There are many benefits to be had by operating a virtual business — both to yourself as a business owner and to your clients — and in our last post about closing your bricks and mortar office doors to create a virtual one, we discussed the importance of getting the timing right.
But once you know the timing is right, how do you make the transition? Continue reading The Virtual Business: Transitioning from the Real World to the Digital World
IF YOU’VE RECENTLY COMPLETED our MYOB course, or perhaps started your own bookkeeping business, or thinking about starting one, the word ‘accountant’ can sometimes make you feel a little nervous. Particularly if it’s hurled at you in a sentence like: “I’m going to check that with my accountant!”
It is unfortunate, but many people aren’t aware of the important function a bookkeeper can play in a business. Bookkeepers are often relegated to being “the accountant’s poor cousin” (not dissimilar to the way nurses are seen in comparison to doctors); while for some people the only bookkeeper they’ve heard of hangs out at the dog track!
But the word ‘accountant’ really doesn’t need to put the fear of God in you. The fact is a bookkeeper provides valuable services that many accountants simply can’t; and nearly all accountants are more than grateful for the work bookkeepers do.
To work as a professional bookkeeper, you must show you are amply qualified in areas of Australian tax, payroll and sometimes, basic accounting. As it happens, there are many qualified accountants that work as bookkeepers — as is the case with bookkeeping firm, Build on Bookkeeping.
Since most business owners will find themselves an accountant first and a bookkeeper second, if you have a good working relationship with all of the accountants you deal with, they will more than likely refer clients on to you.
So if you can work well with your client’s accountants — by getting your EOFY analysis done in time and the relevant reports to them quickly — you may find yourself a personal advocate for your business.
So don’t live in fear of the accountant — embrace them. Read our tips on keeping the accountant happy come EOFY and you’re well on your way to a prosperous working relationship with the accountants of all of your clients.
30 JUNE IS VERY LIKELY a date dreaded by most bookkeepers. If you’re new to bookkeeping, we know it takes a while to remember everything that needs to be done, which is why we’ve been putting together blogs containing EOFY tips and checklists to make sure you make it to August!
And continuing in that tradition, we’ve put together one more checklist to help you out with your end of financial year analysis — some tips on keeping your clients’ accountants happy.
Once you’ve done all of your EOFY reports, reconciliation and payroll (see our EOFY payroll checklist), you’ll need to forward on a few reports to your clients’ account.
These reports will vary from client-to-client and depend greatly on the size of the company, entity, or what services you’ve been engaged to provide, but typically every accountant will need the following:
For more tips to help you through your end of financial year analysis, see our EOFY checklist or our EOFY payroll checklist posts or visit the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers website.
Want to learn everything you need to know about Xero? Our Xero online training courses include EVERYTHING for ONE LOW PRICE. Furthermore, if you select our Lifetime Membership option, you’ll have LIFETIME access to our ongoing course updates. EzyLearn courses are endorsed by industry professionals and can be counted towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. Find out more about our Xero online training courses.
Whether you are a bookkeeper who uses Xero or MYOB or one of the other accounting software packages that we offer training on, you are probably aware that Australian tax legislation has changed recently. As a result, providing BAS services to clients is not as simple as it once was.
All bookkeepers who wish to provide a BAS service for a fee, must now hold a Certificate IV in Financial Services (Bookkeeping or Accounting) or higher to be eligible for registration.
The BAS services page on the ATO website can provide you with information about the qualification requirements and the education requirements for BAS agents to become certified with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) so you can offer tax and BAS services to clients.
Becoming certified with the TPB is a lot like getting your drivers license: you need to be able to demonstrate the relevant experience of at least 1400 hours, or 1000 hours if you’re already a member of a professional organisation — like the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers — which you can become a member of for free when you complete an applicable EzyLearn Training Course.
If you’re working under the supervision of another registered Tax or BAS agent, you cannot provide any Tax or BAS services to any clients you may pick up of your own. In other words, you must only provide tax or BAS services to clients known to your supervising Tax/BAS agent.
For some newcomers to the industry, this may seem daunting. But that’s just because conventional wisdom suggests that you must take on some form of permanent employment, working for a bookkeeper or accountant who is registered with the TPB and can supervise you while you gain the necessary skills to go out on your own.
