SMSF glossary

Plain-English meanings of the terms self-managed super fund trustees run into — binding death benefit nomination expiry, the minimum pension, TBAR, contribution caps, the annual audit, and more. These are the same definitions SMSF Cockpit shows next to the relevant field inside the app.

Please note: We have done our best to make these definitions accurate, but we do not warrant their accuracy or completeness. They are plain-English summaries, not financial, tax, legal or audit advice, and super rules, thresholds and dates change and depend on your fund and its trust deed. Please check anything you rely on with your accountant, auditor or the ATO. Terms & disclaimer

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100 terms

A

Account deletion (7-day freeze) This app: When you delete your account (Your account page) it’s frozen straight away and deleted for good after 7 days. Signing in again during those 7 days cancels the deletion. Funds only you were in are deleted with it, and you’re removed from any others; an owner of a fund other people use has to remove them or delete the fund first.
Account-based pension Pensions: A regular income stream paid from a member’s super balance. A minimum amount must be paid each financial year.
Accumulation phase Pensions: The savings stage, where contributions and earnings build a member’s balance and no income stream is being paid from it.
Actual due date Status labels: On the Compliance Calendar: the date your fund’s task is really due, entered by you (the calendar’s “typical deadline” is only a general guide). Once it’s set, the row shows the fund due date and how far away it is, for example “Fund due date: 9 Dec 2026 (in 75 days)”, or “(5 days overdue)” once it has passed, and a task that’s overdue or due within 30 days counts as a warning. Tasks marked Done or N/A are never flagged.
Actuarial certificate Audit and reporting: A certificate from an actuary that works out the portion of the fund’s income that’s tax-exempt, needed in some cases when the fund has both pension and accumulation members. The Compliance Calendar lists it as “if required”.
Adverse opinion Audit and reporting: The auditor concludes the financial statements are materially misstated. It’s a more serious result than a qualified opinion.
Ahead of pace Status labels: On Pension Minimum: more has been paid than expected so far this year, but the full minimum isn’t paid yet. It’s amber because the rest still needs paying by 30 June.
Annual audit Audit and reporting: Every SMSF must be audited each year by an approved, independent SMSF auditor, and the audit must be finished before the fund’s annual return is lodged.
Append-only This app: A record you can add to but never edit or delete afterwards. Trustee Minutes, the Investment Strategy sign-off log and the Change History work this way, because a record of decisions shouldn’t be rewritten. To correct one, add a new entry that refers to it.
Approved SMSF auditor Audit and reporting: An auditor registered with ASIC who has been issued an SMSF auditor number (SAN). You should be able to find them on ASIC’s register.
Arm’s length Law and regulators: Dealing on the same commercial terms that unrelated parties would agree to. The audit checklist asks you to confirm all the fund’s dealings are at arm’s length.
ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) Law and regulators: Approves and registers SMSF auditors, and regulates companies, which matters if your fund has a corporate trustee.
ATO (Australian Taxation Office) Law and regulators: The regulator of SMSFs. It receives the fund’s annual return, TBARs and the auditor’s contravention reports, and collects the fund’s tax.
Audit report (Part A / Part B) Audit and reporting: The approved SMSF audit report has two parts. Part A is the financial audit: whether the financial statements are presented fairly. Part B is the compliance audit: whether the trustees complied with the specified super-law requirements. Each can be unqualified (clean) or qualified.
Auditor independence Audit and reporting: The auditor must be independent of the fund and its trustees, and generally shouldn’t audit work they prepared or advised on. Ask your auditor to confirm their independence.
Auditor/Actuary Contravention Report (ACR) Audit and reporting: Auditor/Actuary Contravention Report: the report an auditor lodges with the ATO when they find a reportable contravention of the super laws.
Autosave This app: Some fields (the Succession Plan, audit checklist statuses and notes, compliance task statuses) save as soon as you click away or change them. “Saved ✓” appears beside the field. If it can’t save you see the reason, and what you typed stays put.

B

Badge This app: The small number beside an item in the sidebar. Red is the number of warnings in that tracker; the amber number on Compliance Calendar is how many tasks aren’t marked complete yet (it turns red when a task with a due date is overdue or due within 30 days).
Beneficiary Nominations and estate: A person (often a spouse or child) or the member’s estate, who is to receive a member’s benefits. Nominations record each beneficiary and their share.
Binding (3-year) nomination Nominations and estate: A binding nomination that expires 3 years after it was made unless the trust deed says otherwise. The tracker works out the expiry as 36 months and warns you 90 days beforehand.
Binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) Nominations and estate: A written direction to the trustees about who receives a member’s super if they die. A valid binding nomination must be paid as directed. Many lapse after 3 years unless the trust deed allows a non-lapsing one, which is why this tracker flags renewals.

