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The importance of Book keeping: Here’s 10 Tips to help small businesses in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, South Brisbane, Australia, to 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 bookkeeprs 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 Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, South Brisbane, 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 South Brisbane bookkeeping service 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

How bad do you feel when you’ve realised that you’ve paid a supplier’s invoice twice?

Often it’s a simple mistake made because you are in a hurry, or panic about a particular order that you have to fulfil. Contact us for more information

We can all make mistakes in the course of our business day, whether you’re based in Ormeau, Yatala, Beenleigh or Coomera, good bookkeeping is an important part of your business.

9 tips to avoid paying the same invoice twice

Here’s nine tips to ensure that you and / or your bookkeeper never pay the same invoice twice:

1 Always make a payment from an invoice, and not a statement
The statement may not take into account a recent payment that you have made

When you look at the supplier statement and see the total outstanding amount you may get feelings of guilt and pay the whole amount showing on that statement

2. Have your book –keeper keep your accounting up to date.
By entering all payments and invoices regularly into the system before you pay your invoices, you can match the statements and outstanding invoices with your bookkeeping system quickly

3.Set aside a specific day for paying your bills.
You can ask your bookkeeper for a report of outstanding bills, or simply have a folder marked “Bills to pay”
So if you receive a statement, place it in the folder, and on the assigned bill payment day, you can match any outstanding bills with the statement

4. Use Purchase Orders and keep delivery dockets
Often small business owners may get their purchase orders and delivery dockets mixed up. In some cases your supplier may use the invoice as a delivery docket, and then send you another copy of the same invoice when requesting payment.

So, if you are not diligent, you can easily find yourself paying the same invoice twice thinking that they were two separate invoices.

5. Do not make a payment based on a phone call.
In a slower economy, when everybody is chasing payments from everybody else, it’s easy to make a payment based on a phone call from a supplier. Just because they are chasing a payment, it does not mean that a particular invoice is still outstanding

6. No invoice – no payment
Just as we suggest to our business owners that they shouldn’t pay any staff claims for cash reimbursements without a proof of purchase, neither should you make a supplier payment without an invoice in your hand

7. A Delivery Docket is not the same as an invoice
Your supplier may issue a numbered delivery docket with prices included, but it’s not a tax invoice. Ensure that your bookkeeper does not enter the delivery docket as an invoice, as well as entering the invoice relating to the same order. If they can’t find the invoice, then ask the supplier to issue a copy of the invoice

8. Reconcile your bank accounts each month
At the same time you should get a report of suppliers invoices and reconcile them against your suppliers statements
If the two do not balance, then your bookkeeper may have entered an invoice twice. Once you’ve paid your supplier twice, it’s not always so simple to get a refund

9. Enter suppliers invoices into your accounting system
By ensuring your have suppliers invoices entered, you can quickly check for duplicate in voice numbers, which may warn you that you’ve entered an invoice twice

Contact us for more information

Would you get a Bank Loan if you had no way of repaying the debt?

As a small business owner in Ormeau, Yatala, Beenleigh or Coomera, what response would you get from the Bank when you asked them for a loan with absolutely no plan to pay the debt back?

As freelance bookkeepers servicing the northern end of the Gold Coast, we are often asked to get the bookwork upto date for small business owners. Preparing the Profit and Loss Reports, ensuring the balance sheet is correct, so that the small business owner can seek extra capital to develop their business. Contact us for more information

If you have no plan, if you cannot prepare a budget to show how the debt will be repaid, what are the chances of you getting finance from the bank? Read more… »

With the BAS (Business Activity Statement) due on 3 March 2009, if you don’t want to pay the ATO more than is absolutely necessary, then contact our Ormeau mobile bookeeping service right now so we can help you out

The December Quarter 2009 (Q2) Business Activity Statement is due on 3 MARCH 2009

If you’re hoping to get an extension, you’ve got buckleys as the Australian Taxation Office have already given you an extension from 28 January to 3 March.

If your chart of accounts is not set up correctly, your BAS Figures may be distorted

Really, you’ve got an extension on the extension, since the ATO normally ask for the BAS lodgment to be submitted by 28 February, which this year falls on a Saturday.

