The circles are gold-plated, and there’s no hour, minute or second hands. Instead, the time is indicated by bright blue LED lights. The grasshopper on the top appears to keep the time, by dragging the outer circle around ( in a clockwise direction)

And what’’s this time piece worth? Apparently in excess of One Million Pounds Sterling! [Somewhere around AUD $2.5 million]

We often get calls from poyential clients wanting to know our hourly rates.

However, the question they should be considering, is whether or not they will get value for money.

After all, in the shorterm, a cheap $5 watch will tell the same time as this masterpeice of sculpture and design - but which will still be around in a few years? This clock is not just a clock that tells the time.

You can pay bookkeepers $20 per hour for their services, and you can pay others $70 per hour - they are both bookkeepers.

So why pay more than is necessary? That depends on how much you value your business - and how you regard the importance of a professional bookkeeping service.

What benefit is it to a small business owner to shop around for bookkeeping services on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, or wherever you may be located, if your deciding factor is based on price?

We’ve often talked about whether you regard bookkeeping as an investment or an expense - and if you are looking for a bookkeeper that’s worth their weight in Gold, why do you expect them to work for peanuts?

As a small business owner, would you rather have a huge number of clients that take up all your time for little return, or would you rather have a select number of cliemts that you can service well, and still generate the same income?

Would you rather engage a bookkeeper that is scratching around trying to make a living, servicing lots of clients for little return, or would you prefer to engage a profesional bookkeeping service that has less clients and can give you a better level of service, in an accurate and efficient manner?

Ask yourself this: Time - How muxh is it worth to you?

Whilst it may be true that you can get a friend or relative to do your bookkeeping, how can you be sure that they are doing the job correctly?

When the going gets tough, they see their bookkeeper as an unnecessary expense. Some small business owners do not have a bookkeeper, believing that their wife, partner, husband, aunty,cousin or friend can do the books at “mates rates” or even at zero cost.

Whilst it may be true that you can get a friend or relative to do your bookkeeping, how can you be sure that they are doing the job correctly?

A new client sent us through their MYOB file and asked us to review the file and prepare the BAS that was due for lodgment on 28 October 2008. We asked them who had set up the accounting software package, and the chart of accounts.

“Oh, we did it ourselves, we just installed the MYOB software and followed the prompts.”

Excellent! Only the Financial Year starts on 1 July 2008, not on the day that the business started (which was 1 September 2008). We suggested that rather than attempt to move forward with MYOB, that they simply enter the figures on a spreadsheet.

Their figures had reflected no “cost of goods”, no rent, or utility expenses, and only a few dollars for wages. They were wanting to run a “tight ship” and keep a close watch on their finances. However, this was a small business that was very good at doing what they do, and had absolutely no idea how to manage their paperwork, bookkeeping, invoicing or get ontop of the paperwork.

Since it was a business that was just starting up, they also saw little need in employing a professional bookkeeping service. Or rather, they did want our services, but did not see why we should be paid for our experience, knowledge and professionalism.

This was a small business operator who thought they could save money on bookkeeping fees, not realising that they were about to pay far more to the Australian Taxation Offic than was necessary. And how often does the ATO contactyou and say that you’ve over paid them? Since it’s all computerised, there’s little chance of that happening. The responsibility lies with you to tell them how much you owe, or how much refund you expect.

As we enter some interesting economic times, and cash flow is slowing down, you need to make sure that you are in full control of your finances. Now is the time to ensure that you have a bookkeeping system in place, that whoever is doing the bookwork for you actually knows what they are doing, or maybe it’s time to get yourself a professional bookkeeper

The accountant is correct to some extent

However, if you really are considering using an accounting software package, it is preferable that you start at the beginning of a financial year, rather than part way through a financial year.

When you set up the software you would need opening balances - and a good place to start [in Australia] is 1st July, at the beginning of the financial year.

We believe that it is a “false economy” to be continuing with a manual bookkeeping system “until you have more paperwork”.

Whilst it may not seem justified at the moment, it’s really the same argument as saying that you don’t really need a separate bank account for the business until you have “enough” transactions.

So let’s ask the question, at what stage is “enough paperwork” to justify a computerised 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.

