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November 24, 2021 Accounts, BAS, Bookkeeping Post a Comment

Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 Starts in 2022

All employers have to report payments made to employees and closely held payees to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll reporting from July 2021.

Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase 2 was initially planned for 1 July 2021 to align with the mandatory reporting for all employers, but it has been postponed to 1 January 2022. The ATO will allow employers until 31 March 2022 to start reporting if they don’t have an STP reporting solution in place yet. Some payroll software providers already have deferrals in place to allow a longer time for the transition to Phase 2 reporting.

The planned STP expansion has been extended because of COVID-19 impacts on business and accounting and payroll software providers.

STP Phase 2 will require additional information to be reported with each STP pay event.

Accounting and payroll software products will be upgraded to include broader reporting parameters and categories in line with the ATO requirements for Phase 2.

The Phase 2 expansion will allow employers to report information to multiple government agencies in the STP report. Standardised categorisation of income components will make it easier for employees to interact with Services Australia.

The changes will also include detailed income types, lump-sum payments, itemised allowances, child support and the ability to lodge tax file number declarations from within STP reporting. Employment separation certificates upon the termination of employment will no longer be needed, as Phase 2 reporting will include the reason an employee ceased employment.

If you’d like to review your payroll software and systems before STP Phase 2 starts, talk to us today.

Otherwise, there is nothing you need to change right now – we’ll keep you updated when the implementation is closer.

November 10, 2021 Accounts, Bookkeeping Post a Comment

How to Claim for Working from Home Expenses

Working from home is becoming the norm for many businesses, either due to lockdowns or greater employee flexibility. It’s important to think about the deductible expenses that you may be able to claim when working from home and make sure you include them in your tax return.

There are three ways of calculating your working from home expenses.

ATO Shortcut Method for Working from Home Expenses

For part of the 2020 financial year and all of the 2021 and 2022 financial years, there is a shortcut calculation for people who have had to work from home due to COVID-19 temporarily. This allows for a flat rate of 80 cents per hour for employed working time. The shortcut simplifies the calculation but doesn’t allow for any additional expense claims.

To use the shortcut method, you must keep a record of actual hours worked from home. The hours should align with timesheet records submitted to an employer. You don’t need to keep records of actual expenses for things like power or the internet.

To continue to claim deductions for working from home expenses in future financial years, you will need to use one of the established ATO methods of either fixed rate or actual costs.

ATO Home Office Fixed Rate Method

To use the fixed rate, you must have a dedicated work area or separate room used as an office and incur extra costs due to working from home. You will also need records of other expenses not covered by the fixed rate and the number of hours spent working for the whole financial year.

The fixed rate is 52 cents per working hour and includes running expenses for the decline in value of office furniture, electricity and gas, and cleaning. You can claim on top of the fixed rate for other work-related costs such as telephone, internet and office equipment.

You must keep records of hours worked and work-related expenses and a diary to show work usage for the internet and assets. You’ll also need to work out the percentage of floor space for your office against the entire dwelling.

ATO Home Office Actual Cost Method

To use the actual cost method, you must incur extra costs as a result of working from home and have records to prove work-related use of expenses and assets. As with the other methods, you’ll need to record the number of hours worked from home. You’ll also need bills showing actual amounts paid for expenses.

ATO Home Office Online Calculator

Use the ATO home office expenses calculator to check the allowable deductions. The online calculator allows you to choose either the fixed cost or the actual cost method. Once you have the deduction amount from the calculator, enter this on your tax return or give it to us to include. Keep the printout of the calculator result and remember to keep documents for all expenses.

Talk to us to make sure you’re claiming all the allowable working from home deductions to maximise your tax return.

November 4, 2021 Accounts, Bookkeeping, Planning, Software Post a Comment

Do You Have Direct Debits and Online Payments Set Up for Your Business?

Do you have direct debits and online payments set up for your business? Making it easy for your customers to pay you is vital to business success. Getting direct debits and alternative payment methods linked to your business is so easy these days there’s no excuse not to give your customers multiple ways of making payment.

Many service-based businesses choose direct debit arrangements with their clients to avoid late payment. If you’re often chasing overdue payments, consider implementing direct debit arrangements to reduce your administration time.

