Promote your website

More and more people are turning to the internet to find businesses so promote your website as best you can. “Search Engine Optimisation” is the key to ensuring your website comes up in Google searches more often. (Do a Google search for SEO and read more about it) Your website is just one of millions in a popularity contest so you need to make your website really popular!

Content on your website is a big part of SEO and keywords in your text tell the search engines what your site is all about. Use a keyword phrase on your home page – this phrase should appear in about 5 in every 100 words of text.

Backlinks are also part of the process – that is, your web address and description listed on other peoples websites. Do a Google search for ‘Add URL’ or ‘Add Site’ and list your website on directories.

Write articles relating to your business and submit them to various forum websites and ensure you have your web address in your signature.

Start a Blog – find the free ones – like wordpress.com – and write about your business and include links back to your website.

The more links you have out there, linking back to your website, means your website becomes more popular and comes up in searches more often.

This is only a small part to the whole SEO process so read up on it and see what else you can do…

Cheers,

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Business Sentiment

In my opinion, the media unfortunately determines the business outlook and with all the hype of the Global Economic Crisis, a lot of the population have tightened the purse strings. I think that people are slowly realising in Australia it’s not as bad as the media has painted it so business in general is slowly on the up.

The banks are probably receiving more applications for loans, commercial finance etc but they are approving less than they used to. Loan to Valuation ratio’s have dropped as well meaning that if you are buying property, you can’t borrow as much as you used to. A lot of rural financing has dropped from being able to finance 70% of valuation to 55% (rough numbers). This impacts on those that want to refinance and use equity in their property to expand their business or to pay tax debts etc.

Invoice financing for businesses is on the increase due to the lack of available funding from refinancing property and more and more businesses are relying on this type of financing to grow their business by accelerating their cashflow. The more cashflow available, the more a business can prosper. There are businesses that offer Invoice Finance and Stock Finance around Australia which can help business to expand and manage their cashflow better.

In time however, everything will settle down again and the GEC will dissappear from the media reports and business sentiment will improve dramtically…

How is your business travelling???

Cheers,

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping Records Backup

What would happen to your computerised bookkeeping records if your computer crashed? Is your business run predominantly from your computer? Do you back up your files?

Recently a client of mine had this happen to them and they lost all of their bookkeeping records along with their marketing originals. Luckily, I keep a copy of the business bookkeeping records on a backup server so I was able to burn the records onto a CD and give them to the business to reinstate on their new computer. The client had no back up or Disaster Recovery Plan in place for this. (They do now!)

Backing up your files is an important part of any business. All you need is an external hard drive or flash drive and once a day just copying the relevant files over. You can also go down the track of having an IT company install a ‘tape’ backup drive which will in effect copy your entire hard drive including your settings. If the worst case scenario happened, you can buy a new hard drive and have your IT company reinstate your hard drive from the tape.

If you think you only need to back up certain files, an external or flash drive may be all you need. The price of these items has dropped dramatically so cost shouldn’t be an issue. Recently I saw a 1TB (Terabyte which equals 1000 Gigabytes) for $175. For this small investment, you can back up all of your files so that you don’t lose any data.

If you lost your data from your computer, where would that leave your business? Don’t learn the hard way – start backing up your files today!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Important Date!

28 July 2009 is fast approaching – the date you need to submit your quarterly BAS and any payment required to the ATO.

Don’t forget to lodge as penalties apply for not lodging your documents with the ATO on time. A ‘Failure to Lodge’ Penalty may be applied if you do not submit your quarterly BAS by 28 July 2009. See the ATO Penalty Rates.

Remember – if you owe GST, PAYG and Income Tax and you are unable to make the payment by the due date, lodge your BAS and ring the ATO to discuss a payment arrangement. The ATO would rather discuss your position and make other arrangements to pay than have to chase you for the money.

If you do use a bookkeeper or accountant to lodge your BAS, make sure you have all relevant information ready and in good order for them to be able process your Activity Statement. Keeping good records can always save you money if you are using a bookkeeper or accountant – there is less work for them to do!

Cheers!

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Organisation

Being organised is one of the most useful tools in business. If you’re not orgnised, you waste time. If you waste time, you’re not focusing on generating income!

Outsource anything that takes you too much time to do or that you aren’t good at. Employ someone if it is cost effective but weigh up the pro’s and con’s first. For example, if you don’t have great skills in running your accounting software to generate invoices, employ the services of a Contract Bookkeeper to do it for you. They will do the job quicker and free up your time to concentrate on generating income.