C

Change History This app: An automatic, permanent record of who added, changed or deleted what in a fund, and when, with each old and new value. Everyone with access can read it and download it as a CSV; nobody can edit or delete it. Times are Sydney time.
Commutation Pensions: Turning part or all of a pension back into a lump sum, or moving it back to the accumulation phase. A partial commutation reduces the pension; a full commutation ends it. It may need to be reported to the ATO.
Concessional contributions Contributions: Before-tax contributions, such as employer super, salary sacrifice, and personal contributions you claim a deduction for. They’re generally taxed at 15% in the fund and count towards the annual concessional cap.
Condition of release Your fund: An event that allows preserved super to be paid out, such as retiring after reaching preservation age, or turning 65.
Contravention Audit and reporting: A breach of super law. An auditor must report certain contraventions to the ATO (see ACR).
Contribution cap Contributions: The annual limit the ATO sets on how much can be contributed, with separate caps for concessional and non-concessional contributions. Going over a cap can lead to extra tax. The caps are indexed from time to time, so confirm the current figures with your accountant.
Corporate trustee Your fund: A fund structure where a company acts as trustee, usually with the members as its directors. The company’s details need to be kept up to date with ASIC.

D

Data checks This app: A panel on What’s Due Next that looks for records that don’t make sense together or are quietly missing, such as a nomination dated next year or target allocations that don’t total 100%. They’re typos and gaps rather than deadlines, so they don’t change the warning count, the sidebar badges or the weekly email.
Data retention This app: How long the app keeps each kind of record. Fund records stay until the owner deletes the fund; technical records such as sign-in attempts, error records, expired password-reset links and old invitations are cleared automatically; an account created but never used is removed after 30 days. The Privacy policy lists each one.
Disclaimer of opinion Audit and reporting: The auditor couldn’t get enough evidence to form an opinion on the financial statements.
Document pack This app: The documents an auditor typically asks for, tracked item by item on the Annual Audit Checklist as To do, Gathered, Sent to auditor or N/A.
Document review statuses Status labels: On the Document Register, the next review is due a year after the last one: Up to date, Due within 90 days, Review overdue, or Not yet reviewed if no review date is recorded.
Download all data This app: A button on Settings (and beside each fund on Your funds) that gives you everything recorded for a fund in one Excel workbook, with a sheet for each tracker and an About sheet listing them. Statuses in it are calculated as at the reference date.

E

Email reminders This app: An optional weekly email listing anything overdue, expiring or over a cap across your funds. It’s off unless you turn it on (Settings), it’s only sent when something is flagged, and sandbox funds never send one.
Engagement letter Audit and reporting: The written agreement between the trustees and the auditor that sets out the scope of the audit and the fee.
Expiring within 90 days Status labels: On the BDBN Tracker: a binding nomination that will lapse within 90 days. “Expired — renew now” means it has already lapsed.

F

Financial year (FY) This app: Australian financial years run from 1 July to 30 June and are named by the year they end: FY2027 is 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Contribution, pension and audit records are kept per financial year.
Finding categories Audit and reporting: On the audit page each finding is a Contravention (a breach of super law), a Recommendation (something the auditor advises you improve) or an Observation (a point to note).
Findings and actions This app: On the Annual Audit Checklist, the issues the auditor raised (or the trustees noticed), each with a category, an action to fix it, a due date and a status.
Fund roles This app: Everyone with access to a fund has one of three roles. The Owner (who created the fund) can do everything, including inviting and removing people. A Co-trustee can view and edit every tracker but can’t manage who has access. An Accountant / adviser is view only: they can look at everything and download the data, but can’t change anything.

G

Gathered and Sent to auditor Status labels: On the audit document pack: Gathered means you have the item ready; Sent to auditor means it has gone to the auditor. N/A removes an item that doesn’t apply to your fund from the count.

H

Held via super Insurance: Whether the premiums are paid from the super fund (yes) or the person holds the policy outside super (no).

