The SBR Program will undertake a number of pilots and trials prior to the formal release of its full range of facilities in 2010. In addition the Program will be using "user-based testing" techniques to simulate the user experience for several of the forms in scope.

The results from pilots, trials and testing will guide the government agencies and software developers involved in SBR. They will ensure that the products and services developed are reliable and well suited to the needs of business, as well as informing plans for delivery.

The major pilots and trials are:

March 2008: First release of the SBR Taxonomy (Taxonomy Cycle 1), providing businesses, intermediaries and software developers with the first opportunity to see what an XBRL-based taxonomy can offer. This initial release defined all the information to be reported on a small subset of forms in scope of SBR.

June 2008: Part 1 of the second release of the SBR Taxonomy (Taxonomy Cycle 2.1). This release focused on only one form, the Tax File Number (TFN) Declaration form from ATO.

September 2008: Part 2 of the second release of the SBR Taxonomy (Taxonomy Cycle 2.2). This version builds on the forms covered in Cycle 1, expanding the set of definitions to cover 20 of the major reporting forms in scope of SBR. This version is also the first to include a significant degree of harmonisation of definitions across the participating agencies, and has been the version used for the first pilot (see Tax File Number Declaration Pilot below).

February-May 2009: Tax File Number Declaration Pilot: This pilot involves a limited release of all the SBR capability available by this date, including the taxonomy, initial versions of the SBR Core Services, agency services, and prototypical versions of SBR-enabled software products from the participating software developers. This pilot provides the first opportunity to demonstrate the business value of SBR, simulating the final environment as closely as possible with the assistance of a limited number of businesses and software developers.

March 2009: Third release of the SBR AU Taxonomy (Taxonomy Cycle 3) - This version of the SBR taxonomy, incorporating over 12 months of effort to harmonise reporting definitions across agencies. It includes definitional information for all forms in scope of SBR.

September 2009 to January 2010: End to end testing: During this period software developers will be able to test forms from participating agencies, from creation of reports to transmission to the relevant agency and receipt confirmation. This final stage of testing will demonstrate that all the SBR systems and procedures work for businesses, software developers and participating government agencies, for the major reporting types.