate to contact the JTW Accountants team.