tips

BAS Tips for Aussie Small Business Owners

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If you are registered for GST in Australia, then you would be familiar with a little old thing called the Business Activity Statement (BAS). No doubt you have also spent many an hour researching the ATO website trying to figure out one thing or another in order to get your BAS completed and lodged in time.  Unless, of course, you have a trusted BAS Agent to take this time-consuming task off your hands.

Here are a few tips for preparing and lodging your BAS that will hopefully save you a bit of time and stress.

  • If you are due a refund on your next Business Activity Statement, you must make sure any outstanding BAS have been lodged. Why? Because the ATO won’t pay your refund until they know the full story regarding your GST payable or refundable.
  • A lot of businesses sell gift vouchers. You may not be aware that you don’t claim GST collected at the time of selling the gift voucher unless the voucher is for a specific product or service. For example, if I run a hairdressing salon and sell gift vouchers than can be redeemed for anything in the salon then I don’t claim the GST on the sale until the recipient of the voucher comes in and uses the voucher. This is one of my favourite pieces of GST legislation I’ve come across. (Okay, don’t judge me).
  • Registered for GST and you sell food? It can be difficult to determine whether some types of food you can charge GST on. You can find out the GST status of more than 500 (yes 500) food items via ATO’s detailed food list. Who would have thought? They also have handy flow chart to help you decide.
  • You can’t claim the GST paid on purchases if your supplier isn’t registered for GST. It goes beyond receiving a Tax Invoice with an ABN and a GST charge included – this isn’t proof that they are in fact registered. Use the ABN lookup tool to find out whether individual suppliers are registered for GST here: ABN Lookup Tool
  • Disposing of a capital asset eg vehicle, factory equipment? This is still a taxable sale, even if you sell to an individual and not another business. The sale will need to be reported at G1 Total Sales on your BAS. Trading in a car is usually considered a taxable sale as well, and will need to be reported on your BAS. More specific information can be found on the ATO website here:     GST and Motor Vehicles

Don’t forget that if you outsource your BAS preparation and lodgement to a bookkeeper, they must be a registered BAS Agent.  GST is a tax and bookkeepers must have the necessary qualifications, substantial hands-on experience and be continually refreshing their knowledge of GST law.

Are you registered for GST? What do you like/dislike about having to complete your own IAS or BAS?

 

You might also like these other posts with bookkeeping tips:

 

 

 

 

5 great business blogs you should be following

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In the 4 years I’ve been writing about bookkeeping on my website The Savvy Bookkeeping Blog I’ve learned a lot from reading other people’s posts on small business.

Here are some of my favourites that I’d recommend having a look at if you’re needing inspiration or tips to run a successful business.

 

Insanely Clever Marketing

https://insanelyclevermarketing.com/

Penelope is a fellow Adelaidian whose blog covers not only marketing, but also office design and style, as well as office fashion.

One of my favourite posts: Where the heck is your branding? Get it recognised now

 

Cath Cox

https://cathcox.com/

Cath runs her own massage practice in the U.S and I love this blog because it’s such an honest insight into running a business and what has and hasn’t worked well for her. Cath’s blog has tips on such things as handling your small business taxes, getting new customers and much more.

One of my favourite posts: How to show clients you love them

 

Adventures of a QBO Bookkeeper

https://qboadventures.com/

Jennie is a Canadian bookkeeper and has a tonne of great stuff on her blog including articles, small business app reviews and videos.   Jennie manages to make bookkeeping fun (what??).

One of her short videos:  What is cloud accounting Jennie – I don’t get it.

 

Steve J Bicknell

https://stevejbicknell.com/

Steve Bicknell is an accountant based in the U.K. and is very generous in the free content he makes available for readers.  If you are a business owner based in the U.K. you are going to get a lot out of this blog.

One of my favourites posts: Do you want to work for yourself?

 

Colin Sander

https://colinsander.wordpress.com/

Colin is based in New Zealand and is the founder of Top Performers.  His focus is to “find ways for people and businesses to achieve more from less.” I particularly learn a lot from his sales-focused posts but there are lots of other areas he covers as well, including:  5 Tips to manage overload

 

All these bloggers regularly post content so you’ll always have something new to read – and in the true spirit of blogging they are extremely generous in the professional advice they give for free via their posts.

 

Happy reading…

 

The post in which I mention bookkeeping & fun in the same sentence

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Okay, so I may have a warped sense of what constitutes fun – but hear me out on this one.  If you find bookkeeping a pain in the butt and a necessary evil in order to keep the taxman happy, then take 5 minutes to read my:

6 ways to make bookkeeping fun!

