Category — Bookkeepers

There’s a number of points to consider when finding a bookkeeper in Mandurah.

Until recently anybody could call themselves a bookkeeper, as there was no formal qualification, or legal requirements to safe-guard a small business owner.

All that is changing as Australia becomes a total “Nanny State” where there seems to be legislation being drawn up for everything, and the suppliers of Red Tape are experiencing a boom. It seems even cats and dogs need licenses, and maybe it won’t be long before your gold fish needs a license.

Everybody in business is now accountable in some way or another, yet politicians need no qualifications or experience to run a multi-billion dollar corporation and send the country spiralling down the same path as the USA and European Union

What has all that to do with finding a bookkeeper in Mandurah?
Well, the point is that freelance bookkeepers that offer BAS services are required to be registered with the Australian Taxation Board – yet another committee / portfolio created by the Federal Government to waste tax payers money

The problem is that no one in the Australian Treasury knows what a bookkeeper does or what bookeeping is (that’s quite apparent by the way that they “control” the purse strings of tax payers money)

So there’s a big grey area in the definition of when bookkeeping stops being “bookkeeping” and when it starts being “BAS services”

A further problem that the Federal Government have created with the new bookkeeping legislation is that they didn’t want it to be too difficult for bookkeepers to become registered BAS agents, because they realise that there’s too much bookkeeping work to be done to ensure that the ATO gets their sticky fingers on all our hard-earned cash

The result is that to become a registered BAS agent, you simply pay your money to a TAFE college or some similar educational establishment, who then hands out a certificate IV in bookkeeping because they are too afraid of being sued for failing their students.

Then these “wanna – be” bookkeepers apply to the Tax Agents Board to become a Registered BAS agent having collected a couple of cereal packet tops. And once these new bookkeepers receive their registration, they think that they are ready to be let loose on the unsuspecting business owner.

So these bookkeepers think they know it all because they’ve picked up a Cert IV in bookkeeping, and have received their BAS Agents registration, failing to realise that just because you have a driving license does not mean you’re ready to enter into the Monaco Grand Prix car race.

Where does that leave the Small Business Owner in Mandurah?
Business owners who are trying to tighten their belts think that they can save money by hiring bookkeepers that charge really low rates, not realising that the reason these bookkeepers are cheap is because thye have little or no experience in freelance bookkeeping, even though they may have spent the last twenty years in the accounts department of some large organisation or even a bank.

When looking for a bookkeeper in Mandurah contact us TODAY

We’re amazed at how some clients just want to throw their money at us!

They make the decision to take on a bookkeeping service, to save on accounting fees but fail to realise they can make further savings from procedures that we ask them to put in place.

They seem to think that as bookkeepers we are also mind-readers, so they decide that we know everything that goes on in their small business, and stop the channels of communication.

It makes sense that your bookkeeper is only as good as the information you give them. If you misplace or lose bank statements, invoices, receipts etc, then your bookkeeper will have to spend time (=money) chasing them or wait for you to locate them before their tasks can be completed

These delays equate to time lost and money wasted.

Similarly, if you are slow to get back to your bookkeeoer when quiries are raised, then that will slow down the work flow, and your bookkeeper may fill the schedule that was allocated to your work, with another client.

Again, delays that you cause through not keeping an eye on your bookkeeping can cost money.

Other examples are outlined in our free report that you can download HERE

The worst case scenario maybe that your bookkeeper is stealing and it may be months or even years before you notice.

By which time it could be too late – as in the case of the large electrical retailer, where the bookkeeper found it e-e-easy to steal $20million unnoticed. By changing a few simple habits you can truly make the most of your bookkeeper

There’s a number of MYOB bookkeeping hazards that commonly occur when we come across new Mandurah bookkeeping clients.

