For many small business owners it seems pretty boring entering data into a computerised accounting software program, as well as being totally unproductive. And the more bookkeeping that you do for your business, it seems the more there is still left to do.

After a hard day or week at work, the last thing you want to do is go home and sit infront of a computer and enter bookkeeping data

When the economy is in such a state and money is so tight, there’s even more reason to make sure that your bookkeeping is upto date.

You may use MYOB accounting software, or Quickbooks, or some of the other more popular bookkeeping software packages. However, unfortunately having a bookkeeping software package doesn’t turn you into a bookkeeper.

What’s worse is that you can make a simple mistake in the data entry that can throw your figures out totally, and you could end up paying the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) more than you need to be doing.

When’s the last time you had someone have a real good look at your accounts? We’re not talking about your accountant, who just looks at the bottom line figures – we’re talking about really looking through your chart of accounts and identifying errors in allocations that can end up giving you false reports.

Our Ormeau bookkeepers are busy completing BAS lodgements for our bookkeeping clients, with Easter, ANZAC Day, and the April 28 deadline rapidly approaching

Completing BAS forms has (theoretically) become simpler with the various accounting software packages that people have.

MYOB and Quickbooks software can give you a false sense of security, and there’s always a risk that you’ve entered the data incorrectly, resulting in the wrong figures being entered on the BAS form

How to safeguard against incorrect BAS lodgements

The last thing that your Ormeau, Yatala, or Beenleigh business can afford is to pay the ATO more than is absolutely necessary. Our Ormeau bookkeepers often discover businesses that have made silly errors in data entry. After reviewing their files we’ve shown them how to save $thousands (in some cases).

The investment into having your bookwork reviewed by our Ormeau bookkeeping team is insiginificant compared to the benefits of accurate bookkeeping for your Ormeau business. Contact us today for a review of your bookkeeping

They engage mobile bookkeepers just as they hire other contractors to perfom various services in which they have neither the time nor the inclination to carry out themselves

In Beenleigh you’ll find a range of bookkeeping services with bookkepers of varying expertise.

Finding the right bookkeeper
Finding the most suitable bookkeeping service for your Beenleigh business can be quite a challenge. Recent changes in legislation require bookkeepers that lodge BAS statements to have a CERT IV and becoe a registered BAS agent

Just as having a driving licence does not necessarily mean that you are experienced to race in the Bathurst 1000, so to a “piece of paper” doesn’t make someone a bookkeeper

You’ll find that many experienced bookkeepers had no formal qualifications. THey’ve been through the School of Hard Knocks, and have far more experience “in the trenches” than a freshly qualified bookkeeper straight out of TAFE or university

Rather than focusing on their hourly rate, or how many certificates they’ve accumulated, you should ask them how much experience they’ve had as a freelance bookkeeper

This is very different from years of working in the accounts department of a large company, or doing the bookkeeping for their spouse in the family business.

Ask your potential bookkeeper for references from any accountants that they have worked for / with. You’ll find that bookkeepers will deal with a number of accountants, as each client tends to have their own accountant. Contact Us for more information

Keep Good Records

There’s a legal requirement to keep good bookkeeping records. By law, you must keep business records for five years after they are prepared, obtained or the transactions completed, whichever occurs latest

There are penalties for not maintaining the required records and for not keeping them for five years. Keeping good records will help you avoid these penalties.

Cash Flow Management

Cashflow is the life blood of your business. Cut off the supply of cash, and your business will soon die.

Make this week the week that you prepare a Cash Flow Budget by following these 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
PLUS Estimated cash INflows LESS Estimated cash OUTflows = Estimated ending cash balance

Get organised and stay organised

We can have the very best intentions – and when you look at the huge mountain of paperwork yiu can soon feel overwhelmed

“How do you eat an elephant?”

Answer: One mouthfull at a time!

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

- We LOVE bookwork!!!
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Our Ormeau bookkeeping service clients understand the added expense in wages through operating over the Christmas Holiday period as a result of the Holidays Amendment Bill 2010.

It’s like all your Christmases have come at once!

When is Christmas a holiday in Queensland?
In 1983, the Holidays Act legislated that 25 December (Christmas Day) and 1 January (New Years Day) are listed as public holidays.

When those days fall on a weekend, then the Act also provides for the substitution of other days as public holidays.

This year, with Christmas Day being on a Saturday, without an amendment of the Act that would not be a public holiday because Tuesday 28 December was appointed as a substitute public holiday (as notified in the Government
Gazette of 28 August 2009).

That being said, New Years Day 2011 also falls on a Saturday, and in accordance with past precedent a
substitute public holiday would normally be appointed on the following Monday 3 January in such circumstances.

When a day is appointed as a public holiday, workers are entitled to be absent from their employment on the day and still be paid their base rate of pay for their ordinary hours of work. If a worker agrees to an employer’s
reasonable request that they work on a public holiday they must be paid any penalty rates prescribed in the relevant award or agreement (usually, double time and a half).

This means that if an employee works from 25 – 28 December, they’ll receive 10 days pay for working four days. It’s like all their Christmases have come at once!

