Five reasons why you need to hold on to your bookkeeper
As BAS Agents, we get it. With all the technology at our fingertips and the simplicity of modern accounting systems, it’s hard for some business owners to see the overall value in working with a bookkeeper or accountant. Yes, you have access to this modern, state of the art software, but what we can assure you, is their capabilities are limited. They’re not sophisticated enough to replace a bookkeeper, accountant, or BAS agent. And just because you could do your own accounts, that doesn’t always mean you should. These five scenarios might just convince you to hang on to your bookkeeper.
You want to apply for a loan.
So, you’ve found a house, new office, personal or work vehicle and you need to apply for finance. The financer asks for your profit and loss statements, bank statements and balance sheet report for the last two years. You run the report from your accounting software (easy peasy, right?) and get everything in order. But it might be a bit of a shock when the bank informs you that you’ve been recording your financial information incorrectly. What we can promise you, is that they’ll not approve your loan until all those financials are in order.
Sadly, you're not the first or last business owner to experience this situation. An experienced bookkeeper or accountant is responsible for ensuring everything is recorded correctly – no nasty surprises when you head to the bank.
2. Your tax or BAS return is overdue… and the tax office is hounding you.
When you run a business, there are some serious financial expectations and legal responsibilities involved. There’s a lot to keep on top of and the administration can get overwhelming. There’s also a notion that the dreaded tax return or BAS lodgements isn’t as important. However, this is far from the truth. The ATO has reduced their tolerance for late lodgements and increased penalties in recent years. Not only do you have to lodge these reports, but you also need to ensure the information is accurate. As innocent and unintentional as they can be, mistakes are costly. Not only could you be paying more to the ATO than you need to be, but you will also need to pay a BAS Agent to correct the mistakes made when found by the ATO.
3. You've been doing payroll yourself, and an employee or Fair Work Ombudsman has contacted you for incorrectly processing payroll.
Big whoops – this situation can quickly get out of hand. To put this into context, if you short-paid a full-time employee by five dollars per hour for an entire year, you would owe this employee $9,880 (before tax) plus an additional $988 in super, totalling $10,868 in back payments. Image if you made this mistake with five or even 50 employees (and yes, it’s happened). Unfortunately, an incorrect pay rate isn’t the only mistake you can make whilst processing payroll. Mistakes can be made around allowances, annual leave loading, overtime rates, superannuation and leave entitlements, just to name a few. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that payroll is as simple as entering some hours into an accounting system and thinking it will handle all the requirements of award interpretation and understanding government regulations.
4. Your business has run out of cash, and you don’t know where all the money went.
You're looking at your profit and loss, and it says your company has made $25k profit in the last quarter, but you’re scraping the barrel to pay your suppliers. Without an experienced bookkeeper or accountant analysing your file, things could go from bad to worse when it comes to the financial viability of your business. It’s always best to invest in experience from the start.
5. Your accounts payables have blown out of proportion.
You’ve got suppliers on your tail, invoices overdue and employees need to be paid in a matter of weeks – not the most relaxing scenario to be facing. Managing your accounts payables can be complex, a balancing act almost. If you don't have experience managing account payables, it can be very overwhelming. If you work with the professionals, not only can your stress be managed, but you can learn along the way. At the BAS Agents, our team of experts are highly trained in this department and can negotiate and graciously push your clients to make the payment within the invoice terms.
Your bookkeeper is there to help
We hate seeing businesses struggle and can relate. Many of our clients have experienced some of these scenarios, but thankfully we’ve been able to assist. Here at The BAS Agents, we pride ourselves on keeping our existing clients from experiencing these issues, as well as helping untangle these problems for our new clients. To discuss our rescue packages or look into how we can help your business before these problems hit, contact us on 0405 380 074 or visit our website.
