Crackit

Project Info

Team Name

CrackIt

Team Members

Aakash , Surendra Phuyal , Kusum , Dylan

Project Description

Project Description – Crackit

Starting a business is often celebrated as a key economic growth and innovation driver. However, entrepreneurs face a significant challenge in Australia before getting their ideas off the ground: navigating a complex and fragmented regulatory environment. Regulations governing business operations are spread across multiple layers of government, local councils, state authorities, and the federal government, each with its own rules, forms, and processes. For many aspiring business owners, this creates a confusing maze of compliance requirements that can be difficult to understand and manage without expert help.
This complexity disproportionately affects small businesses and startups with limited resources, legal expertise, and time. The result is often duplicated efforts, delays in launching new ventures, increased costs, and, in some cases, abandonment of promising ideas. These regulatory hurdles slow individual entrepreneurs and can broadly stifle innovation and economic dynamism.

Problem Statement

Australia's business regulatory landscape is characterised by overlapping legislation and inconsistent requirements across government levels, creating several key problems:
Complexity and Fragmentation: Entrepreneurs must navigate a myriad of regulations that frequently don't align or communicate with each other, making it hard to determine which rules truly apply.
Duplicated and Conflicting Requirements: Businesses face redundant forms and processes, often with conflicting guidance from different agencies, increasing the risk of errors and non-compliance.
Time-Consuming Research: Business owners spend excessive time researching regulations to understand their obligations, time that could be better spent building and growing their business.
Lack of Accessible Support: Many entrepreneurs do not have easy access to clear, consolidated information or personalised guidance when navigating regulatory requirements, leading to frustration and uncertainty.
Crackit was created to directly address these issues by simplifying regulatory navigation and empowering entrepreneurs with an all-in-one, user-friendly platform.

How does it work?

• Personalised Checklists: Users select their industry and state, and instantly receive a tailored checklist of steps, contacts, and documents required to start their business.
• Live Data Integration: The system connects to government APIs where available and can extend to web scraping when APIs are not provided, which ensures information stays current.
• Update Alerts: The app automatically flags the update for review if legislation or requirements change. Site managers do not have to manually re-check everything, just the changed item.
• Conversational Guidance: A chatbot helps those unsure where to start. Users can describe the business they want to open, select their state, and receive direct links to key resources and government websites.
• Who regulates what?: We answer 'who regulates what' with a to-do list of cards to follow. First, get the ABN (federal), then the business name & GST (federal). Next, do food business registration (state), and then your local council items like business licence and signage permit with safety. Each card says who is in charge, what to do, and gives the official link.

Datasets used:

Our solution depends on the Commonwealth datasets, including the Commonwealth Statute Book, the Federal Register of Legislation and other state datasets. These ensure accuracy and reliability while keeping the system aligned with official regulatory information.

Flowchart:

The Flowchart shows the streamlined compliance by pulling legislation from federal, state, and local sources, processing it into industry-specific insights, and delivering plain-English checklists, chatbot support, and personalised dashboards for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Future Opportunities:

• Crackit aims to support financially ready entrepreneurs and those with great ideas by guiding them to government funding, grants, and low-interest loans to lower barriers to starting a business.
• The platform will feature a community-driven discussion board, inspired by Reddit, where new business owners can ask questions, share experiences, and get peer and expert advice organised by industry and topic.
• Future expansion includes covering all industries, deeper local dataset integration, and AI-powered natural language queries for plain-language regulatory guidance, making compliance easy and transparent.

What difference can it make?

Entrepreneurs spend less time reviewing paperwork with Crackit's Red Tape Navigator's help and more time creating jobs, services, and opportunities. By easy compliance, we help speed up innovation, encourage economic growth, and support a stronger, more connected regulatory ecosystem across Australia and focus more on the growth of their business.