We were recently surveying our PayPal account and discovered that you can now invoice customers directly using PayPal. While it doesn’t eradicate the need for a good piece of accounting software, this facility makes it very easy for people to get started in business — particularly businesses with very few expenses. Continue reading Invoice Your Customers Directly Using PayPal
Tag: Work from home
EzyLearn has been a Virtual Organisation (according to the Australian Federal Government definition) since 2007 when we closed our last physical training centre in Sydney.
Since then we’ve refined our business processes to manage every aspect of the business using a team or remote workers who work from their own home. This includes using
- a CloudPBX hosted telephone system so sales, customer service and accounts staff can work from home
- WordPress webs
ites and content marketing to give students lots of information and digital marketing staff can work from home - PreSales chat and support using website chat widgets and customer service and support tickets using Zendesk enables customer service and sales staff can work from home
Delivery of training materials via an online Learning Management System so students can learn from home- Cloud Accounting using Xero Accounting & QuickBooks Online – accounts staff can work from home
To use these systems is simple to start but to use them property and efficiently takes a lot of planning, project management and systemising of how to manage every aspect of the business.
These blogs highlight how cloud-based software enables you to work remotely from home while being efficient and productive.
Does Your Bookkeeper Have a Clue?
Having accurate business records is vitally important for any business — and most of that hinges on accurate account keeping. If you’re a small business looking to hire a bookkeeper, you want someone who’ll be able to manage all of the data entry and coding for your company accurately and efficiently.
The best way to ensure this is to have a bookkeeping induction program. Continue reading Does Your Bookkeeper Have a Clue?
Setting Up Automatic Bank Feeds In Xero
In our last post we talked about the developments that have occurred over the last few years in the accounting software space; one of which was the introduction of Xero to the marketplace. Since then, a huge number of accountants and businesses have switched to Xero.
Xero has quickly gained momentum in the accounting software space, and while it’s important for bookkeepers to be skilled in MYOB, it’s becoming increasingly important that they’re also skilled in Xero as well. Continue reading Setting Up Automatic Bank Feeds In Xero
Will Xero Dethrone MYOB as the King of Accounting Software?
We’ve been offering MYOB training courses for a very long time and that’s largely because they have long been the market leader in accounting software.
But in the last few years there’s been a definite shift in the accounting software space, and with cloud-based technology, a number of other players have entered the marketplace. Continue reading Will Xero Dethrone MYOB as the King of Accounting Software?
Working For Free: Why You Should Give With No Expectations
In a recent post we talked about the times when businesses should work for free, which we referred to as ‘added value’. We cover value-related exercises, such as determining and setting your prices in the module of the same name in our Small Business Management Course.
Sometimes working for no charge at all and outlining where this so (that’s important — people need to be informed that you’re doing something for nothing otherwise they mightn’t know!) discourages hagglers and nuisance clients always looking for a discount at every opportunity. Continue reading Working For Free: Why You Should Give With No Expectations
Are You a Bookkeeper? Find Clients Online FOR FREE!
The hardest part about starting your own business is finding the first few clients.
At EzyLearn, we love helping our MYOB training course students start their own bookkeeping business, but we’re even more passionate about helping you make that business a success Continue reading Are You a Bookkeeper? Find Clients Online FOR FREE!
Become a MYOB Training Affiliate Marketer
At EzyLearn, we’re passionate about helping people follow their dreams and start their own businesses.
We have a number of opportunities available to people who would like to partner with EzyLearn and start their own home-based business.
Start Your Own Bookkeeping or Digital Business Continue reading Become a MYOB Training Affiliate Marketer
When Should You Work for Free?
In our Small Business Management Course there is a module on determining and setting your prices, which includes factoring in things like travel expenses if you’re going to be visiting clients and so forth.
But what about things like, installation costs – should you bill your clients for this or work it into the price or just let it slide?
Some businesses work those sorts of prices into their final cost; others – think Foxtel, for example – charge installation fees; but a surprising number of businesses let it slide. Continue reading When Should You Work for Free?
Should Your Final Price Include GST?
We are regualarly refreshing the content of our MYOB training course so that you can benefit from all the new information that is always coming in about being a bookkeeper, running your own bookkeeping business or doing the books for someone else’s business.
Pricing Your Services for GST Continue reading Should Your Final Price Include GST?
ATO Tax Refunds – Get Your Tax Return in Early
We’re always updating our course content to ensure our MYOB course reflect the market demands of bookkeepers in an ever-changing industry, and if you’re one of our MYOB lifetime students you have access to this content any time, every time.