Having a system for everything you do in your business ensures that the task at hand is done the same way every time. This way you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you complete a task. For instance, every time you save a file on your PC, save it to a relevant folder so that next time you need that file, you can find it easily. Filing hardopy invoices, receipts and other paperwork should be done systematically also. If you have a chronoligcal order of files, finding a specific item is easy and less time consuming that sifting through 28 shoeboxes!

Write a ‘to do’ list every day. What do you want to achieve today? How will you achieve it? What priority needs to be placed on each ‘to do’ item?
At the end of each day, you should start writing your ‘to do’ list for the next day. The next morning you can add to the list if there is anything you thought of overnight.
Once you have a ‘to do’ list, don’t procrastinate. Start with the high priority items and work your way down the list. In the amount of time people spend procrastinating, they could have completed the task and been on to the next item!

Checking email all the time, can be a time waster. Pick certain times of the day to go through your emails and allocate a certain amount of time to it. Before you check email in the mornings, try and tick off some items on your ‘to do’ list as well. Structure your day so that you are not constantly checking email.

Organise your desk and filing cabinets. Everything should have its own place. This way, you always know where to look for things! Remember to put things back in ‘their place’ so next time you go looking for them, they are easy to find. Go through everything on your desk – do you need everything there? Can some items be put away? Can some items be thrown away?? Make a point of tidying your desk everyday.

If you waste 10 minutes a day whilst at work, this adds up to about 50 hours a year. That’s a week of your business hours wasted every year. Go on – organise your business (and home) life now! With an extra 10 minutes every day, you’ll be able to increase your sales by focusing on what you do best!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

End Of Financial Year

End of Financial Year has come and gone once again!

 Now it’s time to get the shoeboxes out with all of your paperwork to lodge your tax return.

If you have employed a bookkeeper for the year, then tax time should be easy! Your bookkeeper can send your data files electronically to your accountant and the work is almost done! – See Benefits of Using a Bookkeeper.

Make sure you do it right! Use a reputable accounting firm for your tax return, or if you are processing your own tax return, make sure you clarify anything you don’t understand with the Tax Office. The Tax Office is there to help.

Making a mistake on your tax return isn’t fatal as you can lodge amendments if required. However, getting it right the first time means there are no headaches in the future.

Start the process now – make sure you post out your group certificates to your employees so they receive them prior to 14 July (employees are required to have group certificates within 14 days of the new financial year). Then make sure your BAS is lodged. Get everything together and see your accountant to process your tax return.

The quicker it’s done, the less stress you’ll have.

Enjoy the New Financial Year!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Why use a bookkeeper?

As a business owner, you’re great at what you do. Whether you sell goods or you sell your services, your time is valuable. If you are trying to juggle the normal day to day selling, collecting of outstanding money and updating your books, you soon find yourself working longer hours and not having the time to grow your business.

A bookkeeper can free up your valuable time so that you can focus on your business. You need to know where your cashflow is at and if you’re constantly focusing on your bookkeeping, you don’t have time to focus on your core business.

Employing a bookkeeper on your payroll as a part time or full time staff member can be costly. There are additional overhead costs such as PAYG, superannuation, holidays, a desk, a computer and so on. Alternatively, if you are thinking of using your accountant to manage your bookkeeping, you will pay ‘accountants rates’ for a bookkeeping job being done. By contracting a bookkeeper to keep your books up to date will reduce your costs dramatically.

The benefits of using a contract bookkeeper are:

• Saving your valuable time by having them manage your bookkeeping for you
  • This provides you with more time to focus on your core business to generate more sales
• Reduce your overheads in a cost effective manner
  • There is no need to employ someone with all the additional expenses of an employee
  • You only pay for the bookkeeping time you need
• Increase your cashflow
  • Having invoices and statements sent out in a timely manner can help the cashflow
  • A bookkeeper can also follow up on your customers for overdue payments to reduce bad debts
• A bookkeeper has an improved knowledge of bookkeeping therefore ensuring no errors in your books
  • Gives you peace of mind that your books are compliant, accurate and up to date
•  Sales opportunities can be increased to improve your profits and grow your business
  • Powerful reporting can give you an indication of where your sales are headed
  • Reporting can be provided tell you what sells better over other products/services and where you make the most profit
• Lost income can be found
  • With a bookkeepers accuracy, loading your information may find errors in the past where you are still owed money

Start growing your business and free up your valuable time today by using a contract bookkeeper to manage your bookkeeping requirements.

