Recently the e-e-e-e-asy electrical store Clive peters collapsed following a $20million accounting scandal, but the demise of the company was of little surprise to many in the retail sector.

There’s some lessons that evry small business owner in Robina, Mudgeeraba, or Varsity Lakes, can learn from this episode:

Discounting
Many business owners believe that discounting their products or services is a healthy business strategy. However, whilst you may be able to survive for a short time, eventually your margins and profits become so small. Then all it takes is for a competitor to run a short campaign undercutting you and taking your clients way

How come some of the airlines manage to price cut? Well, they don’t offer everybody the cheap seats, it’s a first-come first served basis. You can be sitting beside someone who’s paid three or four times, or even ten times as much for the same flight!

Find Your Niche
Crazy as it sounds, the tighter your niche, the stronger your position, unless you’re a huge organization. Have a look at restaurants. They could most likely cook any dish that you asked them, so why do some only serve Italian, others Greek, Indian, etc? They focus on their niche and get very good at it

Debt – The Killer
Rapid expansion based on debt is very dangerous. Clive Peeters expanded their empire when times were good. Cash was freely available, and they gambled that their sales were going to continue to grow. Even when the global financial crisis hit, and our then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, gave everybody a handout to go and buy widescreen TVs, the writing was on the wall

Bookkeeping – watching your cashflow
How many businesses would not notice a few million dollars missing from their accounts? You’ll read about bookkeepers and accountants that manage to siphon off funds from right under the noses of business owners, and that’s just one why it’s important to have a handle on your finances.

The numbers are the lifeblood of your business. Without an efficient bookkeeping system in place, how can you know where your business stands? How can you make informed decisions about buying new equipment, running marketing campaigns, employing more staff and the like?

Your bookkeeper is a critical cog in the wheel of your small business, so you should ensure that they are well suited for the position, competent, and experienced to give you the necessary information regarding the financial status of your business. Contact us RIGHT NOW for more information

Track GST and prepare for your BAS
QuickBooks EasyStart Lite automatically calculates GST collected or paid as you enter transactions. When it’s time to lodge a Business Activity Statement, simply run a Tax Liability Report and all the figures you need for the tax office are there.

QuickBooks EasyStart Lite 2010/11 QBi series is designed for start-up businesses needing a simple accounting solution, who don’t have a large customer and supplier base. [Read more .... ]

There’s been some changes to the packaging of the MYOB products as they continue to fine tune the software. As you’ll realise they are in the business of selling and promoting their software rather than in the bookkeeping business.

Quickbooks have also brought some upgrades and changes to improve their accounting software

For more details of the new software versions, and for ordering products visit our product pages

A bank reconciliation is the process of comparing and matching figures from the accounting records against those shown on a bank statement. The result is that any transactions in the accounting records not found on the bank statement are said to be outstanding.

A bank reconciliation allows companies or individuals to compare their account records to the bank’s records of their account balance in order to uncover any possible discrepancies.

Such discrepancies could include:

• cheques recorded as a lesser amount than what was presented to the bank
• money received but not lodged
• payments taken from the bank account without the business’s knowledge(eg bank fees)

A bank reconciliation done regularly can reduce the number of errors in an accounts system and make it easier to find missing purchases and sales invoices.

Here’s a simple formula that may help you :

Balance per Bank Records + Deposits in Transit – Outstanding Cheques = Correct cash balance

So where does that leave small business owners? There’s a free accounting software package that’s available online. For details click here

Many of our clients around Robina, Mudgeeraba, Varsity Lakes and Burleigh do not have accounting software, they simply hand us the paperwork and we prepare the bookkeeping on their behalf. Companies like MYOB and Quickbooks offer a basic software packing starting at around $50 and there are other options of free accounting software on the internet.

• Check out the free accounting software system here
• You can browse through the range of Quickbooks and MYOB software HERE
• Need MYOB or Quickbooks Training? Contact Us HERE
• Want to know if Quickbooks or MYOB is the best for your business?
  Contact Us HERE

As we all know, there ain’t such thing as a free lunch, so before you rush into a new accounting software program, have a chat with us and we’ll offer some economic solutions for your business.

