We’ve just updated our Job Outcomes page to showcase some of the jobs that EzyLearn students apply for. Most of our graduates are looking for Office Admin or Business Admin jobs but others want to start their own business.
There is a huge responsibility in being a receptionist because in many ways you need to know a lot about various parts of the business and the right employees to refer callers to. Imagine you have just started a receptionist job and you can people calling all day long about accounts, sales, technical issues and how their project is progressing!
The most common jobs for office admin and office support require confident knowledge of Microsoft Office and MYOB or Xero for bookkeeping tasks.
The office admin role is the person that connects most of the other business roles, including
customer service,
sales and
accounts.
This means you’ll be speaking to existing clients about the administration tasks involved in their purchase, while also coordinating with other employee of the business to help complete the services.
In the building and trades industry you’ll be helping with paperwork relating to their building project.
Office admin jobs require good communications skills because you may not know the answer to all your clients questions but you are the first person they speak with. You’ll need to correspond with other parts of the business to ensure that the client has the information they need.
This can include scheduling meetings, allocating meeting rooms and reminding clients and technicians about appointments, most of which is done using Microsoft Outlook.
This role can get even trickier when you are also the person following up for payment! You may need to be nice and friendly to maintain a good client relationship while also being stern and enforcing the business credit management policies.
If your employer supplies complex solutions which involve project management and many different milestones one of your first tasks will be to collect information about the customer needs from the sales person and provide them with a quote or tender that is created by an experienced estimator.
Your role might be to convert complex information into a glossy brochure or proposal that makes it easier for the client to understand.
If you are preparing this information for a sales person to present you may also need to condense it into a slideshow presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.
Difference between Office Admin and Business Admin
If you want to climb up the ladder where you work or find a higher paying office admin job you should explore some of the requirements for business administration jobs. This previous blog posts explores actual job ads and requirements for staff.
The one thing I’ve found fascinating in accounting and bookkeeping is watching technology companies try to win clients. I’m not just talking about the special offers, features and pricing but how they use technology to make bookkeeping seamless – to replace some of the bookkeeping tasks!
The most recent event I’ve witnessed is NAB bookkeeper service that has a six month free trial and is $20 per month thereafter.
When you read the fine print it is revealed that Thriday is the technology behind NAB bookkeeper.
I want to thank the following students for choosing EzyLearn and graduating from their Office Admin and Bookkeeping short courses.
At this point we don’t speak with some students again because they have the new skills they want and they use them to find work or do better in their jobs. That is a sad part of the training business for me.
Some students take advantage of our Career Academy services and stay around to get exposure to employers and other students.
There are many finance professionals — who does your business need?
Does your business need a bookkeeper, accountant or perhaps just a BAS agent – or a little bit of everyone?
WE’VE MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY THAT finding a bookkeeper, when you may not know much about bookkeeping, can be a difficult task.
In fact, a lot of new business owners assume their accountant will take care of everything for them, which may be costly if their accountant has to perform a year’s worth of bookkeeping in order to file the business’s tax return. But bookkeepers and accountants can work harmoniously in your business.
As a general rule, every business needs at least two finance professionals working on their business accounts, but which two professionals you’ll need to hire depends on your business needs. If you’re not sure who you need to hire for your business, here’s a cheat sheet to help you out.
Bookkeepers (not registered with the TPB)
An independent bookkeeper not employed by an accountant and not registered with the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB) may only perform basic bookkeeping services, such as the
entering of receipts,
coding financial transactions,
generating invoices and purchase orders
accounts receivable and accounts payable
If you hire this type of bookkeeper, you’ll still need an accountant.
BAS agents
BAS agents must, by law, register with the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB), which certifies that they are qualified and have completed the necessary continuing education requirements to perform the tasks of a BAS agent, which involves carrying out most of the bookkeeping tasks mentioned above, in addition to preparing and lodging business activity statements on a business’s behalf.
If your business is registered for GST, you will need to file regular activity statements. If you hire a BAS agent, you’ll also need an accountant. In some instances, you may find a BAS agent who’s also a registered tax agent and vice versa, who may be able to take care of all your taxation needs.
Tax agents
Although tax agents, like BAS agents, must also register with the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB), a tax agent is focused on income tax — how much income you have to declare, how much you can claim back, etc.
This is distinct from a BAS agent who is concerned with the day-to-day financial tasks of your business (bookkeeping and BAS lodgements). That said, some tax agents will also perform some the basic bookkeeping tasks on a regular basis, though they primarily specialise in lodging tax returns.