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Tax Invoice Compliance

Whilst setting up the bookkeeping records for a new client of mine, I noticed that their tax invoices were not compliant with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) standards.

In order to be able to claim GST, all invoices must be of ATO standard to ensure their validity.

Follow these simple steps of required content to ensure the tax invoices you are providing are valid:

1. The words “Tax Invoice” must appear prominently on the invoice
2. Your correct business name and address
3. Your ABN
4. Your customers name and address
5. Your customers ABN
6. The date the invoice was raised
7. A description of the goods sold or the services performed – clearly identify each taxable sale
8. The total price of the sale – including GST

Where the GST on the invoice to be paid is:

1. exactly one-eleventh of the total price, show the GST amount separately on the invoice or provide a statement such as ‘total price includes GST’, or
2. less than one-eleventh of the total price, show the GST amount and the total amount excluding GST for the sales.

Note that terms such as ‘total price includes GST’ or similar wording are not sufficient for invoices for both taxable sales and either a GST-free or input taxed sales.

There are slight differences when raising tax invoices under $1,000 and over $1,000, however if you have all of the information above contained in your tax invoice, it will be tax compliant as per the Australian Taxation Office.

If you are selling items under $1,000, the ATO has advised that you do not need to have the recipients name, address and ABN listed. We feel that if you are selling goods or services on credit to these customers, it is in your best interest to have these details specified so that there is no dispute as to which entity owes you the money. (Read more about ‘Knowing Your Customer‘) In the case of cash sales, there is no need for this additional information.

Similarly, when you purchase items from suppliers, their tax invoices should contain the same information to ensure you are validly claiming a GST credit. 

We hope this information helps you to ensure your invoices are tax compliant!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Improve your cashflow

If you sell on credit terms to other businesses, you have an asset that can help you to improve your business cashflow.

Cashflow finance is a facility which accelerates the cashflow of your business by giving you immediate access to the cash tied up in the unpaid invoices constantly owed to you by your customers. This is commonly the case where you have made the sale and issued the invoice but your customer won’t pay your invoice for 30 to 60 days. This causes cashflow stress, restricting your ability to increase sales. Cashflow finance unlocks the cash tied up in your invoices by turning credit sales into cash sales.

Cashflow finance in essence, is quite simple. You send copies of your customers invoices to the financier, usually by email, who initially pays you 70% – 90% of the value of each invoice and the balance when your customer pays the invoice. The financier receives payments for your invoices from your customers, directly or indirectly. With most financiers, you access your account on-line to see your account balance, which customers have paid and which invoices are outstanding etc.

Cashflow finance is the financing solution for a number of businesses in Australia and is one of the fastest growing finance products available to business today. There are a number of different Cashflow Solutions for Australian businesses on the market such as Invoice Discounting, Factoring Finance, Inventory Finance and Production Finance.

Without cashflow, you can’t pay your wages, suppliers and more importantly – yourself. A Cashflow Finance facility can help to improve your cashflow.

You can learn more about the different types of Cashflow Finance at Cashflow Finder.

I hope this helps you with your business cashflow!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping

Generate more sales

Are you sales stagnant? Are your customers buying the same stock and same quantities every month? Need to increase your sales? Read on:

When you sell to a customer on credit terms, you should be sending out a tax invoice. At month end, you should be sending a monthly statement to that customer.

Guess what? There were 2 opportunities right there to market more of your businesses goods or services to your existing customer.

Your customer base is a captive audience for marketing your businesses goods or services. If they are buying from your business at least once a month, there are 2 opportunities each month to be able to introduce them to a new product or service, promote discounts for multiple purchases and so on.

If you have a website which displays your goods or services – make sure you advertise your website on your invoices and monthly statements. When you send emails, make sure your ‘Auto Signature’ has your web address and a brief description contained in it of what your business provides.

A short advertisement promoting goods or services on the invoice and the month end statement can help you generate more sales and it doesn’t cost you anything more!

If you are in business, you need to be constantly promoting your goods or services – it’s the only way you will improve your sales!

Good luck selling!

Cheers.

Jeremy
JPAP Bookkeeping