Whether you’re a small business located in and around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, or South Perth, Australia,  we encourage you to focus on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest

With less than three weeks away before the second quarter Business Activity Statements [Q2 BAS] are due for lodgement, there’s not much time to get your bookwork organised

For small businesses in and around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth, we have a mobile book keeping service that can come to your office and do the work on-site, or we can take the paperwork away with us and complete your bookkeeping work in our offices

Either way, it’s not a good idea to leave your bookkeeping until the last minute and risk a fine from the ATO for a late lodgement Contact us today for more information

Business Activity Statements BAS are due on 2 march 2010 for businesses that report their GST obligations quarterly

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.

Maybe the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) does have a heart, after all. Rather than asking for lodgements on 28 January, they automatically give everyone an extension to the BAS lodgements to 28 February. This is, of course, a Sunday. However, the next business day is not Monday, since it’s a public holiday in Western Australia. Thus the Q2 BAS is due on 2 Mrach 2010

However, don’t be fooled by their grace, because there is NO WAY that they’ll consider granting an extension after that date. So you need to ensure that you have your Business Activity Statement lodged by 2 Mrach 2010

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 Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth, Western Australia. Contact us here for details

Here are ten options to consider if you have failed to lodge your BAS for the reporting period 1 July 2009 – 30 September 2009:

Contact us (quickly) because we may be able to get an extension for your BAS

1) Bury your head in the sand and hope that the whole thing will go away

2) Have a panic attack and wonder what to do now you’ve missed the deadline

3) Shrug your shoulders and just accept the fact that you’ll be making a late lodgement of the BAS

4) Stay up all night sweating away trying to complete the BAS even though it’s going to be a late lodgement

5) Call the tax office (ATO) and tell them that your dog grabbed the BAS form and has buried it in the garden

6) Look through your pile of paperwork, because you remember seeing the Business Activity Statement somewhere, sometime whilst making a mental note that it had to be lodged by the end of October

7) Call your accountant and ask him / her what you should do next

8.) Do nothing, and just accept that fact that you’ll be fined for a late lodgment, and look forward to receiving fan mail from the ATO

9) Go to the fridge and grab a coldie, sit down and relax in frnt of the widescreen TV that Kev’s just help you buy

10) Contact us (quickly) because we may be able to get an extension for you, as well as getting all your documentation sorted out to help you ensure that you’re not going to be paying Kev07 more than you need, since he’s shown us all how good he is at spending all that money

The amount was for AUD$210.75. Nothing strange about that, except for the spelling and the grammar.

They ask you to click a link that takes you to a website [ wv.us ] not anything to do with [ ato.gov.au ]

DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK – who knows what may happen – it could result in a little piece of software that invades your computer and extracts your usernames and pass words

It’s probably going to ask you for all your credit card details, so that the fraudsters in question can then go on a spending spree in London!

Not since Kevin Rudd organised for us to have a cheques sent out from the ATO have we had a tax refund.

And, thank you Mr Rudd, because the cheques arrived a couple of days after the ATO sent us a request for us to pay more tax – so much for the “Stimulus Package” – a waste of money, a publicity stunt – and a wonderful inheritance for the yournger generation of this fine nation.

It’s the “good cop” / “bad cop” thing

You know the “good cop” / “bad cop” thing. Get the bookkeeper to get on the phone and chase up those unpaid accounts before it’s too late. As the recession that we had to have deepens, more small businesses will experience bad debts. It even happens at the big end of town.

If you don’t have a handle on your bookkeeping, then you can quickly find that those clients owing you money have nothing left to pay you with. Many operators get caught up in getting the job done, and forget to chase up payments of previous jobs.

Our bookkeeping service can help you keep a closer eye on your unpaid accounts. We can get on the phone for you. We can reconcile your accounts, track all your payments and receipts- and do so many other things to ensure that you have your financials in order.

Don’t get caught in the trap of skimping on your bookkeeping – it can be a false economy to look at saving money by spending so much time on your paperwork. Hand it over to the professionals and focus on what you do best: running your business. Contact us today for a free quote.

No sooner have we finished lodging BAS for the December Quarter, to find the January – March 2009 Quarter will soon be due. Contact us for HELP

Quarterly BAS
Most businesses submit quarterly, and the 1 January – 31 March 2009 (Quarter 3) BAS is due 28 April 09 for lodgment and payment with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

A new client contacted us out of desperation. Struggling to prepare all the documentation for the Business Activity Statement, she could not get the figures to balance.

