She said:” I am looking at purchasing a program and not sure which one would suit me the best.

I have been looking at Quickbooks Accounting 2011/12.  It is on special at Joyce Mayne.”

We’ve found that sales people at those electronic retailers have little idea about accounting software.

Before rushing out and buying the software, download a fully-functioning trial version from the quickbooks website, as buying bookkeeping software may not always be the total solution to your bookkeeping problems

From a business perspective we wonder why Alice would have two different businesses on the same ABN when there is no charge for having an ABN for each different business

When the time comes to sell the mowing business wouldn’t it be better to have a set of books solely relating to that business?

Just a thought

If you want further help, call our office on 0415 453 536

Have you ever met someone who knows it all, and no matter what you do or say, they cannot be helped?

Well, you must have referred her to us, because this girl told us that she’s self taught, knows a little about bookkeeping, but knows everything that she needs to know about using Quickbooks.

So we are still trying to work out why she contacted us wanting some Quickbooks training. She advised that her bookkeeper helps her when she gets stuck, though the bookkeeper does not use Quickbooks, only MYOB.

We explained that we could review the Quickbooks data file and see if she is really doing everything correctly, but she told us the accountant has recently conducted a company audit.

What help do you need with Quickbooks?

“I just want basic training,” she replied. When someone knows it all, or thinks they know it all, the whole exercise seems totally pointless. We would be wasting our time, because she already knows it all, and she’d be wasting her time because we wouldn’t be able to teach her anything she doesn’t already know about Quickbooks.

It’s like asking Craig Lowndes to teach you how to drive, and telling him you already know everything about driving.

Here’s the thing: We use Quickbooks everyday of the week, we use different versions, with different clients, and come across all sorts of situations that people have created.

We’ve trained many people all around the country in how to use Quickbooks, withone-on-one Quickbooks training sessions.

This girl uses Quickbooks a few hours a week for one company and she’s self taught.

So why should we be surprised that she knows everything and we can’t teach her anything new about how to use Quickbooks?

Alarm bells should ring when you see such an email labelled as
FROM: ANZ Bank
SUBJECT: Important Information

Before doing anything else :

When you click on the “Login” link in the email, have a look at the website address you are being directed to – in this case the URL is http://mobilecrazer.com/login.html

Of course, if you don’t bank with the ANZ then it’s of no concern to you

When we see bookkeeping clients around the Gold Coast, you wonder how they’ve managed to get where they’ve got to. On simple bookkeeping solution is to sweep it all under the carpet and hope that all your bookkeeping worries go away.

Out of sight, out of mind. This methodology works fine until one of your staff complains that their paydidn’t go through. Or you have a supplier for your Gold Coast business on the phone chasing up payments.

Then the ATO wants their share of the action. So you take all the paperwork home one night and stayup into the wee hours of the moring trying to think how all this bookkeeping stuff happens, and what did youdo the last quater to get the BAS lodged.

If you’re like so many Gold Coast businesses, you’ve probably already spent the BAS money, and you’re waiting on a big payment from a reliable customer who alwyas pays their bills – eventually.

Meanwhile there’s the pending gloom of Christmas presents looming, and you’re wondering f you’ve finished off paying all the debts from last Christmas.

The good news is that our Gold Coast bookkeeping team can come in and setup some bookkeeping systems to streamline the paperwork for your office. We can even help you get this first quater BAS out of the way, and so there’ll be one down, and three to go!

Financial window dressing is where financial managers do certain things to increase or decrease net income that’s recorded in the year. They shuffle figures around to change the true picture of what is going on with the financials.

In the corporate world this sort of activity is known as profit smoothing, income smoothing or just plain old window dressing. This isn’t the same as fraud, or cooking the books. When the government does it, it’s called politics.

Just as Canberra is telling Australians that the economy is strong, and everything is going well. It’s a very different story when you speak to many business owners and operators on the Gold Coast. With the ATO getting more and more ruthless in their efforts to extract every possible dollar from hard working Australians, we’re seen an almost unprecedented number of small businesses closing down.

Banks are getting concerned at the rising number of foreclosures of home loans, and the alarming number of mortgage holders who are over one month behind on their repayments.

We’re seeing two different economies in Australi – the boom triggered by mining is offsetting the disaster that’s happening in the rest of the economy – is this another example of financial window dressing.

As the ATO continues to crackdown on companies, trusts, partnerships, employees and subcontractors, smart business operators are looking at whatever legal options are available to show reduced profits and save on tax liabilities.

Most profit smoothing involves pushing some amount of revenue and/or expenses into other years than they would normally be recorded. A common technique for profit smoothing is to delay normal maintenance and repairs.

This is referred to as deferred maintenance. Many routine and recurring maintenance costs required for autos, trucks, machines, equipment and buildings can be delayed, or deferred until later.

A business that spends a significant amount of money for employee training and development may delay these programs until the next year so the expense in the current year is lower.

A company can cut back on its current year’s outlays for market research and product development.

A business can ease up on its rules regarding when slow-paying customers are written off to expense as bad debts or uncollectible accounts receivable. The business can put off recording some of its bad debts expense until the next reporting year.

A fixed asset that is not being actively used may have very little current or future value to a business. Instead of writing off the un-depreciated cost of the impaired asset as a loss in the current year, the business might delay the write-off until the next year.

You can see how manipulating the timing of certain expenses can make an impact on net income. This isn’t illegal although companies can go too far in massaging the numbers so that its financial statements are misleading.

For the most part though, profit smoothing isn’t much more than robbing Peter to pay Paul. Accountants refer to these as compensatory effects. The effects next year offset and cancel out the effects in the current year. Less expense this year is balanced by more expense the next year.