  1. Get creative! Jazz up your accounts files with some nice labels or replace your folders with colour co-ordinated ones.  There are some really nice colours out there now, and you can colour co-ordinate your whole office.
  2. Every time you finish your bookkeeping tasks for the week, reward yourself with a little of something that puts a smile on your face. (Did somebody say chocolate?)
  3. Take time out to meet other business owners and attend a bookkeeping workshop. As well as picking up some hints and getting you enthused about getting back to your bookkeeping you’ll probably get a morning or afternoon tea thrown in as well.  There are workshops that cover debt collection, payroll, tax, software, cloud computing and lots more.
  4. Have your favourite music playing quietly in the background, grab a glass of wine (or maybe just half in my case or else my accounts would be a shambles) and enjoy the time to yourself.
  5. Get organised. Have a spring clean of your accounts documents and files and feel good about how organised you are.  I’ll be writing more on accounts organisation a little down the track (try this post here).
  6. Follow a blog that motivates you in your quest for business or career success.  A couple of goods ones are:
    http://under30ceo.com
    http://flyingsolo.com.au

If none of these ideas really appeal to you, you could always pay someone else to do it while you go out and have your kind of fun!

Some other bookkeeping posts you might like:

How do you keep motivated to do your essential bookkeeping tasks? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy bookkeeping…

 

3 simple steps to getting your bookkeeping sorted

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If you have just started a business you may be stressing about whether you are on the right track with your accounts.  If you have been in business a little while you may be wondering if there is an easier way to keep on top of your accounts.

Once you start looking into the various accounting software options out there, unless you are in the business of bookkeeping or accounting, it’s not uncommon to become overwhelmed or confused.

I like to keep things simple, so I’ve come up with 3 simple steps to help you out and get you started.  These are 3 steps I’ve used to get clients up and running with accounting software.

3 simple steps to getting your bookkeeping sorted (Video)

Importantly, don’t forget to try your software out for free first.  Get a feel for it and make sure you can easily get answers to any questions you may have via their help centres, forums, videos, email support etc.

Happy bookkeeping…

If you enjoyed this you may like:

7 Steps to Effective Administration for the Small Business Owner

This post is courtesy of Virtual Finesse and has some really good all-round tips on effective administration for small business owners. Steps 5 and 6 in particular reinforce the tips in my recent bookkeeping post “The Post in which I mention Bookkeeping and Fun in the same sentence”.

Bernice Crawshaw Business Consultancy

“Oh where did I put that note?” “I can’t just lay my hands on it at the moment, can I call you back?” “Where did I put that contract?”

Does this sound familiar? If so, dis-organisation has began to creep into your small business and if you don’t get a handle on it now, it could result in disaster. Dis-organisation and confusion are dangerous to businesses but you can regain control by following these basic office management principles.

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14 Cashflow Tips for Small Business

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SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT
1.    Credit terms
Pay suppliers on time (not early or late) and ask for credit terms once you are up and running – essentially giving your business an interest free loan.

2.    Review suppliers regularly
Check to see if you are getting the best deal and ask for discounts for early payment or bulk orders.

3.    Late payments
If you need to pay late, communicate with the supplier early and set up an agreed payment plan. Get the plan in writing.

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT
4.    Payment terms
Make payment terms clear to new customers before you process their order – and put this in writing.

5.    Invoice design
Include all your banking details on your invoices and ensure payment terms are clear.

6.    Credit checks
Do a credit check on all new customers.

7.    Deposits and progressive payments
For larger jobs ask for deposits upfront and progressive payments at various stages of the job to keep cash coming in and reduce the risk of not getting paid for work performed.

8.    Non-paying customers
Offer a payment plan to clear the debt – some cash coming in is better than not being paid at all.
9.    Invoice early
Send the invoice as soon as the job is done.

10.    Ageing debtor reports
Review your ageing debtor report to identify slow paying customers and to identify potential problems before they get out of hand.

11.    Friendly reminders
Phone or email early if payment terms have been exceeded. If they are late payers with all their suppliers, it shouldn’t be long before they decide it is easier to pay you first.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
12.    Profit margin
Identify which items make you the most profit and focus your time and money on those products.

13.    Stock turnaround
List all slow moving and obsolete stock and work out a plan to move this stock as quickly as possible. Use this cash to buy stock that sells faster.

CASHFLOW FORECASTING

14.    Find a simple cashflow forecast template and use it.  It will help to identify times where more money is leaving the business than is coming in.