We suggested she email us the MYOB data file, so that we could get a clearer understanding of where she was at with her bookwork. Contact us for HELP with your BAS

“I had trouble with my MYOB files and contacted Carol and her team and they were just excellent.
They listened and then explained what they could do to help.
Everything was done speedily, efficiently and most of all cost effectively.
They emailed me how to send my files and worked on them that day!
Most of all “they listen” and don’t treat you like a dummy!
It got me out of a potentially tricky situation and literally saved the day!
Thanks Carol.
Liz Bird, Perth WA”

Monthly BAS
If your business submits the (BAS) Business Activity Statement monthly, then 21 March 09 was the due date for lodgement and payment of the February 2009 monthly activity statements

Superannuation Guarantee Contributions
Also on that date are due the Quarter 3 Superannuation guarantee contributions (1 January -31 March) contributions to be made to the fund by this date.

If you are struggling to complete your BAS form, contact our team of Fremantle Bookkeepers for HELP

When a business gets started, the first thing you should do is to make sure that you keep track of all the costs involved in setting up you business, so that you can set up a book-keeping system correctly from day one.

If you need some help in establishing your bookeeping, then contact us right now.

What’s become a nightmare for her, is a bookkeeper’s dream

A new Cockburn bookkeeping client has been running her graphic design business for over a year operating on one bank account for everything. What’s become a nightmare for her, is a bookkeeper’s dream, using the same bank account for both her personal and business expenses. That makes our job as mobile book keepers in the Fremantle area quite a challenge. We have to ask her which items on her bank account relate to business, and which are personal.

What Bookkeeping Records Do You Need?
The type of business you operate affects the type of records you need to keep for ATO purposes. You should have your bookkeeper set up your books using an accounting method that clearly shows your income for your selected tax year.

From a bookkeeping viewpoint there are a few basic bookkeeping matters that every small business owners should focus on to reduce the fees you will otherwise have to pay your bookkeeper or accountant

Depending on your business, whether you are located in Canning Vale or South Perth, you should get into a habit of keeping records daily

• Identify the source income that you’ve received
• Ensure you keep your dockets for expenses, and a note of any petty cash expenses
• Keep a record of all your assets

The Australian Taxation Office requires you have supporting documentation such as invoices and receipts for all transactions incurred in running your business such as purchases and sales. You might generate invoices electronically using an accounting software package such as MYOB or Quickbooks, or you may hand write your invoices using an invoice book

The ATO do not like you putting a lump sum amount on invoices for amounts above $1000. You need to itemise the account into, say $300 for labour and $700 for materials

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.

It is important to retain these documents because they support the entries in your books and on your tax returns. You should keep them in an orderly fashion and a safe place.

Purchases
Purchases are items that you buy maybe as raw materials, that you then on sell to your customers. The supporting documentation may be suppliers invoices, or dockets from cash / credit card purchases made for the business

Expenses
Expenses are costs incurred in running your business, such as telephone, electricity, rent etc The supporting documentation may be utility bills invoices, or dockets from cash / credit card

Petty Cash
It’s a good idea to ensure that you have petty cash for staff to make small purchases for items such as milk, or postage stamps etc. A good policy is that if your staff cannot produce a docket, then you should not reimburse them for monies spent.

Travel
Depending on how your accountant advises you, there may be opportunities to claim your fuel expenses in running the business from Canning Vale to South Perth, or wherever your business is located. You may be able to claim for travel to meet a client at Cockburn or Melville, etc.

No problem in buying your Fremantle client a gift at Christmas time, just keep the docket, and ask your accountant if it’s a legitimate claim.

Travel, transportation, entertainment and gift expenses require some extra documentation to deduct them as business expenses. For example, for your bookkeeper to deduct the cost of taking a client to lunch in Perth, you should record the name of the client, the purpose of the lunch and topic discussed at the lunch.

Contact us for more information

PS – We are not registered tax agents and cannot give advise in such matters. You need at ask your accountant regarding what you can and cannot legitimately claim.

Why? Because it’s a legal requirement. If you want help with setting up a book-keeping system, then contact us now

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.

Whether your business is in Fremantle of Melville, you should keep records for a longer period if you use information from those records in a later tax return (for example, claiming a loss carried forward from a business activity in an earlier year). The records should be kept until the end of any period of review for that later return.