Whilst the staff at Hardly Normal and similar electrical stores sell software, they know little about accounting or bookkeeping and will endeavour to sell you the most expensive package they can!

You can browse through the range of Quickbooks and MYOB software HERE or Contact Us HERE and we’ll help you determine which accounting software may be most suitable for you, to replace ATO E-Record.

Cash flow is the blood of any small business, and the control of cashflow is an important part of bookkeeping. By hiring an inexperienced bookkeeper to save the business money can often lead to failure down the track

Bookkeepers that do not have sufficient experience don’t always understand the importance of financial management in a small business, and the necessity to keep accurate and up to date accounting records. A small mistake through lack of bookkeeping experience can be extremely costly to a small business.

We’ve all heard stories about taking the car to a “cheap” mechanic, or using “fly-by-night” tradespeople. So why would you contemplate handing the lifeblood of your business over to an inexperienced bookkeeper?

Professional bookkeepers are working everyday on bookwork for a variety of small business owners. They see patterns, they notice trends, they have the benefit of experience behind them that you can take advantage of in your small business.

Business owners that have hired their spouse, friend or relative to help them out may not realise the true state of their bookkeeping until it’s too late. The accountant may not get to see the books until the end of the financial year. Indeed, many accountants are too busy to look in depth at the bookkeeping.

As professional freelance bookkeepers, we’ve come in behind “cheap” bookkeepers and have seen the devastation that’s been left behind.

Having a handle on your financial position will affect the decision making in your business. How else do you know if you can afford to replace or upgrade equipment? Or whether you can afford to employ more staff, or take on a new client?

Business owners that look at bookkeeping fees as an expense rather than an investment do not understand the full benefits of engaging professional bookkeepers. Without having a full understanding of their finances, these are the types of businesses that tend to fail within a few years, They throw away all their hard work to save a few dollars each week or month.

Released E-Record in March 2000 the ATO provided E-Record – a free electronic record-keeping system, for small businesses to help them move from paper-based record keeping to commercial electronic record-keeping systems.

Want To Know Which Accounting Software To Replace ATO E-Record?

• You can browse through the range of Quickbooks and MYOB software HERE
• Need MYOB or Quickbooks Training? Contact Us HERE
• Want to know if Quickbooks or MYOB is the best for your business?
  Contact Us HERE

So where does that leave small business owners? Many of our clients do not have accounting software, they simply hand us the paperwork and we prepare the bookkeeping on their behalf. Companies like MYOB and Quickbooks offer a basic software packing starting at around $50 and there are other options of free accounting software on the internet.

As we all know, there ain’t such thing as a free lunch, so before you rush into a new accounting software program, have a chat with us and we’ll offer some economic solutions for your business. Whilst the staff at Hardly Normal and similar electrical store sell software, they know little about accounting or bookkeeping and will endeavour to sell you the most expensive package they can!

You can browse through the range of Quickbooks and MYOB software HERE

There is a difference in how you achieve these goals – If you want a healthy body, then the only person that can achieve that goal is YOU. Regardless of all the wonder drugs or quick fixes, if you don’t take the first step then you can’t expect anything to change

The great thing about wanting a set of healthy books, is that you don’t need to do anything else after taking that first step.

Outsource your bookkeeping to a mobile bookeeping service such as ours, and you’ll have a professional bookkeeper that can take care of your bookwork for you.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a closet, you’ll have notied the latest FAD that’s hit the Gold Coast – and that’s Zumba dancing – everyone’s talikng about this “quickfix” fun way of achieving a healthy body

Have a look at the video below, shot in Robina Town Centre

By being ontop of your bookwork, you can have a chat with your accountant and make sure that you have the correct strategies in place to reduce your tax liabilities.

Failing to be prepared can be costly when you come to lodge your tax return after 30 june 2010