Business Activity Statements BAS are due on 2 March 2010 for businesses that report their GST obligations quarterly in Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, South East Queensland, Australia,

With the Christmas holiday period over for many small businesses, it’s time to get all your paperwork together and get it to your bookkeeper or outsourced bookkeeping service- to report on the 2nd quarter (1 September to 31 December 2009) to get your BAS lodged on time.

If you are struggling with your bookkeeping and need help, if you do not have a bookkeeper, or are looking to outsource to a mobile bookkeeping service, then contact us now

You may use MYOB or Quickbooks accounting software – or even some other syatem for your bookwork. We can assist you with any challenges, or even just releave you of the burden of the book-keeping

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh,South East Queensland, Australia, Contact us here for details

They then try to make a comparison by phoning up other bookkeeping services around Coomera and Eagleby in the belief that they can hunt around and find a bookkeeper charging a better rate and therefore make the assumption that by paying a lower rate for bookkeeping services they will save money.

On the surface, this may be a logical thought process. Mathematically, it ‘s a simple equation: The job takes “X” hours @ “defined rate” = Total Cost of bookkeeping services

Therefore by finding the lowest “defined rate” = You’ll lower the total cost of book-keeping.

However, there are a number of variables in this equation. How do you ascertain whether both bookkeepers will do the same amount in the allocated “x” hours?

How do you know that the quality of work will be the same?

There may be a number of reasons why a bookkeeper is charging a lesser rate:
1) The bookkeeper needs the work
2) The book-keeper lacks experience / confidence
3) The bookkeeper does not know the true value of their service
4) The bookkeeper has lower overheads

The bookkeeping raterefers to the amount of money that consumers have to give up to acquire that bookkeeping service.

Whereas the Cost refers to the amount paid to produce that service. The cost represents the sum of the value of the overheads – offices, labour, travel, experiences and expertise.

So when the client asks the hourly rate, do they really want to know how much the bookkeeping will cost? And if they focus on the COST, are they looking at bookkeeping fees being an expense or an investment into their business

A bookkeeping expense could be the result of trying to save money on bookkeeping fees by engaging the cheapest bookkeeper, where as investing in a bookkeeping service that has expertise, experience, and higher fees may produce better results for your business and ultimately save you time and money overall

When enquiring about bookkeeping in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh,South East Queensland, Australia, remember the difference between hourly rate, cost and price.

The first benefit of having a professional bookkeeper come in and do the bookwork is that we won’t be distracted by other incidents that occur during the day in your business

Secondly, we do bookkeeping everyday, are skilled, well practiced, experienced and more than likely faster than you would be

Thirdly, we can most likely streamline the bookkeeping process for you, take away the stress and pressures of doing the bookwork, and free up your time to focus on what you do best in your business, and more importantly give you back some time that you can be spending with your family

You ask about an hourly rate. We believe the question that you really want answered is “How much will it cost me to outsource my bookkeeping?” – that depends if you regard your bookwork, and having a handle on the financial side of your business, as an expense or an investment.

Our clients regard our bookkeeping service as an investment into their business for reasons mentioned above. You could be looking at anywhere from $150 per week, $300 per month or quarter, depending on the VOLUME of paperwork moving across your desk – an hourly rate really doesn’t answer your question.

We say that because we’ve come in behind bookkeepers at a third of the rate, taken four times as long, made heaps of errors, and ended up costing the client heaps – so cheapest isn’t necessarily the best

The easiest way we could give you a quote is to review your existing MYOB file, and make an estimate based on your first year’s trading (not turnover, but number of transactions recorded)

We can have a chat, so that I can get a better idea of the amount of work involved in your bookkeeping, and therefore give you more of an idea of a budget for your bookkeeping

• We’ll Set you up with a book keeping system
• We’ll Teach you how to use accounting software
• We’ll show you how to file your paperwork
• We’ll chase up your bad debts
• We’ll run reports to show how much money you or, or are owed by others

For small businesses in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, South East Queensland, contact our Beenleigh team of mobile book-keepers now

A client contacted us yesterday asking us to supply them with MYOB Premier Enterprise for their franchise. It’s a “high-end” version of accounting plus – and comes with five single usr licences

This means that you can have five different users – in different locations, all access the one data file. It’s great for retail outlets – maybe a chain of shops linking back to head office.

The clients have a bookkeeper that’s going to come in and do their bookwork. What is surprising is the fact that the bookkeeper did not advise the client that they would need their own server – and possible an IT guy to come and help them get the system set-up.

Clients are looking for more than just a bookkeeper these days. Clients are looking for a bookkeeping service that will actually supply “customer service” – you know, the old fashioned type of service that was not just knowledge. It’s “service with a smile” service with “heart”.

If you want the “wham, bham, thank-you ma’am”, then there’s plenty of cowboy bookkeepers out there who’ll do the work for next to nothing, and more often give you no service, and heaps of headaches, a set of incorrect figures but at least you’ll have not paid much for your bookkeeping fees.

