When starting or buying a business or franchise, the wrong advice can be very costly.

There are numerous issues to consider and we endeavour to make sure all our business clients are structured correctly for taxation purposes taking into account financial and legal considerations.

• Business Structure
• Finance Requirements
• Software Selection and Training
• Employer Obligations
• General Tax Advice
• Bookkeeping Training
• Business Plan
• Business Evaluation
• Registrations
• Cashflow Forecasts
• Budgets
• Compliance

One of the most important decisions you need to make when starting a business is the choice of accounting software.

Ranging in price, features, support and training requirements it is easy to become confused with so many options. We therefore provide the following guidelines:

Don’t buy software beyond your business needs. If you don’t need a fully integrated general ledger system, then avoid these types of programs, especially if the next point applies to you.

If you don’t understand double entry accounting (i.e debits, credits and journal entries) then avoid the more complicated general ledger accounting software programs. If you need to use such a program then you will need to undergo training to learn both the software and accounting.

Your software should be compatible with our general ledger system to allow easy transfer of electronic data. This can save time, money and assist with meeting lodgement deadlines.

In Australia the three most popular accounting packages are MYOB, Quickbooks and Cashflow Manager.

Let's talk about Cashflow Manager first as this is the most suitable program for the majority of small business owners.

Cashflow Manager looks and operates just like a manual cashbook and requires no understanding of accounting debits and credits. It's unique column format allows you to simply allocate your income and expenses to the appropriate column which makes it very easy to use.

The program comes complete with ‘Invoice Manager’ that lets you generate Tax Invoices, track your debtors and produce statements.  The Cashflow Manager ‘Gold’ package also includes tracking supplier invoices, inventory and the ‘Wages Manager’ payroll module to process pays, print payslips, PAYG Payment Summaries and track staff entitlements.

If your business specifically needs a full general ledger solution - MYOB and QuickBooks are very popular.

These packages have additional features including multi-user licences, time billing for professionals, job costing, lay buy control and can produce over 100 analytical graphs and reports. Because of their relative complexity you may need to undergo training to understand and use these software programs. Most TAFE’s provide structured training courses that run for between 14 and 20 hours at a cost of around $400 or online training or videos are available from most vendors.

We urge you to contact us regarding your choice of accounting software because the wrong package can lead to a ‘computerised shoebox’ records that can be more difficult to process than the traditional shoebox full of receipts!

Selling your Business

We also play an integral role with our clients who are in the process of selling their business. There is a range of issues to consider including Capital Gains Tax and tax concessions.  We aim to ensure the correct outcomes are always achieved.