SWAG Director Sheree Conway is preparing to ride through Thailand from 20 to 25 March 2017 on the Hua Hin-Khao Lak ride for Hands Across the Water.
Hands Across the Water is an Australian, New Zealand and Thai charity that gives at-risk Thai children and their communities a helping hand through food, shelter, education, accommodation and other opportunities.
One of their most well known fundraising events is the Business Blueprint Hands Ride, which Sheree is currently preparing for. On her participation in the ride, she had the following to say:
“We can get so caught up in our day-to-day lives, and the stresses of managing our own businesses, that it is easy to lose sight of just how privileged we are to live here in Australia and how lucky we are to be able to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
And of course, children are our future, so any project that advances opportunities for children is always going to be dear to our hearts.
On a personal level, the challenge to get on a bike after so many years was irresistible. And being a sedentary office worker, the need to get some regular exercise was also a bit of an incentive.”
Sponsor Sheree
Click here to sponsor Sheree’s amazing effort by donating to help her reach her $5000 fundraising goal.
100% of donations to Hands Across the Water go to the kids and their communities—none of it goes to administration, staff costs, marketing or fundraising.
BAS due now—or do you qualify for a two-week extension?
We probably don’t need to tell you that your BAS is likely due for lodgement tomorrow, but did you know that you might qualify for a two-week extension on this date?
What are the standard due dates?
The due date for lodging and paying is displayed on your business activity statement (BAS). Here are the standard due dates for quarterly reporting:
| Quarter | Due date |
| 1 – July, August and September | 28 October |
| 2 – October, November and December | 28 February |
| 3 – January, February and March | 28 April |
| 4 – April, May and June | 28 July |
Do you qualify for a two-week deferral on lodging your BAS?
You could qualify for a two-week deferral of your activity statement due date if you lodge your quarterly activity statements online.
This offer applies to most activity statements for the standard quarters ending 30 September, 31 March and 30 June that have an original due date of the 28th of the month, following the end of the quarter. This offer does not apply to:
Lodging online:
You can register for the ATO’s Online services to manage your activity statements online. Please contact us if we can assist you.
Did you know?
Businesses with an AUSkey can access online services through the Business Portal, but individuals and sole traders can manage their activity statements through their myGov account if it’s linked to the ATO.
How can SWAG help?
As a registered BAS agent, SWAG Bookkeeping can prepare and lodge your BAS. We receive a lodgement concession from the ATO which can assist your cash flow management.
Contact us for an obligation-free consultation today.
The age-old saying, “time is money” certainly rings true to every small business owner.
Tracking the time spent on a project against what you’re charging the client will ensure that you can budget your time properly – and quantify your hourly rate. So, how should you go about spending your time more wisely?
Be your own timekeeper
As a small business owner, sometimes your dedication to go above and beyond for a client can take hold and the hours slip away before you’ve even thought about what the job is actually worth. You’re then left with a fantastic result for the client, but a less than fantastic result for your pocket. Come invoicing time, you charge the client what you’ve initially outlined and are unable to factor the time you spent on the project because you haven’t recorded it properly.
If this scenario seems all too familiar, you need to track your time properly to see where your time is going. There are a number of tools that can help you to do so, such as MinuteDock or TSheets. Both tools enable time to be tracked against a project, from any device and compare the number of hours spent against what has been invoiced in Xero, Quickbooks and more.
Streamline your billing process
Time and money go hand-in-hand. Once you’ve gotten used to tracking your time properly, you will be able to streamline your billing process. By using cloud-based accounting software, your systems can actually talk to one another and collect insightful data to highlight the time you’ve spent on a project, which will inform exactly how much you should invoice.
Learn to blow the whistle at the right time
To run a profitable business, you need to have both time and money data to make informed decisions. A common issue for many small business owners is working on client projects that turn into costs, forcing other more profitable projects to be put to the wayside.
By tracking your time effectively, you’ll know exactly how much time should be allocated to projects. If you’ve budgeted 10 hours to complete something and the clock is about to tick over, you’ll able to manage your output before it’s too late. On the other hand, if you’re nearing the end of a job and haven’t spent all of the allocated time, you will know you’ve done some profitable work.
