We’re a mobile book-keeping service helping small busineses around Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia with their Business Activity Statements

Your MYOB Bookkeeping and BAS problems can be over with one quick phone call – just as many small business owners in and Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia, have discovered.

If the lodgement of your Business Activity Statement BAS is becoming a pain in the Ass, then call us today

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 March 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 March 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 system for your bookwork. We can assist you with any challenges, or even just relieve you of the burden of the book-keeping

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia Contact us here for details

A client contacted us yesterday asking us to supply them with MYOB Premier Enterprise for their franchise. It’s a “high-end” version of accounting plus – and comes with five single usr licences

This means that you can have five different users – in different locations, all access the one data file. It’s great for retail outlets – maybe a chain of shops linking back to head office.

The clients have a bookkeeper that’s going to come in and do their bookwork. What is surprising is the fact that the bookkeeper did not advise the client that they would need their own server – and possible an IT guy to come and help them get the system set-up.

Clients are looking for more than just a bookkeeper these days. Clients are looking for a bookkeeping service that will actually supply “customer service” – you know, the old fashioned type of service that was not just knowledge. It’s “service with a smile” service with “heart”.

If you want the “wham, bham, thank-you ma’am”, then there’s plenty of cowboy bookkeepers out there who’ll do the work for next to nothing, and more often give you no service, and heaps of headaches, a set of incorrect figures but at least you’ll have not paid much for your bookkeeping fees.

Is “Off-site bookkeeping” the same as “Mobile Bookeeping”?

Whether you use MYOB / Quickbooks, or you need Software Training for your small business in and around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia, we are here to help. Contact our Mandurah team of mobile book-keepers now

When looking for bookkeeping services in Mandurah, you may decide to do an internet search for “Mandurah bookkeeping”

Others may look for “book keeping services in Mandurah”, or even “Bookkeeper Mandurah” as well as “Book-keeping” or “book-keeper”

Then there’s those people that are never quite sure if there’s only one “k” in bookeeping, or would you search for “bookeeper”?

You could do a search for “book keeper” in Mandurah

Either way, you’ve come to the right website, because our team of mobile bookkeepers will either come to your premises and work on-site at your offices / business that may be located in Mandurah or surrounding suburbs, or we can collect all the documentation and take it away to work at our premises. This is often referred to as “off-site” bookkeeping

Is “Off-site” bookkeeping the same as “Mobile Bookeeping”?
There are a number of bookeeping services that will only work at their premises. These bookkeepers tend to be inflexible and demand that their clients drop ff the paperwork at the bookkeeper’s premises

That may not always be convenient for a small business owner, and that’s why so many businesses in and around Mandurah choose our mobile travelling bookkeeping services, because our Mandurah bookkeepers will find the solution that works best for you and your business

Whether you use MYOB / Quickbooks, or you need Software Training for your small business in and around Mandurah, Dudley Park, Coodanup, Greenfields, Erskine, Pinjarra and Meadow Springs, Australia, we are here to help. Contact our Mandurah team of mobile book-keepers 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.

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.

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 records and for not keeping them for five years. Keeping good records will help you avoid these penalties.

Keeping good Business Records Makes for Good Business
By having an organised set of records, you’ll 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 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 we continually see the importance of monitoring the progress of your business. By having good 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 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 statenments 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. You may choose to use an accounting software package such as MYOB or Quickbooks. Contact our team of mobile freelance professional bookkeepers for more information.

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

Whilst world leaders have a money-tree policy to create cash, the average small business owner has limited opportunities when cash flow gets very tight, as in the present economy.

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.

On Australia’s Gold Coast a large property developer has collapsed 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