Bookkeeping records relating to assets for capital gains tax purposes may also need to be kept for a longer period. You can issue and store records in either paper or electronic form.

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

Having a Book keeping System to maintain good Business Records Makes for Good Business
By having an organised system for your bookwok, you or your bookkeeper will find it so much easier to:

• complete your Business Activity Statements (BAS) and prepare your annual tax returns
• monitor the health of your business
• make sound business decisions, for example, by keeping track of debtors and creditors to ensure your cash flow is adequate
• demonstrate your financial position to banks and other lenders, and also to prospective buyers of your business, and
• make best use of your tax adviser.

Rather than paying an accountant or tax agent to sort through a shoebox of paperwork, outsource a freelance mobile bookkeeping service, or have professional bookkeepers come into your Canning Vale, and South Perth premises to generate well prepared records. That way you can present all the necessary information to your accountant or tax agent who can then advise you accordingly

As bookkeepers in and around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle we continually see the importance of monitoring the progress of your business. By having a bookkeeping system to keep ordered records you can quickly see where your business is improving, or what parts of your business may need some changes. Your bookkeeper is an essential part of your business, and therefore should be regarded as a necessary investment not an unnecessary expense

Identifying sources of your receipts
Most businesses, whether you are located in Canning Vale or South Perth, have money coming in from a number of sources, and you’ll be spending money on both personal and business items. You need to identify and differentiate your business and personal expenses, so that your bookkeeping accurately reflects the costs incurred in running your business

Accurate Financial Statements
Your bookkeeper should be able to quickly prepare accurate financial statements when called upon so to do. These may include balance sheets and income(profit and loss) statements. The P & L shows your income and expenses for a given time frame. The balance sheet shows your assets, liabilities and equities for a specific date

Legitimate Expenses
The ATO recognise that there are legitimate expenses incurred in running your business. Any claims that you make for deductions need to be substantiated. By keeping your bookwork in order, having your bookkeeper file all the relevant documentation in order will be important when the Tax office conducts an audit in your business.

Preparation of Tax Returns
Just as you need to support claims for legitimate expenses, your bookkeeper needs to record the income coming into your business. By having an efficient tax system in place, you’ll be able to track all income, expenses, and credits for your tax returns.

Keeping separate records for each business
It can be tempting to record all of your business activities in the same set of accounts. However, what happens if you decide to sell one of your businesses? How do you show which business is generating what income.

The type of business you operate affects the type of records you need to keep for ATO purposes. You should set up your books using an accounting method that clearly shows your income for your selected tax year. If you want help with setting up a book-keeping system, then contact us now

PS We are not registerd tax agants and cannot advise in such matters. Please contact your accountant for matters regarding taxation

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

For example, 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.

It doesn’t take much for a property developer to collapse 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

5. If you find that you have customers that are regularly late in payment, offer them a discount if they pay by credit card

6. Control the stock in hand. We’ve all seen carpet retailers making outrageous claims that they’ve ordered too much stock and just HAVE to sell it quickly this week at ridiculously marked down prices. It may be an effective marketing ploy for them, but if they really ran their business by constantly over-stocking, how long would they really survive?

7. Small business owners can find it beneficial to make part payments regularly on larger invoices, rather than waiting to pay a huge account in one large lump sum. By managing your invoices can you keep a tighter control on your cash flow

8. Ensure that you bank your cheques/ cash regularly rather than doing the banking once a fortnight/monthly – By ensuring you have regularly payments coming in to your business, you’ll be better able to pay bills as they come in

9. When cash flow gets tight in the business, have a look at how much money you really need to be drawing out as wages for yourself

10. Have a review of your expenses in running your business and see where you can make savings straight away. We’re seeing this with department stores that have seen in a drop in sales, yet they’ve managed to maintain their profits. How are they doing that? Cutting staff levels and making the remaining staff work more efficiently

Larger companies paying experts huge consultancy fees to examine ways to reduce overheads and increase profits are using many of these tips. You can follow what they are doing and implement many of those practices in your own business.

When you see a change in behaviour and/ or management of the departments stores and utility companies, just pause to think for a moment how you apply those same changes in the operation of your business

If you have no cash-flow strategy in place, then contact us now, so we can get together and help you

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 Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle bookkeepers NOW, and we’ll help you determine whether there is more money flowing in, than is flowing out of your business.