Many businesses fail in their first year through bad money management. Since they are starting off, they are looking at different ways to reduce outgoings and make the mistake of viewing bookkeeping for their Mandurah business as being a simple way of saving money.

You need to make sure your bookwork is in order NOW, not next week or next month. Contact our Mandurah bookkeeping service for a health chek up of your bookkeeping.

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’ve helped many business owners around Mandurah with getting the bookwork upto date, and even helped them avoid LATE FEES issued by the ATO, so if you are late with lodging your Business Activity Statements, then what options are available to you?

We’ve listed ten options for those small business owners around Mandurah that have failed to lodge your BAS for the reporting period 1 April 2011 – 30 June 2011:

1) Take the easy option and ignore it, hoping that the problem will go away

2) Have a panic attack and wonder what to do now you’ve missed the deadline

3) Do what most people do, and just accept that you’ll have to pay a penalty for late BAS lodgement

4) Have sleepless nights wondering how to complete the BAS even though it’s going to be a late lodgement

5) Call the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and tell them that the canary grabbed the BAS form and has shredded it to make a nest

6) Fossic through your paperwork in the glovebox of your car along with all your other unopened mail, and see if you can even find the Business Activity Statement whilst making a mental note that it should have been lodged by the end of July

7) Call your accountant and ask him / her what you should do next

8.) Do nothing, and just accept that fact that you’ll be fined for a late lodgment, and look forward to receiving fan mail from the ATO

9) Grab a cold one from the fridge, sit in your favorite chair and see what’s on the idiot box

10) Contact us (quickly) because we may be able to get an extension for you, as well as getting all your documentation sorted out to help you ensure that you’re not going to be paying ms Julia more than you need, since she’s shown us all how good she is at spending all that money

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

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:

Any successful business owner will tell you that if you don’t have the skills or the passion to carry out certain tasks in your business, then you shouldn’t be doing them – One of these areas is the bookkeeping.

Quite simply some people seem to be “naturally gifted” with numbers, whereas others would rather crawl through the desert on broken glass than do their own bookwork

It’s totally unproductive to be getting frustrated and stressed out when you can outsource your bookeeping to a professional bookkeeper

An inexperienced bookkeeper can quickly become a liability in your business though making innocent errors, taking more time than is necessary, or simply not having the expertise

You can quickly come unstuck because a well-meanng friend or relative has offered to do your bookwork at “mates rates” or even for free.

Even some so-called “professional” bookkeepers just do not have the experience or expertise to be “let loose” on your accounts. They may be recently qualified and tell yo that there’s new legislation requiring bookkeepers to become registered BAS Agents before they can lodge your Business Activity Statements.

Before engaging a freelance bookkeeper ask them how many clients they have and how long they’ve been freelancing

MYOB software is not simply “plug-and-play” so that simply installing it into your computer will not mean you are ready to do your bookkeeping – you’ll need to enusre that the chart of accounts are correctly set up, and all the tax codes are correct for your specific business. Failure to do that can result in you paying the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) more than is necessary.

Contact us today for a bookkeeping health check

Get organised and stay organised
A clear desk and a clear mind will help clear thoughts and eliminate that feeling of being overwhelmed by the mountain of paperwork ahead of you

You can walk a thousand miles by taking one step at a time

Get on top and STAY on top of your record keeping, or contact our Mandurah professional mobile bookkeeping service to do it for you

- We LOVE bookwork!!!

Keep Good Records
By Australian Law, you’re required to keep business records for five years after they are prepared, obtained or the transactions completed, whichever occurs latest

There’s penalties for not maintaining the required records and for not keeping them for five years. Good record keeping will help you avoid these penalties.

Cash Flow Management
The life blood of your business is cash-flow. Just as you will die when your bllod flow is stopped, so too will your business die if the cashflow dries up.

Start this week with a Cash Flow Budget in four simple steps
Step 1: Prepare a sales forecast
Using figures from previous years, or guestimating figures (for new businesses)

Step 2: Cash In
Estimate cash coming into the business from customers, loan monies, assets sold off or money you put into the business.

Step 3: Cash Out
Guestimate money that you’ll need to pay to suppliers, wages, loan repayments, money for assets you expect to buy, money you take for your own use (drawings), and any loans you may provide to others.

Put aside between 20 – 30% for tax payments GST etc and amounts you’ve withheld from employees’ wages, and fringe benefits tax.

Step 4: Profit / Loss at end
Calculate the difference of Cash on hand at start of period then ADD your estimated cash coming IN (income) then SUBTRACT the estimated cash going out (expenses) = Estimated ending Cash Balance

Stop drowning in bookwork, struggling to perform tasks that you really do not enjoy doing – and let us get your bookkeeping upto date

Our team of professional bookkeepers around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, love doing the bookwork, and can get your paperwork upto date in a shorter time. saving you money.

Whether you use MYOB or Quickbooks or any other accounting software package and you need help in any way Contact Us NOW!

We all want to save money on bookkeeping fees, so have you worked out the true cost of DIY bookeeping to your business?

You can become far more productive using that time building your business and can outsource your bookkeeping.

There’s the time cost in doing the bookeeping in-house – do you have the right person to do the bookkeeping

There’s the money cost through inaccuracies because of inexperience / incorrect date entry

There’s the emotional / health cost brought on by stress of getting behind in your reporting

Our team of professional bookkeepers around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, love doing the bookwork, and can get your paperwork upto date in a shorter time. saving you money.

For your business’ sake and your sanity Contact Us NOW!

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!

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

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