Category — Bookkeepers

Can you really save on bookkeeping fees using spreadsheets? The short answer is: That depends!

Advantages of using spreadsheets for your bookkeeping:

• The beauty about using spreadsheets is that you can create little formulas in the cells to give you the answers that you are needing.
• Yes, you can save money on bookkeeping fees by not having to buy any accounting software program, or you could use some free accounting software package
• Yes, you can save money on bookkeeping fees by not having to get any training in using any fancy accounting software program
• Yes, you can save money on bookkeeping fees by doing the bookkeeping yourself on spreadsheets, as using a simple spreadsheet can be a quick easy and economic solution to doing your bookkeeping for a small business owner.

Our mobile Melbourne Bookkeepers often help small business owners in and around Melbourne’ northern suburbs by tidying up the bookkeeping that’s been done on a spreadsheet.

Disadvantages of using spreadsheets for your bookkeeping:
There can be a few problems using a spreadsheet when it comes to bookkeeping.

• Unless you’ve set your spreadsheets up correctly, there may not be any checks in place to identify where errors may be occurring.

  This can be an advantage when using accounting software packages such as Quickbooks or MYOB where the reporting process has already been set up. At the punch of a button you can run a number of reports that will quickly highlight where any errors may be in your data entry.

• Many small business owners do not know or understand the full potential of using spreadsheets to do their bookkeeping.
• You may think that little can go wrong when using spreadsheets to do your bookkeeping.

And that’s exactly what happened to the Columbia Housing Authority in the USA a few years ago.

When a Government audit was undertaken, the Columbia Housing Authority eneded up having to pay $216,352 to cover expenses incurred when the authority gave some tenants too much room and some landlords too much rent. They admitted to $118,387, the amount that resulted from a spreadsheet data-entry error that overpaid landlords.

The Nevada city budget spreadsheet apparently worked correctly until sometime in late December 2005 when it developed a problem, causing the 2006 budget to show a $5 million deficit in the water and sewer fund.

There’s so many examples of what can go wrong with using spreadsheets to do the bookkeeping for your Melbourne business, and in so many instances the errors are not discovered until it’s too late and the damage has been done

Contact us today for a bookkeeping health check-up

A contract bookkeeper from East Doncaster was recently jailed for stealing $891,000 from her employer

Duvelle Jeffrey, a mother of two, managed to siphon off the money from a group of direct sales companies while working as a contract bookkeeper between 2005 and 2009.

One wonders how the companies didn’t notice the missing money – apparently she’d been able to hide the stealing by finger pointing financial discrepancies at other people, playing staff off against each other.

When one of the managers expressed concerns about the dwindling funds in company bank accounts he was told by the bookkeeper that he needed to improve his business practices.

How do you know if your bookkeeper is stealing?

• Ensure you have checks and balances in place
• Does your bookkeeper have the ability to sign checks, make bank withdrawals, use bill pay etc?
• Do you let the bookkeeper enter bills and then cut and sign cheques?

From time-to-time ask to see copies of receipts, invoices, etc so your bookkeeper knows you’re involved and are keeping your eyes on the books.

Your involvement in the day to day bookkeeping activities reduces the chances of your bookkeeper being tempted to steal from you.

Why continue fighting with the paperwork, and continue to struggle with performing tasks that you really do not enjoy doing? Let us get your bookkeeping upto date

Sinking under a pile of paperwork can quickly become very depressing. Smart business owners realise the benefits of focusing on what they do best, and outsourcing the rest – that way you can become far more productive using that time building your business.

FIND MORE TIME
By outsourcing your bookeeping you’ll have more time to focus on other areas of your business

SYSTEMIZED BOOKKEEPING
Most businesses fight with paperwork because they do not have any systems in place to handle the documentation that passes across their desks.

We’ll establish an efficient filing and bookeeping system to set those procedures in place

BENEFITS OF RECORD KEEPING
There’s many benefits (as well as legal requirements) in having good record keeping systems established for your business

Our team of professional bookkeepers around Sydenham, Coburg, and Pascoe Vale, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, love doing the bookwork, and can get your paperwork upto date in a shorter time saving you TIME = MONEY.

For your business’ sake and your sanity Contact Us NOW!

BAS is due on 28 October 2010 for Melbourne businesses that report their GST quarterly, so if you’re bookkeeping is behind and you’re in a panic, contact our Melbourne bookkeeping team of mobile professional bookkeepers

Business Activity Statements can be confusing to complete, and according to the Australian Taxation Office over 80% are incorrectly completed.