But that’s not actually the case. While this is an option — and a good one if you’ve never worked as a bookkeeper before — it’s not the only one. You can still work with another registered Tax/BAS agent as a contractor, providing these services to the registered Tax/BAS agent’s clients until you’re eligible to go out on your own.
This is a great way to get a start on your own business — perhaps just offering non BAS services to start with — while you gain the skills to become registered to offer GST and BAS services. Contract bookkeeping jobs of this nature are actually easier to find that it may seem — often by striking up a working relationship with an accountant or another certified bookkeeper.
Find out more information on how to register with the TPB so you can provide tax and BAS services. And remember: you can become a member of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers for free when you complete an applicable EzyLearn Training Course.
In the past, we have talked about debtor management, the ways you can avoid late-payers by keeping an eye on your cash and assets cycle, and now we thought it was time we talked about the ways you can keep on top of those outstanding invoices without even lifting a finger!
Why Getting Paid on Time Matters
Dealing with late-payers is frustrating, time-consuming, and at times, downright awkward. For freelancers, sole-traders and small businesses, getting paid on time is essential to keeping your cash flow under control.
If you’re not in the position to turn down those perpetual late-payers’ business, then you need to put strategies into place to best manage those late-payers.
Gentle Email Reminders for Getting Paid on Time
Sending a polite, yet firm reminder email to clients a few days before their invoice becomes due is a good way to remind people an invoice is due to be paid, particularly if you have terms of 21 days or more. Often you’ll find most people will pay you once they’re given a gentle nudge via an email reminder.
Of course, there are always those who’ll still try and stretch it out as long as possible — it’s likely their cash flow isn’t much chop; in a sense, by paying you late they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Most of the time, these clients are hoping you haven’t noticed. By sending them a follow up email reminder a couple of days after your invoice was due will show them you have noticed, you haven’t forgotten, and they’ll likely concede defeat and pay — if they still don’t respond, it may be time to implement some of the strategies we discussed here.
More Stringent Payment Terms
But if you find emailing you clients each time their invoices come due and then again when they’re late is not only time-consuming, but also awkward, try setting up the parameters in your invoicing software so that automatic reminder emails are sent out before and after your invoices come due.
Most cloud-based accounting programs, like Freshbooks, Zoho, Shoebooks, Saasu and Salestastic now offer this automatic reminder facility, freeing you up to concentrate on the other areas of your business.
For businesses that have a dedicated accounts receivable department, the ability to send automatic reminders could, depending on the size of your business, save hours, even days of manpower. Plus, it eliminates any awkwardness you may feel chasing someone for a $50 invoice — sure, that one $50 isn’t much, but over time they do add up.
So get paid on time without even lifting a finger by using the automated reminders in your accounting software.
Remember: If you have already completed one of our MYOB training courses and need a bit of a refresher on the Accounts Receivable module, which deals with the ways to get paid on time, you can review it again for FREE if you are within your 12 month enrolment access period OR if you selected our additional option of Lifetime Access.
THERE MAY BE SOME debate over whether having a LinkedIn profile actually helps professionals make valuable connections with other professionals, but the same could also be said of traditional networking.
As a writer, I probably should network more, but personally, I don’t find much value in it. In the past I have either fallen prey to someone wanting publicity for their pyramid-scheme-type business or I’ve turned into a borderline stalker myself; harassing someone who perhaps only gave me their business card out of a feeling of social obligation.
Besides, a business card tells you nothing about how competent or capable that person is at their job. For writers and journalists, I’ve always found it pretty easy to validate their claims on Google; for other professionals: not so much. Until LinkedIn, that is.
LinkedIn may not connect you with the recruiter of your dream job, but Twitter doesn’t guarantee you’ll become BFFs with Mariah Carey, either. What LinkedIn does, however, is give you an online professional profile.
And it’s the rather perverse nature of today’s digital society that makes an online professional presence invaluable; LinkedIn itself can act as your calling card, demonstrating how others endorse you and your work; it can act as your resume; and it can help you to actively find the right job.
Any time you meet someone, you can pretty much guarantee they’ll Google you. Whether they’re prospective employers you’ve interviewed with, people you’ve met in a professional setting (clients, industry alums) or even colleagues, you can bet at some point or another they have Googled you.
