5 ways our bookkeepers in Melbourne solve your bookkeeping mess

Back to basics: if there’s a financial mess at your business, you have to clean and fix it up.

And that means starting with the fundamentals of your bookkeeping.

Small business bookkeeping means a lot of things – and a disturbingly large amount of it is helping small and medium businesses clean up their bookkeeping messes. 

Business owners who have complicated, disorganised, and inconsistent bookkeeping are a very common sight. Such messy practises can easily snowball and spiral out of control, leading to messy situations that can be difficult for them to get over with.

This is why you need a bookkeeper in Melbourne who knows exactly how to fix a bookkeeping mess like this!

5 Common bookkeeping messes (and how our bookkeeping services in Melbourne can help!)

Bookkeeping messes don’t just make your accounts look unappealing – they can also come with considerable confusion, and can make it harder to make decisions for your business.

Are you a small business owner who’s stuck with a bookkeeping mess? Good news: we’re here to tell you that all is not yet lost.

Like any other mess, bookkeeping messes can be fixed with enough time, attention and if necessary, the help of a bookkeeper in Melbourne.

In fact, we strongly recommend getting in touch with a professional – in our experience, many bookkeeping messes are the result of trying to DIY it, making attempting your own bookkeeping fixes risky, to say the least!

Before you deal with whatever bookkeeping headaches you’re dealing with, you must identify what these bookkeeping messes are – only then will you be able to fix and avoid them in the long run.

So, what are the usual suspects?

1) Disorganised bookkeeping 

Lost invoices. Confusing spreadsheets. Scattered records.

One of the most common reasons why you have a bookkeeping mess is because of disorganisation. After all, with all the work that comes with starting and managing your business, it’s little wonder that things might get misplaced from time-to-time.

Small growing businesses can find it difficult to be consistent when tracking all their financial transactions from expenses, sales, debts and investments.

That can lead to disorganised records, unclear financial processes and inefficient methods, all of which can result in you missing payment deadlines, not properly understanding your cash flow and having to pay unexpected penalties that accumulate over time. 

The solution

Keeping an organised process of bookkeeping helps you to be more accurate and efficient in record keeping. And that starts by ensuing you have the right system set up from the beginning.

From the word “go”, you need to implement effective methods, processes and procedures of cash flow management. Not only does it make it way easier to keep track of your business’ essential finances, but it also means that you’ll be able to make better decisions.

Is your business already up and running? Don’t worry – with a bit of help from our bookkeepers in Melbourne, you’ll be able to quickly transfer your current bookkeeping over to a faster, more organised system.

Learn more about cloud bookkeeping.

2) Unplanned spending

We know that sometimes, your business will run into unexpected expenses that can throw your finances way out. For example, if your business’ restroom runs into an issue, you’ll need to call a plumber to fix it.

In many cases, a business’ financial woes can be the result of letting business expenses spiral out of control – something that can affect liquidity as well as cash flow.

While unplanned expenses and emergency repairs can be unavoidable, there are others that can be prevented with proper planning!

The solution

Without a clear and consistent budget, it’s easy for you to spend more than you need, thereby affecting your business financial wellbeing.

While it isn’t as flashy as other solutions, budgeting is effective – not sticking to a budget can easily result in you spending more than you need to.

The best way to manage unplanned expenses to create a realistic budget and having the discipline to follow it through. When you set aside and plan your expenses, you will be able to control your spending, and ensure that you aren’t spending more than you need to.

What’s more, you’ll also know exactly how much money you can spend on each area of your business:

• Bills and utilities
• Operating costs
• Materials and supplies
• Calamity or disaster fund
• Emergency repairs
• Plans for business expansion

2) Late and incorrect tax filing

Tax time is stressful, whether it’s personal or business tax.

Little wonder that business taxation is the number one cause of concern for any business owner doing their own bookkeeping!

When done properly, filing your business taxes can save you from considerable stress. Not only does it save time, but you’ll also get to enjoy:

• GST credits
• Tax refunds
• Exemptions
• Eligibility for different tax benefits

Of course, all of this hinges on filing your taxes properly!

