Managing Money
Next 12 Months Focus for SMEs
At the beginning of each calendar year, the Western Australia’s Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) surveys a sample of small business operators to determine how they expect their business to be impacted over the coming 12 month period (Link to SBDC survey results http://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/business-in-wa/what-is-a-small-business/business-expectations-survey-2015/ ). This got me thinking about, now that we are 3 months into the calendar year and with 3 months left to the start of the 2015-2016 financial year (to plan and develop strategies), what do business owners think the next 12-18 months will look like? – what are the impacts on Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and what should SMEs be focusing on to survive and proper?
Here’s what the brain trust (that is the Albany Creek Business Contacts) discussed.
- Cashflow Management: there was general agreement that cashflow management would still be a high focus for SMEs ensuring that a long term management of expected cash in and cash out is managed.
- Price of Service/Product –v- price of materials/supply: with fluctuating fuel prices, increased electricity prices etc discussion highlighted the need for SMEs to monitor the price of materials and other services/products purchased to ensure margins are maintained in the supply of the SME’s product or service. Comments focussed on ensuring sound buying behaviours to ensure viability of the business.
- Service: generally, consumers will not haggle over price if they believe they are getting value for money and good service. Maintaining good client/customer service and relationships will continue to be a vital point of difference for SMEs. We all know what it is like dealing with large Telcos/large organisations – being smaller and more personable can be a significant advantage.
- Technology: technology will continue to be a focus for most businesses. With the continuous rapid change in technology, SMEs need to be constantly monitoring what is available, and what will cost effectively add value to the business.
- Change: the old adage that “the only things certain in life are taxes and death” has a new room-mate – change. All industries are under constant change and the challenge for SMEs is to keep on top of it and determine what to respond to, what not to respond to and, if appropriate, how to be the change initiator and/or leader.
- Diversity: SMEs need to continuously monitor their client/customer needs and diversify (if need be) to remain relevant. By way of example, with many businesses moving towards “paperless” stationery suppliers have diversified to offer broader “office supplies” such as cleaning products and safety equipment in addition to traditional stationery supplies.
- Overseas Outsourcing: SMEs need to be monitoring the growing opportunities to source services and products overseas. Again, SMEs need to understand and be able to communicate their point of difference to compete.
- Be a Hunter: the market is the market of the day. SMEs need to invest time, resources and strategies in continuously sourcing new clients/customers. Complacency will not win the race.
(Blog contributors – Leonard Whittaker (Action Cycle Learning) Rob Carmody (Australian Integrated Communications) Sally Balwin (Balanix Solutions) Kathy Patterson (Brendale Stationery Supplies) Matthew Fox (Brisbane hosting & Web Design) Kirsty Newbery (Caring Cottage) Brad Davies (Conquest Pest & Termite Control) Scott Deaves (David Deane Real Estate) De Wet van der Nest (Express Air Con Cleaning) Oriano Giammichele (GT Racing, Mobile Mechanic) Stuart Bywater (Bywater Design) Rhennen Ford (Streten Mason Lawyers) Tracey Carter (Scrub Mutts) Jason Matthey (Insurance Web) Bruce Hall (Wombat Electrical)
Albany Creek Business Contacts consists of local quality and reliable businesses who provide a wide range of services from home and residential services to B2B and commercial services. Our service areas cover primarily Albany Creek, Eatons Hill, Brendale, Aspley, Warner, Chermside, Strathpine, North Lakes. However many members will cover greater areas.
Albany Creek Business Contacts meet fortnightly on a Wednesday morning for a 7am breakfast and networking meeting.
Balanix Solutions – Taxation | Accounting | Business Advise.
Situated in Strathpine on Brisbane North, we partner with our clients to assist them in their accounting, business management and bookkeeping needs. Our clients vary in industries from professional services (such as law, vet and dentist) to the trades (mechanic, bricklaying, plasterer etc), hospitality and retail. Are clients are located in the Pine Rivers area (including Brendale, Lawnton, Albany Creek and Eatons Hill) through to Kallangur, Petrie, North Lakes and Caboolture, as well as Brisbane South, the Gold Coast and various other parts of Queensland.
Call us today … we can help (07 3264 4783)
A Tip on the Road to Financial Happiness
One of the biggest economic impacts on both business and private costs over the last 12 months has been the drop in oil prices internationally which has resulted in lower fuel prices. The price per barrel has dropped from over $100/barrel down to $47/barrel. Watching Sunrise the other morning Craig James from Commsec stated that the flow-on effect was the equivalent of a .25% drop in interest for a person on a $350,000 home loan.
