Define what your ideal client looks like and then advertise to capture leads.
When speaking to prospective bookkeeping leads you need to know which questions to ask to see if they are an ideal client for you. Then you need to provide your services efficiently and at a competitive price, invoicing regularly and getting paid promptly.
Join the Bookkeeping Academy
Starting a bookkeeping business enables you to choose your own working hours and perform some, if not all, of your work from home.
QuickBooks, MYOB & Xero Training Courses and Certification will help you achieve your goals while membership to the Bookkeeping Academy will help get you discovered online by local businesses and employers.
There’s lots to do when businesses engage a new worker. As an employer, you’ll be busy going through the onboarding process and showing your new employee the ropes, but there are other important things to do when you add a new member to your team.
Keeping accurate records complete with the right information is essential for businesses to maintain, and that means updating and adding data when engaging a new worker. Here are some things to keep in mind as you go through this process:
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.
For small businesses bookkeeping isn’t a full time job. It’s often something done by the owner themselves or their partner in life and these people are not usually that good at it – PLUS they’re family and that throws up all sorts of issues and resentments.
Wives, girlfriends, partners and friends are often chosen as the small business bookkeeper because they are either cheap or trustworthy but that isn’t always a good reason to “use” them.
Many bookkeeping jobs are part time, casual or contract jobs because they only require a few hours to a day a week to do and that is why so many students start a bookkeeping business. A big problem with this approach is lack of skills in marketing and sales but the Bookkeeping Academy can help.
With $41.9 Billion budgeted to be spend on the NDIS there is little wonder everyone is exploring disability care as either a job opportunity or a business opportunity. It’s not just individuals who are exploring this industry but accounting software and technology firms too.
I wrote about HNRY, the full service accounting software, accountant and bank account for small business owners that only charges a small percentage to cover ALL of these costs but other firms are also appearing to help everyone in the NDIS ecosystem, including Splose.
It certainly is an interesting time we’re going through financially. Most of us (around the world) are hurting because of higher costs and as a result the RBA increases interest rates so we focus on paying down our debts rather than consuming more things. Some people I’ve been speaking with are predicting even worse times ahead and the recent sacking of staff from Xero and Atlassian show the global trend is affecting Australia.
After hearing about the recent sackings at Xero it was interesting to see what else was going on at Xero. The two things that stood out the most to me was an improved Approval button for invoicing (and that there are now two versions of invoicing) and how Dinesh Aggarwal from Fortuna Advisory is finding it harder to hire local staff so he’s outsourcing.
I’ve been on Twitter since March 2009 but I don’t use it as much as I could have, how about you? Lately we’ve been Tweeting about recent enrolments and graduates who have received their certificates because it is a great digital marketing tool to get short messages published. If you go to our website you’ll notice that these Tweets appear in a rotating banner at the top of the page.
Twitter is going through a massive transformation under Elon Musk and whether you like it or not you’ll find that Elon will achieve his goals for the software company. The reason is simple – he is constantly “iterating” and testing and measuring to see what works and what doesn’t work.
What I think will become the most fascinating aspect of Twitter is when it starts becoming a peer to peer payment platform.
Starting a bookkeeping business has been a go to option for many mums returning to the workforce, particularly if they did accounting and office administration work before having children.
I’ve been writing about starting a bookkeeping business at this website since we started our bookkeeping blog and as you can see it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.
Since the GST, however and the creation of the Registered BAS Agent some things have changed.
Many new students learnt how to use online accounting software like Xero and MYOB Business Essentials during the Covid Period because they were working remotely from home. Most of those students thought we had just started working from home ourselves but we told them we’ve been online for over a decade.
The conversation topics that came up a lot was how can you work from home, do you get lonely, do you get distracted etc?
The reality is that our entire team work from home and once you are used to the discipline of working from home you can take lots of breaks when you need them and can focus better on customer service. I found some research that showed just how much time people are now spending alone.
