File a disclosure return

When donors cross the threshold, you owe the AEC a return. Together packages the data; you submit it to the AEC. This walkthrough covers the disclosures page, the CSV export, and the bulk actions you use at filing time.

A disclosure return is your formal report to the Australian Electoral Commission about donors who crossed the disclosure threshold in a given reporting period. Together tracks the aggregate per donor, identifies the disclosable ones, and lets you batch-prep an entire period in one pass.

Before you start

You need:

• ADMIN role on your org.
• Compliance module active.
• A reporting period to file against. Together creates periods automatically based on your entity type and any election periods you've configured.
• A way to submit returns to the AEC (the AEC's online return portal, or a paper-return process).

Open the disclosures page

Go to Compliance > Disclosures.

Click to expand

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The page is built around three controls:

• Period selector in the top right. The URL takes a ?period=<slug> parameter so you can bookmark or share a specific period's view.
• Status filter tabs across the top: All, Pending, Overdue, Review, Completed, Cancelled. Counts beside each label.
• Selection checkboxes on every row. Selecting one or more rows reveals the sticky bulk-action toolbar at the bottom of the page.

Pick the period you're filing for. Available periods include:

• FY periods (old regime). FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 use the financial-year regime with indexed thresholds ($17,300 for 2025-26; $17,900 for 2026-27, truncated at 31 December 2026). Returns under the old regime are still real obligations to the AEC; Together surfaces donors over threshold as a list so your compliance lead can file, but the per-obligation status flow (Pending / Disclosed) does not apply.
• Calendar-year periods (new regime). From 1 January 2027, periods are calendar years with the $5,000 threshold and $50,000 cap. Together creates a DisclosureObligation row for every donor who crosses the threshold and tracks each one through the status flow described below.
• Election periods. Post-2027 elections shift reporting to 7-day-per-donation deadlines through the campaign and 24-hour-per-donation deadlines in the week either side of polling day.

Triage the queue

Walk the status filters in order:

Click a donor's row to open their disclosure detail page. You see the full donation history for the period with each disclosable gift highlighted, the trigger date and amount, and the deadline calculation.

Verify donor identity

For each disclosable donor, confirm Together has the right data. The AEC needs full name and address for every donor, plus the organisation name for organisation / trust donors. Missing fields show on the donor disclosure page; edit the donor record at Donors before filing.

If a row sits in the Review tab because of missing identity data, fix the donor record and Together re-evaluates on the next compliance sweep.

Download the CSV

The CSV is the input to whatever return-prep your compliance lead or accountant runs. Two ways to grab it:

Single disclosure. Open the donor's disclosure detail page. There's a Download CSV card on the right.

Bulk download. Tick the rows you want from the list view. The sticky toolbar appears at the bottom with the count selected. Click Download CSV. The file downloads with a name pattern of disclosures-<period-label>-<count>-records.csv (or -1-record for a single row). If your selection spans multiple periods, the period component becomes <N>-periods.

The CSV columns Together emits, in order:

Receipt Number, Donor Name, Donor Type, Email, Phone,
Address Line 1, Address Line 2, Suburb, State, Postcode,
Disclosure Period, Trigger Amount, Trigger Date,
Disclosure Deadline, Period Type, Status,
Donor Notified, Donor Confirmed, Org Disclosed,
Org Disclosure Ref

The receipt number is Together's stable identifier for the obligation - keep it in your records so future syncs and queries can reconcile back to the same row.

Submit to the AEC

Together does not file directly with the AEC. The CSV is the prep step; the actual submission happens through the AEC's return process:

1. Open a return for the same period and entity type with the AEC.
2. Map the CSV columns into the AEC's required disclosure fields (donor identity, address, amount, date).
3. Submit and keep the AEC's confirmation. Note the reference number; you'll record it back in Together as the Org Disclosure Ref in the next step.

Bulk-mark the filed rows

After the AEC confirms, return to Compliance > Disclosures and update the rows you just filed. This is where the bulk-action toolbar earns its keep.

1. Filter to the period you just filed.
2. Tick the rows you submitted. The toolbar appears at the bottom with the count selected.
3. The toolbar surfaces two write actions, depending on what's outstanding:
   • Mark Notified - records the current date as when you notified the donor of the disclosure. Idempotent: rows already notified are skipped.
   • Mark Disclosed - records the current date as when the org filed the return. A dialog asks for an optional AEC reference (e.g., AEC-2026-12345); the reference is applied to every selected row.
4. Confirm. The toolbar shows Marked N disclosures as disclosed and clears the selection.

The rows move into Completed and the matching compliance alerts clear automatically. When the donor confirms receipt of their copy (via the magic link in the notification email, or a manual confirmation by an admin), the disclosure moves to Fully Disclosed.

Tips for a clean filing pass

• Filter first, then select. Use the Overdue or Pending tab to narrow the list before ticking rows. It's the difference between selecting 6 actionable obligations and trying to remember which of 60 historical rows still need filing.
• Spot-check the CSV before submission. Open the file in a spreadsheet and confirm the Trigger Amount and Trigger Date line up with the donor's record. Together's matcher is conservative but it's worth one human pass.
• Record the AEC reference per filing. If you file the period in multiple submissions (e.g., one for individuals, one for organisations), use a different AEC reference each time so the audit trail is unambiguous.
• Don't mark Disclosed before the AEC confirms. The bulk action is fast; resist the temptation to flip everything to Disclosed before you have a receipt. If the AEC bounces a row, you want it still in Pending.

What to do next

• Resolve any remaining alerts in the queue: Resolve a compliance alert.
• Confirm thresholds for the next period at Settings > Compliance if your entity type or regime has changed.
• Read the regime if the FY > CY 2027 shift affects how you map this period's data: The federal regime.