Do the Sums

29 Aug 2017

Ask that Question

Recently we read some comments from some business owners saying they felt stupid asking certain questions, that seemed too simple. At Do The Sums Bookkeeping and More, we believe asking questions however simple they may seem, is NOT a stupid thing to do at all!

You should not be shy about asking any questions. A Questioning mind is a great business tool you can have, as you can’t progress in your business, without learning. Then processing the answers to your questions. Even if they might lead to other questions …

Life is about learning, and business owners should feel free to ask questions about business systems. Or taxes. Or how to process accounts correctly. It may be about simple calculation process – or a deeper question of working out how much capital you have in your business? Or it could be about your sales; why am I not making as much profit this year as I was last year? Is there a better way to price goods to this market? Do I need to register for GST? How can I set up better security measures in my business?

Just a wee notice. Do please be aware of whom you are receiving your answers from, especially in online forums or social media posts, especially if it directly concerns your business finances or legal administration processes e.g making tax deductions. It’s sensible to check and confirm the sources of whom you are getting answers from, or it could end up being a costly mistake if the answers are not quite correct. Your business structure may be quite different to theirs. Tax laws can be complex and there are different tax rules for different entities. It may be wise to contact professional advisors or the relevant government department directly.

However, that’s not to say you can not ask questions on social media posts or amongst your friends, as with lively online conversations, you can end up with some great business information too! All we suggest is to be careful using some information that may or may not be suited to your business.

Some of our clients are new to the world of running a business, and some are well experienced in the world of finances – but all still need help from time to time, and all can ask questions. We are happy to work on educating, training or helping them along with the way in understanding their business financials. Often we do go around asking questions from other sources, to build up our expertise and information about finances. We network amongst other business contacts and professionals, whom we are happy to refer you to if we are unable to help you with your question or problem.

Grow your knowledge, forget your fear of how you might look asking questions, and just ask that question! Do The Sums Book Keeping and More: If you have some questions or issues on managing either accounts or finances and unsure of where to go or what to do – please do come asking questions. We offer a wide range of services and expertise and we may be able to solve your financial questions.

4 Jul 2017

Sleep, Your Brain, and How We Can Help Both

STAYING UP LATE TO DO THE BOOKWORK?

ARE ‘NUMBERS’ MAKING YOUR BRAIN TIRED?

Outsource your accounts and financial book work! And then get those great nights of sleep!

Work on ‘growing your business’ being energised and sharp. Here’s why keeping a good sleep routine will help you manage your business better:

It Increases Your Productivity:

When you sleep, your brain neurons have time to consolidate and process your acquired knowledge and experiences of the day into retained memories. This helps you recall and apply learnt knowledge easily the next day. If you are tired or sleep deprived, the recall process actually ‘stalls’ and slows down. This means your brain struggles in retaining information. You take longer to complete tasks, and err more often too.

Mental and Physical Health:

Overnight, both brain and muscle cells self-repair and re-energise themselves. Tissues in the body are renewed faster overnight. As for mental health, lack of sleep can lead you to being more emotional, moody and more irritable. Clients aren’t likely to hang around with grumpy tired business people, so best avoid becoming one. (Outsource what you don’t like doing and enjoy working on the areas of your business you like doing = a happier you, too!)

Better Decision Making:

Cognitive functions refer to our brain’s processing ability to think, reason, absorb and make decisions with our learnt knowledge and experiences. During sleep, waste management systems in the brain become very active, flushing out toxic wastes, and neuron pathways refresh themselves. When sleep deprived, our cognitive functions become ‘foggy’ and our ‘coping’ skills drop. Resolving situations, managing stress and making clear decisions – all become more difficult.

Helps Maintains Your Immunity:

Scientists have found lack of sleep, when the brain has little chance to release essential hormones and chemicals, reduces our body’s natural immunity abilities. Our cell defenses slow down and we become more vulnerable to catching colds or infections. Really, you want to avoid getting sick, it’s never a pleasant experience, and who will manage your business?

Helps Avoid Potential Health Problems:

Long term, poor sleep routines have been shown to contribute to increasing health problems, in diabetes, obesity, higher risk to strokes, and even heart diseases. Surely, better to maintain your health today so you can be around to enjoy fully those future financial gains you’re planning to enjoy someday from your business?

Health and Safety:

Being sleep deprived is a real danger, especially when you are operating machinery or motor vehicles. Being drowsy makes you liable to errors, with low concentration, and your speed and ability to make corrective actions reduced. Is it worth the risk of a serious injury or even accidental death directly or indirectly due to little or poor sleep?

