A decade ago software packages were, by most accounts, adequate and suitable for basic tax returns. But limitations in the quantity of data each could incorporate, not to mention the speed in which that data could be processed, restricted software practicality while slowing down the entire system.

Any accountant who has been in the business a few years, especially small practitioners, is well versed in worksheets. Cumbersome? Perhaps, but worksheets gave, and still give, accountants total control over the look and feel of their data. Data prepared in Excel or Lotus was consolidated then entered into tax programs which served as little more than a vehicle for the final figures.

Today, manual worksheets integrate into accounting software in a way they couldn’t ten years ago. Software also works with programs such as desktop super which given recent changes to superannuation legislation is now crucial for accounting practices. It’s also easier than in years past to cross-reference information from previous tax returns, payment summaries, BAS, and other financial data. For the most part, paper reconciliation has disappeared as well.

Technology, of course, has played a major role in the development of accounting software. But so has tax legislation.

Ten years ago accounting software was effective for basic capital gains calculations. Since then, tax laws have become more complex to the point where it would be unwise to not use an accountant for tax returns and compliance-related documentation. Inaccurate returns bring unnecessary risks and the potential for unwelcome advances by the ATO.

One recent example is tax reforms impacting superannuation. Specifically, Reportable Employer Super Contributions (RESC) and total net investment losses now count as income for income testing purposes. Previously, employee salary sacrificing and overtime pay, amongst others, clouded the ATO’s view of how much money any one individual was contributing to their superannuation.

Beginning with the 2009/10 tax year, RESC amounts now include everything from those made under a salary sacrifice agreement to those submitted in addition to the minimum contributions employers must make under a range of other arrangements. These include superannuation guarantee laws, industrial agreements, trust deeds or governing rules of super funds, or federal, state or territory laws.

Accounting software packages such as QuickBooks encompass the latest tax changes to simplify tax filing. The software is now easier and faster to use than in years past.

Technological advances have stimulated the desire for greater efficiencies within the profession. On the flip side, the advent of improved practice management software has played a role in reduced headcounts at many accounting firms.

KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, amongst others, have let staff go this year. Yes, most were attributed to the financial crisis and perhaps over-hiring in first place. But one can’t discount how technology has contributed to redundancies, particularly entry level and junior positions. For example, personal assistants have in many cases been eliminated with the increased ease of use, reliability and dependence on, for instance, e-mail or electronic calendars.

Senior level positions have not escaped the financial crisis either but what the sluggish economy has created is greater opportunities for advisor and consulting work according to Kevin Johnson, senior software engineer & taxation specialist at software provider Advanced Professional Solutions in North Sydney. Similarly, the rising salaries across the accounting industry mean much of the work is now passed off to those accountants with less experience (translated, cheaper) and even offshore for the same reason.

Will those trends continue? For a while, yes, but as the economy starts to recover staffs will expand. Accountants will, however, continue to offer more consulting services, Johnson says.

While some won’t have the patience or justification to wait for a return to the good times, exercise caution before dropping the axe on staff in preference for technology.

Human interaction remains a key element to success. It’s just the nature of that interaction which is changing, that is, it’s more sophisticated now. Instead of meeting with clients to simply transcribe information and enter data, accountants are using their time for other revenue and value-generating tasks such as discussing strategy, long-term business planning and growth techniques.

Simultaneously, accounting software’s new functionality has enabled accountants and accounting firms to cross sell other services and improve their own productivity. These software packages include such everyday tools as tax calculators, appointment diaries and client notes as well as more complex processes such as registering companies and tracking self managed super funds. All help practices expedite their operations by encouraging consistency, efficiency, and ease of understanding.

With each new release, accounting software suppliers trumpet products that are easier, faster and more productive. Does that mean fool-proof? No, but the software is less error-prone than in years past. Anyone who isn’t competent in basic accounting practices won’t be able to immediately realize maximum benefits from the software.

Then again, the best car in the world won’t automatically make you a better driver either.

- Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s Business Division. Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software. http://www.quicken.com.au

A year ago, unemployment hovered around record lows of four percent. Today, it’s nudging six. Simultaneously, interest rates have plummeted from more than eight percent to just over three as business revenues continue to shrink.

While consumers may not be buying, logic would suggest it’s at least a buyer’s market for companies in one area: staffing.

Pre-Global Financial Crisis, the cry from many business owners was an inability to attract and retain skilled workers; workers who jumped from job to job on a whim with little regard for stability, longevity or loyalty. How quickly things have changed. Or have they?

There’s no question the quantity of job seekers has increased in the past six months. The quality, however, has failed to follow suit putting many employers in the same uncomfortable spot they found themselves in the second quarter of 2008 trying to do more, or least the same amount, with less.

Have recruiting techniques changed in a year? Are the best methods for retaining staff any different? Should business owners be more involved in the recruitment and retention processes? No, no and a definite yes.

Regardless of the economy’s state, the two most cost-effective recruiting methods remain employment websites and networking. As most business owners can attest, advertise a job opening this morning and you’re swamped with hundreds of applicants this afternoon.

The upside: cost, particularly if you are trying to fill multiple vacancies. A one-off online advertisement for 30 days costs approximately $165. Alternatives like using recruitment agencies save time, but rates can exceed more than 12 percent of the job’s salary package.

Don’t discount the importance of networking in the recruitment process. Filling positions with existing staff and promoting from within brings with it numerous benefits, including the employee’s familiarity with business practices and products, customers and suppliers, reduced training requirements and improving staff morale. Hiring friends or acquaintances, on the premise they possess the necessary qualifications, can also improve workplace relations and performance.

More importantly, retention of staff will save businesses from having to recruit in the first place. Understanding that the number one reason employees stay with a company if the relationship with their boss is a good foundation. As such, the onus falls on the business owner and/or manager to be more involved, regardless of the size of the business. Reckon Limited requires its managers to play a significant role in both the addition and development of employees from resumé analysis and interviewing to training and evaluation. With managers more directly involved, performance strengthens as does the employee’s feelings of value and fitting in with the company culture.

And with the good, so comes the bad.

If business begins to go south, owners and managers should be the bearers of bad news as well. It’s never easy telling an employee they’re no longer needed but by being transparent about the business’s financial position, staff will be more trusting and, more understanding should redundancies be required.

With many businesses now employing fewer staff, multi-tasking has become a necessity not an option. Some may groan about more, or at least different, responsibilities but the wise will realise it presents an excellent opportunity to add skills, improve knowledge and enhance career development. On the flip side, employees will feel justified in demanding a rise that the business may not be able to accommodate and with a host of new skills under their belt, can beef up their CVs and leave for another job.

Staff members remain a crucial, but costly, aspect to the success of every business in good times and in bad. Much more costly, however, if your business can’t keep the good ones.

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That doesn’t mean business owners need to spend thousands on an elaborate site. If you have the money, the time and the skills to do it, go ahead, your business will benefit. Not only will your products and services be more visible, accessible and acquirable but your business, brand, and presence will instantly be more recognisable.

For as little as $50 you can build a site sans any e-commerce, or the ability to sell products and services online, functions. Keep in mind there are recurring fees such as domain renewals and monthly hosting charges. With e-commerce, a basic but fully functional site selling about 50 products costs just under $1,000 with an extra $70 or so in monthly fees.

Still, a website may not be the vehicle of choice for every business. If yours is one of those, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a presence on the internet superhighway. There are a host of effective and inexpensive ways to get any business on the internet.

The Google empire, long-established as the world’s leading search engine and more recently the top online advertising mode, now offers Google Marketing Tools. Most are free and will benefit businesses by helping attract as well as retain customers. The latest version of QuickBooks provides a facility that makes it even easier to set your business up using Google Marketing Tools.

Google Maps is invaluable, particularly for webless businesses. When Google users search for local merchants, businesses appear along with the address, hours of operation, products offered, parking and any additional information the business owner chooses to display.