At SWAG Bookkeeping, we compare both time and money data to help our clients find a profitable ‘sweet-spot’ for their business. Contact us for an obligation-free consultation today.
There’s no denying the fact that technology is key to determining, understanding and forecasting the health of your business.
Automated feedback tools have become integral to many businesses, allowing SME owners to see how their customers are feeling about their experience, how they perceive the brand and most importantly, if the customer would return.
There are a number of cost-effective solutions to gain further insights into your customers’ experience – and to diagnose the health of your business.
Live Chat services
For many of us, taking the time out of our busy days to visit a retail store or office to discuss a query or resolve a problem is near impossible. Even talking on the phone to a customer service representative can be a hassle.
This is where Live Chat comes in, which has received the highest satisfaction rating for any type of customer-related communication, according to one survey. There are many providers coming onto the market as well with low barriers of entry, such as FreshChat and LivePerson. Facebook is even rumoured to make a foray into Live Chat as well so watch this space.
Feedback capturing
There are a number of ways to open up a two-way dialogue with your customers – the most obvious being the likes of Facebook, Twitter, email, phone and a whole range of other social platforms. Whilst these commonly used platforms enable an ongoing conversation, many businesses are still yet to group these customer responses together to build a bigger picture of what customers are actually saying.
Tools like Zendesk and Kayako allow businesses to monitor patterns between customer conversations and address any issues or negative feedback as soon as it arises. They essentially provide a central newsfeed, collecting conversation streams from your social networks, phone messages and emails and arrange these alerts in a single workflow.
Online financial health check tools
As the name suggests, a simple online financial health check tool will allow SME owners to analyse their current financial state just by taking a quick questionnaire. By providing small insights into your business, the health check provider will work behind the scenes to piece together a financial roadmap and highlight areas that need attention or developing.
SWAG Bookkeeping’s very own Financial Health Check allows SME owners to complete an online questionnaire – without any off-memory figure questions – to diagnose the health of their business.
Crowdfunding has become extremely popular over recent years, thanks to online apps and forums like Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Indiegogo.
As the name suggests, crowdfunding is a process where people can donate their own money towards a project or cause. In recent times, we’ve seen crowdfunding help get a considerable number of small businesses or entrepreneurial ventures off the ground.
So if you have already delved into crowdfunding or are looking to do so, be mindful that sometimes crowdfunding can affect your taxes.
What you need to know
In some cases, you can claim a deduction for your contribution if you provide crowdfunding to a project or cause that will increase your business’ revenue.
In order to make the most out of your deductions, you need to keep records of all income and expenses related to crowdfunding.
Also, you will also need to consider if monies received through crowdfunding or in return for your contribution classify as assessable income, which you will then need to include on your income tax return.
Crowdfunding can be a great way to not only receive donations towards a cause but also build an online community that will follow your venture and see where their generous donation will go.
If you are looking at starting a crowdfunding campaign, get in touch with the SWAG Bookkeeping team to help get your new venture – and finances – on the right track.
Many small business owners use their car for their work; travelling in between meetings, making deliveries and running errands to keep the business on track.
If you’re one of many small business owners that spend parts of the day behind the wheel for work purposes, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will allow you to make a claim on your tax return for some car-related expenses. If everything is recorded correctly, you’ll also see a greater return on your tax refund.
The trick to claiming some of your car expenses on your tax return is using the car logbook method. Put simply, a logbook will allow you to easily track your car usage and it’s also only one of two recording methods that the ATO will accept.
So, how does the logbook method work?
Using a logbook, your tax deduction claim will be based on your car’s “business use percentage”, which will indicate the percentage of kilometres you travel in your car for business purposes.
To calculate your business use percentage, you will need to keep a logbook for a consecutive twelve-week period.
There are also another few key rules that you must follow to ensure the ATO will accept your logbook:
You must record every trip you take in your logbook – not just those for business-related trips.
You must include these details:
The logbook does sound like a lot of effort, but the time taken to record a few simple details each time you get behind the wheel will be worth it come tax time.
