SubscribeSydney Bookkeeping – An Expense or an investment
Posted under ATO, BAS, Bookkeepers, bookkeeping, Small Business | 1 Comment
Many small business owners in Sydney struggle with keeping their bookwork up to date. Yet good record keeping is an essential part of any successful small business.
As a successful Sydney business operator, how can you make an informed decision about your business if you don’t know where you are at financially with your business? You may have an excellent understanding of your business, and can say that you have all the information in your head. That’s why having a bookkeeper as part of your team is so important.
Since many small business owners can not afford a full time bookeeper, they choose to outsource their book-keeping requirements. That’s where our team of Sydney bookeepers can help with your bookeeping.
We recently had a North Sydney client who knew his business so well, that he boasted one client accounted for more than two – thirds of his business turnover.
After going through the paperwork, and bringing his book-keeping upto date in order to lodge his Business Activity Statements, we presented the figures. This small business owner was shocked to learn that the client actually accounted for less than a third in terms of income, and was actually taking up about 80% of his time.
The business owner had no idea of where his business was. He had never requested any reports from his bookkeeper, he hadn’t looked at sales figures, had a vague idea about his pending orders, and was heading for collapse.
Yet he took no notice of our warnings, because he regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense, and only wanted the minimum of bookkeeping services.
Six months later he closed the doors on his business, before the creditors declared him a bankrupt. So he lost his whole business for the sake of a few hundred dollars in bookkeeping fees that he regarded as an expense.
Good record keeping should be the life-blood of your business, so ensure that you have a good bookkeeping system in place. Whilst the increasing amount of reporting required by the ATO for GST and BAS purposes may seem to be a negative for your business, the necessary bookkeeping can generate reports that can be a bonus to the management of your business.
2nd Quarter: 28/02/12
by MYbookkeeping, on December 12 2008 @ 9:16 pm
What a refreshing blog to read so close to home. I run my own bookkeeping business in Adelaide and I am trying to educate businesses over here on exactly the same principles.
As an example, I have a customer who has been running his business for 37 years and this year is the first year he has actually been able to tell how much he is making.
It doesn’t matter what business you are in, the success of it is always measured by it’s profitability, so it is imperative that business owners know the ins and outs of their financials. The best way for this to be done is by using the services of a competent bookkeeper and constantly getting reports from them on the profitability of the business.
If it interests you, have a look at my blog at http://mybookkeeping.blogspot.com/ and keep up the good work.