What that Google search turns up can totally change the way they interact with you.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve LinkedIn-stalked a fellow writer only to discover their LinkedIn profile is not so impressive, after all. From this point on the entire dynamic of our relationship has changed immediately; suddenly I feel I’ve got the power.
On the other end of the scale, discovering the meek-mannered, unassuming but otherwise seemingly-unimpressive editor I chatted to with extreme ease is actually a former Vanity Fair staffer or contributor to The New Yorker adds another dimension to our relationship — usually, I’m putty in their hands.
And it’s in this context that, yes, a LinkedIn profile does work. Whether you’re using LinkedIn as a job-hunter or a networker, your LinkedIn profile tells people everything they think they need to know about you.
The old phrase — first impressions are lasting impressions — is out. It’s online impressions that are the lasting impressions.
If you haven’t already, we welcome you to connect with EzyLearn at LinkedIn.
Our Xero online training courses include EVERYTHING for ONE LOW PRICE. Furthermore, if you select our Lifetime Membership option, you’ll have LIFETIME access to our ongoing course updates. All EzyLearn courses are accredited by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) and can be counted towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. Find out more about our Xero online training courses.
We have previously talked about how to account for bad debt, but what about the ways you can manage your debtors to avoid things turning bad, so to speak, in the first place?
Much of your debtor management comes into play when you or your bookkeeper is doing your books.
It might be a good idea to find a bookkeeper who can chase up your accounts receivable every week rather than stress about it all month!
Continue reading Monthly Bookkeeping and Debtor Management
Have you pondered the benefits of a lifetime student access to our MYOB courses? Here is the best answer we can think of – our newest MYOB course is the MYOB Setup course for version 2012, and all students will have access to this course for no extra charge*.
I wrote recently about the significant changes that are occurring with MYOB accounting software as they take their journey from desktop to cloud and in-between. I’ll explain more about the in-between part in another blog post. These modifications have caused a change in how to use MYOB software so we’ve undergone a re-write of all of our courses. The MYOB Setup Course is now in beta stage and we are looking for existing students who want to give it a bit of a run through. Do you want to have a sneak peak at it?
Beta stage simply means it’s ready, but we want to see if our existing students like it. Do you want to become a VIP training member? It’s free, so submit your details in our Bookkeepers Register and select the VIP option.
I just want to use this opportunity to let you know another reason for choosing EzyLearn for your MYOB training: We create our own training materials and the people who create the courses also provide support to students. This means that we are amongst the first company to create training material for the latest versions of MYOB.
* If you have enrolled into a lifetime MYOB course access option.
We create new training content for our online MYOB training courses each quarter and we’ve just been going through a flurry of recordings and re-writes for our MYOB Setup course because we know that MYOB AccountRight version 12 is different.
Did you know that MYOB is going through a lot of changes as they position themselves as a cloud based accounting software provider? A recent article in The Australian goes onto explain that MYOB’s cloud-based strategy is designed to get people away from using Microsoft Excel (for which we have training courses with lifetime access) and onto their cloud based systems. It also explains that one benefit to the company is the ongoing monthly revenue stream as opposed to many of their customers who only upgrade their software when they really need to.
The other major reason for the changes in MYOB AccountRight version 2012 is that it, and all their other products, have been re-written from the ground up using a whole new programming language in Dot Net (Microsoft .NET framework). We wrote a controversial blog post about how accounts are recommending some of their customers not to upgrade their MYOB software and some information on their website reveals that MYOB themselves are not recommending the upgrade under certain circumstances, in particular:
[quote] If you use M-Powered services, or other third party add-ons, we recommend waiting until we’ve finished developing these features before upgrading. [/quote]
Either way, we are upgrading our training materials and keeping our old training material available for those students who want access to both versions. We promote lifetime access for our MYOB training courses and all students on this enrolment plan will have access to the new MYOB AccountRight version 2012 courses for free.
Stay tuned as we keep you up-to-date on our progress. The 45 new videos for our MYOB AccountRight version 2012 course have now been recorded and are uploading to our training video server as we speak. When they are live at the training site we’ll issue another blog post.