For those businesses with a website, take advantage of other free Google Marketing Tools such as Google Analytics and Froogle. Analytics shows how many visits a website has had in a given period, how many pages were visited and how long each visitor stayed on a certain page. Froogle is Google’s online price directory which lists the cheapest prices for different products on the web.

Of course Google doesn’t do everything for free. Its Adwords program allows business owners to reach consumers directly. A few words about the business is enough to get started and customers can be targeted by location or a number of other criteria. No programming or technical knowledge is necessary.

An advertisement using Google Adwords appears as a Sponsored Link on the results page when a search is conducted on Google. How successful a campaign is depends on a number of sometimes complicated factors. These include the content of the advertisement, its relevance to the business owner’s website, how common the key words used in that message are, and how much the business owner wants to spend.

A budget is required for all Adwords campaigns and that budget can be set up to have the advertisement run for as many days, weeks or months as desired. Google displays it as often as possible within that set budget. Each time the advertisement is clicked, the business owner is charged a small portion of their budget.

Businesses would be at fault in neglecting other electronic marketing projects as valuable methods to increase sales and profits. E-mail newsletters can be created using InDesign and even Photoshop.  And Zoomerang allows you to create customised electronic surveys.

— Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s (www.reckon.com.au) Business Division. Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software.

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Operating your own business—any business—isn’t cheap. That doesn’t mean now is the time to cut corners and in so doing sacrifice the quality of your products, services or reputation. What it does mean is there are sensible inexpensive ways to cut costs that will benefit your operations in the short and long term.

The paperless office concept has been echoed for decades. Yet while business owners talk about it, many don’t back up those words with action. Take a little action, however, and not only will costs decrease but efficiencies will increase.

There are other common-sense cost savers that can be incorporated with little or no effort. For instance, turn off monitors and printers each night and shut off office lights when they’re not in use. Also, open the office windows to cut air-conditioning costs.

Software can also play a major role in trimming business expenses. Invoices, pay slips, contracts, receipts and other documentation can all be emailed directly from within accounting software applications such as QuickBooks. There’s no need to print any of the conventional paperwork as it can be converted to PDF files and emailed directly to customers, suppliers, business partners and accountants. Terminal servers can result in even greater costs savings and improved efficiencies by enabling multi-user, off-site access to company files even without the individual having the respective programmes on their desktop. This is extremely valuable for businesses with outside sales reps, contractors and others who aren’t able to frequent the office.

Backing up company and personal data, online, increases business efficiency in two ways: it eliminates the cost of document storage and serves as an ideal disaster recovery option. By backing up everything from vital company data such as sales receipts, customer records and tax returns to spreadsheets, PDF documents and photo files can be stored securely in a fraction of the time of conventional methods. Online backup is also a saviour should a hard drive crash, an office be damaged or destroyed, or a laptop be stolen. Comforting when you consider years of hard work could go up in smoke without it.

Small business in itself is hard work and business owners want to see their work ethic duplicated by their employees. When times are good, the motivation may not always be there to work hard. When the economy slows and revenues drop, however, business owners can’t afford to waste resources. Now is a good time to time to review the job descriptions of existing staff to ensure there is a commitment to increasing revenue.

If maintaining a large staff isn’t feasible, or if there is a need for additional skills should business pick up, contractors are a sensible option. For starters, contractors offer a wealth of expertise and can be hired for fixed terms or on a re-occurring basis. Many contractors are able to work from home thus freeing up office space and reducing business expenses.

Outsourcing too, often makes economic sense. Call centres, marketing, human resources and several other office functions are good candidates for outsourcing. Sure, those functions are more difficult to manage when outsourced but the cost savings can be significant. Similarly, renting a serviced office is smart for businesses which have a large portion of their staff working out of the office. Serviced offices can be little more than a room with a receptionist or virtual personal assistant who handles administrative functions. The cost is much less than maintaining, and paying for, a regular office, particularly for small business owners who often feel they need to run the entire business by themselves. And what’s more, customers will never know the difference.

— Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s (www.reckon.com.au) Business Division. Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software.

In 2008, there were 1668610 registered companies, according to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). That’s nearly 67000 more than at year’s end 2007.

While there are plenty of reasons to start a company, there’s almost as many to need financing. The question for business owners is how best to go about it.

Invoice financing, or factoring, is one option that for years has been saddled with the stigma of being the absolute last resort for business finance.

Accountants such as Reckon Accredited Partner Tony Pollard of Amable Management Services Pty. Ltd., in Burwood, NSW, however, say the mentality is shifting.

“Business owners are seeing that it helps keep their working capital under control,” he notes, “particularly as [customers] are now taking longer to pay.”

Others are buying into it as well. The Institute of Factors and Discounters in Sydney estimates annual turnover of approximately $65 billion for 2008 compared with just over $50 billion in 2007 and only $5 billion in 1997.

Invoice financing involves a financial institution or discounter, purchasing the business’ book of debts, typically for those customers who have bought goods or services on credit terms, from the business owner.

The benefit to SMEs is they have immediate capital to expand their business without having to wait for customers to pay the outstanding balance. Accordingly, customers are unaware that a third party is now involved.

Factoring, which is largely synonymous with invoice financing, operates in a similar manner though the sales accounting function is provided by the factor or lender. In this scenario, the third party manages the sales ledger and assumes the risk for all accounts.

Both invoice financing and factoring can be particularly valuable with recent changes to consumer payment terms ─ to 56 days from the standard 30-day period ─ which often leave business owners short on capital and unable to capitalize on growth opportunities.

Through invoice financing, business owners receive cash totalling between 75 and 90 per cent (depending on the lender) of the invoice’s value as soon as it is issued to the customer. The lender’s fee varies from 1 to 3 per cent and the balance of the invoice is paid to the business owner when the customer settles the debt.

The financing is most often used when businesses need to increase their cash flow and/or grow the business. For instance, it allows the SME to purchase equipment instead of leasing it. In addition, it can be valuable when acquiring other businesses, management buyouts or when business owners have limited access to equity.

By improving cash flow, there’s no need to offer early payment discounts and the headaches of chasing tardy customers for payment are removed. Plus, financing costs are tax deductible.

Invoice financing compares favourably with traditional overdraft-style bank funding which tends to set a monetary limit linked to the security value of your property and personal assets.

Marketers and accountants are typically at opposite ends of the business money tree: marketers want to spend it, accountants want to save it. But before wielding the clippers, take a closer look at your existing tools that can please both the marketer in you, and your accountant.

Accounting software has for years been perhaps unfairly pigeon-holed as the best way to handle a business’ accounting duties but little else. Savvy business owners, accountants and bookkeepers however, are taking advantage of the software’s expanding functionality to not only handle their day-to-day compliance tasks but to market their business, strengthen customer relationships and make money.

This simple and underutilised marketing functionality allows SMEs to include logos, artwork and other graphics on invoices, receipts, warranties, contracts and other documents. It compliments and reinforces existing branding used in signage, advertisements, displays and other material. This also proves to be an effective promotional mechanism for resellers and sales reps who represent multiple product lines as they can incorporate numerous graphics on the same letterhead and in other collateral.

One of most valuable marketing capabilities of accounting software is its ability to serve as an effective customer relationship management tool. Not only is the technology cost-effective, but it is an excellent market research tool for finding out more about your customers as is done by Clayton Oates, managing director at leading IT consultancy QA Business.

Taking no more than a few minutes to set up, business owners can better understand everything from their customer’s buying preferences to sales results during any selected time period.

The days of business owners focusing just on the next job or sale are fading fast. With current indicators suggesting a slowing economy, business owners are best served being proactive not only with marketing to customers but with cash flow management too. Recent changes to payment terms, up to 56 days from the standard 30-day period, are further tightening the screws on business owners. Should customers fail to settle any outstanding balances, utilise your accounting software to generate debt recovery letters. A document that is professional in appearance, along with the suggestion that a collection agency will be contacted to pursue the matter if payment is not received, can be more effective than other heavy-handed methods.