I just need some help with Payroll, and BAS lodgements

Generally the problem is not with the BAS itself, rather it’s with the allocations and the data entry. So often we’ve seen clients who want to save money on bookeeping fees, by them trying to do the bookwork themselves.

Investing a few dollars in a good bookeeper once a quarter to help with your BAS can save you money

By not fully understanding the process, there’s a danger that your figures are incorrect, and you are declaring a higher Tax liability than is correct, and so you will be out of pocket.

Smart business owners understand that by investing a few dollars in a good book-keeper once a quarter, they actually end up ahead, compared to trying to sort out the bookwork themselves.

“I’m quite proficient with MYOB, but I just need some help with Payroll, and BAS lodgements, can you help?”

We often get telephone calls like this - Sometimes we an even help people over the telephone, there and then. Some clients need us to spend a couple of hours with them training to use the MYOB accounting package.

If you need help calculating your BAS from MYOB, then contact us HERE, sometimes it can be simply explained over the phone. Or we can look at your MYOB file and help you work out the BAS. Rather than getting stressed, contact us today

Other clients just need some extra help in working their way through the software to streamline their bookkeeping. Often we get referrals from book keeping clients who are very happy with the bookeeping service that we provide.

Contact Us when you need some help with your bookwork, or some training with your MYOB accounting software

He regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense

A couple of months ago we spoke of a recent client who’s no longer in business, because he regarding spending money on bookkeeping fees ans an expense, rather than an investment. (Q.E.D)

Do you know how much money other people owe you?

The issue is, not how much you are paying your bookkeeper, but how closely are you monitoring your cash flow? Do you instantly know how much money you owe people? Most busines owners have a fair idea of what’s happening in their business - But do you know how much money other people owe you? If you cannot answer that question, then contact us

When times get tough, the tough get going … well, that may be the case, but the “not-so-tough” sometimes get going too - Yes, they go staright to the wall! Belly - up, kapputt! Call it what you will.

Often the reason businesses fail is through lack of cash flow - hence the big debate in the USA about the US Treasury wanting to bail-out the banks, and stimulte the economy. Of course, the Banks don’t want to bail out small business, they just foreclose.

How does this affect Gold Coast Small Business? Well, if you don’t keep a tight reign on your cash flow, you could find that you have invoices outstanding for 60, 90, and even 120 days. Then by the time you go to chase up the debt, that business has closed it’s doors, and G O N E

The economy in Australia is certainly slowing down, cash flow has tightened, and we are seeing people taking longer to pay their bills

Now is the time to invest in a bookkeeper that can help you keep a close eye on your cashflow and help you through the next few months that are certainly going to be challenging fo rmany businesses as the Banks tighten up their lending habits

contact us if you want to know how a bookkeeper can help your cash flow

For many owners, just the effort of hiring, training and managing a bookkeeper can take as much as 5 hours a week and if you’re doing the books yourself the numbers are even worse.

Spend Time on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest!”

As a business owner you understand that your time is best spent doing what you do well — working with customers, and running your business.

Do you think that you’ll lose control of your business / finances, if you outsource the bookkeeping? In a properly designed system the bookkeeper only takes over the process of tracking transactions such as sales, accounts payable and balancing the books, but only the business owner makes management decisions.

If you have great books or pretty sloppy books for the most part your customers never know. A generally accepted rule in business is to focus resources on tasks that add value to the customer relationship.

Time spent on bookkeeping problems add little or no value to your customer relationship

Books that are inaccurate or do not reflect the true health of your business provide no clue to managing your business.

Being clueless at any level about where you are making money or who is a good customer is not being in control. Cash flow is never a problem in business it is a symptom of other problems, an outsourced bookkeeper can provide the answers and you will end up with more control of your business.

Outsourcing your bookkeeper solves the problem of hiring
Good bookkeepers with knowledge of accounting software are hard to hire, expensive to keep and in some cases difficult to manage.

In most cases outsourcing will save you money as well. The most common pricing structure for outsourced bookkeeping is to charge 10% to 20% less than the current bookkeepers salary. Not only do you save on salary but also you have no overhead, management, hiring or training cost when using an outsourced service. The overall annual savings can be up to 50%.

