Bookkeeping and Managing your Accounts

When you run any type of home business, you must keep records of your Income and Expenses(accounts) for your Tax Return Lodgement. This is often called bookkeeping or record keeping. If you are managing your accounts and record keeping in a well organised system and in a format that your accountant can understand you will save hundred's of dollars on Accounting Fees.

Ways you can Manage your Accounts

There are 4 alternatives to managing your accounts:

1. Manually - write down your expenses and income in a cashbook or spreadsheet. We are developing a training program to show you how. Please fill in the form at the bottom of the page if interested.

2. Computerised Accounts Program - Purchase a small accounting or bookkeeping program. The two most common on the market are MYOB and Quickbooks for all of your record keeping. Accounts systems are very easy to use once you know how. You only have to have a very limited knowledge to be able to enter your basic income and expenses and maybe do your invoicing. Will save you money at the end of each financial year. Online Computerised Accounts courses coming. Please fill in expression of interest form.

3. Hire a Bookkeeper to help you with your account keeping. See our:

When choosing a Bookkeeper, it is important now to select someone that is Accredited. For example a member of The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. A Bookkeeper who is accredited has proven that they are competent in their profession.

New legislation has been passed in Australia which means only BAS Service Providors authorised by the ATO are allowed ot complete BAS Statements.

When looking for a Bookkeeper, the best source is by referral. Ask other business's if they use anyone or know anyone or ask your Accountant for a referral. Search our Bookkeepers Directory for Bookkeepers in your area.

When you have your first meeting with your prospective bookkeeper, find out if they are truely interested in your business, and how it operates. If they ask plenty of questions about your business, you are already one step ahead in choosing your bookkeeper.

Bookkeepers either charge an hourly rate or a set amount per month based on your requirements.

4. Combination of Option 2 and 3.

I highly recommend using a computerised Account keeping system. They are very easy to use and setup these days, and are not expensive to buy. With MYOB or Quickbooks, you enter all of the basic information, and then the software will do all the end of quarter and end of year reports for you to take to your accountant for your taxes. Alternatively you can send a backup of your accounts program to your Accountant, saving you even more accounting fees.

Easy Bookkeeping and Record Keeping Tips

• Don't keep a shoebox and stuff all of your receipts in there. You NEVER get around to sorting through them and getting your Accountant to sort through and make sense of them is a very costly exercise!
• Produce Invoices in your computerised software program and enter the customer payments on a daily/weekly basis.
• Enter all of your cheque details/ credit card transactions and Internet Transfers once a month. Don't let it build up. Should only take an hour or two once per month.
• When you receive your Bank Statement reconcile you income and expenses to what has occured on your bank statement to make sure you have entered everything.
• If you have less than 10 regular suppliers that you have accounts with, just keep them manually in a file. If you have more than 10, enter them into your accounts program as creditors, and allocate any payments against them. This allows you to print out an outstanding creditors report at any time.
• For a small business, there generally isn't a large quantity of work involved. Alternatively hire a bookkeeper to finalise your accounts at the end of each month.

• I have been running a bookkeeping business for over 10 years. I have clients that enter the day to day information, send me a file at the end of each month, and I make sure all their information is entered correctly to the right accounts and reconcile it all for them. For some clients this only take 1- 2 hours. Some clients fax and email all of their statements, and I enter everything into my systems, and then email them back their reports.

  With Remote Desktop, I can dial into the clients machine at their premises, open the accounts software and work on their accounts for them. With the invent of technology, this is the way to go, as you can just logon whenever it is convenient, and they don't have to stop using their accounts system while you work on it.

Bookeeping & MYOB Accounts Training Courses

We are in the process of developing online training programs on:

• Setting up your computerised accounts on MYOB


• Basic Bookkeeping Skills using a manual system ie
  cashbook/Excel


• The basics of bookkeeping