That could mean that you’re paying more GST than you need to be – How would you know?

That’s why so many smart business operators outsource their bookkeeping to professional bookkeepers. Contact our Melbourne bookkeeping team TODAY

Whether you use MYOB or Quickbooks, or are looking for a replacement for E-Record, we can help you

Don’t leave your bookkeeping until it’s too late! With end of financial year for 2009 – 2010 fast approaching, it’s a good idea to get your bookkeeping upto date.

By being ontop of your bookwork, you can have a chat with your accountant and make sure that you have the correct strategies in place to reduce your tax liabilities.

Failing to be prepared can be costly when you come to lodge your tax return after 30 june 2010

Contact our team of Melbourne Bookkeepers today for details

There’s many reasons why you should get your bookkeeping upto date before the end of the financial year on 30 June 2010.

Often clients are devastated when they discover how much tax they have to pay because they didn’t plan for the FYE (financial year end). Leaving it until after 30 June is too late.

We are not tax agents or accounts, but our team of mobile Melbourne bookkeepers can certainly help you get your paperwork upto date so that you can at least have three quarters of the 2009/2010 financial year upto date and ready to visit your accountant before the end of June 2010

Sydenham small business owners struggling with your MYOB bookkeeping and BAS can get help right here.

contact our Sydenham Bookkeepers, your local mobile bookkeeping service today

There’s only two weeks to lodge your December quarter Business Activity Statement [BAS].

Our team of bookkeepers servicing the suburbs around Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport have received a number of phone calls from small business owners in the City of Moreland council district wanting help to get their MYOB and Quickbooks bookkeeping upto date ready to lodge the December quarter BAS that’s due 2 March 2010

Savvy business owners from Sydenham on the west to Coburg on the East, have contacted our Pascoe Vale Bookkeepers, looking for a mobile bookkeeping service.

Rather than you struggling and getting stressed out over it, give us a call, and we’ll come to your premises and review your MYOB data files.

Our Melbourne mobile bookkeeping service can help you with reconciling your bank account statements. We’ll run various checks and reports to ensure that all the data has been entered correctly and allocated in the correct accounts

The Australian Taxation Office [ATO] advise that almost 80% of BAS forms are lodged incorrectly – as many small business owners are challenged with the task of completing their Business Activity Statements

Contact our Moreland district bookkeeping team today

Business Activity Statements BAS are due on 2 march 2010 for businesses that report their GST obligations quarterly

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

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Melbourne Inner Suburbs, Fitzroy, Richmond, Toorak, Victoria, Australia. Contact us here for details

A bookkeeping client asked whether he should pay his supplier from the invoice, or the statement.

As bookkeepers we always say pay from the invoice – NEVER pay from the statement.

Why not pay from a statement?
When you always pay from an invoice, then there’ll be no risk of wondering whether you’ve paid that invoice or not – and when your bookkeeper comes to enter the data into the accounting software package, be it MYOB or Quickbooks, the bookeeper will know what you’ve paid and waht you haven’t.

When you receive a statement, it may list invoices that you have since paid, and you could end up paying them twice.

But surely the supplier would tell you that you’ve paid the invoice twice. Maybe, or maybe not.

By sticking to the rule of always paying from an invoice, and never a statement, you can see what the invoice relates to, and you’ll know what the GST component is.

Surely the GST is always 10%?
Not necessarily. Take a food outlet, such as a cafe. The onwer buys unprepared food that is free of GST from a supplier, such as milk – and there’s also packets of biscuits included in the order which are inclusive of GST

What’s the statement for?
The supplier will send out a statement advising you of which invoices have been paid and which are outstanding in that reporting period.

Nothing wrong with attaching the invoices that you are going to pay, and put them with the statement – as long as you ensure that the amount you pay is not the amount requested on the statement, but the total amount of the invoices that are attached to that statement.

When cash flow is tight, you want to do everything you can to ensure that you are not paying invoices twice – and one way of doing that is never to pay from a statement.

A bookkeeper in Texas, USA has been accused of stealing in excess of $260,00 over a five year period.

She was working for a building company and allegedly wrote out a total of 546 cheques to herself or her family members

Even though the cheques were supposed to have two signatures, the bookkeeper signed them herself.

How many small business owners have any systems in place to ensure that their accounts are not being tampered with by the bookkeeper?

It would be difficult to notice the odd $500 being added to the cost of a building project here and there.