If you’re 3 months or more behind, call in help!
WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR BUSINESS ACCOUNT KEEPING, unless you’re a bookkeeper, bookkeeping is probably your least favourite thing. However, it’s also a fundamentally important part of running a business.
We provide business people with a number of courses in Xero accounting software and we know firsthand that, aside from the legal requirement to lodge regular activity statements, keeping your bookkeeping up-to-date also helps you run a more successful business. This is because it allows you to run regular balance sheets, profit and loss statements and many other financial reports that’ll give you a clear picture of how your business is performing.
However, not every business owner has the procedures in place to manage their bookkeeping regularly. It’s ok, it’s not your fault — you were meaning to, but you were busy running your business and time marched on. Now you have to lodge an activity statement, and you’ve just realised you haven’t done any bookkeeping for three months!
When you need rescue bookkeeping
If you have three months or more of bookkeeping to do before you can lodge an activity statement, then you’re in need of a bookkeeper who can perform rescue work. Some of the common bookkeeping problems rescue work covers includes:
- Bank accounts or credit cards that don’t reconcile with statements
- Old un-presented transactions in the bank account or credit card
- Trade debtors and trade creditors don’t balance with the balance sheet
- Dealing with outstanding invoices and bills that have already been paid, but still showing as outstanding
- Incorrect previously lodged BAS
- Incorrect information showing in payslips, tax tables, super guarantee contributions calculations, payment summaries, etc, due to payroll systems being set up incorrectly
- Unreliable inventory figures.
Not all bookkeepers are able to take on rescue work, because it’s lumpy and it requires them to perform a lot of work in a short space of time, which can conflict with their other regular bookkeeping work.
Rescue bookkeeping is often more expensive
Because rescue bookkeeping requires a lot of manpower in a short period of time, it’s often a little more expensive than have your bookkeeping attended to on a regular basis. In most cases, you will be asked to prepay for a minimum of 10 hour’s work or however long it’s estimated it will take to get your bookkeeping up to speed.
Do you need help with rescue bookkeeping work?
We have bookkeepers, BAS agents and accountants located across Australia, available to help businesses in need of rescue bookkeeping work. Visit our online directory of local bookkeepers and bookkeepers who work ‘in the cloud’ at National Bookkeeping for more information. Here you will be able to see the different bookkeepers’ rates or request a quote.
EzyLearn Excel, MYOB and Xero online training courses count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeepers and accountants. We’ve been an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers ever since the organisation started in Australia. Find out how CPD points can be of benefit to you.
It’s that crazy time when the end of financial year TAX and quarterly BAS periods combine to cause compliance anxiety for business owners and managers if they don’t have a handle on their bookkeeping processes and accounts. This is often caused by not having the best team available for all the tasks required and I spent some time during the week speaking with Tracey our 
