Complete & Scaleable Bookkeeping Service
We will do those boring tasks that will free you up to better spend your valuable time doing the important things in life.
We provide a complete bookkeeping service. You can choose the services you want to use. You may just want someone to review your BAS before lodging through to someone who will look after all the financial management for your business. There are no lock-in contracts or fixed fees. You just use the services you want. We will train you and your staff and put the systems in place so that you will not need us if that is what you want.
Payroll Services
We can look after payroll and superannuation to ensure your staff are paid correctly and on time and ensure you meet your obligations as an employer. If your accounting system does not have an integrated payroll system we recommend Keypay keypay.com.au At AUD4 per month per active employee (paid during the month) (as at September 2018) as a cost-effective tool.
BAS preparation and submission by a registered ATO BAS Agent
We will help you ensure your BAS is correct. You can lodge the BAS electronically yourself or we can do it for you as a registered BAS agent. We can help you plan for you GST and PAYG payments to the ATO.
Not-for-Profit Program and Grant Accounting
Not-for-profit entities have special accounting and bookkeeping needs, especially if they are in receipt of government funding. We realise that not-for-profit entities have very limited resources and to a large extent this means relying on volunteers. Online accounting allows for participation by these volunteers. Program and grant agreements from government required that the expenditure in relation to each particular program or grant has to be able to be accounted for separately. We can set up the systems to ensure this occurs and online accounting makes it easy for the auditor to verify funding and that it has been properly expended in accordance with the grant agreement. We recommend Wave online accounting for community-based not-for-profit organisations as it is easy to use and free. If there is a small number of staff we recommend using the Keypay online payroll system.
Accounting System Review, Assessment and Implementation
You need an accounting system that suits your business. One size does not fit all. The system is more than the accounting software. It is the processes you use to capture information. More importantly, it captures the important information. We assess your existing accounting system. You may not need a new accounting system. Using the existing accounting system to its full potential may be sufficient. We can help update the existing accounting system, put is a new system if needed and convert the data from your old system.
Accounts Reconstruction
There are those times when you just haven’t been able to get on top of your accounts and you get further and further behind. Then to top it off the records get lost in the move and the computer with all the account details has crashed. We can help you reconstruct the accounts. There are various means by which the gaps in information can be legitimately filled. We can bring your accounts up to date and using a cloud-based accounting system such as Xero or Wave will mean you never have to worry about losing data when your computer crashes.
Business Advice & Coaching
Practical advice as to how to minimise your risk, develop the best strategy for you personally and the business, how to improve sales and still be profitable, and the best systems and structures for your business. Coaching is about helping you to visualise where you want the business to be in the future and helping you to make that vision reality. This involves developing measurable goals and working with you to remove the barriers that are stopping you from achieving those goals. This involves taking a down to earth practical approach.
Accounting Integration with Your Website, Social media and E-commerce
Doing business online and using online tools are becoming an essential element in doing business. Your strategy for the future needs to take into account your total online presence including your website, social media and e-commerce. Tools for doing business including your accounting system and document management system also have to be taken into account. All these elements need to work together seamlessly. This avoids double handling, streamlines operations, improves information reporting and increases your exposure to potential customers who can then easily and confidently complete transactions with you. Well designed integration will also make it easier for potential customers to find you with good search engine optimisation (SEO).
For e-commerce we recommend Ecwid www.ecwid.com and Woocommerce. As at September 2018 Ecwid is free for up to 10 products and USD15 per month for up to 100 products. Both Ecwid and Woocommerce work well with Stripe stripe.com/au as a payment gateway which lets you easily accept credit card payments. As at September 2018, the charges are 1.75% + 30¢ per transaction.
Training & Support
Our philosophy can be summed up in one word, empowerment. You should not be stopped from carrying out any task only because you don’t know how to complete the task. We can provide custom manuals with screenshots and videos to explain particular tasks. We also provide online courses through AnytimeCPD.com which is part of our organisation. These courses use a combination of resources and can be customised for your organisation. In order to progress through and complete the course, the student must pass a series of tests and a final exam. When they have satisfactorily completed the course they receive a certificate of completion and transcript. The courses are completely online and can be taken anytime.