I

In specie Pensions: Paying a benefit or moving an asset as the asset itself rather than as cash. The audit checklist asks you to confirm pension payments were made in cash.
In-house asset Law and regulators: Broadly, a loan to, an investment in, or a lease with a related party of the fund. In-house assets are generally limited to 5% of the fund’s total assets.
Income protection Insurance: Cover that replaces part of a person’s income while they can’t work because of illness or injury.
Individual trustees Your fund: A fund structure where the members themselves act as the trustees.
Investment strategy Your fund: The fund’s written plan for investing, which the trustees must set, review regularly and follow. It should consider risk, return, diversification, liquidity and whether the fund should hold insurance for members (see SIS Reg 4.09).
Invitation This app: How a fund’s owner gives someone else access (Settings > People with access). The owner chooses co-trustee or accountant / adviser (view only). The link works once, expires after 7 days and only works for the email address that was invited.

L

Life insurance Insurance: Cover that pays a benefit if the insured person dies.
Lodgment Audit and reporting: Submitting a return or report to the ATO. On the Annual Audit Checklist you enter the return’s due date and the date it was lodged.

M

Management letter Audit and reporting: A letter from the auditor listing issues and recommendations that aren’t reportable contraventions but that the trustees should fix, such as weak record-keeping or missing documentation.
Market value Your fund: What an asset would fairly sell for. A fund’s assets are valued at market value at 30 June for its financial statements and audit.
Materiality band Your fund: How far the fund’s actual share of an asset class may drift from its target before the Investment Strategy page flags it, in percentage points. With a 5-point band and a 35% target for Shares/ETFs, anything from 30% to 40% is “Within band”. You choose the band.
Member Your fund: A person with a balance in the fund. Each fund in this app can have up to six members.
Minimum pension drawdown Pensions: Someone receiving an account-based pension must withdraw at least a minimum percentage of their 1 July balance each financial year; the percentage rises with age. This tracker pro-rates it when a pension starts part-way through the year.

N

Near cap Status labels: On Contribution Caps: a member has reached 90% or more of a contribution cap. Red “Cap exceeded” means they’re over it.
Non-concessional contributions Contributions: After-tax contributions from your own savings that you don’t claim a deduction for. They have their own, separate annual cap.
Non-lapsing nomination Nominations and estate: A binding nomination that doesn’t expire. It’s only possible if the trust deed allows it, so check the deed before relying on one.
Not yet recorded Status labels: On Pension Minimum: no payment has been entered yet for the year.

P

Pension commencement Pensions: The date a pension starts. Starting a retirement-phase pension is an event that may need to be reported to the ATO (see TBAR).
Personal deductible contribution Contributions: A contribution you make from your own money and then claim a tax deduction for, by giving the fund a valid notice. It counts as a concessional contribution, and there are rules about when the notice must be given.
Preservation age Your fund: The minimum age (between 55 and 60, depending on date of birth) from which preserved super can generally be accessed, once a condition of release is met.
Privacy policy This app: The page (bottom of the sidebar) that explains what personal information the app collects, why, who sees it, where it’s stored and how long it’s kept. It also lists what not to enter: tax file numbers, passwords or PINs, card numbers, copies of ID documents and full bank account numbers.
Pro-rata minimum Pensions: When a pension starts part-way through a financial year, the minimum is reduced in proportion to the days left in the year. No minimum applies to a pension that starts on or after 1 June.

Q

Qualified opinion Audit and reporting: The auditor found a problem in a specific area, so their opinion is “except for” that matter. For Part B it means non-compliance was noted.

R

Readiness check This app: On the Annual Audit Checklist, a list worked out from your other trackers of the things an auditor will test: strategy review, minutes, minimum pension, contribution caps, nominations, TBAR, insurance and document reviews.
Reference date This app: The “as at” date that every overdue flag, expiry check and warning in a fund is judged against. It doesn’t move by itself: set it to today’s date when you review the fund (Settings > Use today’s date), or to a past date such as 30 June to see how things stood then.
Related party Law and regulators: A member of the fund, a relative of a member, or a business or entity that a member or relative controls or influences.
Retirement (pension) phase Pensions: The stage where a member’s balance supports an income stream, such as an account-based pension.
Reversionary pension Pensions: A pension that automatically continues to a nominated person (often a spouse) when the pensioner dies, instead of being paid out as a lump sum.
Risk tolerance Your fund: How much ups and downs in value the members can accept in pursuit of a return: Conservative, Balanced, Growth or High Growth. It’s recorded on the Investment Strategy page and should shape the asset allocation targets.