The biggest decision many young, aspiring entrepreneurs faced when setting up the lemonade stand was whether to charge five or 10 cents a cup. Sure, you needed enough lemons, water and sugar but the dilemmas were few and business was even fun.
Setting up and running a business as an adult with a lot more riding on the outcome isn’t quite so simple. Locating suppliers, hiring staff and securing property, not to mention whether the business will be selling shoes or surfboards or servicing cars or computers, is just the beginning. The list of other obligations is lengthy but perhaps none are more important than the myriad of legal trade issues facing today’s business owners.
Once an entrepreneur has selected the type of business, how should it be structured? Is it best to work as a sole trader or establish a partnership, a private company or a public company?
Sole traders own and operate the business in their own name. As such, a sole trader takes on the full responsibility of the business’ actions, possibly also for its staff as well as the quality of products and services. Operating as a sole trader is enticing: the profits don’t have to be shared with partners, employees or shareholders. There are no costs to establish the business and there’s a lot to be said for being your own boss. On the flip side, the owner is solely responsible for all liabilities, agreements with customers, contracts and yes, anything that goes wrong.
Partnerships, which typically materialise when individual entrepreneurs pool their resources to establish a business, enjoy similar benefits but accordingly, share similar liability.
The most practical way for a business owner to limit risk is to establish a private company. Yes, there’s a cost (about $400 if you do it yourself) to go this route as well as ongoing compliance expenses, but it’s a small price to pay for insulating the business owner from potentially devastating liability.
In contrast to sole traders and partnerships, private companies are considered separate entities from their owners. As a general rule, the owner’s personal assets are not exposed in the event of litigation. Companies, both private and public, are also taxed at the lower concessional rate of 30 percent. The decision to register as a private company would thus seem logical yet it’s one many business owners don’t consider. Why? Most are so entwined in the daily operations of their business, little thought goes into managing the firm.
Before any decision is made on the best structure for the business, consult with a solicitor, accountant, or business coach, or all three. Each can recommend the most effective vehicle for which to launch and operate a business as well as providing an invaluable, objective opinion on the best way to do it.
Once a business name has been selected and registered, an ABN obtained and business structure selected, focus on quality of product, intellectual property and truth in advertising. In some cases trade practices, law requires that goods sold to consumers must be of ‘merchantable quality’. That is, they’re required to satisfy a basic level of quality and performance based on the price and description of the product. Similarly, the goods must be suitable for the purpose that the buyer expressed to the seller when purchasing the product.

Gavin Dixon, CEO of Reckon Limited’s Business Division. Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software (www.reckon.com.au).