Is “Off-sitebookkeeping” the same as “Mobile Bookeeping”?

When looking for bookkeeping services in Ormeau, you may decide to do an internet search for “Ormeau bookkeeping”

Others may look for “book keeping services in Yatala”, or even “Bookkeeper Yatala” as well as “Book-keeping” or “book-keeper”

Then there’s those people that are never quite sure if there’s only one “k” in bookeeping, or would you search for “bookeeper”?

You could do a search for “book keeper” in Ormeau

Either way, you’ve come to the right website, because our team of mobile bookkeepers will either come to your premises and work on-site at your offices / business that may be located in Ormeau or surrounding suburbs, or we can collect all the documentation and take it away to work at our premises. This is often referred to as “off-site” bookkeeping

Is “Off-sitebookkeeping” the same as “Mobile Bookeeping”?

There are a number of bookeeping services that will only work at their premises. These bookkeepers tend to be inflexible and demand that their clients drop ff the paperwork at the bookkeeper’s premises

That may not always be convenient for a small business owner, and that’s why so many businesses in and around Yatala choose our mobile travelling bookkeeping services, because our Ormeau bookkeepers will find the solution that works best for you and your business

Whether you use MYOB / Quickbooks, or you need Software Training for your small business in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh,South East Queensland, Australia, we are here to help. Contact our Ormeau team of mobile book-keepers now

For many small business owners, and especially for their bookkeepers, July is always a busy time of year around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh.

With end of financial year reporting, together with reporting of the 01 April to 30 June quarter BAS due 28 July, businesses that are behind in their paperwork can struggle under extra pressure that they really do not need – contact our Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh bookkeeping service today for help with your BAS

Cash flow has certainly tightened up in the economy. As bookkeepers, we’ve seen that invoice payments are being dragged out longer and longer, as suppliers wait to be paid by customers, and service providers wait to be paid by their clients.

Some small business owners use their GST money as cash-flow for their business, forgetting that these GST funds are monies collected by the business on behalf of the federal government – then they seem shocked that they have no cash to pay what’s owing on their BAS lodgement

The phone’s been ringing as desperate business owners in a panic wanting our Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh bookkeeping service to help with their MYOB and Quickbooks files. In most cases, they can simply email us the files and we’ll have a look at their reporting and can generally work out where the problems are within a short time

One lady contacted our Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh bookkeeping service after spending two days trying to reconcile her Quickbooks bank accounts. We had a look at her file and solved the problem in 35 minutes. Look at the time and stress she would have saved if she had contacted our bookkeeping company when she first noticed that there was a problem

As a small business owner we encourage you to focus on what you do best, and we’ll do the rest – contact our Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh bookkeeping service today for help with your BAS

Is a cheap bookkeeper cheap because they themselves do not value their work/worth?

We’ll save you time, the cheapest bookkeeper is probably one who is straight out of TAFE and has got a piece of paper to say that they can do bookkeeping. Maybe the cheapest bookkeeper has done a MYOB course, or a Quickbooks course. Contact us for more details

Maybe the cheapest bookkeeper is just “starting a bookkeeping business” and does not feel confident in “charging too much”

It seems that these days you can get a bookkeeper from $20 / hour upwards. We also know that there are bookkeepers offering “fixed-price” packages. Maybe they are the like the “Two Dollar Shops” of this world. They hope to be able to do a large number of clients’ books quickly at a low cost, and make a living based on turnover

Maybe the cheapest bookkeeper is a mother / wife / partner / father of a business owner, who’s being doing the bookwork for the family business for a few years and reckons that s/he could start his/her own bookkeeping business. S/he’s attracted to the idea of being able to drop the kids off at school, do a few hours bookkeeping, then pick the kids up from school.

Maybe the cheapest bookkeeper has recently left fulltime employment having worked in the accounts department of a large company and reckons that it can’t be that hard to run their own bookkeeping business. Even though they’ve never had to set up any bookkeeping systems, only done certain aspects of accounting, and always been able to go and ask the financial controller how to do something when there’s been a problem.

If you have little regard for your small business, then maybe a cheap bookkeeping service is just right for your business

Why does a cheap bookkeeper cost you money?
The same as a cheap car mechanic can cost you money, or a cheap carpenter, plumber, builder or lawyer. (Yes, we fell for that, using a cheap lawyer to do our conveyancing – it cost us a lot of money in the long run)

How do you know if your cheap bookkeeper is doing the right thing?
We had a call from a potential client asking how they could check up on their cheap bookkeeper. Here are some questions to ask of your bookkeeper … Bookkeeping checklist here

Do you value your business at all? Is your business just “a job” of which you are the boss and employee at the same time? We’ve talked about this before, and still we get calls from business owners shopping around for bookkeepers based on price.