And we use this blog to keep you up-to-date with industry news — like this news just in from the ATO:
A total of 1.7 million returns were received by the ATO between 1 July and 23 July 2013, and already refunds have been issued for some 40 percent of those returns—a whopping $1.68 billion refunded in less than 30 days. Continue reading ATO Tax Refunds – Get Your Tax Return in Early
Don’t Stress: Start a Home-Based Business
In a previous post we gave you five reasons to start a business and work from home. In fact, taking the plunge to embark on your own business is something we refer to a lot at EzyLearn, but for good reason — being happy.
Often we forget just how incredibly important this is, but if you’re not happy at work, it will impact your home life and your health.
Being happy at work is one of the reasons we’re so passionate about helping people start their own business through our online training courses. Continue reading Don’t Stress: Start a Home-Based Business
Be Happy: Start a Business and Work From Home
Are you toying with the idea of starting a virtual or home-based business? Well EzyLearn is your one-stop training-shop for everything you need to start a business — all via our Small Business Management training course, MYOB training courses, WordPress training courses and MS Office training courses.
But what are the real benefits of working from home? Continue reading Be Happy: Start a Business and Work From Home
The Virtual Business: Transitioning from the Real World to the Digital World
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
Paid Parental Leave: Dads Get Paid, Too
Perhaps you have noticed that a lot has been happening in the way of payroll lately, particularly the increase to the minimum wage, and now the changes to the Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme (PPP).
If you’ve been following our recent posts about payroll, you know it’s the payroll professional’s responsibility to make sure any mandatory changes are carried out, so we’ve put together a cheat sheet on the changes to the PPP.
Expansion of the Paid Parental Leave Scheme
On 1 January 2013, the Australian Government expanded the Paid Parental Leave scheme to include a two-week payment for working dads or partners called Dad and Partner Pay.
The Paid Parental Leave scheme, which provides a maximum of 18 weeks pay at the national minimum wage, applies to eligible primary carers of newborn or adopted children born on or after 1 January 2011.
From 1 July this year, the Paid Parental Leave scheme has also increased from $606.50 to $622.10 per week before tax, while the daily rate increases to $124.42 per day.
Because of the way paid parental leave works (the government pays the employer who then pays the employee) you need to keep thorough records of any paid parental leave in addition to your usual record-keeping requirements, such as:
- The amounts of parental leave funding received from the Government for each employee and the period these amounts cover.
- The date of each parental leave installment made to their employee.
- The period the payment covers.
- The gross amount of the payment (before tax).
- A statement identifying that the payments are parental leave under the Australian Government Paid Parental Leave scheme.
- If no other payments are made for the period, the net amount of the parental leave and the amount of income tax withheld from the payment.
- If other payments (such as annual leave or employer-funded parental leave) are made for the period, the total net amount paid for the period (after tax) and total income tax withheld for the pay period.
- The total amount of any deductions made from each parental leave installment.
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For more information about the Paid Parental Leave scheme, visit the Department of Fairwork website or Centrelink’s Dad and Partner Pay website.
Tax and BAS: How to Register with the Tax Practitioners Board
Bookkeepers Who Want to Provide BAS Services Need TPB Certification
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.
What makes up a BAS service?
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.
Kick start your own business
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.
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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.
The Cloud Saves Energy, Is Good For The Environment
We often talk about the benefits of studying an MYOB course online or how using cloud-based accounting software to telework benefits employees and employers, but we don’t often discuss the benefits of cloud computing to the environment.
A recent study commissioned by internet giant Google and carried out by Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in the US, found that if the entire US workforce moved into cloud computing — where employees would now work from their home offices — it could save up to 87 percent of the energy used to power IT systems. That’s enough energy to power the entire city of Los Angeles for a year.
Using the Cloud Means Going Green
For Google, this showed just how great the energy saving potential of the internet is — something we’ve often discussed in posts about operating a home-based or virtual bookkeeping business.
In fact, the Green Factor is another reason why we moved all of our training materials and content online in 2007; it meant we would no longer have the costly overheads of powering physical training centres (and adding to our carbon footprint), allowing us to deliver the same high quality training courses at a lower price.
Of course, being an internet company, Google only looked at the IT energy savings to be had if every worker in the US began working from their home offices. They didn’t look at the potential knock-on effect this would have when two or more people in a household were both working from home.
The Communal Office
So while saving some 23 billion kilowatt-hours in energy is a massive feat, we wonder how much of that energy would be reinvested in individuals’ upsizing their homes or renting office spaces once working at home with the whole family became more distracting than it did productive? Perhaps, then, a chain of communal office spaces might become the next McDonalds of the digital world?
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Regardless of whether it’s a saving of 23 billion kilowatt-hours of just 23 kilowatt-hours, increasing our energy efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint is always a good thing; cloud-based software and studying online goes along way to doing just that.