You can find out more about the upgrades that MYOB AccountRight version 2012 software is going through by visiting this link at the MYOB website.
More and more students turn to us to learn how to use MYOB bookkeeping software to find a new job, start a bookkeeping business or be more effective in their current job. To reflect our focussed committment to help you get that job we have re-designed our MYOB training course certificate.
If you complete an MYOB Training Course with us, and you successfully complete all the knowledge reviews in each course you will received the revamped MYOB Certificate that looks like the image in this blog post.
Our courses are delivered 100% online and in keeping with that our certificates are supplied via our support site to students as a pdf file that you can print yourself. By keeping everything online we are able to combine 5 courses into one, from Setup to BAS and Reporting, for a very low price and provide you with lifetime access to the training resources.
We provided a free training video about Xero online accounting software and this is another part of our commitment to students studying to be MYOB Bookkeepers. Our Bookkeeping Academy is available to all students completing an MYOB training course and it’s our way of helping to keep you up-to-date with the latest in bookkeeping software and services (like cloud based bookkeeping systems).
To see the price for our courses with MYOB Certificate as well as Microsoft Excel and WordPress, visit our enrolment page. Remember that you get all courses for one price and lifetime access. This means that if you enrol now into our MYOB Training Courses you receive
Our MYOB Certificate course is currently being updated to version 12 and as an EzyLearn student you have access to this new material for no extra charge! Make sure you subscribe to receive our updates via email.
It’s the same with Microsoft Excel Courses, you receive access to all levels (9 short courses in total) from Excel beginners to advanced users for one price and lifetime access and we have training material for 2000-2003 versions as well as training material for 2007-2010 versions.
Enrol now, or see what is included in the MYOB Courses, Microsoft Excel Courses or WordPress Website Design and Blogging Courses.
We use this blog to provide some free samples of our training materials as well as inform readers about the features of our online MYOB and Microsoft Excel Training Courses. Today I am going to demonstrate the key features about performing a bank reconciliation using MYOB and how our EzyLearn ANSWER student support service helps bookkeeping students.
A bank reconciliation in MYOB is what brings your MYOB datafile back to reality. Your bank statement shows the truth about what money has gone into and out of your bank account and provides you with the blueprint you need to reconcile your MYOB accounting system. The video below demonstrates that once you have performed all your Day-to-Day Transactions a bank reconciliation makes sure that you have entered all the information you need to. At the end of a bank reconciliation your MYOB data is correct and you can start to run reports and get some great up-to-date information about your business.
MYOB releases new versions of their software most years and usually at the beginning of each new tax year to coincide with new PAYG tax tables and they are currently going through a race to the cloud to compete with many new startups like Xero, SAASU, Reach Accounting and FreshBooks. Some times these upgrades haven’t gone smoothly and students ask us how to perform actions in our training workbooks using MYOB. To help students in these scenarios we launch EzyLearn ANSWERS in May 2011 and this is one of the results we release via our blog. There are many other support blogs we’ve written so feel free to search our blog for answers.
If you have subscribed to our blog and are reading this via email, click on the heading to get to our website to see the free training video.
Employment is one of those huge questions in the mind of many mums and dads. How to ensure that the family can maintain an income from both parents while still giving your new infant the time they need.
When we operated our MYOB training courses in Parramatta, Chatswood, Burwood, Gordon and Dee Why we noticed that a lot of mums were looking for a way to work during school hours while still being able to earn good money. They were coming to our MYOB courses because they knew that they could earn good money performing bookkeeping for local customers. The same still applies today.
It is now easier for working mums to earn good money and still remain at home! With VoIP Phone Systems, accounting services in the cloud and broadband internet mums can perform bookkeeping tasks for clients anywhere in Australia.
We are please to announce that our most advanced Microsoft Excel course (course 309) now includes a training exercise on Macros!
You may recall we asked the question as to whether it is better to give a discount and accept prepayments or to charge your normal price and chase invoices and statements? Well, we got our Microsoft Excel expert to create a simple table that enables us to keep track of prepayments as well as incremental reductions from this prepayment.
This file is a great tool to keep track of how much credit a customer has if you decide to invoice them in advance. There is a way of accepting prepayments in MYOB and our MYOB expert and resident BAS Agent is currently putting a guide together on how to handle prepayments using MYOB. Using Excel can be a handy replacement for using MYOB in this one aspect of your business.