If you’re not registered for GST, and your tax agent will also perform regular bookkeeping tasks (or you can do it yourself), you may not need to hire an accountant. In some instances, you may find a tax agent who’s also a registered BAS agent and vice versa, who may be able to take care of all your taxation needs.
Accountants
An accountant is mostly concerned with planning and strategy. Unlike bookkeepers and BAS or tax agents, an accountant will assess and advise you on what actions you should take to maximise your income. Great accountants will get involved with planning the direction of your business and ensure it’s been structured properly and that you’re meeting any additional tax obligations.
They’ll also help you to make strategic purchases for equipment and machinery, and work with your BAS agent or bookkeeper to ensure these decisions are reflected in your daily financial records. An accountant is also able to prepare and lodge tax returns on your behalf.
How much should I pay a bookkeeper?
Check out the National Bookkeeping Directory, which features the details of bookkeepers, capable of doing data entry and clerical tasks, through to high-level accounting work as undertaken by BAS agents, accountants and CFOs.
You can also see the National Bookkeeping rates page to find out what level bookkeeper your business needs.
Employers like small business owners are looking for staff online using Google. From office admin and business administration tasks to bookkeeping and customer service and sales, employers need staff to keep their businesses running.
The only way you are going to get discovered is if you have an online profile that CAN GET DISCOVERED and that is what membership to the Bookkeeping Academy does for you.
The biggest difference between applying for jobs and having employers contact you is that rather than go through the job application elimination process you’ll need to know what to say to employers when they call.
Questions to ask employers and clients
You can’t just say “I need more money, can I have the job”. You need to be able to identify:
what work they need you to do,
how they want you to work
the working hours and pay
One of the hardest things you’ll need to learn is how to say, “Sorry I don’t think I can help you!”
In bookkeeping work alone there are so many different types of work that you need to clarify what clients want.
The easiest way for you to get into bookkeeping if you are new to it is through data entry of invoices and purchase orders.
The features that each of these companies provide is invaluable for businesses. We can’t do without most of them in some way and when they started you, like me, probably turned on all the features and opted into their “labs” to test out new features. Then things changed.
These companies are now mature and they command respect as market leaders. Their financials are also very healthy because they’ve managed to monopolise some aspect of their market. These are some of the things that has happened to me over the years, has this happened to you?
All the marketing messages I hear is how much better Xero is than MYOB but that isn’t always the case.
MYOB and QuickBooks both had more in-build inventory features than Xero but Xero has always promoted their integrations to fill gaps in their core software. I wrote about this several times:
I’m a Google fan, from the simplicity of using most of their software programs to their low cost services I’ve always loved how they compare to Microsoft who charge a licence fee for their software.
But once upon a time I was a Microsoft fan because of the low cost model they had compared to Apple.
I’m watching this Artificial Intelligence race with interest (everyone on Linkedin is commenting about it) but I noticed something recently that shocked me.
Are you earning $50 per hour at the moment? If you aren’t it can seem almost impossible to believe that you could, particularly when you look at your boss and imagine yourself asking them for a pay rise.
I searched online to see who earns $50 per hour and most of the search results in Seek and Indeed showed up saying you have to be a doctor, pharmacist or HR Manager but bookkeepers earning this much regularly.
not having to dress up nicely every day to see your work colleagues
It’s easy to see the benefits for you, but what about your boss? What do they want? If you’re going to work from home you need to start thinking and acting like a boss.
The constant need for some companies to continue to grow revenue or subscriber numbers can make the employees do things too aggressively.
Xero has always done a great marketing job against MYOB because it was easy – all they had to do was have good software that was easier to use and in the cloud – now they’re ALL in the Cloud!
Xero focused on a cloud only model and the integrations between it and other online software programs. This was a marketing strategy that may have stretched the truth a little!
MYOB’s problem was that is WAS a Windows based software program. This made using the software harder because you had the constraints of running only on a Windows computer and had to upgrade that software regularly. It also caused issues with their Mac version and they ended up having to discontinue that software and push their Mac users straight to their Cloud version, MYOB Essentials.
I recently wrote about the Internship opportunities for selected business and office administration training courses – this work can all be done online, remotely working from home.
One of the best things about running an online training business is that we can deliver our courses to the thousands of students who live in remote parts of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland and the rest of Australia!
Read on to discover how you can up-skill and learn how to become a remote working virtual assistant performing business and office administration work from your own home
One success story worth watching in Australian grocery retailing is Aldi. With their special buys, weekly catalogue and well known overseas brands (that no one knows here) they have an unbelievable advantage in price and differentiation.
One thing they did that really stood out to me a couple years ago was their $299 toilet offer, including installation. Who else includes installation as part of the sale of something that NEEDS installation!
Harvey Norman do and both operate a certain way to do it.