If you’re already using online accounting software, check the add-on solutions and choose one that integrates with your accounts. This means that the payment platform information feeds directly into your accounting software to be easily matched to customer transactions.

Make it Easy

You probably already have bank transfer information set up, but adding several other methods such as PayPal, debit cards and credit cards allows customers to choose the method most convenient for them at the time. Many customers appreciate the automation and simplicity of direct debits. Make sure your payment terms and conditions are clear on your website and invoices and don’t forget to include all your chosen payment methods for customers.

Worried About Costly Fees?

You have the option to choose whether you will absorb the cost of the payment gateway processing fees or whether you will add the cost to your invoice and charge the clients extra. Your accounting software will then allocate the funds accordingly to invoice payment and fees received.

Better Transaction Recording

When you integrate direct debits and online payment methods with your accounting system, you dramatically reduce errors in recording customer payments – which means less time spent on your accounts.

Not Sure Where to Start?

If you’d like to make it easier for customers to pay you, talk to us about which solutions are best for your business. We can discuss which platforms have the best and most secure integrations with the accounting software you use. We’ll help streamline your payment systems.

October 29, 2021 Accounts, Bookkeeping, Planning Post a Comment

Understanding the Basics of Capital Gains Tax

A capital gain (or loss) occurs when an asset is sold. The difference between the purchase price and the sale price is the gain or loss. Capital gains tax (CGT) applies to money you have made from selling an eligible asset.

Capital gains tax events occur when an asset is sold or other triggers arise, such as the loss, theft or destruction of an asset or creating contractual or other rights to an asset.

Not all assets are subject to CGT. Common exemptions include the main residence or family home, granny flats, cars and motorcycles, personal use assets such as boats, furniture, household items or loans to family and friends. Many types of lump sum payments are also not subject to CGT, and business sales may also be exempt depending on the circumstances.

Most property is subject to CGT including land, commercial premises, rental properties, holiday houses and hobby farms. CGT also applies to shares, investments, cryptocurrency, many collectables, foreign currency and intangible assets.

Visit the ATO for a list of CGT assets and exemptions here.

There are special rules for some specific situations, for example, inheriting assets, relationship breakdown, foreign residents, insurance or compensation payments.

How is the Tax Calculated?

Tax is calculated on the net gain of an asset sale. Tax is payable on the difference between the purchase price and sale price, less any discount allowed.

The type of CGT event affects how and when capital gains tax is calculated. For example, if an asset is destroyed in an accident, the CGT event occurs when the insurance payout is received.

Good record keeping is key to working out capital gains tax accurately. Make sure you keep all documents related to asset purchases, including contracts, expenses valuations and disposal.

CGT is calculated at the time of completing your individual, business or self-managed super fund tax return and is included in the income tax assessment.

Talk to us to ensure you’re claiming all you’re entitled to and not paying more tax than you should. We’ll make sure you’re receiving any exemptions, discounts or small business concessions allowed.

September 22, 2021 Attitude, Mindset Post a Comment

Wellbeing In The Workplace

Supporting and promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace is important for staff and business owners alike. Providing a physically and mentally healthy workplace is beneficial for all who work there, as it reduces staff absenteeism, increases productivity and makes the workplace more enjoyable.

If you are an employer, workplace health and safety laws require you to look after your workers’ mental health just as you would physical health.

This includes minimising risks to workers’ mental health, preventing discrimination based on mental health, protecting privacy and not taking unfair action against workers because of a mental health condition.

Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources

There are many excellent apps available, both free and paid, to assist with all aspects of physical and mental wellbeing in the workplace that you can offer to staff – or use yourself as a business owner.

Creating a Healthy Workplace

Creating wellbeing in the workplace doesn’t have to take a lot of time and resources. Small activities carried out regularly accumulate over time into good habits and everyday practice.

Encourage conversations about health and wellbeing, check in with staff about stress they may be experiencing, offer team activities that promote wellbeing, and provide access to tools like the apps listed above to assist employees in managing their mental health and wellbeing.

