Small Business Bookkeeping 101
Fiona McKinlay • December 3, 2018
Have your Sunshine Coast bookkeeping set up properly from the start.
Congratulations on doing what so many other feared to do and opening your own small business!
The dream of being your own boss is about to become a reality. If we could give you one little piece of advice before you get too far along. Have your Sunshine Coast bookkeeping set up properly from the start.
The best practice is to do a class on small business bookkeeping so that you are aware of all the things that you will need to do to keep complaint with good business practices. While that might not be something that you have the time to do, the other thing you could do is hire expertly trained organization like
Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions
to set up your software and all of your accounts for you.
If you are set on doing them yourself, then there are some items that you might want to remember.
Good record keeping
The first thing that you need to do is set up a space just for your business records. While the days of having a file cabinet in your home office might be overkill, you can get a small filing box to help you keep your records sorted. Believer or not there are still some things that you should have printed up and on hand. That being said, set up a cloud folder as well and save all documents off site. This is good practice in case there is a disaster and you lose the physical copies.
Also remember to keep your personal and business records separate.
This will save you a lot of headaches in the end.
Software
You could install software on your computer, but it’s safer and a lot of times more convenient to set up a cloud-based accounting system. This means that as long as you have internet, you have access to your records even when you are out in the field. It also makes sure that if there is a computer failure, your books are safe the mighty cloud.
Reconcile and Fix ASAP
It’s not glamorous, but as a small business it’s important to reconcile your business bank accounts quickly and often. This will mean that you keep on top of your finances and if an error comes up you can fix it right away. Even if it’s only out by $0.01, it needs to be fixed.
When in doubt, get a qualified organisation like Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions to do your books for you so that you can focus on what you really want to be doing which is growing your business!
We keep the businesses of the Sunshine Coast growing!
And then there are employee payment summaries and the summary of income and expenses in a profit and loss statement, the record of debtors and creditors, asset purchases and expenditure on improvements, depreciation expense claims and capital gains tax, income tax returns and yearly reports, returns for PAYG withholding, fringe benefits tax (FBT), Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the taxable payments reporting system, meeting superannuation requirements… the list goes on and on.
With so many great software options including XERO, MYOB and Reckon. It’s vital for Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions to be on top of them all. Our expert team can help tailor fit any software your business needs. We proudly keep the Sunshine Coast on top of their accounts. Ask us how we can help you today.
Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions is a local Sunshine Coast company that provides a complete bookkeeping service and solutions for small to medium businesses and can cope easily with both the ATO and ACNC, so that you can pursue the far more rewarding and philanthropic business of fund-raising and distributing to the deserving foundation or trust of your choice.
Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions is a local, Sunshine Coast business that provides a complete bookkeeping service and solutions for small to medium businesses. The principal of Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions has worked in the accounting industry for over 20 years and is a qualified accountant and registered BAS agent, which means that you can discuss the pros and cons of casual and full time and part time employment, knowing that you will receive practical, constructive, valuable advice.
So, what is Fringe Benefits Tax? Simply put, it’s an extra tax that you cover for your employee that is for the benefit of the employee in lieu of paying them more money. The tax is calculated on the value of what is being used for FBT.
This is only a new initiative as we mention that came into effect as of the 1st of July 2018, so there are still a lot of questions to be answered. This is why a number of clients we serve on the Sunshine Coast have been coming to us at Balanced Bookkeeping and Business Solutions to see their options.