He was very keen to have a bookeeper come in and show him how to do his bookkeepering, and train him to use MYOB so that he could raise invoices etc. Suddenly he was more focused on the costs involved in the exercise, rather than the benefits of outsourcing a professional bookkeeping service that would come to his Pimpama premises.

Without doubt you can find always find cheaper bookkeepers to help you. Some people are always prepared to cut their rates just to get work.

Rather than thinking that this is a good thing, alarm bells should be ringing. There’s plenty of bookkeepers out there, but ask any accountant, and they’ll tell you that there aren’t as many good or even great bookkeepers available.

If bookeepers are any good at what they do, they are so busy that it’s hard for them to take on new clients.

We can phone around and find a cheap sticker designer to make decals for us. They may be cheap because they use inferior products, or they are not very skilled as designers, or many other reasons.

Go along to a Two Dollar shop and you can find cheap stuff – does that mean that you are buying quality? Perhaps, on the odd occasion you may find a true “bargain”.

Very often clients find that they get what they pay for – bookkeeping is an important part of running a business and all our clients see the value of having experienced professional bookkeepers – they regard bookkeeping as an investment into their business, rather than an expense

Those that regard bookkeeping as an expense look around for the cheapest they can find – look hard enough and you’ll find someone who’ll charge you $20 to do a “similar” service

Good luck with that.

Why work hard on your business, getting stressed and struggling to build your future, and skim on the reporting side of your business – that’s the lifeblood – its what makes the business tick.

For the sake of a few extra dollars on your bookkeeping, you could begin to see some transformations in your business.

Just dare to try it!

There’s many reasons why you should get your bookkeeping upto date before the end of the financial year on 30 June 2010.

Often clients are devastated when they discover how much tax they have to pay because they didn’t plan for the FYE (financial year end). Leaving it until after 30 June is too late.

We are not tax agents or accounts, but our team of mobile Ormeau bookkeepers can certainly help you get your paperwork upto date so that you can at least have three quarters of the 2009/2010 financial year upto date and ready to visit your accountant before the end of June 2010

For many people the abacus is a very slow calculator – yet to others, using an abacus is quicker than using a pocket calculator. For a large Swedish flat-pack homewares store, the abacus is merely a children’s toy

Whilst visiting China almost twenty years ago, we experienced a totally ironic sight.

In a department store the chinese were selling pocket calculators across the counter.

When a customer went to make a purchase, the shop staff would grab the abacus to calculate the transaction!

Imagine that: selling a pocket calculator and using an abacus to conduct the transaction!!

It seems that the abacus has been around for at least 2000 years.

Possibly originating in China or Babylon, the abacus was common in the Roman empire.

As mentioned, the abacus is still very much in evidence in China, as well as Japan (as the Soroban), and even Russia (the schoty).

Business Activity Statements BAS are due on 2 March 2010 for businesses that report their GST obligations quarterly in Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, South East Queensland, Australia,

With the Christmas holiday period over for many small businesses, it’s time to get all your paperwork together and get it to your bookkeeper or outsourced bookkeeping service- to report on the 2nd quarter (1 September to 31 December 2009) to get your BAS lodged on time.

If you are struggling with your bookkeeping and need help, if you do not have a bookkeeper, or are looking to outsource to a mobile bookkeeping service, then contact us now

You may use MYOB or Quickbooks accounting software – or even some other syatem for your bookwork. We can assist you with any challenges, or even just releave you of the burden of the book-keeping

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh,South East Queensland, Australia, Contact us here for details

They then try to make a comparison by phoning up other bookkeeping services around Coomera and Eagleby in the belief that they can hunt around and find a bookkeeper charging a better rate and therefore make the assumption that by paying a lower rate for bookkeeping services they will save money.

On the surface, this may be a logical thought process. Mathematically, it ‘s a simple equation: The job takes “X” hours @ “defined rate” = Total Cost of bookkeeping services

Therefore by finding the lowest “defined rate” = You’ll lower the total cost of book-keeping.

However, there are a number of variables in this equation. How do you ascertain whether both bookkeepers will do the same amount in the allocated “x” hours?

How do you know that the quality of work will be the same?

There may be a number of reasons why a bookkeeper is charging a lesser rate:
1) The bookkeeper needs the work
2) The book-keeper lacks experience / confidence
3) The bookkeeper does not know the true value of their service
4) The bookkeeper has lower overheads

The bookkeeping raterefers to the amount of money that consumers have to give up to acquire that bookkeeping service.

Whereas the Cost refers to the amount paid to produce that service. The cost represents the sum of the value of the overheads – offices, labour, travel, experiences and expertise.

So when the client asks the hourly rate, do they really want to know how much the bookkeeping will cost? And if they focus on the COST, are they looking at bookkeeping fees being an expense or an investment into their business

A bookkeeping expense could be the result of trying to save money on bookkeeping fees by engaging the cheapest bookkeeper, where as investing in a bookkeeping service that has expertise, experience, and higher fees may produce better results for your business and ultimately save you time and money overall

When enquiring about bookkeeping in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh,South East Queensland, Australia, remember the difference between hourly rate, cost and price.