Many other apps provide education about mental health and practical tools to change mental and emotional states. Consider offering your employees paid subscriptions to an app of their choice to foster wellbeing. Check out Unwinding Anxiety, Headspace, Waking Up, Calm, Ten Percent Happier and Productive for starters.

HeadsUp has a great guide to promoting health and wellbeing in your business. Find out more about workplace stress, rights and responsibilities, risk factors and how to develop an action plan.

September 15, 2021 Planning Post a Comment

Making Time for Planning

Business planning constantly gets bumped to the bottom of the to-do list. It never feels urgent, especially when sales are strong and you’re dealing with challenges like finding new staff or product shortages.

However, business plans are an important decision-making tool to help you get your priorities in order. What do you really want from your business in the short to long term and how can you achieve that?

Setting goals takes a lot of thinking

Pared back to its essentials a business plan identifies:

  1. Your goals – what you want and when you want it by
  2. How you plan to achieve those goals

Don’t be fooled by how simple this looks.

It can be pretty soul-searching to work out what your goals are as a business owner, because they’re not simply related to growth and market share. They’re also about your personal goals; do you want more money or more time? Do you want to step up or step back? From a business perspective you need to think about whether to expand your products or services, or become more profitable within your existing specialty area.

If you don’t manage to do any other business planning, simply thinking about your goals and jotting down a few on paper can crystallise your ideas, giving you valuable insights into which direction to take next.

A plan for achievement

Once you have goals in place, figuring out how to achieve these usually requires a multi-faceted approach. It will include some or all of the following:

  • Reviewing current and potential products and services
  • Pricing, target market and competitor comparisons
  • Sales and marketing
  • Assets and equipment
  • Systems, automation and outsourcing
  • Financial forecasts
  • Cash flow forecasts
  • Possible funding for investment
  • Your team

Give us a call

We love talking to business owners about how to achieve their goals – seeing our clients succeed is one of the most rewarding parts of this job. We can run the numbers on various scenarios, do cost-benefit analysis, cashflow forecasts and ideas for growth.

Give us a call, we can help.

September 9, 2021 BAS, Bookkeeping, Planning Post a Comment

What is Personal Services Income?

Personal services income (“PSI”) is income received as payment for individual personal efforts and skills. It applies to many contractors who provide services as their means of earning an income. PSI rules can apply to individual sole traders and other types of business entities, but not employees. If PSI rules apply, the entity is called a personal services entity (PSE).

The PSI rules ensure the income is attributed to the individual who performed the services and not apportioned across other entities.

There are several tests to work out if your income is PSI or if you are instead conducting a personal services business (PSB), which means the PSI rules don’t apply. If a personal services entity qualifies as a PSB, the ordinary tax rules apply for that financial year.

At least one of these four tests must be satisfied for an entity to be classified as a PSB.

  • Results test: the individual must be paid to produce a result, is required to supply their own equipment and tools to produce that result and is liable for the cost of rectifying defects in the work.
  • Unrelated clients test: the sole trader or entity must be engaged by unrelated clients and services must be advertised to the public.
  • Employment test: in general, a sole trader or other entity must engage one or more entities to perform at least 20% of the sole trader’s principal work. Entities other than individuals must not be associated with the sole trader.
  • Business premises test: the entity must maintain and use business premises to conduct personal services. The business premises must be exclusively used by the PSE and physically separate from private premises and customers.

If more than 80% of income in a financial year is derived from one customer, the PSE must satisfy the results test to be classified as a PSB.

If none of the four tests are met, the income is classified as personal services income, and the PSI taxation rules apply. PSI rules restrict the type of allowable tax deductions made in relation to personal services income-earning activities.

If you’d like to know more about PSI, talk to us to see if the services you provide meet the tests for conducting a personal services business. We’ll make sure you are claiming the maximum allowable deductions and being taxed correctly.

August 31, 2021 Planning, Software Post a Comment

What Value Can Automation Bring To Your Business?

Automation has the capacity to revolutionise your efficiency and productivity. But how many of the automation features that are available to you are actually being used? And could you be getting more value by building automated processes into your operational framework?

Removing the manual workload to streamline your processes

There’s a very simple mantra when it comes to making the most of automation: if there’s a manual task in your business that’s taking up time, automate it now!