Every organisation from the nation’s largest multi-national corporation to your one-man neighbourhood plumber is touting its website, so much so that many of us don’t even take a second look.
But lost in the cyber jungle is a world of opportunity that many small and medium-sized businesses are failing to exploit. With little effort, these opportunities can simplify operations and streamline business practices, particularly when revenues are flat or falling and owners are forced to tighten their belts.
The internet is the most significant development to impact business in recent years, yet most see it only as a collection of websites pushing products and services. However, everyone from your suppliers and customers to banks and investment planners is on it. The question is: how can you use the internet to better your business?
Successful business owners maximise revenues and minimise costs while keeping a keen eye on the future to expedite both. If the opportunity to create revenue is limited, or you perceive it to be, the focus of the business should be shifted to bringing greater efficiencies to the workplace. That is, don’t spend where a positive return on investment appears unlikely.
Most business owners are conservative by nature, which essentially curbs their enthusiasm to spend and promotes their desire to save. Although varying greatly by industry, salaries are often the largest expenses facing businesses, so are potentially the easiest ones to trim.
Though with Australia’s continued skilled labour shortage, coupled with Reserve Bank expectations of close to a four percent rise in inflation and accompanying proportionate wage increases, these costs don’t figure to drop in the foreseeable future. To improve efficiencies, business owners need to be flexible with costs as the sure way to lose money is to be trapped with fixed costs and declining revenue.
A collaborative approach, utilising contractors and flexible full time staff, is an excellent way to lower fixed costs without eliminating employees.
Australia’s economy is no longer dominated by goods producers but instead by service industries, and the trend is likely to accelerate in the future as the Philippines, Mexicos and Vietnams of the world expand their manufacturing capabilities.
As production is outsourced, why not utilise technology to meet your needs in a similar fashion? The internet provides the resources for business owners to do just that.
Geography is no longer a barrier to efficiency. If you’re looking for services, you can just hop on the internet to locate a provider who fits your budget regardless of whether they’re in Blacktown or Brisbane.
Or consider a business owner’s interaction with his or her accountant.
In the past, face-to-face meetings were required. Today, most accountants interact with their clients remotely and by eliminating the manual steps of transportation, consultations and reviewing the paperwork, business owners will enjoy better value for their accounting fees.
Increasingly sophisticated mobile technology can make it much easier to engage contractors as part of your service delivery model. Pervasive, cost-effective internet broadband makes working from home, or teleworking, an increasingly viable option for many and an attractive alternative for employers.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, roughly 2.3 million individuals (or 24 percent) work some hours from home and of those, around 725,000 labour mainly or only from home. This not only improves the lifestyles of workers, but it also reduces the often-significant tangible employer costs of training, recruitment and office space.
Staff members looking to avoid lengthy commutes or noisy offices can realise greater productivity working from home by taking advantage of technology to interact with customers and on-site co-workers just as effectively as they would in an office.
In-house, innovative solutions such as payroll software save considerable amounts of time, paperwork and risk versus the manual process while free recruitment websites enable human resource managers to customise job descriptions, requirements and screening processes to wider audiences.
Automatic invoice generation, meanwhile, creates invoices and e-mails them directly to the customer, expediting processing and payment. You could also consider improving your cash flow by e-mailing your invoices to a debt factor company and your customers at the same time.
All take a fraction of the time when compared to traditional methods and each comes with substantial cost savings. The oft quoted ‘time is money’ has never been more pertinent and taking advantage of technology is a business owners simple solution to saving it.

-Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s Business Division (www.reckon.com.au). Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software.

Staff turnover is expected to cost Australian businesses more than $100 billion this year, according to recent research by Unisys. If that’s not enough to convince business owners to take a greater interest in staff retention, perhaps these Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers will:
1.2 million—the number of people who changed jobs in the year to February 2006.
Four years—the average length of employment today, compared with 12 years in 1960.
4.3 percent—the current unemployment rate; the lowest in more than three decades.