We need to remember ‘sleep’ is literally the only true ‘recharging’ option for our brain – helping refuel our minds and energy for running and managing our businesses. And it’s free to get. So, take action for you and your business’s health now …. whack those pillows, get relaxed in your evenings and charge up with a healthy, healing sleep routine.

If your work days are getting longer or it is the financial book work that has you up late at night, then why not outsource those ‘number’ jobs to us at Do The Sums Bookkeeping and More. We offer a wide range of accounting services, and can work with you to tailor our services to fit in with your own business bookkeeping needs. Contact us at dothesums.nz@gmail.com or call Rebecca on 0273790992 and let’s chat today.

30 May 2017

Xero and Sarah, Sarah Makes Her Business Bloom – Case Study

Sarah is having a hectic day. She knows she must stay at work late tonight entering her orders and invoices for the last month to evaluate how her business is doing. Her bank balance seems a tad low. Despite best intentions, she’s behind with her accounts, again. She does not mind doing her accounts. Honestly, she would much rather focus on designing and creating stunning bouquets. Sarah owns Blooming Love, a floral and giftware shop in the Tannery, Christchurch.

Sarah needs to rise early tomorrow to get to the flower market and check the availability of hydrangeas for wedding bouquets on Saturday. Her days are getting longer, what with early starts and trying to catch up on accounts and orders in the evenings. Sarah popped into Lucy’s café yesterday and Lucy advised she has contracted a book keeping business, and mentioned how it’s lifted a load off her shoulders.

She calls Rebecca the bookkeeper at lunchtime. Rebecca asks her questions about her business, and suggests Sarah emails through what she would like covered. Rebecca will review Sarah’s accounting needs and arrange a time later in the week to discuss pricing options for her bookkeeping needs. Rebecca advises Sarah that they should set up Xero, a cloud based accounting application. This would allow them to work collaboratively on managing Sarah’s financial records online without frequent meetings to exchange paperwork.

Sarah thinks over Rebecca’s comments on Xero, the cloud based accounting application for her business. There are nifty applications she can download on her iPhone too, to tag business transactions to go to her Xero account. That would be handy at the flower markets in early mornings when making payments for her purchases. Have her monthly bills like power and rent emailed straight into her Xero accounts pre-coded, ready to reconcile. Plus, she will be able to clear all that paperwork over her desk at the shop, by saving documention to online files.

There were more useful features in Xero for Sarah to learn, but already she is thinking. Maybe remove her paper cluttered desk. Then extend her workbench for creating her flowers as she needs more room. Her slim laptop with accounts access, can be stored to the side easily. Plus with this free time in the evenings, she could attend those Advanced Floral Art courses at the local polytechnic. She also wants to add an online shop to her Website, too.

If You’re Passionate About Your Business……

If you’re as passionate about your business as Sarah is, and wish for time to upskill your knowledge or focus on other parts of your business – then why not outsource your book keeping to Do The Sums Book Keeping and More. Use that free time to keep your passion alive on the more tasks focused on growing your business. Maybe expand your skills or investigate new products to add to your business. Explore other sales opportunities.

Tell us what you need done with your accounts, and share where you would like your business to go … and we’ll work to help you reach your goals. Send me an email today and we’ll talk soon: Rebecca@dothesums.co.nz

26 Mar 2017

Matt Barbershop – Tax Returns – Case Study

Does this sound like you?

Don’t mind doing the daily or weekly transactions, but not GST Tax returns? Need time to grow your business, so looking to outsource some accounts work? We can help with your financials, so you have more time to focus on other areas of your business or social time in your calendar.
Matt is a barber, with a Barbershop business located near the Cuba Mall, Wellington.

Matt has one staff member, Lance, who has almost completed his barber apprenticeship. Trade is good, there is plenty of foot traffic outside his store being Cuba Mall. Now he is considering opening another barber shop over in Thornton, near where his partner works.
Lance is well regarded by regular clients now and he has indicated to Matt he is willing to help manage the Cuba Mall barbershop business, whilst Matt starts up the new barbershop in Thornton.

Matt is pretty account savvy and quite comfortable with processing the weekly accounting transactions for his books, but still, engages a bookkeeping business to oversee his Xero Cashflow books. Because Xero is cloud based, they can easily go online into his accounts and review them remotely. At GST filing time every two months, they check in and make any corrections needed. The tax returns are filed for him and his bookkeeper sends an update of work done and advice of any amounts due to Inland Revenue.

At financial year end, his bookkeeper will also process both business and personal tax returns too.

