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Category: Credit Management
How to Become an Accounts Payable Officer
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE OFFICERS are responsible for paying invoices owed by a company to its suppliers or vendors.
They typically work in medium to large-sized businesses, where they may also be called an accounts officer and be responsible for investigating the cost of wages, materials, overheads and other operating expenses.
Here are some of the other common tasks you’ll find in an accounts payable officers job description.
Do Bookkeepers Need to Learn All Accounting Programs?
Ways to diversify your bookkeeping skills
NOT SO LONG AGO, bookkeepers and accountants only had to learn to work with one accounting program. That was back when MYOB, the market leader, had a strangle-hold on the industry, and though a few alternatives – Reckon, Quickbooks – tried to squeeze out a space for themselves, MYOB was too embedded in the accounting industry.
But the rise of cloud accounting has changed all that. Besides the reinvention of a couple of old brands (QuickBooks and Reckon – though the latter has exited the market again), it’s also birthed a new market leader in Xero, which now has more paid member accounts in Australia and New Zealand than arch rival MYOB. Continue reading Do Bookkeepers Need to Learn All Accounting Programs?
3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands
How tapping into your Smartphone can win you work
I RECENTLY WROTE about a Tradie Charging Too Little. In this I covered the four tell-tale signs, as told to me by a tradesperson friend of mine, that your prices are too low. But there are other business mistakes that owners, particularly tradespeople, make that can wind up costing them thousands in lost revenue — and when I say revenue I don’t just mean from existing clients but also past clients and new prospects! Continue reading 3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands
Do What You Know & Actually Make Money
MANY SMALL BUSINESS owners get distracted thinking about what they could do or want to do and not what they can do now.
Doing what you know, and particularly, what you love doing and are passionate about, will ensure you earn money and get new clients.
Why? How? Because people see it in your body language and hear it in your voice.
Throw in some good computer skills and efficient credit and money management and you’ll be set for a great financial year profit. Continue reading Do What You Know & Actually Make Money
Running Multi-Period Profit and Loss Statements
Be Aware of the Ebbs and Flows of Your Business: Multi-Period Profit and Loss Reporting
Nearly every business has its busy periods and its quiet ones. Crucial to the success of a business is knowing when these busy periods and quiet ones occur, so you can capitalise on them.
For a lot of Australian businesses offering professional services, December through January is usually when business winds down for the year. In the hospitality and accommodation industry, however, it’s typically the busiest time of the year, so planning for increased business is essential. Continue reading Running Multi-Period Profit and Loss Statements
The Secret to an Error-Free BAS Report
What To Do So You Don’t Lose Money When Doing Your BAS – 6 steps
If your business is registered for GST, it means you have to file regular activity statements with the ATO, usually each quarter. A lot of business owners export their Business Activity Statement (BAS) data straight from their accounting software, like MYOB or QuickBooks, and quickly prepare their BAS’ that way. But this is an imprecise method, and one that could be costing you money.
Tracey Marino, an experienced bookkeeper based in Rockingham, WA, knows how important it is that businesses of all sizes keep their Business Activity Statements error-free so as not to end up costing business owners money. Continue reading The Secret to an Error-Free BAS Report
Three Things Your Bookkeeper Shouldn’t Be Doing
Is Your Bookkeeper Making Stuff Up?
In a previous post I wrote about the three tell-tale signs that your bookkeeper isn’t paying attention and thought I’d expand on this a little further by writing about three of the things your bookkeeper shouldn’t be doing — and what it means if they are.
Continue reading Three Things Your Bookkeeper Shouldn’t Be Doing
Should You Reconcile Your Accounts Every Day?
Reconciling Your Accounts Daily Gives a True Picture of Cash Flow
For a lot of business owners, just the thought of reconciling their accounts once a month is enough to make them go weak at the knees, never mind every day. Yet there are plenty of contract and remote bookkeepers who work for their clients each week, and some that work every day for the same client, reconciling their accounts and providing other vital bookkeeping services.
And they’re not just big businesses whose accounts are reconciled daily — plenty of small businesses do so too. In fact, with so many small businesses going asunder due to cash flow problems (often stemming from a lack of procedures in place for credit and debt management) it can be not only a cost-saver but a potential life-saver to your business. Continue reading Should You Reconcile Your Accounts Every Day?
The 3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Bookkeeper Isn’t Paying Attention
Are You Getting the Best from Your Bookkeeper?
MANY BUSINESS OWNERS LACK an in-depth knowledge of the bookkeeping process so they hire a bookkeeper to manage it for them.
But this can also make it hard to know whether the bookkeeper they’ve hired is paying close attention to their business’ books or not.
Ricky is a tertiary qualified bookkeepers from Blacktown in NSW, and he reveals there are three tell-tale signs your bookkeeper isn’t paying attention. Continue reading The 3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Bookkeeper Isn’t Paying Attention
What if a Credit Check Comes Back Negative?
Do You Have to Drop a Client Because of a Bad Credit Check?
A Credit Check is one of the most important first steps of good credit and debt management but you can still do business if the check comes back negative.
In a previous post on credit and debt management, I recommended that all businesses — regardless of whether they offer credit to customers on a 30-day account or not — perform a credit check on any new client who will spend more than $1000 on goods or services in one sale, on an ongoing basis.
What should you do if the credit check comes back negative, and shows that the potential customer is guilty of late payments, pending legal action or already carries a significant level of debt? Continue reading What if a Credit Check Comes Back Negative?
Is Credit Management Just About Getting on the Phone?
It’s Good Business to Set Out Your Credit Management Policy at the Outset
CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF ANY BUSINESS is the ability to maintain a healthy cash flow. But doing so requires effective credit management processes.
Unfortunately, too many business owners feel uncomfortable talking about credit and debt management upfront with new clients.
They (falsely) believe it begins if, and when, a customer doesn’t pay a bill. But, in fact, credit management starts much, much earlier than that — long before the two businesses even agree to work with each other, to be precise. Continue reading Is Credit Management Just About Getting on the Phone?
Bad Payers Cost 12 Working Days to Collect $13,200
Credit Management is an Extra Job
I’ve always believed that as soon as you offer credit you’ve got yourself another business – a credit management business.
When we first created our MYOB Daily Transactions course we designed it to take students through the cashflow process of where money goes when it first leaves your bank account and these are the main steps:
- Money in the bank (cash asset)
- Buy stock (inventory asset)
- Products sold on account (accounts receivable asset – Trade Debtors)
- Customer pays their account (cash asset)
The interesting part of this business process to me is the marketing (choosing the products, pricing, marketing message and advertising) and the credit management to get the money back.
Continue reading Bad Payers Cost 12 Working Days to Collect $13,200
