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Your Bookkeeper is Your Secret Weapon in Tough Financial Times The Bookkeeper’s Crucial Role In the face of rising costs and financial challenges, your bookkeeper is your essential ally. We play a key role in helping you prepare and implement financial strategies to manage  cost increases effectively. Anticipating Cost Increases The Australia Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) reports that many small businessesare facing financial difficulties: 43% of small…  Read more

At Balanced Advantage we believe in setting up good processes and then sticking to them. That is what keeps the wheels behind our client’s businesses turning so that they can concentrate on doing what they do. Our bookkeeping processes look like this: 1. We ask our clients to use the DEXT app to upload supplier invoices or receipts AS THEY COME IN. We don’t want piles of paper ( or…  Read more

Hi Friends!  if your business has overdue BAS, tax or FBT returns  we have important news for you.  The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has extended a helping hand with their amnesty program for late tax payments, but the clock is ticking, and the opportunity is about to slip through your fingers! What’s the ATO Amnesty? In a nutshell, the ATO amnesty is a lifeline for businesses that have fallen behind…  Read more

PAYG income Tax instalments If the ATO thinks that your business will be profitable for the year, and therefore will need to pay income tax, they can require you to pay PAYG income tax instalments via your BAS.  This is the mysterious amount that ” Appears” on your BAS each quarter that has nothing at all to do with GST. The ATO make this assessment based on the last income…  Read more

BAS Basics – Why do I need to keep my invoices? Isn’t it enough that the payment is on my bank / credit card statement? It is a very common belief that all you need, in order to claim back the GST on your expense, is to be able to show the payment in your bank or credit card statement. What does the ATO say about this? The ATO is…  Read more

Business is tough at the moment so it is more important than every  to be on top of your cash collections. In our previous post, we talked about the various administrative issues that can prevent or delay payment of your invoices by customers. Once you have cleared up all of these administrative issues,  you are left with the tougher debts. The slow payers, the ones who are treating your business…  Read more

If you run your business from home or even partially from home ( after hours) listen up… The rules set by the ATO have changed today. From 1 March 2023, the ATO now requires you to keep a diary / calendar record of all hours worked from home if you want to claim working from home (WFH) deductions. Prior to this date, you could just estimate WFH hours. Note that…  Read more

Are you feeling it yet – the race towards Christmas? This time of year tends to be a bit chaotic for business owners, but it’s actually a good time to get some extra housekeeping done for your business if you can find the time. Read on for some tips to help you finish the year neatly and feel prepared to face 2023. Review your goals A lot has likely happened…  Read more

Top 5 Christmas FAQ’s Christmas is coming and I hope you will have the chance to take a break and relax with your families. Small business never really stops though does it, so I thought I would share the top 5 questions that are frequently asked by our clients around this time of year. Hope that there is something in here helps you get through this crazy time of year.…  Read more

The opening up of NSW relies on small businesses turning up and that’s what small businesses do best. Many small businesses have been crawling along during the lockdown but in 2 weeks, they will get back up, rally their employees and be ready to support and serve their community. Cafes, hairdressers, gyms, beauty providers, retail stores… the list goes on. What can you do? Support your local businesses – eat…  Read more

We get it , bookkeeping is not your favourite part of running your business. It’s an annoying and frustrating chore that takes up a lot of time and is easy to put off until tomorrow, but avoiding your bookkeeping can be disastrous . Not having immediate access to your company’s current financial situation can result in a series of errors that could ultimately cost you your business. Here are three…  Read more

Can I claim the cost of my cup of coffee through my business? This is a question that we are commonly asked by our clients. The answer is, it depends on the amount of fun that you are having while you drink the coffee. If your having too much fun, then its likely to be considered by the ATO to be entertainment, and you can’t claim GST  or get a…  Read more

Christmas is a time for giving and as a business owner you may wish to give back to the people who keep your business going. Here are some tips on how you should treat gifts to your staff and customers in your accounts: Gifts to staff are treated differently to gifts to suppliers or customers. Gifts to staff that are valued at less than $300 are NOT tax deductible so…  Read more

It’s month end so here are my tips as to what questions you should be asking your bookkeeper / accounts team. 1. Are the accounts finalised ? You need to make sure that your accounts have been reconciled and everything entered before you start using the numbers to make decisions. Ideally your accounts should be finalised within the first week of the month so your information is current and relevant.…  Read more

Running a business in 2020 has been a little bit like taking a ride on one of those jet boats in the harbour, filled with sharp turns and sometime 360 spins. We have been hit with the unexpected challenges of lockdown periods and the resulting economic uncertainty.  The instruction to date has been to “ hold on tight “ until the end of the ride. The question now is what…  Read more

Last night the Treasurer announced a number of initiatives in the Federal Budget aimed at kick starting the ecconomy towards growth. One of these initiatives was the Job Maker Scheme. Under the scheme, Job Maker hiring credits will be available for each new job created from today , 7th Oct 2020 to 6 October 2021. Credits, to a maximum of $10,400 per new position created will be paid over a…  Read more

7 August 2020 You may have heard the news that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has announced that the government will expand the JobKeeper scheme again. This comes a few weeks after they announcement that JobKeeper 2.0 to start at the end of September. Below is a roundup of what has been announced and what we expect to see, but please note that this is not legislated yet and is still subject…  Read more

Welcome to the first of our Client Showcase series where we celebrate the great work that our clients are doing and talk about how they are overcoming the challenges of  operating a small business during this current Covid climate. Our showcase today focuses on Red Belly Active, a high end golf & activewear brand based in Sydney . Red Belly was founded  by golfing friends, Shannan Webber and Helen Haynes…  Read more

Job Keeper Changes Coming in September This week the PM announced the Job Keeper wage subsidy scheme will be extended from September through to March next year, with some changes. This comes as businesses continue to struggle and as an increase in infections has been reported in Melbourne. The Job Keeper subsidy has been extended to 28th March 2021. There are, however,  some changes that you should know about. Please…  Read more

Now that some of the Covid 19 restrictions are lifting it’s time for businesses to come back and regain ground.  A time to reset, rethink and reassess. For some businesses the fight isn’t over and hard times are still ahead but for many this is an opportunity to do business right and perhaps come out stronger and more focused. Actually for my businesses, Covid19 was a opportunity to really take…  Read more