Best of all, Karen created a short guide that we have added to the 309 course training manual which explains how to replicate what she created. Both the Workbook and the demonstration file that Karen created are now at the learning site.
MANY OF US are already using our smartphones in ways that overlap with our PCs and laptops.
For instance, when we looked at Google Analytics to see our blog readership stats, we found that a good number of you are reading this on your smart phones.
Smart phones have so permeated our lives and become so powerful that it’s little wonder they could become much more.
There’s talk about smartphones becoming your electronic wallet (or at least your credit card). Then there’s Ubuntu, a company that make software that helps your “Android” smartphone become a computer. Of course, right now many of us already use “the cloud” to communicate, write letters and much more.
We spend a lot of time looking at new technology and thought you would be interested in this cutting edge technology.
Although the Apple iPhone is the market leader that everyone talks about, some of our team members, including myself, use an Android-based phone. I find this preferable as it’s easy and has live integration with Google Apps (ie. gmail).
The great thing about companies that manufacture Android-based smartphones is that they are building in HDMI, USB and other great connectivity features that enable this type of technology.
It’s a beautiful example of convergence in technology.
Are you making the most of the Cloud?
Xero accounting software can enable you to price work from the road and do your business bookkeeping from anywhere 24/7 — or help you get an accounts job. Find out more about Xero Accounting for Invoicing and Accounts Receivable by accessing our FREE Xero workbook
Just visit our new Online Training Course Catalogue website and get the Xero Training Course Workbook for free instantly.
Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about who uses our online MYOB training courses. We received an email from a New Zealand student and we have had many New Zealanders enrol into our MYOB Training Courses.
MYOB is an international business that started humbly many years ago in Australia but sold recently to a private equity firm, valuing the business at over $1 Billion dollars. You can see from a recent Bloomberg article that the value of MYOB has grown significantly in recent years.
While we are on the topic of big business and who’s buying what, you might be very interested to know that MYOB founder Craig Winkler closed his account with the company he started in back in 1987, to become a major shareholder in New Zealand publicly listed online accounting company and rival called Xero.
Online accounting appears to be the domain of online workers like website developers and we have had very little demand for MYOB Live Accounts (online accounting competitor to Xero) so as yet we don’t cover MYOB Live Accounts. We wrote an article about cloud based software and it’s importance in the rise of remote contractors (Virtual Assistants) back in August 2010 so feel free to learn a bit more about cloud based software services.
Until then, we just wanted to say that if you are from New Zealand and you want to learn about MYOB accounting software, we can help you. I also want to add that if you are an existing EzyLearn student and you want to highlight some of the difference between the Australian training videos and the New Zealand version of the software, send us an email to sales@ezylearn.com.au, we’ll get Jacci (our resident BAS Agent) to write something up and include it in our course.
To see the full list of topics included in our online MYOB training course visit our website and REMEMBER, we offer all our MYOB Courses (including updated and new content) for one price AND you receive LIFETIME access.
One of the benefits of a spreadsheet is you can use a reasonably complicated spreadsheet over and over. One person goes to the effort of creating a spreadsheet and millions of people could potentially use that spreadsheet for a similar purpose.
The people at virion business grade voip have put a spreadsheet together to make it easier for them to perform price comparisons for their customers. The virion prices are fixed into the spreadsheet so all you need to do is enter in information about the costs on your phone bill and hey presto, phone bill analysis showing potential savings.
virion operates a distributed business model using “cloud based” software to manage and promote their business. Cloud computing is where your software operates over the internet, just like your banking and email applications like Hotmail and Gmail. Even powerful companies like MYOB are facing competition from cloud based solutions which are smaller, nimbler and more in tune with early adopters of new technology.
As part of the virion distributed business model they are seeking the help of remote contractors who are interested in earning money performing price comparisons for people they know as well as from leads provided by the company.
If you are interested in performing these tasks and earning money while working from home register as a remote contractor for further details as they come to hand.
If you want to take a look at the Microsoft Excel file that virion voip use for the phone bill analysis, please see the attachment to this blog post. Call Cost Comparison Spreadsheet v5 – RC
