Bookkeeping and Accounting Blog - Articles for Bookkeepers in Australia

October 11, 2018 Bookkeeping

How Bookkeeping Business Services Help The Entrepreneurs!

Start business with a Bang! Whether you have a large financial budget or less than desired, the results all entrepreneurs want are the same; more money and fame in their industry.

People often kick start their business with great enthusiasm, aiming for extensive business growth, however they soon run into problems when they are unwilling to do extremely important tasks of tracking expenses, registering a business, financial health checkups, complying and utilising tax rules and much more.

Now, the question faced by new and experienced entrepreneurs alike is “how do we fix, or better yet, avoid, these problems”?

Well, considering the modern scenario, if you want to perfectly keep up with the financial health of your business, you need an accountant or a bookkeeper that can help you out with the various financial aspects.

Having a personal accounting team with absolute expertise and providing them with appropriate accounting environment including expensive accounting software and the system can bring the huge load on your budget which is not as prominent as the affordable bookkeeping services available in the market.

What Are Bookkeeping Business Services?

Bookkeeping is a well-structured way of tracking the day-to-day base report of financial transactions and information pertaining to a business. The bookkeeping business services offered by certified bookkeepers help you to avoid daunting and time-consuming tasks such as records of the individual financial transactions, taking care of legal authorities, up-to-date & comprehensive taxation and much more.

Here Are Some Promising Reasons To Hire A Certified Bookkeeper –

Legal Registration Of Business – Any startup business needs to go through numerous legal registration processes that can consume lots of time. Bookkeeper have certain reporting criteria to face all steps such as –

1.Registering a business

2.Apply for an ABN

3.Online GST registration and much more.

To Focus On Main Objective Of Business –

As a startup needs the huge attention of its founder to achieve the desired outcome of their unique business idea. Where the other additional but essential tasks can disturb your aim, the bookkeepers help you to have an assured & legal track of your every business transaction. This helps an entrepreneur to devote its time in strategy, marketing, funding, and other key areas.
Maintain payroll – The employees are the main strength of every business, thus paying them on time is very crucial to keep them happy and motivated. The bookkeepers provide an easy maintenance of your cash flow system which is reliable not only for paying employees, but also for analyzing the outstanding payments to/from your client base.

Ensure Correct Taxation – Every business goes through some legal taxation filters – quarterly or annual bases tax filings – depending on the business. Bookkeeping services assign an agent to have an absolute track of every legal taxation required in an appropriate way to avoid all future financial brawls.

The above mentioned key points describe broadly the legal financial needs – absolutely crucial for the business. It is also clear – how bookkeeping services are beneficial to entrepreneurs – making them able to save the money on all day-to-day financial needs and to prepare a proper financial report at the end of the year.

Go for excellent bookkeeping team at Flawless Figures – prominent to transform your complex account keeping processes into easily manageable way with extensive services. We offer services such as accounts receivable/payable, business setup, staff training, taxation & payroll management, and much more at affordable bookkeeping service prices.

August 29, 2018 Uncategorized

3 Best Payroll Options For Small Businesses

In any business, it is quite important that the payroll process is done right – regardless of their organizational size or the number of people they employ. However, many business owners and bookkeepers spend a crazy length of time on managing payroll and tax compliance.

The major tasks included in any payroll process are computing deductions and employee benefits, producing pay slips, calculating and filing employment taxes, complying with regulatory requirements, processing or depositing payment directly to employee’s bank account, voiding payments if need be, producing reports, and even printing checks.

With the key purpose to simplify and automate the process of paying a company’s employees, a wide number of payroll software are developed. We have rounded up some of the best payroll software solutions that let you focus on other aspects of running your business:

Xero

Contemporarily, more than 180 countries are using this exquisite cloud-based software:

Bestows a clear view of the business’s financial position by performing a range of functions including invoicing, inventory management, bank reconciliation, expense management and payment of bills, project tracking multi-currency capability, & much more.
Let you easily track working hours and approve leave with controlled access for employees by providing a range of tools.
Provides two-factor authentication along with entire details of the transaction such as dates, users, actions performed and notes to minimize the fraud.
Manage all the tasks you have to do to automatically updating your accounts to keep track of all your Payroll and business finances in one.
Serve ease to employees regarding viewing their payslips, submitting their timesheets and applying for leave by offering an exclusive Xero Me mobile app for both iOS and Android user.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a renown accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. It is the most popular online payroll software solution, especially among the small and medium-sized businesses.

The key feature of this intuitive software is that it is a mobile-friendly payroll application that effectually works across smartphones, tablets, and computers.
It keeps everything organized in one place – making your financial organization easy.
This robust accounting software makes sure your staff are properly and accurately compensated.
With powerful invoicing and custom reminders, it keeps full track of what you earn and where your business stands.
Connect your bank account to automatically import and categorize transactions.
Ability to interface with outside programs to sync data automatically.

