I was asked what was my number one business tip at the recent MYOB Conference for 2011.

It was quite simple! Cash is still king. That is to say, a successful business must have the cash to run the business and to invest in it's future. This means that the business manager must be in touch at all times with it's creditors (accounts payable) and debtors (accounts receivable) and match the timing differences between the two to ensure that the debtors exceed creditors to ensure a sustainable business.

The number one mistake that small business make is to quite simply spend or draw more out of the business than there is available. Cash at the bank is not a reflection of cash flow or available cash funds. For example, if you have $15,000 in the bank, but you have $20,000 in creditors, quite clearly, there is a cash shortfall of $5,000. My rules are:

1. Ensure that you have a handle on how much your customers owe you and when it will be paid;
2. Ensure that you have a handle on how much you owe your suppliers and when it must be paid;
3. Ensure that you are continually invoicing more than you need to cover the people who you need to pay, cover your overhead costs & expenses and make a profit (if you can't do this, your business is in need of a review);
4. Ensure that 2 & 3 are sustainable;
5. Ensure that you can invest in your business' future and detail this in your business plan;
6. If the answer in 2 and 3 is NO, you need to either increase 1 or decrease 2 or both!!

Most importantly - be very, very careful about spending more than you have - in particular in areas where there is little or no return for your investment (discretionary spending and owners drawings/wages).

 

I remember well the Valvoline advertising campaign........oils ain't oils!!

Well I support that Data Entry is not just data entry! I

It is impossible to complete data entry without also being involved in determine tax codes and therefore  the allocation of GST. There are many situations where GST is not a straight 10% of the purchase and needs to be split. eg. shopping from a supermarket, insurance premiums. This of course has BAS implications.

To ensure the accuracy of BAS Lodgements, every transaction entered into MYOB should be cross referenced with the paper trail to check the value of GST. In some instances this is not possible - if a client does not produce receipts and only a bank statement or a bank statement with receipts of which some have been misplaced eg. fuel receipts.

It must be stressed that the ATO requires all transations  over $82.50 to be supported with a relevant tax invoice. In the case of a tax office audit - these receipts will be called upon.

Receipts make a Book Keepers life easier and make the clients records reliable - so keep all your receipts and provide them to your book keeper.

An easy bank reconciliation relies on accurate data entry. Bank reconciliations should be completed on a regular basis. How often is regular? Well that really depends on the volume of data. Regular for some business may be daily, whilst many it will be monthly. Checking your business' bank statement regularly and keeping data entry up to date is a key to making bank reconciliation easy. We recommend only finalising your bank reconciliation at the end of each month so that your reports are for a full month - but that does not mean that you can't ensure that your records are up to date on a daily or weekly basis by simply checking your bank balance and your MYOB balance regularly. If you are reconciling your bank say to the 31st August then your balance in MYOB must match to the cent. If it does not, we recommend the following:

1. Work out the amount it is out by;
2. Check for any obvious typo's that may alleviate this out of balance amount. If still out;
3. Back track to the point in which the bank is in balance;
4. Move forward until you locate the out of balance figure.

In book keepoing - always follow the paper trail and back track to the point where you are in balance. Locate the point where you become out of balance and then fix the relevant areas.

Well, I am nearly 3/4's of the way through completing my Certificate IV in Book Keeping. Despite having a Degree in Business, this is essential to conform to the new regulations for book keeping effective as from 1st March 2010. All subcontract book keepers must be able to prove certain qualifications and experience to be able to offer such a service. I had a friend comment that such regulations were simply the governments way of putting another tax on people trying to do a job and earn an income. I say not so. Book Keeping is an essential service and a position of trust and I welcome any changes that protect small business and ensure that they get a professional and well qualified person to do a fit and proper job. We are talking about people's business....their livelihood...their babies.......their future in many cases and sometimes their families future.

I was shocked to hear at a recent ATO Seminar that apparantely some 40% of small business (ie under $2 million a year turnover) have no form of official record keeping. That is, they do not know their current expenses, sales or budget or plan any of their financial matters. I call that.....'Trading in the Dark'. This is certainly setting ones self up to fail!!

We had a planning session before we started back after the Christmas break and developed a very simple 3 page plan which outlined how we would be managing the business over the year, what our objectives were and how we were going to get there. I recommend this for all business - start the year by determining where your focus will be and the path that you will take.

