Sydney-Bookkeeping.Com.Au

Every small business owner in and around Revesby, Panania, Padstow, Picnic Point, and suburbs to Liverpool and Bankstown, NSW, Australia needs to keep records. Why? Because it’s a legal requirement. Many business owners choose to outsource their bookkeeping requirements using our mobile bookeeping services. Contact us for more information

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) requires you to keep business records:

• for five years after they are prepared, obtained or the transactions completed (whichever occurs later), and
• in English, or in a form that the ATO can access and understand in order to determine your tax liability.

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The importance of Book keeping: Here’s 10 Tips to help business owners in and around Revesby, Panania, Padstow, Picnic Point, and suburbs to Liverpool and Bankstown to you manage your cash flow

Bookeeping is an important part of any small business

Bookeeping is an important part of any small business – whilst it is historical, in recording past transactions of money coming into and going out of your business, book-keeping can also help with managing the cash flow of your business

Whilst world leaders have a money-tree policy to create cash, the average small business owner has limited opportunities when cash flow gets very tight, as in the present economy.

Contractors in the building industry can quickly run up large accounts with builders and developers, and forget that even large companies can fall over in a recession.

On Australia’s Gold Coast a large property developer has collapsed with millions of dollars debt, and often the sole tradesman or small business owner is at the bottom of the food chain, even though they are the ones that need the cash the most, not the Banks or Finance Companies

Our bookkeeping team of mobile freelance bookkeepers have put together ten tips to help you manage your cash flow:

1. As bookkeepers, we’re amazed by businesses that issue invoices with no specific payment date or credit terms. There’s nothing wrong in specifying the date on which you expect payment – after all, don’t the utility companies do just that on the invoices they send you?

2. Why not issue the invoice the day that you provide the goods / services, rather than waiting until the end of the week, fortnight, or month? Some business owners choose to issue their invoices monthly, knowing their creditors only issue payments monthly

3. There’s been a recent trend, again with utility companies, to offer an incentive to pay early, such as giving a discount. Notice that in reality they are adding a penalty for late payment rather than a discount

4. Ask your customer for a deposit in advance, particularly if they are requesting a high ticket item that you have to purchase from your supplier before receiving payment from your customer
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Bookkeeping records the flow of money in and money coming out of your business. A fundamental factor of any healthy small businesses in and around Campbelltown, Bankstown, Sydney CBD and Northern Beaches, Australia, is whether there is more money flowing in, than is flowing out.

Tracking the flow of money in and out of your business occurs through the recording of each transaction by the person responsible for your bookkeeping. Contact us NOW and we’ll help you determine whether there is more money flowing in, than is flowing out of your business.

In basic terms there are four sources of income, and four reasons why money flows out of your business.

Depending on your business, income is generated through the sale of goods and services, or the sale of business assets. Other sources of income can be through loans to the business, either from yourself, or money that you have borrowed from relatives, friends, or formal channels such as financial institutions.

There are very few businesses that incur no expenses to generate the income. Thus money flowing out of your business will be to pay bills for overheads, such as power, telecommunications, rent, wages etc.

Other expenses include buying or replacing assets to run the business. Then there’s your remuneration, as drawings etc, and also your business may lend money to others.

The recording of each transaction by your bookkeeper is critical to protect all parties concerned. Each transaction should be supported by the appropriate documents. When the Australian Taxation Office decides to audit your business, they will often need to see all your supporting documentation.

Your bookkeeper needs to ensure that all the documentation is filed in such a way that it can be easily traced. Each transaction recorded in the bookkeeping system should be supported by the relevant documentation also.

Consider the day that a piece of equipment fails, and you wonder if it’s still under warranty. Your bookkeeper should be able to tell you when you bought the equipment, how you paid for it, and also be able to located the documentation relevant to that equipment.

A logical and ordered filing system is just as important as the balance sheet or P & L reports for your business. For more information or a free appraisal of your bookkeeping system, contact one of our Campbelltown, Bankstown, Sydney CBD and Northern Beaches bookkeepers NOW, and we’ll help you determine whether there is more money flowing in, than is flowing out of your business.

Before you realise, Easter will be upon us, then the end of the financial year

A client asked us today whether he should make the final balloon payment on his earthmoving equipment, even though he still has 12 more months to pay it off

We’re not registered tax agents and can’t advise whether he’s better paying the lump sum before the end of this financial year, or whether he should carry the payments over into next year.

If your bookwork’s not upto date, how do you make an informed decision about your tax liabilities?

If you don’t have your bookwork upto date, or if bookkeeping is the last thing on your mind right now, then how can you make an informed decision about your tax liabilities for the financial year ending 30 June 2009?

How do you know if you should make a lump sum payment on your vehicle lease this year? If you ask your accountant, you’ll most likely be told that without seeing any upto date figures for this financial year, your accountant cannot give you an informed answer

To prepare for the end of the financial year is not as difficult or as daunting as the task may appear. In fact, the ATO offer you encouragement to get your financials upto date with the quarterly BAS requirements.