The solution

To avoid penalties and access all the entitlements, exemptions and refunds you qualify for, it’s important you do your taxes right.

Whether it’s your tax returns, payroll statements or your quarterly BAS/IAS lodgement, keeping on top of your tax statements is essential.

Struggling to get things in order? Don’t know where to start? Our  bookkeepers in Melbourne specialise in helping businesses like yours with things like this!

4) Unreconciled books

Your internal records say one thing, but your bank statements say something else entirely.

Contradictions like these can make it hard to find out how your business is really doing on the financial front, and can take ages to reconcile (that is, to correct).

And that in turn can lead to major discrepancies between your books to that of your business accounts, as well as compromise decision-making based on inaccurate figures,

Solution

Frequently checking your account balance and comparing it to what’s listed on your books is the best and safest way to avoid any financial discrepancies. Every time a new statement comes in, you’ll want to reconcile it with your records, and correct any mistakes.

And if the reconciliation errors go all the way back, you might want to call a professional to help clean things up (or even take the entire process off your hands).

5) Manual bookkeeping

Everything can be digitised, computerised and automated nowadays – despite that however, many business owners continue to do things manually, using hand calculators and plugging numbers into a spreadsheet.

A lot of business owners do this because they don’t trust digital systems, or they just like being in control all the time.

The problem is that manual bookkeeping is prone to mistakes – human error and all that. Not only that, but it’s time consuming – how good would it be if your bookkeeping statements just… happened?

The solution

If you want fast, easy and accurate accounting, you have to know how to use online bookkeeping software.

Not only is it heaps faster, but it also eliminates potential mistakes!

This software is powered through the cloud – not only does it let you access your bookkeeping from anywhere with an internet connection, but since it’s fully digitised, it also calculates everything automatically for you:

• Syncing with your bank accounts
• Automatically calculating figures and generating reports
• Taking care of other functions like travel expenses
• Calculating GST owed and owing

Our bookkeepers in Melbourne aren’t just bookkeepers – we’re cloud bookkeepers. We’re experts in a number of cloud bookkeeping platforms like MYOB, Quickbooks and Xero.

You can trust us to set your system up, migrate your records over and offer expert training and support!

Why outsource to a bookkeeper in Melbourne?

As a small business owner, it’s natural to want to keep things in-house whenever you can. Unfortunately, when it comes to your bookkeeping, that can lead to a number of different issues, and not just the ones listed above!

Go to an external Melbourne bookkeeper however…

Save money

If you decide to recruit a full-time in-house bookkeeper, be prepared to pay not only their salary, but also superannuation and all the other things that come with bringing on a permanent employee.

When you outsource a Melbourne bookkeeper, you are paying for the exact bookkeeping service, but only when you need it, and without the ongoing costs that come with permanently recruiting someone.

Provides various services

You might only be able to do basic bookkeeping yourself – and that’s totally fine.

If your business’ bookkeeping needs are rapidly expanding beyond what you can do, then it might be time to talk to a professional about their bookkeeping services. 

Take our team, for example – on top of standard services like cash flow monitoring, our team also offers more advanced bookkeeping services.

Run into a problem you can’t deal with on your own? Give our team a call – we might be able to help you out!

Save time

Whether it’s time-consuming manual bookkeeping or the trial-and-error learning that comes with trying to wrap your head around a particular bookkeeping concept, doing it on your own can soak up a lot of time.

Find that bookkeeping is stealing you away from the rest of your business? Leave it to a professional instead!

Avoid these common bookkeeping messes with Maximum Business Solutions!

Any business will most likely experience bookkeeping messes at one stage or another.

This is where Maximum Business Solutions comes into the picture. Our bookkeepers in Melbourne can help you manage all aspects of your business’ bookkeeping needs effectively. 

Keep your head out of your books and focus more on growing and managing your business better.

We offer bookkeeping services in Melbourne that you can trust:

• Payroll solutions
• Invoicing
• Debt collection
• Balance sheets
• Cloud software implementation
• Consultation
• Audit preparation
• Business Activity Statements (BAS)/ Income Activity Statement (IAS)

Call our bookkeeping experts today on (03) 95890128 or leave a message to book a consultation now.