Bookkeeping Solutions

As of March 1st 2010, the Australian Taxation Office regulated the bookkeeping industry. Now, all bookkeepers providing a BAS Service are required to register as a BAS Agent.

 

The requirements of a BAS Agent are:

• Minimum Certificate IV in Financial Services, Bookkeeping or Accounting
• Member of a recognised Professional Association
• Over 1,000 hours relevant experience
• Professional Indemnity Insurance
• Ongoing Professional Development

What does this mean for you?

In the past, a bookkeeper was able to complete a MYOB or Quicken course and start charging for their services. Unfortunately, due to their lack of experience, they often left a mess. The client could do nothing about it except find someone else who, hopefully, would be able to clean up the mess. It is a costly exercise both financially and emotionally. Worse still, some mistakes can go unnoticed, such as double paying creditors, incorrect GST coding and contributing to overpayment of GST, miscalculation of wages and superannuation, outstanding debtors and many many more.

 

As a BAS Agent there is also a professional Code of Conduct in relation to:

• Honesty and Integrity
• Independence (acting lawfully)
• Confidentiality
• Competence

Breaching the Code of Conduct can result in termination of the registration and Civil penalties involving fines up to $137,500. At last there is something that can be done if you are left in a mess.

 

You can rest assured that we are Registered BAS Agents so that will give you the confidence in the numbers!

 

ONGOING BOOKKEEPING/RANGE OF SERVICES

• Accounts Receivable - processing sales invoices and reporting on money owing to the business, reconciliation of control accounts
• Accounts Payable - processing purchases and payments, pay bills, reconciliation of control accounts
• Payroll - process wages, pay staff, liase with super funds
• Bank Accounts - process bank fees, interest, direct debits
• Reconciliation - bank, credit cards, PAYG, staff superannuation, GST control accounts, loan accounts
• BAS/IAS - lodge monthly and/or quarterly BAS & IAS
• End of Year - reconciliation of all BAS statements lodged for the year with the GST control account as well as reconciliation of wages, PAYG and super before preparing Payment Summaries
• Reporting - monthly Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet, quarterly financial reports and analysis
• ATO - liase with the ATO re BAS and IAS, managing payment arrangements
• Liabilities - payment/process PAYG, IAS and BAS, payment and process of staff super, payment and process of all loan and credit card accounts.

START UP BUSINESSES

New Client Start Up

If you are a start up business, the process is straightforward:

• As a certified consultant with MYOB, we will recommend the most appropriate software for your needs
• One of our specialists will install the software, customise the Chart of Accounts specific to your business needs, customise sales invoices and set up the payroll if required
• Depending on your needs, we will arrange to do the processing on-site at your office or off-site at ours at an agreed time.

RESCUE JOBS

What is a rescue?

It's not deliberate. You had good intentions. Time runs away from you because you are busy running a business. Before you know it, it's BAS time AGAIN and you know you're going to have to spend the weekend getting it done.
Or maybe you had someone who you thought you could trust but got it all wrong because of their inexperience.

 

Over time the problem becomes so big that:

• It has taken over your office or dining table at home
• It keeps you awake at night
• You don't know where to start
• You're fearful that the ATO will call
• You have no idea how much tax or GST you owe
• You are completely in the dark about how your business is going

What's the good news:

We have a team of highly skilled and dedicated bookkeepers who are passionate about what they do and love to remove confusion, fear and uncertainty and replacing it with clarity, freedom and control.
Because every "rescue job" is as individual as you are, we can't say exactly what we need to do to clean it up and get you up to date or how long it will take. During the initial consultation we will explain to you what the problems are and what needs to happen to transform your data file into a source that provides you with reliable information.

 

Bookkeeping issues:

Essentially we will do whatever it takes as quickly and efficiently as possible. Some if the issues we will address are:

• Bank Accounts or Credit Cards that don't reconcile with the statements
• Old unpresented transactions in the bank account or credit cards
• Trade Debtors and Trade Creditors don't balance with the Balance Sheet
• The Trade Debtors and Trade Creditors aren't "real" i.e. outstanding invoices and bills have already been paid but still showing as outstanding
• Incorrect previously lodged BAS
• Payroll Categories that are incorrectly set up therefore giving you incorrect information on payslips, Annual Leave and Sick Leave accruals, incorrect tax tables, SGC Calculations and Payment Summaries
• Unreliable inventory figures

The implications of these issues are:

• You may be paying the wrong GST, tax and superannuation
• You may be subject to fines and interest
• You may be making strategic business decisions based on unreliable figures with dire consequences.