The next business day would be 2 March 2009. However, in Western Australia there’s a public holiday on 2 March, so the ATO have extended the December Quarter 2009 (Q2) Business Activity Statement due date to 3 MARCH 2009

Do you need help with your BAS lodgment?
We get many frantic calls from clients who are struggling to complete their Business Activity Statements. The few weeks leading up to the BAS deadline can be very hectic for freelance bookkeepers

Our mobile bookkeepers can come to your premises, or even better, you can simply send us your data files and we can review your work, run a few reports and make sure that you’ve got all the figures in the correct allocations.

Business Activity Statements can appear daunting. What many small business owners do not realise is that the completion of the BAS form is not where the problems can be. Where the challenge may in fact be, is the fact that the data entry is not correct.

Maybe you’ve been down to your local computer supply store and bought your accounting software at a Hardly Normal Sale. You’ve rushed home and wacked the CD into your PC and then followed the prompts thinking that everything will fall rapidly into place

If your chart of accounts is not set up correctly, or the allocations are incorrect, you could find yourself believing that you owe Wayne Swan far more than you need. And rest assured, our illustrious Treasurer will soon find a way of spending other people’s money.

If you need help with your BAS, and don’t want to pay the ATO more than is absolutely necessary, then contact our Ormeau mobile book-keeping service right now so we can help you out

Congratulations to all those Australians honoured for Australia Day – and we also salute all those that make enormous contributions to the country in their own small way, but because they are not well known sports people, musicians or film stars nobody seems to want to honour them. [would the Australia Day honours be political?]

Without Australia’s anonymous heroes this nation would not be what it is today!

This year Australia Day falls on a Monday, so the nation gets a long weekend!

There’s a certain sector of the community with a big chip on their shoulders, who do not seem to want to move on with their lives, and want to call an event that happened over 200 years ago “Invasion Day”

Well, that’s fine, if it makes you feel better. However, why not join your fellow countrymen, who’ve realised that you can’t change the past, and instead take a more positive approach? Get over it, and move forward. On the one hand you want integration, and on the other you want to promote discrimination.

Happy “Australia Day” Australia! Let’s just party!

Does a financial planner do bookkeeping? Well, some do, and some don’t – the one that contacted us a few days ago was looking to outsource his bookkeeping.

When a financial planner contacts a bookkeeping service because they are eighteen months behind in the paperwork, there’s a touch of irony.

It’s like the sparkie who still hasn’t wired up some extra powerpoints in his house though his wife’s been nagging him for three months

Or the accountant who has not lodged their own tax return for a couple of years

Business owners can get so caught up in the busy-ness of every day activities that they can never seem to find time to work on their business.

Even financial planners need the help of freelance bookkeepers to help them with the genera bookkeeping duties such as entering customer and supplier invoices, entering receipts, and calculating fuel expenses etc

Unless you’re passionate about bookeeping, you’ll always find excuses for putting it off.

As a bookkeeping service covering Yatala, Ormeau, Pimpama, and Beenleigh, we are often called up to tidy up the mess that has accumulated over the past few months. Contact us for detailsRead more… »

Do You Have Five Minutes to Expand Your Business?

Often our MYOB and QuickBooks bookkeeping clients around Yatala, Ormeau, Pimpama, and Beenleigh are so busy involved working in their business that they tell us, their bookkeepers, that they’ve no time to work on their business.

Here’s a simple habit that you can form and stick to everyday. Then watch the results. All you need is five minutes.

Can you find 5 minutes to at least one of these things to expand your business?

• Send a quick note / email to a prospect, colleague, friend or acquaintance.
• Invite a friend or business associate to lunch for next week – even if they cannot go, spend a few minutes “just catching up.”
• Scan the local paper and jot a little note of “Congrats” to someone you recognize.
• Have a look at your diary. Think of another opportunity to develop with a client you saw yesterday, then follow up with your client.
• Call someone whose project you’ll be starting in the next two weeks and tell them you’re looking forward to seeing or working with them again. Ask how they’ve been.

If you’re looking for some more ideas Contact us

Why do you want to know if your bookkeeper can fix a leaking pipe?

Simply this: If you’ve got a leaking pipe, you need to know the source of the pipe leak, and then you get it fixed.

Similarly, with your finances, if you’ve got problems with cashflow, before you start to get it fixed, you need to find the source of the problem.

Since your bookkeeper should be tracking all your income and expenditure, the book-keeping should reveal the source of the problem.

As business owners and/or operators around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh you need to keep a handle on your finances to keep your business running.

You may not know what bookkeeping reports you need to track your cashflow, so contact us now for a free consultation
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