The more time you and your team spend on low-level administration, data-entry and form-filling, the less time you have available for actually running the business. With your software tools maximised, your automated processes can be chugging along in the background, doing the heavy lifting and freeing up your time to focus on client service, sales and strategy etc.

So, which elements of your everyday operations could you be automating? And which apps and software solutions can help you to achieve your automation goals?

Here are some areas where automation and smart systems can really help to add value:

  • Automated bookkeeping and digitisation of paperwork – apps like Dext and Auto Entry offer you the opportunity to automate your bookkeeping and record-keeping. These solutions let you snap a photo of a receipt or invoice, digitise the contents and then automatically create an expense claim or bill in your accounting system. There’s no keying in and the whole process is synced with your choice of cloud accounting platform.
  • Automated employee expenses – apps like DiviPay, Soldo and Pleo give you automated control over your employee expenses. Using either virtual or physical credit cards, your staff can pay for expenses and payments are then automatically synced with your main accounting platform. That means no late expenses claims, no need for petty cash and no wasted time keying in the receipts. All employee expenses can be tracked, measured and paid, with the whole expenses process automated from start to finish.
  • Automated payment collection from your customers – with payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe and GoCardless you can automate your cash collection. By using a modern payment gateway, you make it easier for clients to pay their bills. But you also automate the actual cash collection and bank reconciliation process too. Money can be instantly paid to your main business account and all the transactional data pulled across to your accounting platform. That means less admin, and faster payments too.
  • Automated POS, stock management and inventory – running a retail or hospitality outlet comes with a lot of operational admin. Apps like Vend or Shopify POS give you an all-in-one point-of-sale (POS), stock and inventory management system, automating your till sales and syncin g everything with your choice of accounting platform. The inventory system will also be automatically updated when an item is sold, keeping your records and stock listings completely up to date.
  • Automated marketing and social media posts – digital marketing is key to finding customers and growing your business. With tools like Hubspot Marketing Automation or ActiveCampaign you can automate a large chunk of your marketing work. These solutions let you create automated email cadences, target specific customer audiences and track your return on investment (ROI) in forensic detail.
July 23, 2021 Accounts, Attitude, Mindset, Planning Post a Comment

Have You Changed Your Business Purpose?

Many businesses will have been through a tough and transformative period through 2020 and into 2021. In some cases, companies have had to update, change and pivot just to survive – and this means having to rethink the core mission behind your enterprise.

Journeying through the pandemic, your business is faced with a new kind of business reality. It’s a world where buying habits have changed, consumer expectations have evolved, online shopping has boomed and e-commerce is now a far more dominant force.

To cope with these changes it’s likely that your business has had to evolve. But do you know where you’re going and how it’s impacted on your underlying business mission?

Embracing the need to evolve and change

Being able to react to changing circumstances and to evolve your business is one of the key capabilities you need as an entrepreneur, business owner or CEO.

The ability to articulate your new business objective is a fundamental need. And having a clear outline of how you’re pivoting and why will help you to understand the evolution of your business and where you’re likely to go next.

Some key questions:

  • Have you changed your business purpose? Did your company change direction and pivot to move into new markets or new products? If so, do you have a robust plan for pivoting and continuing this evolution? Do you have the resources needed to back up this change in direction?
  • What is your new purpose as a business? What is your updated vision for the business and what do you want to achieve? Do you have this formalised in an updated mission statement or business plan? If not, you need to get this written down and communicated to your executive board, your team and all other stakeholders.
  • Who are your new customer audience? If you’ve pivoted, it may be that your target customers have also changed. If your sales, business development and marketing activity is now focused on a new customer demographic you need to update this in your sales and marketing strategy. Think about who you’re selling to, what their needs may be and how you can service these needs.
  • Are any operational changes needed? Can you successfully pivot to this new purpose using your current systems, processes and resources, or do these resources need to be updated? If you’ve increased your e-commerce footprint, then your production, logistics and delivery operations need to scale up to cope with this increased demand.
  • Do you have the right team on board? Do you need new staff to help you meet your goals? Or are some employees no longer required? If your purpose has changed, it’s likely that your talent needs have also changed. Reassess your key human resourcing requirements and think about the people you need on board for this next chapter.
  • Do you have enough funding? Do you have enough working capital behind you? If changes in equipment, plant or premises are part of your pivot strategy, it’s likely that you’ll need additional finance to fund these changes. Think about approaching your bank manager, business adviser or funding provider of choice. NOTE: Talk to us about government-backed recovery funding.