We also have a help desk system to improve the effectiveness of our support.
Business Plans – Preparation, Implementation and Monitoring
To secure finance, even an overdraft, you will need a business plan. It is more than a template you fill in. A business plan is a map of where you want your business to go. To get real value from a business plan it needs to be tailored for your business. It should be a living document that can be easily compared with your actual performance and easily amended to reflect changes in circumstances. A good business plan should be integrated with your financial reporting.
Budgeting and Performance monitoring and reporting
We can help you with profitability and cash flow budgeting. Budgeting helps you plan and monitor the performance of your business. They should give you a financial snapshot of the future of your business. The real value in budgeting is when you can easily compare the budget with actual performance and then identify the reasons for the variance. We can set up an exception reporting system to save time and highlight the important variances.
Management Accounting including Balanced Scorecard, KPI’s, and Product Costing
Management accounting is the provision of information for specific management requirements. There are many different ways of measuring the performance of your business and many different tools available. We will help you select the tools that best suit your business. Knowing the real cost of your products and the appropriate pricing will help you determine which products, service lines or parts of your business are most profitable so you can focus on those and not wasting resources. Well designed key performance indicators (KPIs) can provide an early warning system of impending problems. They can also provide you with peace of mind that things are going to plan. They are also useful in monitoring staff performance and providing a fair method of rewarding staff.
For project management, we recommend the free but powerful tool Freedcamp.
For time costing we recommend Toggl As at September 2018 it is free for up to 5 team members and USD10 per user per month for larger teams.
Work with your Tax Agent or Auditor
Online accounting systems make it easy for your tax agent or auditor to access and review your accounts. They can also submit documentation for your review. This means you don’t have to track down emails that had been sent. We will attend to any adjustments they require and end of year journal entries. Uploading documentation to verify expenditure will assist the auditor to vouch records for the audit. This should help keep the costs of the audit to a minimum.
Expense Claims Processing & Credit Card Reconciliation
If you are a business that reimburses employee and contractor expenses or you simply want to take advantage of credit card loyalty programs we can help with the expense claim processing and credit card reconcilliations. Where possible we can set up bank feeds for the credit card statements to streamline the process. You don’t have to worry about faded receipts printed on thermal paper because you and your employees can just snap a photo of the receipt and upload the image to connect to the particular transaction. We will ensure claims are in accordance with your respective approval authorities and policies.
Fixed Asset Register & Management
Keeping track of fixed assets can be challenging especially when the item has been fully depreciated. We can help you put a cost-effective asset management system in place. Each item can have its own unique code from which a barcode can be generated to help keep track of the item. The register can also include images, serial numbers, warranties and any special insurance details. Useful for vehicles and IT equipment.
Inventory Management
In some businesses, especially retail, inventory is a significant investment. Managing inventory can reduce the required inventory levels, identify profitable and slow-moving stock. This can free up funds that can be used to reduce debt levels and therefore interest costs. Effective inventory management also reduces the level of stock losses from wastage, theft and fraud. Effective inventory management needs to be tailored for each business.
Debtor Management
We can put the systems in place to help you monitor debtors. We can courteously follow up outstanding debtors. This can sometimes be difficult for am owner-manager. A clear credit policy will help staff understand when credit can be given, who needs to authorise it, and the timing of appropriate collection procedures.
Online Record Management
Keeping track of records of your business can be a nightmare. How often have you found receipts printed with a thermal printer only to find they have completely faded.
With Xero mobile or Receipts by Wave you can take photos of documents and upload them to be linked to a particular transaction.
We can also assist you setting up other forms of online record management using applications such as Dropbox, Google Drive,OneDrive and Box. We can also help you set up your own hosted document management system using Pydio document management. You can host the document management system on your own site or we can host the system on our online servers. Most documents and images can be previewed without the need to be downloaded. All documents are fully searchable.