Also, if your business use percentage remains consistent, you’ll only need to complete a new logbook for one 12-week period every five years!
If you want to know more about how a logbook works, contact the SWAG team.
Sales is the driving force behind almost every business and with the holiday season nearly upon us, now is the time to supercharge your business budget plan.
November and December can make up for 20% of annual sales for businesses — especially for those in retail — and with just a few short weeks ahead of the big sales push, it’s important that business owners start this process early to gain a solid profit from the holiday period, as well as clear goals to pursue in the New Year.
By having a solid plan in place, business owners will be able to take advantage of the surge in potential customers viewing options from mobile devices in the pre-holiday period. One study even showed that 62% of consumers would begin browsing for holiday shopping options as early as October.
So, how should business owners approach their budget plan, when there’s so much more to think about at this time of year?
Here’s your answer: SWAG is offering a special to help business owners prepare their budgets for the 2017 calendar year.
This service is normally priced at $750, but throughout November this offer will be available for $550, including GST.
If you’re looking to get ahead of the game with your business budget, then get in touch with the team at SWAG.
In the ever-changing digital world in which we live and work, it’s so important for SMES to understand their privacy obligations.
A recent study from an Australian law firm – LegalVision, showed that 68% of small businesses are unaware of the Australian Privacy Principles, which raises the need for greater awareness on privacy to ensure that both intellectual property and customer and employee information remains secure.
The same study also highlights some interesting trends across the SME sector, as well as some common gaps in privacy and legal obligations that business owners may not be aware of, including:
Further to the rapid growth in online enterprises, business owners now have greater access to resources to help launch a new business or improve existing products and services. In turn, these resources also work to raise awareness on a few key measures that SME owners can use to safeguard their business and meet their privacy and legal obligations.
At SWAG, we recommend that SME owners take a look at the Australian Government’s Small Business Guide to stay smart online, which also provides some handy hints on keeping information secure.
In case you haven’t heard, you need to be paying and reporting super using SuperStream by 28 October 2016.
If you’ve been using cheque or direct deposit to pay super, you will need to start using SuperStream now. Also, if you’re making payments directly to the super fund by EFT or BPAY, you might need to review your reporting methods to ensure you’re being compliant with the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
Once you’ve gathered all the information you need to process your employees’ super, including:
You’ll also need to pay close attention to any new information that SuperStream may require. Here are a few points that you’ll need to cover to make an easy transition to SuperStream:
Ensure that your payroll system is SuperStream ready and make note if your system covers both data and payments. If your system provides data only, you will need to transfer payments to each super fund separately.
Larger super funds have online systems that you can use to make your payments. Make sure you check with your fund on what payment facilities they have available.
A clearing house will transfer payments to your employees’ super funds on your behalf. All you need to do is send a single electronic payment to the clearing house, along with the contribution data for every employee and the clearing house will look after the rest. Speak to your super fund about what clearing house services they have available.
Do you need a hand with SuperStream? The SWAG team can help – get in touch with us today.
They say what goes around come around — and if business owners aren’t reimbursing their employees in a timely manner, they can expect low staff morale and increased staff turnover.
A recent survey from Concur shows 54% of respondents have to wait more than a week for their reimbursements and 11% reportedly have to wait up to one month. There are a number of reasons why reimbursements might take longer than they should, a key reason being that business owners are using outdated expense management processes and leaving staff feeling frustrated and anxious about meeting personal expenses.
So with that being said, how can business owners reimburse their employees more effectively?
First and foremost, look at improving efficiency by replacing outdated or paper-based systems with mobile and cloud-based tools like Concur or Xero, which allow expenses to be managed on-the-go.
Once you’ve got the right system in place, set a time frame for when you will reimburse your employees and stick to it. In turn, you’ll also build trust with your employees, as they know when they can expect to be reimbursed to meet their personal expenses.
Lastly, automation is everything. A system that helps business owners or their finance team to quickly calculate profit and cash flow will also provide better oversight on outgoings. Consequently, this will also help business owners and managers make smarter decisions.
If your business is stuck in a reimbursement rut, get in touch with the team at SWAG Bookkeeping.