Talk to us about planning your new business direction

Nothing stands still in business, so there’s always value in taking the time to step back and reassess your business direction. However you’re fairing in the Covid market, taking the time to review your business purpose and planning is time well spent.

Talk to us and we’ll help you to update your mission statement, amend your business plan and get all the operational and financial elements in line for the next stage in your success story.

June 3, 2021 Accounts, Bookkeeping, Planning Post a Comment

Six Reasons To Look at Your Financial Reports

Making time to look over your financial reports each month is an important task for any business owner. If you are not taking the time to do this, either because you’re too busy or perhaps you don’t really understand what you’re looking at and it doesn’t make sense to you, then here are six reasons we recommend that you should start to.

  1. Understand your business better – by looking at your Profit and Loss (“P&L”) report monthly you will get a good picture of how your business is performing month by month and it will provide a better understanding of what makes up your profit.  Looking at revenue and expenses clearly on one page in a monthly P&L or comparing periods, this will help to identify trends in your data and may also help to highlight anomalies in coding/categorising.
  2. Accurate information for lending purposes – if you are applying for a loan or an overdraft, the bank or financial institution will look closely at both your Profit and Loss report and the Balance Sheet as a lot can be learned about a business by looking at these reports together. If you are unsure what some of your balances are in your accounts, get in touch and we can explain them further.
  3. Get paid quicker and reduce bad debts – by looking at your Accounts Receivable Aged Summary each month you can follow up with overdue accounts promptly which often results in getting paid quicker. The longer an overdue amount is left unpaid the higher the risk of it not being paid at all, so it is important to keep on top of this.
  4. Better relationships with your suppliers – assuming you are entering your supplier bills into your accounting software (recommended for most businesses to get an accurate profitability figure) your Aged Payables report will alert you to any unpaid or overdue amounts. Supplier relationships are an important aspect of your business and paying on time is crucial to maintaining those relationships.
  5. Better cashflow – having an accurate understanding of how much money the business is owed and how much money the business owes, can help with cashflow planning to ensure that there is enough money when needed. Additionally, understanding the trends of your business, its profitability drivers, expenses, etc., can help to plan sales and marketing campaigns so that the revenue keeps coming in.
  6. Better business decision making – your financial reports tell the story of your business and it’s important that you understand the story that they are telling you. The better you understand what’s going on in your business the stronger position you will be in to make better business decisions that affect the profitability of your business and its financial viability.

Depending on the complexity of your business, at a bare minimum you should be looking at the following reports:

  • The Statement of Financial Performance, also known as the Profit and Loss report (P&L) or the Income Statement.  As the name suggests, it’s how your business is performing over a period of time, such as a month or a financial year. In broad terms it shows the revenue that your business has generated, less the expenses for that same period. In other words, it shows how profitable your business is.
  • The Statement of Financial Position, also known as the Balance Sheet.  This shows the value of the business’s Assets, Liabilities and Equity.
    • Assets include things like money in bank accounts, Plant and Equipment, Accounts Receivable balances
    • Liabilities include things like Bank loans and credit cards, Accounts Payable, and Hire Purchase balances
    • Equity is the difference between your Assets and Liabilities and includes Retained Earnings and Owner Funds Introduced
  • Accounts Receivable Ageing report (Aged Receivables) shows how much money is still owed to the business as at a certain date in time, and is usually segmented as to how overdue they are or sometimes by how far past the invoice date they are. Generally you will have Current, 30, 60 and 90 days columns.
  • Accounts Payable Ageing Report (Aged Payables) shows who the business owes money to as at a certain date in time and, like the Accounts Receivable Ageing report, is usually segmented by overdue period.

So why bother?

If you would like to know which reports are relevant to your business and you want to better understand what’s going on in your business, then get in touch so we can make a time to go through them with you.

Your business success is important to us and we are here to help you.

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