Matt can control user access to his Xero business accounts, and currently, he has it set up for Lance to access the payroll portal only and enter his own time-sheet hours in there. That means Matt can just check in weekly and approve Lance’s hours before payroll processing.

Later in the year, when Matt hopefully opens his second store, he’ll ask his bookkeeper to set up tracking in Xero too, so he can see how each store is doing. Xero can handle this with a tracking option to transactions for either certain clients or locations/stores. He’ll be able to see how Lance is doing in managing sales in his original store.

Matt reckons life is for living, and after a long week on his feet cutting, supervising Lance and maintaining the barbershop – he just wants to chill with his partner in the evenings. And Sundays. They often head out to local bars or cafes with friends. Or take out their surfboards after work if the waves are right. He enjoys balancing his life with time to play, against his hard work on his business.

Does this sound like you?

Don’t mind doing the daily or weekly transactions, but not keen on doing much more, or the tax returns? Need time to grow your business? Yearn for more social time for family and friends?

Do The Sums Book Keeping and More can help. We are happy to fit in with your bookkeeping needs and do as little or as much as you require. Contact us today, and discuss bookkeeping options for your business. Outsource your business tax filing returns, and focus on growing your business. Create some balance in your life and make some time for hanging out with your mates or family.

28 Sep 2016

Slip these October Tax Due Dates into your schedule

Avoid missing the deadline. Add these dates to your schedule now.

October can be quite a busy month – labour weekend and of course the weather can start to warm up. But it’s important not to forget any of your obligations with tax. To keep you on track add these October Tax Due Dates to your schedule now.

20th PAYE return and payment due
20th Quarterly FBT return and payment due
28th GST return and payment due August/September (2 monthly filing), September (monthly filing) and April-September (6 monthly filing)

Note: If a due date falls on the weekend the date is moved to the Monday following. Also be aware that both payment and returns must be received by the IRD on or before the due date.

If you are getting really busy in your business or with life in general it might be time to look at passing over some of these tasks to a professional. Please contact us today to see how we can help.

19 Sep 2016

balance-in-the-books-and-balance-in-your-life

A good hearty laugh relieves physical tension, leaves your muscle relaxed for up to 45 mins after, and even boosts the immune system? Do you remember the last time you enjoyed a good deep belly laugh with your family or friends?

One crucial thing many small business owners often overlook – is looking after themselves and balancing their lifestyles. It’s so very easy to find your business gradually swallowing up all your free hours. Doing everything in the business is demanding, you get stretched with needing to manage everything, especially if you’re a sole business owner – there isn’t anyone to share your load with. You can’t afford to get sick or ill. After all, who will run the business? Growing demands begins to wear you down. So what can we do to help create ‘balance’ in our lives, feel more in control, and make time to step away from our businesses to relax and have fun.

First – check your physical health and diet.

Being healthy does strengthen your mental ability to be able to manage stress. Even a 40 min daily walk around the block with the dog helps. It’s not about super long gym sessions to get a prime body – we’re talking about maintaining a good general fitness. Find some activity you enjoy doing – if it becomes boring – do it with a group or ask a friend to join in. Try blending doing physical activities with your partner or family to gain more social and physical time – backyard soccer game anyone?

(Think – what’s the point of investing this time and money into the business now if you aren’t going to strive to be healthy enough in future years to enjoy possible financial benefits derived from all this hard work you’re putting into your business today?)

Monitor your business hours.

Finished work? Done enough today? Close that laptop, and put down the cellphone and walk away. Go interact fully with the family and friends. In your time away, if it’s crucial to check in, then be strict – check in once the late afternoon. Avoid checking devices during late evenings – do you want to fall asleep with business on your mind? Create a friendly auto-answer messaging system on both your emails and business numbers to clients who call out of hours. Schedule your breaks, and take them. Sometimes it’s not possible to avoid after hour work because of the nature of your business, like a food business. But try scheduling two-three hour blocks of time in evenings for say two or three nights a week and then keep the other evenings free to give yourself a break away from work.

Work Smart on your business.

Review your goals on a regular basis. In working so hard, we can forget to step away and check we’re on track or not. How’s your income? Your current business systems – are there better way of doing this process now? Spend so much time looking for and sorting paper invoices and writing outgoing orders? Go paperless – move to an integrated accounting system and encourage suppliers and clients to order online. Social media marketing … do you need to be on all of them – why not get selective and focus on two. Streamline, and then review again later.

Outsource.

