Bookkeeping

Most people don’t come to us because they want bookkeeping. They come because the books have got away from them — the bank hasn’t been reconciled since March, there’s a shoebox of receipts, and the accountant is asking for numbers nobody can produce.

That’s a normal place to start. It’s fixable, and it’s less painful to fix than you’d expect.

What we take on

• Bank and credit card reconciliation — every transaction accounted for, every month, so the balance in your accounting file is the balance in your bank.
• Accounts payable — supplier bills entered, coded and scheduled, so you know what is going out and when, and nothing gets paid twice.
• Accounts receivable — invoices raised and followed up. Chasing money is the job business owners put off longest and lose the most to.
• Coding and GST treatment — transactions classified correctly the first time, which is what makes the activity statement straightforward later.
• Month-end — the file closed off, with a profit and loss and a balance sheet you can actually read.
• Year-end handover — your accountant gets a clean, reconciled file and a list of the things only you can answer, rather than a year of untangling billed back to you.

How it works

We start by looking at what you have — your accounting file, or a new one if there isn’t one yet — and going through the last few months to see where things stand. Then we tell you what needs to happen, including anything you’d be better off doing yourself.

After that it settles into a rhythm: weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on how much is going through the business. The rhythm fits the business — not the other way around.

Catching up

If you’re behind, say so on the first call. Catch-up work is a separate job with its own quote, and it is much better done deliberately than squeezed in around a monthly routine. We haven’t yet met a set of books that couldn’t be brought back.

Who this suits

Businesses of every size, in every industry, at every stage — sole traders and trades where the owner is also the one on the tools and the books happen at nine o’clock at night, family companies, and larger operations with staff, sites and an office team we work alongside. The rhythm and the scope change with the size; the standard of the work doesn’t.

If your business is large enough to have its own bookkeeper on staff, what you probably want instead is someone to review their work and handle the activity statements. Ring us and say so; that is a real service and we will scope it that way.

Common questions

How far behind is too far behind? Months or years — bring it in. Catch-up work is quoted as its own job, and then the regular rhythm starts from a clean base.

Do I have to change software? No. Whether you’re on Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB or Reckon, we work in your file. If you’re on spreadsheets or paper, that’s what software setup and training is for.

Does it matter that we’re not in Traralgon? No — the books live in the software, so we work with businesses across Gippsland and right across Australia.

What does it cost? We quote the work, not the hour, once we’ve seen the books. The first conversation is free.