How can I explain this: A cheap bookkeeper is cheap because they do not themselves value their work / worth. How would you feel knowing that the bookkeeper that you are contracting does not feel that s/he is competant enough to charge you a rate worthy of a good bookkeeper. How do you think that reflects on your business.

A cheap bookkeeper running the cheapest bookkeeping service may have cut their bookkeeping rates because they cannot find any work.
Have you thought that they cannot find any work because maybe they cannot get any referrals? Or they can pick up contracts and then after a few weeks they have to be let go.

Is the cheapest bookkeeeping service cheap because the bookkeeper has only little experience?
How would you feel to discover that you are paying for the training of your bookkeeper? You’ve made the choice to contract out your bookkeeping services and are being charged for a junior bookkeeper to do your bookkeeping!

Cheap bookkeepers are fantastic for our business.
Why is that? Because we get so many clients coming to us because their cheap bookkeeper has stuffed up the books. The problem with bookwork is that it’s not always possible to see where the mistakes have been made after the event. A simple mistake that might take two minutes, can result in detective work that takes three hours to rectify.

So your cheap bookkeeper has not only cost you their time, and then our time to correct their errors, but how much have you lost through other incorrect allocations.

We’ve had clients choose to take their bookkeeping to other bookkeepers only to come back to us because whilst our fees may have been higher, we actually showed them that they could get a bigger refund from the ATO, or they were not due to pay such a large amount of tax to the Australian Taxation Office. Contact us for more details

NOt all cheap bookkeepers are lousy bookkeepers
We are not saying that all bookkeepers who do not charge accordingly for their services are cheap bookkeepers. However, you need to consider the true value of your business and ponder about the economics of saving a few dollars on bookkeeping fees. If you have a cheap bookkeeper who is very good, then you need to considering increasing their hourly rates, and see what a difference it will make to your business.

No, we are not registered tax agents and cannot give advice in such matters. We are professional bookkeepers with many years of bookkeeping experience for clients from many different industries

As a small business owner in Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh you need to ensure that you have a handle on your cashflow. If you do not have a bookkeeper, or book-keeping system in place then contact us here for details

If you do not use an accounting software package such as Quickbooks or MYOB, if you do not use a bookkeeper, or have a bookeeping system in place then you could be heading for disaster. Unlike Kevin Rudd’s government, most likely you do not have an unlimited supply of cash,

What is 2009 looking like or small business owners at the northern end of the Gold Coast?
Some economists are predicting a tough year for the Australian economy. Since the Gold Coast relies heavily on tourism, the Government’s campaign to encourage Aussies to holiday within Australia could be of benefit.

For small business owners around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh that aren’t involved in tourism, perhaps the government’s boost to the first home owners grant may create some stimulus.

Unlike the government that apparently has an unlimited supply of money, if you ain’t got it to spend, how can you spend it?

Keeping on top of your bookwork when the going gets tough is so critical. Customers that have always been slow in paying, could now be even slower.

Even customers who were quick to pay, begin to stretch out the payment of their invoices. Do you have a book-keeping system in place to give you Quickbooks or MYOB reports each week?

Small business owners who are so busy undertaking the everyday tasks of running their business often leave the bookkeeping work until the end of each quarter when the next BAS (Business Activity Statement) is due to be lodged. This habit can be disastrous in a tight economy.

You need to have a handle on your finances week in, and week out. If you do not have a bookeeping system in place, you may find that within a few months you do not have a business.

Many small business owners understand that outsourcing their book-keeping to a contract bookkeeper can be a great investment.

Other small business owners still insist on trying to muddle through their bookkeeping, regarding a freelance bookkeeper to be an unnecessary expense. They may get their wife, girlfriend, or partner (or all three) to have a go at doing the bookwork.

Professional mobile bookkeepers can come to your premises each week, fortnight, or month or even each quarter to straighten up the paperwork, undertake any data entry, and carry out relevant Quickbooks or MYOB reports to ensure all your bookkeeping is in order.

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh. Contact us here for details

So how’s your bookkeeping? Cash-flow is king in a tight economy.

With Christmas out of the way, and many small businesses returning to work, it’s time to get all your paperwork together and get it to your bookkeeper or outsourced bookkeeping service- to report on the 2nd quarter (1 September to 31 December 2008) to get your BAS lodged on time. Contact us here for details

Maybe the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) does have a heart, after all. Rather than asking for lodgements on 28 January, they automatically give everyone an extension to the BAS lodgements to 28 February.

However, don’t be fooled by their grace, because there is NO WAY that they’ll consider granting an extension after that date. So you need to ensure that you have your Business Activity Statement lodged by 28 February 2009

If you are struggling and need help, if you do not have a bookkeeper, or are looking to outsource to a mobile bookkeeping service, then contact us now

Our bookkeeping Service has clients in and around Ormeau, Yatala, Coomera, Eagleby and Beenleigh, Gold Coast, Australia. Contact us here for details