Gusto

Gusto, previously known as ZenPayroll, is the most user-friendly solution out on the market right now.

It provides new hire onboarding and reports them automatically to the government.

With its employee self-onboarding, it gives your employees access to their information, paystubs, and W-2s.
Known as a modern HR solution to help you manage your team without all the paperwork, emails and spreadsheets.
One of the major reason behind its popularity is its automatic tax payments – which simplifies the management and administration of all the basic payroll and tax compliance.
Along with superb user-experience, it has many convenient features such as benefits management, automatic payroll runs, and top-rated customer service.

To speed up the payroll process and ensure accuracy, we, at Flawless Figures use these advanced powerful cashflow software. We look after the whole process from start to finish including sending payslips to employees, checking timesheets, commissions, payroll tax, superannuation & much more to help you grow your business. So no more worries about the errors, or legal mistakes – just opt for our services and have your entire focus on growing your business – saving valuable time and money.

August 9, 2018 Uncategorized

5 Reasons To Move To A Cloud-Based Accounting System – Flawless Figures

Talking about online accounting, every day more and more businesses are turning to cloud – the platform where you access the data online anytime, anywhere, from any device.

Comparing with traditional Desktop versions, cloud-based versions may have slightly different functionality but they are versatile & provide long-term viability. Their peculiarity to get easily deployed, managed and upgraded than the contracts of the past, makes it an ideal choice. Although, it simplifies your accounting process from start to finish.

Benefits of Cloud Accounting:

Ease of Access:

Accessibility is the prime benefit of cloud-based bookkeeping. While using that old desktop-based system, all your data & accounts are on the local drive. Consequently, you get stuck in one location – resulting in limited access to your data & financial information.

However, with the cloud-based accounting, you are no more restricted. All your data is safely encrypted and stored on cloud-server. In order to access your business’s financial data from anywhere worldwide – whether you are traveling, gaining new clients or taking care of other important business matters – all you need is your device and an internet connection.

Cost:

Eliminating the need for expensive computer equipment and resources to set up and maintain office servers, it cuts the wide amount of cost for your business. Thereupon, it is the most economical way to go.

Usually, there is a monthly subscription fee in the cloud-based systems – in which updates in software and hardware are done automatically by the service provider. This helps you in staying always up-to-date at a reduced implementation cost.

Collaboration:

Well, in the desktop approach, there is limited access to the accounts. Hence, the collaboration with other colleagues & advisors is difficult.

On the other hand, cloud-based approach lets you view real-time accounting information anytime, anywhere. As a result, Key People can stay connected with up-to-date information, regardless of the location.

Security:

Keeping your data secure is critical for any organization. When you are using a cloud-based system, all your data is stored online with Military level encryption. Also, it includes backup functionality to prevent the possibility of data loss.

Even if your computer is stolen, no one can access your data unless they have a login to the online account. Your data is safe and backed up because your data is no longer at a physical server in the office. Thus, it also controls the privacy access of confidential data.

Free Storage:

All the records – file, information, and data are stored online on ‘cloud storage’. This means there is no need to install anything on local hard disks. It saves a huge amount of storage & hence reduces cost. Although, every time you log in to your account, you will get to the most up-to-date version of the software – without paying any extra cost or without updating it yourself.

This proves that cloud accounting is an accessible, cost-effective and secure solution – regardless of the Industry or firm you are competing in.

Being a business owner, you might have exclusive entrepreneurship skills but if talk about financing and accounting, it could be a tedious distraction. While you are focusing on building your brand and growing your business, it is too burdensome & toilful task to manage your bookkeeping concurrently. Thus, to alleviate your stress & pressure, Flawless Figures has come across exclusive cloud-based bookkeeping services involving Business setup, Payroll, Bank Reconciliation, Accounting software & much more.

July 6, 2018 End of Financial Year

Top Tax Deductions for Tradies!

Tax deductions are a great way to claim back hard earned money at the End of Financial Year. Below is a list of a few common expenses that that tradies could be claiming back in their tax returns!

Transport
If you are using your vehicle as your main method of transport to get you from one job to another, then as long as you can prove that you are using your vehicle for business use, then you are able to claim back the costs associated with that vehicle.

Using one of two ways to track your mileage, you can to claim back the cost of running your vehicle for business use. Firstly, the log book method means that you will need to prove your odometer readings for a period of at least 12 consecutive weeks. By tracking the mileage you can claim the percentage of vehicle expenses allocated to business use, including running costs and depreciation. Alternatively, the cents per kilometre method allows you to claim $0.66 per km on up to 5,000 kilometres of business travel.

Tools and equipment
Tools and equipment that you purchase to help you run your business can be claimed and so can repairs and maintenance on the tools and equipment purchased.

