No-one wants to waste time and money. That’s why we’re here to help you build great record-keeping habits to save money and maximise efficiency. The more organised you are, the quicker it is for us to process your bookkeeping. Here are some checklists to help you get sorted. It’s not compulsory, nor expected, but if you’d like to save costs, then these ideas will help.
Document preparation
Have your paperwork organised and tidy, sorted and pinned in month order along with un-crumpled receipts.
Cash, EFTPOS and credit card dockets sometimes don’t provide much detail or the description may not reflect which account it should be charged to. If it’s not obvious, write which account is to be charged. Keep in mind that it may be obvious to you, but not to us.
On your credit card statement, put a notation against anything which isn’t obvious, or if you have mixed use, put a P against private items (we won’t delve into them) and a B against business items. Ensure those have notations eg stock purchase or new computer or networking.
Include print-outs of any money transfers (or electronic bill payments) or you can write on the bank statement where the money went. With transfers it can be difficult to track where the money has gone without documentation especially if you have multiple accounts.
Clearly mark all bills as paid—include the date and how it was paid eg cheque number; name of credit card; Bpay; or electronic. It is an ATO requirement, and good practice in any case.
Other tips
Avoid using your business accounts for personal transactions. It saves us reconciling irrelevant data. If something does slip through, mark it on the statement so that it avoids us having to ask what the item was.
Sale of Asset paperwork
If you sell a vehicle or other large asset, please provide details of sale: date and amount sold for, details of purchaser. A sales invoice may need to be raised to provide to the purchaser the amount of GST included.
Insurance Renewals
Stamp duty is charged on insurance policies which is GST free, the remainder includes GST, so ensure the tax invoice and a copy of finance section of policy renewal (if separate) are kept together and given to us.
Motor Vehicle Registration
Ensure you provide the second page showing the GST charged on CTP.
New Asset paperwork—provide a tax invoice of the purchase and a copy of the first few pages of the finance paperwork.
Communication
Send your paperwork to us by the due dates. Chasing you for what we need takes up valuable time. Be sure that you’ve included everything—discovering a bank statement is missing delays the process and disrupts the time we’ve planned to focus on your work.
Where possible, email us. Phone calls (especially ‘phone tag’) take much longer than a quick email which we can respond to more efficiently.
Timely Responses
Give us timely responses to queries.When we need to ask questions repeatedly it consumes our time and costs you money.
If you are a small business and you need a new bookkeeper, need some training or need to get your books and accounts back into a working order so you can grow your business with new clients and more sales, please get in touch today and let us help you.
For more information, please contact Judy on 0431 103 257 or email at judy@balancewell.com.au to arrange an appointment.
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