Eeeek – that means bringing in ‘outsiders’ into your business. But when it grows, sometimes it’s just not possible to keep our fingers on all the pulses of the business. Multi-tasking doesn’t work if it’s spreading your energy thin all over the place – accounts, marketing and processing sales – and you can’t focus properly. Contracting out some of your workloads, or hiring experts can reduce your time demands within the business. Experts with their knowledge base can suggest fresh ideas and processes to help enhance your business. Outsource what you aren’t good at or haven’t time to train on, and refocus your passion on what you do love doing best in your business! So we’ll ask now – how are your accounts? Do you understand where your money is coming from and where is it going?

Here at Do the Sums, we work hard to be updated on the best bookkeeping systems, keep abreast of tax compliance rules. We’re always the lookout for cool system add-ons that can help minimise business processes and save time. We can train you on bookkeeping systems, or you can hand it all over. Or just some. By the way, we Network often – so if it’s not accounting – but something else you’re needing help with, feel free to ask me as we deal with a wide range of business professionals and may be able to recommend the right person.

So, there it is. BALANCE. Work on your business – but make your lifestyle balanced too, and create some time off to go relax and laugh .. with family or friends.

GST Tax Returns Annual Tax Returns Tax Agents

Bookkeeping Online FBT Tax Returns Payroll Processing

Friendly Personal Service at Do The Sums Bookkeeping and More – can we help you?

Rebecca on 027 379 0992 or email rebecca@dothesums.co.nz

2 Sep 2016

How do you stay in control of data security on your device?

Managing Data Security is a major concern for many small businesses operating in this technological world…

In this post we cover a few basic steps and tools you can use to keep your data safe. Data security is a big concern but it doesn’t have to be a big cost or a big deal to reduce your risks.

Passwords:

Create strong unique passwords: long words with a mixture of numbers, letters, and symbols. Not passwords that in any way relate to your personal life e.g. names of Pets, partner’s names, schools attended. Professional hackers can suss out your address, your regular habits, family and friends.

Please don’t use the same password repeatedly to access all your applications. Create different passwords for different applications. If this a struggle then we suggest you use a Password Management Service, and you’ll only need to remember one password!

You can read more about them – here are some Password Management Sites that have been rated highly, to review:

Last Pass 1Password Dashlane

We personally use Last Pass as you can imagine we have a whole heap of passwords that we need to keep track of. And of course keeping our clients data secure is one of our top priorities.

A warning here: Your web browser e.g. Chrome, Firefox etc – may offer “password managers” features. However, they are not secure because often these browsers are just storing your passwords within your computer in an unencrypted form. Which means others can get into your computer may be able to view them. Unless you are able to encrypt the files on your hard drive, they are not recommended.

Screensavers are great:

Use your screensaver. If not active on your laptop or device or distracted on another job for a short period of time, say ten minutes, it closes down applications behind a security screen, then you need to re-enter your password to reopen it. It’s easy to use, pops up when you’re distracted elsewhere, especially when you forget to turn off your computer. Use it!

Family access to your own devices:

This is a hard one, for family, but try avoid sharing passwords for personal and financial applications on your device. Banks, for Online Banking and other applications like Microsoft Office offer multi-user access with different passwords, so make use of them, and encourage family to create their own passwords if they use your devices for accessing applications.

If you have kids using your computer and have programs that you don’t want them messing with, create control over your PC with an admin role. You can restrict them to using only certain programs – check your computer security settings for this feature.

Know your websites:

Be aware of the security settings of websites when you are surfing or reading or even buying goods online. URLs beginning with ‘https:’ are safer but there is still no guarantee – there are many imitators.

Look for Site Identity buttons when doing important work – when you are accessing a website, they show a green padlock icon in the beginning of their address. This verifies you are accessing a secure website address, and not an imitation site. This is very important when you are logging into banking/ Financial or your businesses’ Accounting software websites. Be vigilant.

Software Security Updates:

Software & Security developers like Microsoft, Google, spend millions of dollars working on security applications to keep their systems secured, and security updates are always being done to ensure your software is up to date against security threats. So make sure your computer is set to accept upgrades, to ensure your security software is up to date against new hacker or virus threats.

There are many more measures to protect unauthorised access data on your Devices, and we’ve covered the basic ones above. There are other options available to further secure against access into your computer’s files:

Disabling writing to USB Drives on certain files, or folders to prevent users copying your files.
Restrict Users from Using Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete
User Account Control to Protect Your PC (prevents unauthorised changes to your PC)
Putting data in an Encrypted File Vault (moves your files into a locked vault).