Training courses, licences and certificates
If you’re undertaking any professional development or studying for any qualifications that relate to your trade, you are able to claim back the cost. The course must be to improve or maintain your skills in your profession in order to claim it as a tax deduction.

Uniform and Protective Clothing
If you purchase certain protective clothing or items for your work, such as hard hats, sunglasses or steel-capped boots, you can claim them as a deduction. This also applies to clothing needed to distinguish you from the public, like a uniform. You can also claim the cleaning and laundry costs of your uniforms.

Communications
Don’t forget about all of that time that you spend on the telephone and sending emails for business purposes as you’re also able to claim back the cost of work related phone and internet expenses.

Travel
Any expenses associated with travelling for work , such as accommodation, meals and transport costs e.g. taxi fares, tolls etc, can be claimed as long as you have your receipt.

Subscriptions
Union fees and subscriptions to professional associations that relate to your business are also claimable in your tax return.

Not sure if it’s claimable or not? Ensure you keep a copy of your invoices and receipts and if you’re not sure whether it is claimable or not, check with your bookkeeper!

If the thought of keeping track of your income and expenses is totally overwhelming, contact Flawless Figures on 0414 859 665 or email [email protected] so we can help you alleviate the stress at tax time.

July 3, 2018 Superannuation

What is the Superannuation Amnesty?

The Australian Government has announced its plans to allow employers with outstanding superannuation debts, a 12-month amnesty to pay overdue superannuation to their employees before penalties will be imposed.

It is reported that in 2014-15 alone, approximately $2.85 billion in Superannuation went unpaid.

To comply with the amnesty guidelines, employers must pay all of the superannuation that is owing to their employees, including nominal interest. The usual hefty penalties for late payment will not be applied during the amnesty period.

According the Australian Government’s announcement, employers that do not take advantage of the amnesty will face higher penalties when they are subsequently caught.

Throughout the amnesty period the ATO plans to continue its usual enforcement activity against employers who do not voluntarily disclose their historical obligations.

The SG Amnesty is a great opportunity for businesses to wipe their slate clean and for employees to be paid the entitlements that they are rightfully owed.

The amnesty is a draft law before parliament.

Click here to read the Australian Government’s announcement of SG Amnesty.

June 22, 2018 Software

How safe is cloud based accounting software?

Undoubtedly, cloud based accounting is the way forward. Switching your account keeping software to the cloud, not only saves your business a tremendous amount of valuable time, but also increases accuracy and gives you access to real-time data on any device.

But many cautious business owners ask “how safe is cloud software?”. And let’s be honest, in a time when we are so often hearing about credit cards being hacked, personal details being stolen and used in fraudulent ways, why wouldn’t we be concerned? It is definitely a question we should be asking, especially when we are placing our business finances and documents within these systems, we want to be sure that we are the only ones who are able to access it. So, how safe is cloud-based accounting software?

As with any system, proper precautions must be taken. Software that is being hosted locally can just as easily be hacked as cloud based software, the security issues are the same. There are currently multiple layers of security with cloud based software and The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is introducing a new operational framework for software developers and for accountants and bookkeepers who use software to interact with the ATO. This new framework requires accountants and bookkeepers to use multifactor authentication when they login. This means anyone working with Australian taxpayer information needs to have 2 step authentication implemented in their cloud based software by the end of March 2018 to comply.

Whilst software companies like Xero and MYOB have many layers of security to protect our business, this latest ATO requirement gives another level of added security protecting Australian Businesses.

June 20, 2018 BAS, End of Financial Year

Benefits of using a registered BAS Agent

What is a BAS Agent?

Anyone providing BAS services for a fee, must be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board. Once a BAS Agent is registered, they are able to perform BAS services such as working out or advising businesses regarding liabilities, obligations and entitlements.

A bookkeeper who is not a registered BAS agent is able to assist with general bookkeeping duties, however, unable to complete and submit a Business Activity Statements, Instalment Activity Statements, PAYG statements etc, on a clients behalf.

Why should I use a registered BAS Agent?

Using a registered BAS Agent provides you with:
• consumer protection through professional indemnity insurance
• extended tax and BAS lodgement due dates
• experienced and qualified agents who comply with a professional code of conduct.

To check if an agent is registered, just enter their details in the www.tpb.gov.au register or look for the registered practitioner symbol.

April 13, 2018 Superannuation

SBSCH to join the ATO Online Services

On February 26 2018, the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) will join the ATO’s online services. This will streamline how you use the SBSCH and also include extra functionality, such as the ability to sort employee listings and payment by credit card. Businesses will be able to access the SBSCH within the Business Portal. For further information, click on the following link.
https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/paying-super-contributions/small-business-superannuation-clearing-house/

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