Fremantle Bookkeeping Services

Business Activity Statements, (June BAS) for business owners reporting quarterly, are due on 28 July 2009 (next week).

For many small business owners and especially for their bookkeepers around Fremantle and Canning Vale, July is always a busy time of year.

With end of financial year reporting, together with reporting of the 01 April to 30 June quarter, businesses that are behind in their paperwork can struggle under extra pressure that they really do not need

Cash flow has certainly tightened up in the economy. As bookkeepers, we’ve seen that invoice payments are being dragged out longer and longer, as suppliers wait to be paid by customers, and service providers wait to be paid by their clients

The phone’s been ringing as desperate business owners in a panic wanting help with their MYOB and Quickbooks files. In most cases, they can simply email us the files and we’ll have a look at their reporting and can generally work out where the problems are within a short time

One lady contacted us after spending two days trying to reconcile her Quickbooks bank accounts. We had a look at her file and solved the problem in 35 minutes. Look at the time and stress she would have saved if she had contacted our bookkeeping company when she first noticed that there was a problem

As a small business owner we encourage you to focus on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest

Desperate phone call from a bookkeeping client in Fremantle: What to do about unpaid accounts? Our professional bookkeeping can help small businesses chase up unpaid accounts. Contact us today for a free quote.

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.

Could 80% of BAS forms really be completed incorrectly? Apparently this is the figure that the Australian Taxation Office estimate when reviewing Business Activity Statements.

Are You Paying More GST than You Should?

When you consider that many small business owners around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth believe that bookkeeping is an expense, rather than an investment, it is hardly surprising that so many people who have no idea what they are doing complete Business Activity Statements.

Many clients approach our professional contract bookkeeping service because they realise that a mobile bookkeeper can save them heart-ache and stress in getting their paperwork upto date. Contact us today for more information.

Speaking to a client in Canning Vale last week, it transpired that he had absolutely no idea what was involved in running a business from the financial aspects. As long as there was money in his pocket at the end of each week to pay the bills, he was happy.

When the first BAS form arrived on his doorstep he just figured he’d guess what figures went where and hope that it would all sort it self out at the end of the financial year

The crazy thing is, that by having to report quarterly Business Activity Statements, small businesses are being encouraged to record their business activities every three months.

If you leave it all for your accountant at the end of the financial year, then guess what? It’s all too late.

If you’re now faced with a large tax liability after the end of the year, there’s nothing you can do about it. Whereas if you are aware of the situation beforehand, then there maybe avenues that you can follow to reduce your tax liability. We are not registered tax agents and cannot give guidance in such matters, so you need to speak to your accountant.

We’ll look at your bookkeeping and assess your requirements. It’s not uncommon for us to find some major savings for our clients. Contact us today for more information.

Are you struggling to complete your BAS form?

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

As bookkeepers servicing the Fremantle area, we are often asked: “What Bookkeeping Records Does the ATO Need?”.

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 Read more… »

Every small business owner in and around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth, Western Australia needs to keep bookkeeping records for the ATO.

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 Read more… »

The importance of Book keeping: Here’s 10 Tips that businesses in and around Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth, Australia can use to help manage 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

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
Read more… »

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 Cockburn, Melville, Fremantle, Canning Vale, and South Perth, 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 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.

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

As a small business owner, 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, 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?

The Federal Government’s monetary policy has been totally misunderstood

Obviously the situation is very different when you run the country. You can stand up in Parliament in Canberra, with a majority of “yes men” behind you, and share your monetary policy with the nation.

To give Kevin Rudd full benefit, we should point out that the Federal Government’s monetary policy has been totally misunderstood. How silly of us not to realize that in fact it’s a “money-tree” policy.

Rudd, and Swann seem to have a money tree in their back yard, and at the sniff of any trouble they can turn to their money-tree policy and throw the country into more debt.

Everybody is wondering how effective Government’s $10.4 billion spending package before Christmas has been!

Many economists predict that the recession has a long way to go. So the Rudd Labor Government reckons the best way out of this situation is to spend money that he hasn’t got – Is that how his family have amassed a $millions fortune?

For those small business owners that can remember the previous “Recession we had to have”, you’ll know that the previous Labour Government left a legacy of $96 billion in government debt and the Budget had been in deficit for six successive years.

It only took the Australian people a decade to repay this debt (after selling off much of the family jewels in commodities.

According to the Kevin Rudd, the simple solution to Australia’s current problems is to demand that all us hard working Australians to agree to plunge headlong back into large deficits and significant debt, to the tune of $9500 for every Australian.

Well, they say”: If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” If you don’t have it, and you happen to run a country, then just create it! The Labour Government’s Money-Tree policy seems to be to throw Australia deeper into debt with a poorly considered and ineffective $42 billion “fiscal stimulus” package.

Meanwhile Malcolm Turnbull (who’s always quick to look for an opportunity to improve his popularity) is pushing for the Australian Government to bring forward the proposed tax cuts currently scheduled for 1 July 2009 and 1 July 2010 be brought forward, and backdated to 1 January this year.

By the middle of 2010 this would leave a two-income household earning $80,000 approximately $1700 better off.

As a hard working Australian, and small business owner, you must have a real “warm and fuzzy” feeling knowing that your taxes are being so wisely invested while you struggle to make ends meet.

If you need help with your BAS, and don’t want to pay the ATO more than is absolutely necessary, then contact us 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.

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,

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.

So the next business day would be 2 March 2009, except that we’ve got a public holiday here in Western Australia, so the ATO has moved the deadline 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. He’s had many years of experience at that as a Trade Unionist

If you need help with your BAS, and don’t want to pay the ATO more than is absolutely necessary, then contact us right now so we can help you out