We hope that covers some of the basics of data security and gives you some steps to follow and tools to implement that can help you keep your data safe. Do you have any great tips you would like to share? Leave a comment below with your number one tip.

26 Aug 2016

Pencil these September 2016 Tax due dates into your planner

Pencil these tax due dates into your planner to avoid any late payment penalties.

September 2016 Tax Due Dates:

20th PAYE return and payment due
28th GST return and payment due for August (monthly filing)

If you are struggling to find the time to get your returns filed?? Or if you are unsure if you are completing these returns correctly then now is the time to get in touch with us to let us take over the hassle freeing up your time for more important things.

Note: If a tax due date falls on the weekend the date is moved to the Monday following. Also be aware that both payment and returns must be received by the IRD on or before the due date.

14 Aug 2016

This is for you. My most valued client – yes you!

It's your time to shine

I love and respect that you knew you had reached the point in your business where you needed a little help. I love that you value and respect your business enough to find someone who loves the jobs you hate (I know you think it’s a little crazy to love doing the accounts – even if you wouldn’t say that to my face). I love and respect that you trusted me with the most intimate part of your business – the numbers and your bottom line.

I know that you have this great desire to have a successful business – its what keeps you going at 3am – but that you want to get back (or maintain) the balance in your life.. And that is why we are working together to make these desires a reality.

By teaming up with me you know your have taken the next step. You are ready to smash your goals and continue or the path to success. I’m here and ready to walk that path with you and to guide you along the way.

I am committed to being the cheer squad, the guide and even the STOP sign if needed so that together we can move your business to the next level. You are no longer alone – you have joined the team of amazing business owners within our community who have taken the next step to growing their business and taking back their lives.

Working together means you can now relax a little knowing that the books are taken care of. Your stress levels have dropped and you have dedicated the time you have freed up to the areas of your business and life that you LOVE most.

Passion Lead Us Here

You have moved from being stressed and flustered about finding the time to keep up to date with the accounts to cherishing the freedom you have knowing that we have everything under control. You are even starting to look forward to our meetings to hear about the numbers…. you even know how to read your profit & loss – and are excited to see your hard work reflected in the numbers.

We connect so well – pulled together by the joint desire to see your business grow and succeed. My valued client I believe you are well on your way to reaching your destination and with our combined strength all obstacles can be overcome.

So lets get down to it – and take that next step.

Rebecca

12 Aug 2016

Outsourcing or Employing Staff – Which is best for my business?

Your business is booming, you are run off your feet and need some help. Perhaps you don’t have the specific skills or experience needed to fulfil an upcoming task? So the big decision comes down to do you hire a new part or full time employee or do you outsource the work instead? Which option is the best one for your business?

Pros and Cons of Employing Staff

Hiring staff for your business means that you know who is going to be turning up to work each day. You’ve met them, interviewed them and possibly even socialised with them. They may have some personality quirks, but you can live with those. They meet your needs for training, qualifications, experience and knowledge, so you know they can do the job for you.

However, you are responsible for their hourly pay or fixed salary, ACC costs, tax, holiday pay, annual leave, sick pay, Kiwi Saver contributions and that’s not even including the actual things they’ll need to do their job. Extra furniture, uniforms, computer, internet access, mobile phone, insurance and training are also added costs. The IRD have got a helpful guide which identifies what you need to be aware of when employing your first staff members too.

Hiring the right staff is key to your business continuing its success

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Work

When you outsource work, you send a specific job to someone like a virtual assistant or graphic designer for them to do it for you. Jobs which you are better off paying someone to do so you can concentrate on more profitable ones, are the perfect ones to outsource.

The great thing about outsourcing your work is that your costs are automatically lower. Sure you have to pay for the work they do for you, but there are no training costs, no need to buy consumables or a new PC and no sick pay either!

On the down side, you are most probably never going to meet them in person, other than on Skype or via email. You’ll not be able to keep an eye on what they are actually doing when completing your tasks and neither will know exactly when they did or how long it took to do your work.

Should I Outsource or Hire Staff?

Each business is different and so the right option will be different in each situation. If you are unsure get in touch with an expert to help you make the best choice.

The answer as to hiring or outsourcing would depend on your business. Can it afford the extra costs of employing staff? Would the benefits they bring be worth the time and money they’ll expend? Are the jobs able to be done remotely or do they need to be done on site? Is it a repeating or just a one-time job?

Obviously the ultimate choice is yours, but I am more than happy to chat with you about your specific business and help you make the best choice for your circumstance. Give me a call or send me an email today and let’s keep your business booming!