You’re a business owner, so you’ll incur a fair number of business expenses over the course of your average week. Costs for client entertaining, petrol to put in your car and toner for the office printer to name just a few. But are any of these expenses deductible against your tax bill? The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently published some
Back in 2023, the Australian Government announced that from 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay their employees’ super at the same time as their salary and wages. ‘Payday super’ will move payment of super from the quarterly cycle that businesses are used to, and switch it to a process where employees’ super will be paid within seven days
As the financial year draws to a close in Australia, it’s not just tax agents who are shifting into high gear—bookkeepers are the quiet heroes working behind the scenes to make sure everything adds up (literally and legally). Whether you’re a solo bookkeeper, part of a practice, or a business owner managing your own accounts, now is the time to
Paying your employees the correct amount is an important part of being an employer. To tighten up this process, the Australian Government has just introduced a new Voluntary Small Business Wage Compliance Code, that makes underpaying your employees a criminal offence. So, what counts as an underpayment? And are there any exemptions to the new Code? What is the Voluntary
To understand the financial position of a business at a specific point of time, look at the balance sheet. The balance sheet may also be called the statement of financial position. Together with the Profit and Loss Statement, and possibly other reports such as the Statement of Cash-flow, these reports provide a complete understanding of the financial position and business
In August 2024, the government brought in the ‘right to disconnect’. This legislation gives employees the right to refuse to be contacted by their employer outside of usual working hours. Previously, the ‘right to disconnect’ rules only applied to businesses with 15 employees or more. But from 26 August 2025, the same rights will apply for employees of small businesses
For centuries, accounting was all about reviewing historic information – but that only told you about the past, not what was going to happen in the future. If you’re only looking back at past periods and historic numbers, this limits the insights you can achieve for your business. With a backward-looking ideology, it becomes difficult to plan, run through different
There are certain items of equipment, machinery and hardware that are essential to the operation of your business – whether it’s the delivery van you use to run your home-delivery food service, or the high-end digital printer to run your print business. But when a critical business asset is required, should you buy this item outright, or should you lease
When you’re running a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activity and lose sight of the big picture. Taking stock of the health of your business is important. Knowing where you are allows for more effective planning, early warning about any issues, and the chance to better chart a course for success. There are some quick
As an employer, it’s reasonable to expect that you can occasionally contact your employees outside of normal hours. When a project deadline is near, an unexpected issue comes up, or there’s an emergency situation, out-of-hours contact is a usual expectation. But in an increasingly online world, many employees feel like they are on a ‘digital leash’, where they are contactable around