The most successful businesses of today have gone to outsourcing and now have time and money to spend on differentiating themselves in the marketplace.The most common reasons management chooses to outsource certain business processes are to reduce operating costs, improve company focus, improve quality, free up capital, increase capabilities not otherwise available and to reduce cycle time. If a buyer cannot receive an improved economic position as a result, then it should not outsource.

The decision to outsource can be an easy one. If there is a company or individual that can do it better, faster, and cheaper than you, then you do not want to keep the work in house. Outsourcing has become an accepted business tool worldwide.

By turning over business processes to companies that consider these tasks their core competency, organizations now have the ability to become more profitable, more efficient and far more competitive by focusing on the tasks that are most important.

They can compare similar businesses and create reports showing “average” turnover for a particluar business, and then cross-check against the tax return / BAS lodgment of that business.

It would be a huge job to be a bookkeeper for the Australian Taxation Office. During 2006/07 the Australian Government collected $135billion from individuals, and paid out $17billion in tax refunds

It’s no surprise that the ATO has so many more resources now than in days gone by for extracting every tax dollar from individuals and small businesses.

As bookkeepers, it seems most days we are working for the Australian Taxation Office, yet being contracted to small businesses in and around the Gold Coast, from Burleigh to Coomera area.

During the period 2006/07 the ATO collected $40billion in GST, so of course the ATO is going to be doing everything within its means to ensure that every tax dollar is accurately reported.

You may have a Car Wash business in Nerang, or you may be an electrician in Molendinar, doing cash jobs. The ATO can make a reasonable estimate of your tax liabilities and then come along and audit your books.

If the records appear to be disorganised, it will take the ATO longer to look through them. The longer they take, the more they will see, and the more questions they will ask.

If you can present them with an organised and tidy bookkeeping system, they are less likely to ask too many questions.

Whether you use MYOB or Quickbooks, or maybe you do not have any accounting software or even any bookkeeping system in place, then For more information Contact Us NOW for an initial FREE consultation

Do you know if your bookkeeper is looking after you ?

1) Are you accounts receivable / payable upto date and in order?
2) Is your bookkeeper giving you reports of receivable / payable weekly?
3) Are you invoices being sent out on time?
4) Is your bank account being reconciled daily?
5) Is your accountant happy with the bookkeeping? (And his fees don’t include bookkeeping work that the bookkeeper should have done)

For more information Contact Us NOW

If your bookkeeper’s behind in any area, then you need to find out why - it could be:
a) S/he’s got more work than time available
b) S/he’s slow
c) S/he’s may not be up-to-speed with the software and needs a refresher course
d) there may be other problems that S/he’s not told you

For more information Contact Us NOW

Outsource your bookkeeping to free your time to do what you do best

One advantage of the introduction of the GST was initially to force you to review your finances on a quarterly basis resulting in a greater awareness of your ongoing financial position.

This has led to many small businesses utilising a computerised accounting software package such as MYOB or Quickbooks to do the hackwork and present you with the necessary reports and if required even the BAS itself.

However, owning the software does not make you a bookkeeper, and whilst the software companies have done their best to make the packages easy to use, the operator still needs a basic understanding of bookkeeping.

We’ve helped many small business owners with book-keeping, and we can help you. By outsourcing your bookkeeping needs you can free up your time to do what you do best in working your business, while we do what we do best, working on the bookkeeping side of your business

The work of a bookkeeper is not the same as that of an accountant. Indeed, many accountancy firms employ or subcontract bookkeepers to prepare the figures for their financial reports.

Bookkeepers enter all the data, invoices, receipts, dockets, and match up the money that comes into a business with the money that goes out of the business.

The bookkeeper will reconcile the bank accounts, make sure that all the figures entered into the general ledger match the figures on the bank statement.

Accountants will look after the taxation matters of a business – they are professionally qualified and keep upto date with all the updates and changes in tax laws and rulings from the Australian Taxation Office

The finer points of accounting and taxation are best left to the professionals whose job among other functions is to keep you updated with changes in taxation as well as maximise your deductions. Your book keeper should be able to prepare a reconciled trial balance.

You can do the bookkeeping yourself if you have some knowledge of simple bookkeeping and know your way around a computer, but many small business owners do not have the time or the inclination to do the necessary bookwork each week