I participated in an interesting project this week that clearly defined Performance Based Pricing. It came about because paying a flat wage just didn’t produce the desired outcome. Let’s just say that the kids didn’t complete all their chores and their mum got tired of paying pocket money while having to chase them up every day – sound familiar?
Xero have always promoted Performance Based Pricing (also known as Value-based pricing) as the best way to run a bookkeeping business but have the flexibility to operate your own hours. It’s based on paying for outcomes rather than time. It encourages workers to use technology to be more productive.
There are many ways to get started with a career in finance and bookkeeping. For those looking for a nationally recognised qualification, something like a Cert IV is a great way to learn the skills you need to find work or continue in your studies.
The Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping is a national accreditation provided by registered training organisations (RTOs). It can start you on your way to becoming a registered BAS agent, or prepare you for roles like payroll officer and bookkeeper. But the qualification has recently been updated!
One of Australia’s most popular small business accounting software has upped its pricing again, but with no new major added features for users (like when they included Hubdoc features in a previous hike).
Xero has announced that from September 1, 2022, three of its plans will increase in price, with the smallest increase at $2/month through to a $14/month hike.
So why are Xero prices increasing and what does it mean for users? Xero has some pretty expensive recent purchases, and their share price is still declining, so could this spell financial troubles for Xero?
Bookkeeping is an essential part of business, not just to keep track of financial activities for the business’ sake, but also to meet obligations from the ATO. It’s nothing ground-breaking to highlight the importance of bookkeeping, but lots of businesses might start operating without considering the necessity of bookkeeping.
If you’re a business owner who doesn’t have a background in accounting or bookkeeping, then you’ll want to learn at least the basics quickly – even if you intend to hire accounts staff, it’s great to understand the bookkeeping tasks that need to be completed.
EzyLearn has you covered with out new Bookkeeping Basics Training Course. Let’s break down how you’ll learn the foundational aspects of bookkeeping with this course:
Now that paying by card is the norm, retailers have needed to adapt to the cashless customer. If you’ve been to some local markets recently, maybe a sporting club canteen or even your regular café, you may have noticed that you’re tapping your card on a little white square instead of an EFTPOS machine.
Block Inc. – previously known as Square Inc – is a point-of-sale (POS) system winning over retailers and enterprises across the world. And it’s not just little white payment terminals, Square offers a range of technology and services that range from POS to payroll to inventory to marketing, AND, they recently purchased AfterPay!
Square integrates with Xero, and considering its popularity, let’s break down what Square is and how it compares to other Xero integrations like Planday.
The Australian government launched STP in 2016, where employers with over 9 employees must report their payroll information for each pay run to the ATO. When the ATO introduced STP Phase 2 earlier this year, some of the reporting obligations changed.
Here’s what you need to know about STP Phase 2 reporting in Xero, and how EzyLearn’s got you covered with the training.
Do you provide your employees with gym memberships or concert tickets? Or maybe you work for a company that provides you with a vehicle or accommodation? There are lots of perks that business can provide to their employees outside of salaries and wages – and these are called fringe benefits and they may apply to you if you worked at home due to COVID-19.
FBT is not as simple as handing out freebies. Employers have to pay tax on these benefits they provide, and the amount can depend on the type of fringe benefit they’re providing.
We’ve written before about how fringe benefits tax is important to consider when you engage a new worker, but let’s look more in-depth into what fringe benefits are all about, and how to ensure you comply with your liabilities:
Invoices can be a hassle for both businesses and their clients. There’s nothing fun about chasing up that client about their late payment, nor is it an efficient use of time to trawl through emails and inboxes trying to find that invoice from however long ago.
The Commonwealth Government is pushing ahead with an alternative, that looks like it will make things a bit easier for everyone.
eInvoicing is on the rise! And since software like Xero has jumped in on the change, it’s important for small businesses to know what eInvoicing is all about:
Type the first 3 characters to discover courses, up-skilling programs and CPD articles.
EzyLearn's Career Academy
Enrolled into an EzyLearn course since 2013? Get access to new & updated course content and support by joining the EzyLearn Course Refresher Access membership Program. See how to extend your course life & support.
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…