Given that the Reserve Bank yesterday dropped the official rate by .25% we should really be making sure that we are taking advantage of the current situation.
The old saying of paying down non tax deductible debt as your primary goal is never more true. I have not in my 40 years as an adult seen an economic environment where the opportunity to reduce debt has been more favorable. Yes there are some concerns on the job front with the end of the resource boom in Australia but with home loans at their lowest rates for a longtime and petrol prices way down from when they were above $1.50 to now (the lowest I have seen at 97.8 cents) it really is a great opportunity to reduce personal debt and set yourself up for the future.
If you take the 50 cents per litre on petrol and the quarter of a percent interest cut on home loans and put this against your credit card or home loan you are on your way to financial happiness.
These opportunities do not come along every day and it is very easy for us not to realise just how much this saving adds up when you take into account how not only can you reduce your debt but in doing so reduce the interest you will have on your reduced outstanding balance. It is a win win situation.
David Balwin
FCPA | Registered Tax Agent | Business Advisor
Balanix Solutions – Taxation | Accounting | Business Advise
Situated in Strathpine on Brisbane North, we partner with our clients to assist them in their accounting, business management and bookkeeping needs. Our clients vary in industries from professional services (such as law, vet and dentist) to the trades (mechanic, bricklaying, plasterer etc), hospitality and retail. Are clients are located in the Pine Rivers area (including Brendale, Lawnton, Albany Creek and Eatons Hill) through to Kallangur, Petrie, North Lakes and Caboolture, as well as Brisbane South, the Gold Coast and various other parts of Queensland.
Invoice Email Scam – Be on Guard
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is warning Australian businesses to beware of an invoice email scam seeking payment re-direction.
How it works is that the scammers pretend to be legitimate suppliers who contact businesses owners to advise changes to payment arrangements. Unfortunately, being scammed may not be detected until your real suppliers complain that they have not received your payment.
The ACCC outline the following process on how the scam works:
- Scammers hack into vendor and/or supplier email accounts and obtain information such as customer lists, bank details and previous invoices.
- Your business receives an email, supposedly from a vendor, requesting a wire transfer to a new or different bank account.
- The scammers either disguise their email address or create a new address that looks nearly identical. The emails may be spoofed by adding, removing, or subtly changing characters in the email address which makes it difficult to identify the scammer’s email from a legitimate address.
- The email may look to be from a genuine supplier and often copy a business’s logo and message format. It may also contain links to websites that are convincing fakes of the real company’s homepage or links to the real homepage itself.
- The scam email requests a change to usual billing arrangements and asks you to transfer money to a different account, usually by wire transfer.
It is so important that business owners operate with sound robust account keeping practices to minimise falling victim to scams. Make sure you have a clearly defined relationship with suppliers and double check with them if they advise change of banking arrangements. Here’s some more tips from the ACCC to assist to minimise being a victim to this scam:
- Make yours a ‘fraud-free’ business – effective management procedures can go a long way towards preventing scams. Have a clearly defined process for verifying and paying accounts and invoices.
- Consider a multi-person approval process for transactions over a certain dollar threshold.
- Ensure your staff are aware of this scam and understand how it works so they can identify it, avoid it and report it.
- Double check email addresses – scammers can create a new account which is very close to the real one; if you look closely you can usually spot the fake.
- DO NOT seek verification via email – you may be simply responding to the scammer’s email or scammers may have the capacity to intercept the email.
- If you think a request is suspicious, telephone the business to seek verification of the email’s authenticity.
- DO NOT call any telephone number listed in the email; instead, use contact details that you already have on file for the business, or that you have sourced independently – for example, from a telephone directory.
- DO NOT pay, give out or clarify any information about your business until you have looked into the matter further.
- Check your IT systems for viruses or malware – always keep your computer security up-to-date with anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a good firewall.
If you are not confident your practices are sound, call Balanix Solutions today – we can help (3264 4783)
Report scams to the ACCC via the SCAMwatch report a scam page or by calling 1300 795 995. Also, spread the word to colleagues through social media, newsletters etc to minimise the impact of the scams.
Balanix Solutions – Taxation | Accounting | Business Advise
Situated in Strathpine on Brisbane North, we partner with our clients to assist them in their accounting, business management and bookkeeping needs. Our clients vary in industries from professional services (such as law, vet and dentist) to the trades (mechanic, bricklaying, plasterer etc), hospitality and retail. Are clients are located in the Pine Rivers area (including Brendale, Lawnton, Albany Creek and Eatons Hill) through to Kallangur, Petrie, North Lakes and Caboolture, as well as Brisbane South, the Gold Coast and various other parts of Queensland.