Look no further, stress no more, simply contact us, as we provide an outsourced bookkeeping service. Our mobile bookkeepers can come to your premises, work on your computer, or pick up the paperwork and take it away to return with neatly filed and documented set of accounts ready for you to take to your accountant

The bookkeeping industry is about to experience a bit of a shake-up.

The Australian Treasury and the Australian Tax Office don’t really understand what bookkeepers do. So to solve this “problem” and the government is planning to introduce legislation outline the difference between bookkeepers and tax agents (BAS agents) without actually defining when bookkeepers suddenly become “quasi” tax agents (BAS agents)

Apparently (according to the proposed legislation) bookkeepers do not make decisons every hour of every day regarding the allocation of an invoice or a receipt – only BAS agents do that. The legislation will rule that only a registered BAS agent is authorised to set up a chart of accounts using a generic software package such as Quickbooks or MYOB.

And then a “bookkeeper” can come along and enter the relevant data with absolutely no accountability for what they are doing. Then the bookkeeper will hand over the file to a registered BAS agent to lodge the BAS form. The question is, how does a BAS agent check all the entries that have been made by the bookkeeper?

Small business owners will be able to employ bookkeepers to undertake general bookkeeping duties, as long as the employer (small business owner) completes the BAS form

Why would a small business owner employ a bookkeeper who is not accountable for what they are doing? After all, most small business owners have no idea about bookkeeping, which is why they employ bookkeepers in the first place.

So how will the legislation help the general public (small business owners)? Here’s how:The legislation will drive “cowboy” bookkeepers underground, and create more outgoings for qualified bookkeepers, which most likely will result in an increase in bookkeeping fees.

So the small business owner who is supposed to be protected by the legislation will actually be worse off. They will either have to pay higher bookkeeping fees to legitimate contract bookkeepers, or find they will have to employ “cowboy” bookkeepers that the legislation was trying to prevent.

For professional and efficient mobile bookkeeping services for your business, in and around Campbelltown, Glen Alpine or Minto….Call 0415 453 536.

Do you know that saying:”A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing”? When applied to an accounting software package like Quickbooks or MYOB, it can become costly.

Many clients around Revesby, Panania, Padstow, Picnic Point, and suburbs to Liverpool and Bankstown, Sydney, NSW, Australia have contacted our professional bookkeeping service after having difficulties keeping on top of their bookkeeping. Contact us for more details

Use an efficient and simplified system to keep your book keeping in order, your books upto date and produce reports so that you have an accurate and current record of where your business is each week.

They’ve been shown just enough to be able to enter data and produce reports. However the reports that are generated are not a true reflection of their business.

This can happen through incorrect allocations of funds, or looking for ways to by-pass certain automated features built into accounting software packages.

The GST and BAS Nightmare

For clients in industries such as those involving food, the GST component can become a real nightmare. An example may be when purchasing raw food without GST, then preparing and selling food items that now have GST.

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In a tight economy you need to ensure that you have a handle on what money you owe and to whom, and what money is owed to you and by whom.

As a small business owner in Campbelltown, Bankstown, Sydney CBD and Northern Beaches you need to ensure that you have a handle on your cashflow. If you do not have a bookkeeper, or book-keeping system in place then contact us here for details

If you do not use an accounting software package such as Quickbooks or MYOB, if you do not use a bookkeeper, or have a bookeeping system in place then you could be heading for disaster. Unlike Kevin Rudd’s government, most likely you do not have an unlimited supply of cash,
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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.
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It’s tempting for small-business owners in Sydney to want to handle their own bookkeeping and tax preparation. After all, there is a lot of excellent accounting software such as MYOB or Quickbooks out there to help them.

And many business startups begin with a few partners who do everything, hiring outside contractors only when absolutely necessary.

But just because you can do something such as the book keeping or the paperwork, doesn’t mean you should. There are indirect costs involved with everything that falls into the do-it-yourself category.

These include the time you spend doing it yourself instead of tending to other business matters, and the possible missed opportunities that come with not having something handled by a full-time expert in that task.
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Can your business survive a tax audit?

The Australian Taxation Office have been engaged in extensive programs of visiting Small Businesses to check if they are keeping adequate bookkeeping records. Can your business survive a tax audit? Contact us for a review of your bookkeeping system

Section 262A of the ITAA 1936 requires that a person running a business to keep records that expalin and record all transactions. The documentation must be kept for a minimum of five years

If the ATO find that your bookkeeping is inadequate, then the taxpayer will be informed and advised to improve the record keeping operation, and your business will be revisited in six months.

The ATO has a list of records to be inspected and will contact you for a suitable time to review your bookkeeping and record keeping procedures

Can your business survive a tax audit? Contact us for a review of your bookkeeping system

Disclaimer: We are bookkeepers skilled in establishing and assisting with bookkeeping systems, we are not registered Tax Agents and cannot give advice in relation to tax matters.