S

Salary sacrifice Contributions: An arrangement where part of your pre-tax pay goes into super instead of to you. It counts as a concessional contribution.
Sandbox This app: A practice fund filled with fictional data (the Nguyen family) that you can reset or delete. It never affects your real funds, can’t be shared with other people, and never sends you email.
Sign-off log Your fund: On the Investment Strategy page, the append-only record of each review of the strategy: the date, who reviewed and approved it, and any changes made. The latest entry sets the last-reviewed date, and the next review falls due 12 months later. Earlier entries show as Superseded.
SIS Act and Regulations Law and regulators: The Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 and its Regulations: the main rules that super funds, including SMSFs, must follow.
SIS Reg 4.09 Law and regulators: Regulation 4.09 of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations requires an SMSF’s investment strategy to consider whether the trustees should hold insurance for members. This log records that consideration, including the reason if cover was declined.
SMSF (self-managed super fund) Your fund: A super fund run by its own members, who are usually also its trustees. The trustees carry the legal responsibility for running it and for complying with super law.
SMSF annual return (SAR) Audit and reporting: The yearly return an SMSF lodges with the ATO, covering its tax and regulatory information. The audit must be finished before it’s lodged. Confirm your fund’s due date with your tax agent.
SMSF auditor number (SAN) Audit and reporting: The number ASIC issues to an approved SMSF auditor. Every SMSF must be audited each year by an approved SMSF auditor who is independent of the fund, so it’s worth checking your auditor’s SAN on ASIC’s register.
SMSF supervisory levy Audit and reporting: A yearly levy the fund pays to the ATO, normally with its annual return.
Sole purpose test Law and regulators: The rule in section 62 of the SIS Act that an SMSF must be run solely to provide retirement benefits to members, or benefits to their dependants if a member dies. Trustees affirm it on the Investment Strategy page and note any investment that could raise a concern.
Status colours This app: Green means done or compliant. Amber means open but not yet late. Red means overdue or in breach. Grey means not applicable. The same colours and icons mean the same thing on every page.
Succession plan Nominations and estate: A written record of key contacts, the trustee structure, nomination status, insurance and bank accounts, so that whoever has to take over the fund can find what they need.
Sum insured Insurance: The amount an insurance policy would pay out.
Superannuation guarantee (SG) Contributions: The compulsory contributions an employer must pay into super for their employees, as a percentage of earnings set by law. It counts as a concessional contribution.
Superseded Status labels: On the BDBN Tracker: an older nomination that a later nomination for the same member has replaced. Only each member’s latest nomination is judged, so a superseded one no longer raises warnings.

T

Terms acceptance record This app: The permanent record, with the date and time, of you accepting the Terms and Conditions. You can see and print it on the Terms & disclaimer page.
TPD (total and permanent disablement) Insurance: Cover that pays a benefit if the insured person becomes totally and permanently unable to work.
Tracker This app: A page that records one area of compliance, such as the BDBN Tracker, the TBAR Event Log or the Document Register.
Transfer balance account Pensions: The ATO’s running record of the amounts counted towards a person’s transfer balance cap: amounts are added when a retirement-phase pension starts and taken off when it’s commuted.
Transfer Balance Account Report (TBAR) Pensions: How an SMSF tells the ATO about events that change a member’s transfer balance account, such as starting a retirement-phase pension or commuting (stopping or reducing) one. This tracker counts 28 days from the end of the quarter the event falls in. Funds where every member’s balance is under $1 million may have a later deadline — confirm with your accountant.
Transfer balance cap Pensions: A limit on how much a person can hold in tax-free retirement-phase income streams. It’s set and indexed by the ATO, so ask your accountant for the current amount.
Transition-to-retirement pension (TRIS) Pensions: A pension available from preservation age while you’re still working. Its annual payments are capped at 10% of the account balance.
Trust deed Your fund: The fund’s governing document. It sets what the fund and its members can do, for example whether non-lapsing nominations or reversionary pensions are allowed, so it’s worth checking before relying on either.
Trustee Your fund: The person or company legally responsible for running the fund and complying with super law. That responsibility can’t be handed to software or to advisers.
Trustee declaration Law and regulators: A signed declaration that a new trustee makes to confirm they understand their duties and responsibilities.

U

Underpaid Status labels: On Pension Minimum: less has been paid than expected so far this year. Make sure the full minimum is paid by 30 June.
Unqualified opinion Audit and reporting: A clean result: the auditor found no material problems in that part of the audit.

W

What’s Due Next This app: The overview page that gathers warnings from the Compliance Calendar, Contribution Caps, Pension Minimum, BDBN Tracker, TBAR Event Log, Annual Audit and Investment Strategy. It stores nothing itself: it reads the other trackers.

It’s general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. It doesn’t lodge anything with the ATO, and it doesn’t track your investments, prices or cash balances. Confirm anything you rely on with your accountant, auditor or the ATO.