The tricky parts of this marketing strategy are:
Installation quality can vary from site to site
Installation issues can vary massively depending on how old the home is
Co-ordinating plumbers in every suburb is a huge job
Managing the ordering of trades for new purchases is a customer service hot spot
Aldi nailed it all and provided a good quality product and service. How do I know? I tried it out!
Business Course – How to create a Perfect Joint Venture
Learn how they created a Joint Venture that enabled them to sell a product that is normally delivered and installed by a trades person.
Not only did they sell a good quality product at a good price but they also helped their Joint Venture partner earn some money too.
One of the biggest risks that trades people have is credit risk, particularly the credit risk of supplying a product AND a service and copping the risk on both items.
Harvey Norman and Aldi use “perfect scenario installations” to sell their products. Very few installations are perfect so most people will need extra services and that is how both parties benefit from the Joint Venture.
Digital Marketing, Customer Service and Sales Training
Creating the perfect marketing offer is a strategy to increase sales but the follow through and communications from your team is what makes it successful.
The Targeted Ads, Customer Service and Training course gives you the knowledge and tools to create marketing strategies that provide results that you can measure.
It is built for micro businesses who sell products and services and one of the case studies is someone starting a bookkeeping business.
Daily Transaction bookkeeping using Xero and MYOB Courses, and
Courses in Payroll Administration using Xero and MYOB.
The Online Business Admin Course is well priced and includes most of the skills you need to perform the work but you also get access to the FREE Student Inclusions shown here.
Office Administration and Business Administration Complete Training Courses Combined
If you have decided to go all the way with your office and business administration skills and/or want an ongoing resource for your work or business I present to you the Office + Business Administration Certificate Course.
This includes all skill levels from beginners to advanced skills in the leading bookkeeping software programs and Microsoft Office – including the Microsoft Forms bonus course.
Enrol into and complete this course and if you join the Bookkeeping Academy we’ll take you on as an intern!
We’ll create an online profile for you to help you get discovered online and pass on leads for bookkeeping work or tutoring clients.
The most challenging question we receive when students need to upskill in how to use Xero and MYOB relates to getting work. The question of how our online bookkeeping courses will help students find work can be answered in different ways but the only real answer is that it will give you knowledge and practical skills using Xero and MYOB to do bookkeeping work and this increases your confidence.
Some students ask us if there is a guaranteed job after completing our bookkeeping courses and I am still surprised when I hear that question.
Bookkeeping Interns
The closest thing a bookkeeping course graduate will get after completing any course is an internship with an accounting or bookkeeping business. Some training companies that I have seen offer internships but the bookkeeping courses cost close to $10,000 – in other words you are paying for the ability to work for free for an accounting company.
What a Xero and MYOB course offers you is leverage. The ability to pay a small amount of money to get an advantage that can result in you earning much more money.
When you complete a Xero and MYOB Course combination with EzyLearn you get discounted membership to the Bookkeeping Academy where we create a digital profile to help you get discovered online by potential employers.
Leverage is how people make money in real estate.
What is Leverage?
In property investment leverage is the ability to borrow a large sum of money to buy an asset that you don’t have enough money to buy by yourself. The cost of borrowing that money is the interest that is charged every week or month and this is called the holding cost.
The main benefit of having debt when buying an investment property is that the debt stays constant even if the value of your property increases.
Here’s a scenario:
You use your own savings of $100,000 to buy a property worth $1M
You borrow the difference which is $900,000
Your equity in this transaction is 10% and you are borrowing 90% of the value of that asset
In 5 years that property is worth $1.5M
During those 5 years you have been paying the interest to hold onto the asset
If you have been paying interest only then your debt is still $900,000
You now have $600,000 equity in that property
Your equity in that property is now 60% as a percentage
If you sold that property for $1.5M you have turned $100,000 into $600,000
What I haven’t factored into this scenario is all the other costs associated with property investment, including:
You need a good job or 2 incomes to get the loan in the first place
Income rates can increase and property prices can go down
Rental income from the property usually helps pay the mortgage
There are transaction costs like stamp duty,
You’ll need to pay council rates and utilities costs
You will need to pay agent fees if you use a real estate agent to sell the property
You’ll need to pay capital gains tax on the profit from your sale
If you’ve followed this blog or completed one of our Xero and MYOB courses you would have come across some case studies around property investment. There are more articles and training content coming that relates to property investment so make sure you subscribe.
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Xero is a great bookkeeping program for tradies who are on the go and using their phones (or a tablet) all the time. From receipts scanning to creating quotes and invoices, receiving payments and keeping track of project costs.
bookkeepercourse.com.au/produ…