Having an inaccurate set of bookkeeping records can create some challenges dow the track

As a result there’s some Mandurah small business owners that discovered their bookkeeping has become a nightmare for a number of reasons: [Read more →]

Talking to one of our Mandurah Bookkeeping clients recently about New Year’s resolutions, we listed three bookkeeping resolutions small businesses can make and keep in 2011. [Read more →]

When it comes to the bookkeeping for your Mandurah business – you need to understand when the official public holidays are over the Christmas period

With the new workplace laws and guidelines for employees it can be confusing

In Western Australia, since Christmas Day is on Saturday 25 December, and Boxing Day on Sunday 26 December, they are both deemed as public holidays. However, additional public holidays will be provided for both on Monday 27 December and Tuesday 28 December respectively.

An additional holiday for New Year’s Day will be held on Monday 3 January.

That can make a huge difference to your staff costs because of public holiday loading – so be warned!

If your Mandurah business does quarterly reporting, then your Business Activity Statement is due on 28 October 2010.

Rather than struggle with trying to work out your BAS figures, you can save yourself both time and money by outsourcing your bookkeeping to a professional mobile Mandurah Bookkeeping Service

Focus on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest

Some business owners would rather spend hours working through their paperwork under the impression that they are saving themselves on bookkeeping fees – but how much is your time really worth

We had a leaking toilet cistern recently, and spent an hour trying to fix it rather than calling in a plumber. In the end, we gave up, called the plumber, who fixed the problem in under two minutes.

Since the plumber was on his way to another job around the corner, he didn’t even bother charging us – but a simple tow minute job had cost an hour of our time

In a similar manner, we’ve found business owners spending hours on their bookkeeping, only to finally call upon our bookeeping services.

The time they spent in making errors meant extra time for us to fix up the work – whereas if they’d accepted the fact they they don’t really know how to do bookwork and called us straight away, they would have saved themselves time, and also the extra money on bookkeeping fees undoing their “handy work”

As a small business owner we encourage you to focus on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest

Why does good book keeping mean good record keeping? Well, we’ve talked many times previously about the importance of good record keeping to save money on your bookkeeping fees.

Recently a client approached us with an A4 archive box full of suppliers’ invoices, and a couple of bank statements, for the 2009 – 2010 financial year.

We were just given the box, and asked to record all the transactions – we had no idea of the nature of the business, no opening balances – nothing. We looked through the paperwork and proceeded to find a pattern of transactions.

how good record keeping can save money on your bookkeeping fees

We’ve many years experience as bookkeepers, and were able to work out how many of the payments were made, though it proved to be quite a challenge, owing to the way that the client has been keeping the paperwork, such as:

• Incorrect cheque numbers were written on invoices
• Statements marked “paid” with no amounts detailed
• Cheques written with no payee
• Invoice amounts altered by hand
• Invoices marked “paid by Cash”
• No record of cash income from sales
• No record of what the cash deposits into the bank account represent
• Bank statements missing
• Cheque books missing
• Deposit books missing

A simple extra 30 seconds each time the client made a payment would have saved us a few minutes in trying to track down what the client had done. All those extra minutes turn into hours, and turn into increased fees for their book keeping

With the governments proposed health reforms, have you considered having a bookkeeping healthcheck for your business?

Don’t leave your bookkeeping until it’s too late! With end of financial year for 2009 – 2010 fast approaching, it’s a good idea to get your bookkeeping upto date.

By being ontop of your bookwork, you can have a chat with your accountant and make sure that you have the correct strategies in place to reduce your tax liabilities.

Failing to be prepared can be costly when you come to lodge your tax return after 30 june 2010

Our team of Mandurah bookkeepers are normally flooded with calls from business owners in the last quarter of the financial year, as we approrach June 30.

There’s many reasons why you should get your bookkeeping upto date before the end of the financial year on 30 June 2010.

Often clients are devastated when they discover how much tax they have to pay because they didn’t plan for the FYE (financial year end). Leaving it until after 30 June is too late.

We are not tax agents or accounts, but our team of mobile Mandurah bookkeepers can certainly help you get your paperwork upto date so that you can at least have three quarters of the 2009/2010 financial year upto date and ready to visit your accountant before the end of June 2010

Do you have a bookkeeping business around in and around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia?

If you qualify as an experienced freelance bookkeeper, and you need more clients in and around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia, then we may be able to help you and your business [Read more →]