So you have an awesome bookkeeper who keeps your business accounts super organised. S/he keeps on top of slow paying customers, reminds you to pay your bills, provides some pretty slick-looking reports and has those boring conversations with your accountant that you always avoid. Sounds like you’re onto a winner – good for you! Now you’ve decided to go one step further and you’re going to ask your bookkeeper to prepare and lodge your BAS on your behalf. Okay, well before you do, you’d better ask him/her these 3 key questions:
It’s pretty obvious that I’m a fan of blogging. I’ve been writing this one for some 5 years now and really enjoy doing so. The other day I got to thinking about whether other bookkeepers blogged at all and thought that it would be great to get a list together of some of these blogs to share. I asked some fellow bookies on FaceBook and also did my own research via Mr Google. After searching some 30 pages on Google I found a few gold nuggets, 24 of them to be exact! Here is my list of 24 awesome Australian bookkeeping blogs:
I’m starting something new in my office. It’s going to be called “Training Tuesdays”. On Training Tuesdays I’m going to dedicate 1 hour to my CPE (continuing professional education) activities. Why am I doing this? Read on to find out why! …
Unless you are a bookkeeper or other tax professional, you probably won’t know what a suspense account is or how to use it. It certainly isn’t a group of bookkeepers waiting with bated breathe for something but you could be forgiven for thinking it was! A suspense account is an account to which transactions that are unclear or require further discussion are allocated i.e. they are kept in suspense. The suspense account is used frequently by tax professionals but maybe something quite foreign to business owners. If it is used properly, the suspense account can be very helpful for both parties in terms of bookkeeping.
For business owners who do their own data entry:
Never ever guess where and/or how transactions should be posted in the accounts. This will result in your tax professional firstly having to find those erroneous transactions and then secondly having to reallocate them to their correct accounts. This takes time and costs you money! Instead, set up an “other expense” account and call it “Suspense” then allocate any transactions that you are unclear about to this account. Next, advise your tax professional about what you have done and why. He/she will allocate these transactions to their correct accounts for you. This helps to avoid mistakes and double-handling of transactions.
For tax professionals:
As you process a client’s accounts you are likely to come across transactions that are not clear to you. Never guess or assume that you know what a transaction is, instead just post it to the suspense account. Once you have reconciled all of the other transactions, you will be left with a list of “query” transactions in the suspense account. Send this list to your client and ask for further information about the transactions and if necessary, copies of the invoices or receipts to assist you. When you have all of the required information, you will be able to properly allocate the “query” transactions as required. By putting these transactions in the suspense account, you will still be able to reconcile the bank account to ensure the closing balance is correct.
Some tax professionals don’t like suspense accounts, preferring instead to leave query transactions out until they can discuss them with the client. I prefer to use a suspense account because doing so allows me to reconcile the bank account which may uncover other issues such as missing transactions or double-entered transactions etc. I also like the idea of putting all “query” transactions into one account so that a report can be raised from that account and given to the client to review – it’s nice and tidy :-). Business owners doing their own data entry can also benefit greatly from using a suspense account. Instead of wasting valuable time trying to work out what to do with a troubling transaction, they can simply allocate it to suspense and ask their bookkeeper or tax agent to deal with it. A suspense account, in my opinion, is a very handy little tool!
Whether or not you are just starting a new business or have been in business for a while, it is important to understand the business structure under which your business operates. In general there are four structures: company, sole trader, partnership and trusts. Each structure has its own set of “rules” which greatly affect how you should operate your business. The various business structures are explained below.
If you’re an employer, you’re probably across how payslips work right? For instance, you already know that you must give employees payslips within 24 hours of paying them and that you can provide payslips in electronic or hard copy format. So that’s it right? That’s all you need to know – well, not exactly! Did you know that Fair Work has specific requirements in terms of what information should be reported on a payslip? Do you know if your payslips are compliant? Not sure? Here is a list of items that you must include on payslips (followed by some items that don’t have to be included, but should be!)
I’ve been a Twitter user for some years now and absolutely love it! I find Twitter to be a great source of information for my business and a wonderful way to meet other bookkeepers (and other connections too!). Because I’ve been on Twitter for a while now, I’ve been lucky enough to “meet” several fantastic bookkeepers who are exceptional in their field. These guys are very generous both in terms of sharing fantastic content and being very approachable on Twitter and because of this, I believe that you should follow them too. Here’s my list of awesome bookkeepers you should follow:
One of the questions I get from clients frequently is: what’s the difference between PAYG withholding & PAYG Income Tax Instalments? This is especially confusing for business owners who have never paid these taxes before and are new to the PAYG system. So what are these two taxes about and how do they affect your business?
In last week’s blog I shared with you 10 useful tools I use in my bookkeeping business. Today, in part 2 of this blog, I’m going to share 10 more useful tools! Read on to find out what they are (again, not in any order of preference).
Just like any good trades person, a bookkeeper will collect and use certain “tools” during his career that generally make his work easier. I have certainly collected a few tools along the way during my 16 years as a bookkeeper, about 20 to be exact! Today I’m going to share 10 of these tools with you and then next week I’ll share the remaining 10 tools in part 2 of this blog.