Call us today … we can help (07 3264 4783)
Big Gains in Your Loss – Don’t let it happen
David Balwin
FCPA | Accountant
Business Advisor
Just recently I had the experience of having to go to my bank and have my credit card changed due to a number of small suspect transactions showing up on a regular basis. First it started with one or two $2 to $3 dollar transactions a week or so apart, then a couple of days apart and then the amount increased to around $10 per transaction.
A little bit of detective work confirmed my initial fears. I simply copied the wording from my credit card statement for a suspect payment and search on the internet. And yes surprise, surprise one of the transactions showed up a common suspect transaction. With this ammunition I headed off to my bank to have things checked out in more detail.
In reviewing my account some of these transactions went back close to 12 months.
Gone are the old days of gangs taking high risks and robbing banks for $’000s which the authorities took seriously. Today, the criminals are not seen and very hard to identify and steal small amounts from thousands of people. Why this is so appealing to them is that they can operate off-shore with little chance of detection let alone conviction and reap millions on an ongoing basis. Funnily enough they often don’t see themselves as criminals as they don’t believe the individual they are “stealing” from lose out as the bank refunds them the money.
They seem to conveniently forget if the bank has to take out insurance that cost is eventually borne by the customers of the bank or the shareholders of the insurance company. In reality there is no such thing as a victimless crime.
This type of crime is unlikely to go away as banks have heavily committed to the internet as a way of reducing costs by having customers do the work that tellers use to do. Also banks may be reluctant to be open about the cost of this type of crime as it would highlight potentially just how big the issue is and as a consequence lower customer confidence in the internet.
The lesson for small business is to ensure that you regularly check your accounts for unusual transactions and report them to your bank.
Remember the old saying “look after the pence (cents) and the pounds (dollars) look after themselves”.
Balanix Solutions – Accountant, Business Advisor, Bookkeeping.
Situated in Strathpine on Brisbane North, we partner with our clients to assist them in their accounting, business management and bookkeeping needs. Our clients vary in industries from professional services (such as law, vet and dentist) to the trades (mechanic, bricklaying, plasterer etc), hospitality and retail. Are clients are located in the Pine Rivers area (including Brendale, Lawnton, Albany Creek and Eatons Hill) through to Kallangur, Petrie, North Lakes and Caboolture, as well as Brisbane South, the Gold Coast and various other parts of Queensland.
Apps that Help with Your Fading and Easily Lost Receipts
David Balwin
CPA | Accountant | Business Advisor
I was listening to the radio while driving to a client last week when there was a discussion about receipts that fade due to the low quality paper and ink used – which is fair enough for retailers to use to cut costs. The discussion centred around the need, by law to keep receipts, and businesses’ difficulty when they fade and in some instances are very small. The law only requires that businesses registered for GST provide a tax invoice, it does not state that the receipt must be of sufficient quality to last five years – the length of time businesses are required to retain receipts in general for tax purposes. But there are other good reasons to keep the receipts, not just for the Taxman:
- Insurance Claims: The length of time required to be held is for the life of the item covered unless you can provide proof of ownership by other means e.g . motor vehicle registration.
- Claim on warranties: Normally need to hold receipt for length of the warranty or extended warranty, however recent court cases suggest longer periods where the court viewed the good should have operated for a longer period of time without fault occurring arising in a claim.
We all know the types of receipts I am talking about – petrol stations, major retailers such as Coles & Woolworths, carparks and just about any business that prints a receipt through an EFTPOS machine. These receipts are particularly prone to fading when left in strong sunlight or placed in certain types of plastic sleeves. Even when they are not they have a habit of fading within a relatively short period of time.
So what are some solutions to this issue. At Balanix we scan all receipts relating to the business as it is easy to store in terms of costs and space (no more files or boxes full of receipts stored in the back room). Computer memory these days is pretty cheap compared to ten or twenty years age so it is easy to hold onto the receipts for as long as required.
But the discussion on the radio introduced an alternative way of storing those small receipts. Simply take a photo of the receipt on your mobile phone (either android or iPhones) and use an applicable App to store the information which can then be downloaded later in PDF straight to your computer. This appears to be a great device for the business owner or employee on the go all the time who does not have the time to keep and manage his/her receipts.
There are a number of these Apps which are free and simple to download. Examples are (there are heaps out online so these are just examples):
- Shoeboxed Receipt Tracker – https://www.shoeboxed.com.au/
- Smart Receipts – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=wb.receipts&hl=en
- Digital Receipts – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proximiant.receipts&hl=en
We at Balanix are happy to discuss with you how you might go about this process and what you need to make sure that you comply with relevant legislative requirements.