Photo source- www.accountingcelebrity.com

The day before Easter we get a call from a Burleigh client who’s having trouble importing card files from one data file to another.

Acccording to MYOB it should be a very straight forward process to simply export the card files from one company file, and then import those same card files into another company file.

However, all their addresses just disappeared! After some investigation, and going back through the process, we discovered that the clients had missed a few steps and consequently they did not achieve the resultd that they had hoped for,

You can try to take short cuts and save yourself some money, which will often result in creating more work for yourselves, or contact our Gold Coast bookkeepers to solve your MYOB problems.

There’s many home based businesses on the Gold Coast, as business owners look at different options to reduce overheads.

A common assumptions is that DIY bookkeeping can save a small business owner money. In many instances this is not the case.

Business owners can struggle late into the night sweating over their bookkeeping, taking away precious family time, or increasing their frustration as they realise that bookkeeping is not a skill that they possess.

Our Gold Coast bookkeepers wil work at the preffered location for our clients. That may mean that our Gold Coast bookkeepers to be working On-Site at your premises, or off-site at our premises. Contact our Gold Coast Bookkeepers for more details

Since most business owners either employ or outsource their bookkeeper, you should remember that you still have a part to play in making sure you get the most for your investment in a bookkeeper

Your bookkeeper is not psychic, and so they can only work on the information that you give them

If your bookkeeper has to go searching for information, such as bank statements and cheque books, invoices and receipts, your wasting time that’s costing you money.

When your bookkeeper asks for information, it means they cannot complete a task – Delays in responding can result in the flow of work being disjointed, which can add more time to the bookkeeping, which again, costs you money.

Download this free report and discover ten things that you can implement straight away to save money on your bookkeeping fees:

1. There has been a significant investment made by the Qld Gov to make SE Qld drought resilient which required building infastructure

Signed Elanor Bray
Customer service.

Point 1.
Hasn’t the Queensland tax payer already paid for that “significant investment ” ? Or where has all the money gone that was raised in the sale of other State assets?
Since when does “building Infrastructure” mean a brand new $20million headquarters?
Point 2.
Developers already pay significant fees for “infrastructure” to meet the needs of expanding population. – Where has all THAT money gone?

Point 3.
“to generate fair returns for the 3 councils that hold the participation rights in Allconnex Water” – Surely this confirms that they are using the water rates as a reveune raising opportunity – isn’t that a TAX??

Not sure where it states in the Australian Constitution that Governments have the authority to add a tax to water usage

Any privately owned business does not rush out and hire a heap of staff until they need them as their business expands

Why is it that “corporate raiders” come along and shed any unnecessary or unproductive members of their workforce? Because they want to maximise profits

Allconnex, on the other hand, is quite happy to use their “blank chequebook” to create “jobs for the boys” with no apparent justification.

Allconnex should INVITE us to come in and look at the books, and see if we can’t help them “shave their overheads” and improve the finacials of their operation

We’ve helped many businesses that HAVE TO SURVIVE on limited incomes improve their bottomline and eliminate finacial wastage

Donate Online to the SALVATION ARMY Disaster Relief Fund HERE

The new CEO of one of the large (disc jockey) department stores gleefully donated a “dollar for dollar” on 50% of the profit they made on Thursday – $125,000.

Maybe their bookkeeper was way that day, or perhaps they just had a real bad day’s trading that day, since they normally make around $470,000 net profit per day.

Then there’s other companies from the “big end” of town that agreed to donate 10 cents to one dollar on every sale made on one day. Are they really giving generously, or is it an advertising spin.

We’ve talked previously about a certain supermarket chain that so “generously donates one day’s profits” to the farmers, meanwhile they spend the other 360 days screwing the farmers right down when purchasing their produce.

So how effective is Cause Related Marketing (CMS)? – Is the Australian public really so dumb to think how “generous” the large retailers are when supporting School programs etc meanwhile they undercut small business owners struggling to make an honest buck eventually forcing them out of business.

Look at the harrassment mr “Hardly Normal” received this last week pushing for GST on imported items under $1000 because Aussies are going online and buying the same products being sold in those large chain stores at sometimes upto 40 less.

Hello, mr “Hardly Normal” – where are YOU buying those same products??? Now that Aussies are getting smarter and wanting to cut out the middle-men, you start getting your knickers in a twist

To argue that it’s going to put people out of work is ridiculous – already the larger stores ARE putting SMALL businesses OUT OF BUSINESS.

Should we weep for mr “Hardly Normal”, struggling to pay his bills when he lost half a billion on the recent stock market crash

How many small business owners would love to have half a billion to lose!!!

To hear of kids donating their pocket money to the Queensland drought appeal is very touching, and makes us realise that generosity and kindness is perhaps something we’re born with and lose as we get older.

Maybe the big banking executive fatcats should stick their hands in their very deep pockets, get around the board room tables and agree that they don’t need to make billions of dollars profit out of the farmers and flood victims through unnecessarily rising interest rates

Let’s see the banks offer to provide interest free loans to the mums and dads who’ve lost their possesssions, their homes and their businesses – Surely the banks might actually win some support from customers by actually “doing the right thing” for Queensland flood victims – true cause related marketing

Which bank could only come up with $1.3 million for the telethon? Let’s see how much they would notice that meagre amount from their annual profits which last year was announced as $5664 million – not even 1%, not even 0.1%

How much of that $5664 million profit was contributed by the Queensland farmers and flood victims?

Donate Online to the SALVATION ARMY Disaster Relief Fund HERE

Obscenely paid corporate executives should feel ashamed at how pathetic and feeble the large corporations they control are in making donations that could be effective marketing ploys.