Employees are more mobile and motivated than ever which means employers need to work overtime to attract, satisfy and retain employees while labouring to run a profitable business.
Establishing a work-life balance is in vogue but it usually involves more than giving employees more money, flexible work hours or time off to keep them around, particularly for small businesses.
Business owners intent on trimming turnover should not underestimate the value of training and performance evaluation. An educated workforce that actively seeks additional skill development opportunities is a key element in strengthening, and stimulating, employees.
The success of any training program largely depends on how it is implemented. For example, expert trainers can conduct ongoing training. But with costs of up to $4,000 a day, trainers might only be of value if a large portion of employees can participate. The other dilemma for SMEs is coping with employees taking the time out from their day-to-day responsibilities to undertake training.
An increasingly popular alternative, particularly with Generation Y and those in technical positions, online training can take as little as two hours a day, a few days a week and can come with a price tag equal to the cost of attending a day-long off-site training course. It is also attractive because employees can participate in the course at their own speed, at a convenient time, and the material is generally appropriate for others.
While training plays a vital role, an effective staff evaluation process is just as significant in developing and satisfying employees.
In most workplaces, six-month and yearly reviews function as standard employee evaluations. These are often a collaboration of manager and employee opinions and typically include a written and oral assessment, but in many cases they merely scratch the surface.
More thorough employee assessment programs not only provide a better insight into an employee’s ability, performance and motivation but also serve as an excellent way to improve employee satisfaction.
A recent revised employee evaluation conducted at Reckon consisted of a 360-degree feedback evaluation and the manager’s feedback, which included the opinions of co-workers the respective employee interacted with on a regular basis.
The company-wide appraisal consisted of the standard job performance, measured against key performance indicators (KPIs), and also took into account the feedback of anonymous co-workers who would not normally play a role in the evaluation process. In response to the performance feedback a training plan was included as a KPI and a mid-year review will also be conducted.
Participants were provided with instructions via a training session, which included feedback. Questions based on Reckon’s core competencies were framed in a positive manner to encourage constructive comments.
Most employees value feedback on their contribution and areas for improvement, which makes the evaluation program useful as a development tool, not a disciplinary one.
Aspects of such a program can be adapted to any business, regardless of its size.
Rather than requesting feedback only from your employees, ask your closest customers, suppliers and even outside contractors for their opinions; this has the added benefit of making them feel a part of your organisation.
The bottom line is employees will see that management, co-workers and other stakeholders are taking an interest in what they do each day. This type of employee engagement establishes a sense of belonging, pride and being an important part of the company culture and encourages employees to go the extra mile.
Ultimately, this translates into employees enjoying their work, boosting their production and increasing the chances they will not soon be another addition to the growing number of Australians changing jobs each year.

-Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s Business Division (www.reckon.com.au). Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software.
 

For new businesses, select an accountant that best suits the company’s needs. The best accountant or bookkeeper depends primarily on the volume of transactions, and thus the amount of time they will take to process.
Certified public accountants (CPAs) and chartered accountants (CAs) are readily available and both can meet the needs of just about every small and medium-sized business.
Accountants are there to help, not hinder, so business owners should work to build rapport early to facilitate smoother operations throughout the financial year. Keep your accountant informed. Supply the necessary accounting records in good order, consult prior to major business transactions and maintain clear channels of communication.
Ongoing and regular compliance tasks such as business activity statements, annual financial statements and income returns can be lengthy endeavours if not prepared correctly. By taking the time to correctly compile as much of this information as possible business owners can reduce the time their accountant spends on it, minimising costs and both the downtime and disruption to your daily company operations in answering the accountant’s queries.

Common Accounting Mistakes

Where business owners hurt themselves most is by not consulting their accountant prior to major, usually infrequent transactions.
All can have significant impacts on the business financials. By failing to consult your accountant, they can have serious consequences on capital gains tax, GST, income tax and even stamp duty that could well have been avoided if handled or structured differently at the outset. Some transactions, particularly those involving a superannuation fund, may even be illegal and could risk the fund’s existence as well as incurring substantial taxation penalties.

Accounting Fees

Controlling costs is vital for SMEs and there may be concerns that accounting fees are an unnecessary overhead to be cut to the bone. Accountants usually charge by the hour but business owners should not assume that the meter is running as soon as the accountant answers the phone. Understand the basis of an accountant’s fees and establish estimates before work is performed.
To stay within a budget, request a capped quote. Here, the accountant, after considering the assignment, agrees to charge no more than a quoted ceiling. If the job is completed for less, that lower amount is billed.
Technology has expedited the accounting process by enabling a faster transfer of information and communication between business owners and accountants. Accounting software, such as the latest version of QuickBooks for instance, facilitates the transfer of data files between accountants and business owners over the internet. This does not mean, however, that face-to-face meetings should be abandoned. By walking the property, accountants can get a better appreciation of the capital, staff and other resource requirements that make up a business.
The effective combination of electronic and in-person communication enables business owners to realise greater value for their accounting dollars and lessen the burden come tax time. In so doing, they can look forward to engaging their accountants, not postponing a meeting until the financial pain becomes too great.

-Gavin Dixon is the CEO of Reckon Limited’s Business Division (www.reckon.com.au). Reckon is the supplier of QuickBooks accounting software.