Applications for the Business Support Fund – Expansion will be extended until 14 September 2020
The applicable amounts are as follows:
Check this link
https://www.business.vic.gov.au/support-for-your-business/grants-and-assistance/business-support-package/business-support-fund
PAYROLL – Don’t miss the Fair Work Ombudsman update!
Employers are required to give new employees a Fair Work Information Statement when they commence work.
The High Court of Australia handed down a decision on 13th August 2020 about the method of accruing and taking paid personal/carer’s leave under the National Employment standards. They found that the entitlement to 10 days of personal leave can be as 1/26 of an employee’s ordinary hours of work in a year.
This decision by the High Court overturned a decision made by the Full Federal Court in August 2019.
As a result of the High Court’s decision, Fair Work has issued an updated Fair Work Information Statement for employees.
Find a copy of the updated statement on the Fair Work Ombudsman website or the Useful Info page of Swag Bookkeeping website.
On 13 August 2020, the High Court handed down a decision about the method of accruing and taking paid personal/carer’s leave under the National Employment Standards. The High Court has found that the entitlement to 10 days of personal/carer’s leave is calculated based on an employee’s hours of work, not days. 10 days of personal leave can be calculated as 1/26 of an employee’s ordinary hours of work in a year.
The High Court’s decision overturns a decision made by the Full Federal Court in August 2019. We’ve updated the Fair Work Information Statement as a result.
Employers are required to give this to new employees when they start work.
If you are doing your own bookkeeping, there’s a great sense of satisfaction when you get the green tick – job done!
But beware. That tick is to say you recorded an account for every imported transaction – the tick does not check that what was recorded is right. It can be tricky, and for lots of reasons.
GST – it’s a tax. Tax in Australia is complicated.
Challenge: Try recording the correct amount of GST in your car registration payment
Sometimes there is a glitch in the system and the software imports duplicated transactions or misses some altogether.
Challenge: Compare the bank or credit card balance in Xero against the statement from the bank
If you transfer money between several accounts, chances are some of the transfers will be duplicated.
Challenge: Check the credit card and bank reconciliations produced.
If alarm bells are going off for you, it might be time to reach out to a professional to provide a bit of oversight.
JobKeeper and government grants means our bookkeeping has never been more important or up to date. But if you are only bookkeeping for compliance in your business, you are missing out on the real value of that work. Your numbers are not doing the heavy lifting that they could be.
One of the easiest ways to unlock the value in your figures is to customise your Profit & Loss statement. A simple realignment of the expenses can instantly provide insights that the standard format does not.
Isolating and grouping similar expenses can identify and summarise the costs involved in providing your goods or services, the collective costs of employing your team, renting premises, advertising and marketing your business and general overheads.
What measures would be valuable to your understanding of your business performance?
Identifying the overheads of your business can provide a very clear understanding of what is the very minimum amount you must earn just to keep your doors open – your break even point.
Measuring profit margins could provide more relevant feedback than sales income alone.
Looking at results as percentages might be more meaningful than absolute values.
If managing cashflow is a challenge, month to month comparisons of income and expenses can paint a picture of trends and the financial implications of seasonality and provide alerts to when some of our larger business expenses fall due.
The bookkeeping that you do for JobKeeper and government grants and BAS provides the basis for all these measures.
WORKSAFE RATEABLE REMUNERATION
Try saying that 10 times quickly!
As employers, we pay our workers compensation based on our estimate of employee remuneration for the year.
At the end of the financial year, Worksafe ask us to lodge a Worksafe Rateable Remuneration declaration which provides the actual remuneration figures for the year. The amount of workers compensation that should have been payable is then calculated on these confirmed amounts.
If your annual remuneration is more than your estimate, you will be invoiced the difference to pay.
If your annual remuneration is less than your estimate, you will receive a credit on your account. You can ask for this to be refunded.
You are meant to update your remuneration estimate with Worksafe if the annual amount is set to increase by 20% or more from your original estimate.
Similarly, you can also reduce your remuneration estimate if you know there will be a significant difference for the year from your original estimate.
Understand how your remuneration is calculated, what’s included and what’s exempted.
https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/remuneration-inclusions-and-exclusions