If you don't keep clear, concise and well documented records on the financial state of your business so that you have a budget to work to and an understanding of how your business is tracking against that budget each step of the way.....you are not giving your business - absolutely best chance of success that you can. If you need help, call in The BookSitters.......

The lead up to Christmas is always a busy time for book keepers. Trying to finalise all our clients books as current as possible as soon after the new year it will be time to prepare Quarter 2 BAS for 10/11 and lodge with the ATO.

It is also a busy time as many of our clients with Payroll will need holiday leave and loading worked out for their staff and will want to know budgeting wise how much they need to put aside from the companies revenue to cover these additional costs.

Remember to make sure that someone within the organisation prepares leave records for each individual staff member so that entitlements can be worked out. These must be signed off by the owner or manager of the business prior to payment and of course confirmed with the employee involved.

Any book keeper who wishes to provide a BAS service for a fee, or indeed code expenses and provide a book keeping service where decision are made in relation to GST must be registered as a BAS Agent. This was implemented on 1st March 2010. It is of course a good thing as it provides protection to business and individuals seeking the services of a book keeper without necessarily understanding themselves the skill set of a compliant book keeper.

The BookSitters have lodged applications to become BAS Agents for both the Company The Sitters Pty Ltd and our book keeping staff as individuals. I lodged our applications in early April and have just received confirmation of both my registration (Justine Day) and Michele Gorman (co owners of The Sitters Pty Ltd). We are more than happy to provide our Registration Numbers for verification where required to our clients, potential clients or clients Accountant.

A note on the upcoming end of financial year 2009/10. If you are using a computerised system for running your Payroll, like MYOB, make sure that you have the latest version loaded ready for your first payroll run post 1st July 2010 - tax tables are changing and if you are running old software, your PAYG Liabiliies may not be correct. This is an issue for both your business and your employees take home pay calculations.

Remember that the ATO requires Payment Summaries (aka Group Certificates) to be issued to staff by 14th July 2010 and that Annual PAYG Payment Summary Statements are to be lodged to the ATO by 14th August 2010, this is an orange form the ATO provides for your business which totals all wages and PAYG for the year withheld by your business and is a means of the ATO reconciling the Payment Summaries provided to individuals verses what is reported by business.

There is a step by step process that must be completed prior to rolling over a new payroll year to obtain this information. A new payroll year must be rolled to run wages post 1st July, however, Payment Summaries and various payroll reporting MUST be completed first as it cannot be done retrospectively once rolled. If your business needs assistance, we would be happy to help.

Well I can hardly believe that it is just 8 days away from the 1st of June....,meaning 4 weeks away from the end of another financial year. This year seems to me to have gone even quicker than usual. Maybe its because our business has been growing and we have been able to look after more business' book keeping needs??

Now is a great time to have a good look at the state of your financials and in particular, if you are on a Cash System, look at putting a plan into action to pay for as much of your supplies as possible and clear out the Accounts Payable (Trade Creditors) for the start of the new year....and in the same way.....get as many of your customers to pay for your services as possible Accounts Receivable (or your Trade Debtors).

Another thing to think about for the start of the new financial year....is ensuring that your Tax Codes are all correct in your MYOB file ready for your Accountant to lodge the final Quarter BAS with any end of year adjustments and that all your accounts can be reconciled successfully. This is not always the case if your BAS has not been lodged by a registered BAS Agent or Accountant. That is, not just your bank accounts and credit cards, but your Trade Creditors, Trade Debtors and BAS accounts too.

If you are not sure if this is the case in your business, we would be happy to assist. Putting these things in action before the end of the finanical year means that your books can be forwarded to your accountant quicker and cleaner post the end of the financial year.

There are a number of new legislative changes that become effective from 1st March 2010 with the purpose of regulating the Book Keeping industry.

We believe this is a good thing and support these legislative changes.

For example, when utilsing a sub-contractor book keeper, you should make sure that:

1. They provide you with a 'Letter of Engagement' so that you know the service that you are going to be provided with and the fees associated with this;
2. They have Professional Indemnity & Public Liability Insurance Cover;
3. They have the necessary skills, experience and qualifications to provide you with a professional book keeping service;
4. Your BAS should be completed by a Registered BAS Agent.

We are aiming to keep up to date with these legislative changes to make sure that we are ahead of things through the various bodies of interest like AAT (Association of Accounting Technican's Australia) and The Institute of Certified Book Keepers.