building your cash flow forecast2020 Notch Above Bookkeeping

Manage your business cash flow

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Cash flow is the amount of money that goes in and out of your business; that is, income and expenses.

Having enough cash at the right time will make it easier for your business to pay bills and other expenses and meet your tax, superannuation and employer obligations.

Paying regular attention to your record-keeping and reporting tasks will help you better manage your cash flow. Managing your cash flow allows you to plan for the future, for example, prepare for large expenses or expand your business.

Prepare a cash flow budget or projection

The best way to make sure you have enough cash available to meet your tax and other obligations is to do a cash flow budget or projection. This information will help you to:

  • see your likely cash position at any time
  • identify any fluctuations that may lead to potential cash shortages
  • plan for your tax payments
  • plan for any major expenses
  • provide lenders with additional information.

Accounting for income and expenses can help keep your business running smoothly – by giving you an overview of when you can expect money to come in and when it may go out and highlighting where you may need to direct your money.

There are three main things to consider when creating your cash flow budget:

1. Timing

  • A cash flow budget isn’t ‘set and forget’. You can choose to work out your budget on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, depending on what you need or works for you.
  • As your business grows or your situation changes, keep monitoring your budget to see how you’re tracking and update it if needed.
  • Watch out for things such as significant differences between your budgeted amounts and your actual results.

2. Costs

  • Try to include all of your fixed costs and expected variable costs, for example, rent, insurance, utilities, advertising, internet, wages, equipment and taxes such as pay as you go (PAYG) instalments and goods and services tax.

3. Income

  • If you’re just starting out, estimate your expected income and you can continue to update your cash flow budget to help you keep track of income versus expenses.
  • Once your business has been running for a while, you’ll be able to get a better idea of the business income you may be able to expect.
  • Being more conservative with this amount may help give you some flexibility if unexpected, more costly expenses come up.

Your budget results will help you with your business decisions.

Budget planning

Do you know how to create a budget for your business? A budget is simply an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time.

Creating a budget will help you plan the future of your business, most especially your profits.

The professionals at Notch Above Bookkeeping have the skills and expertise to help you set a realistic budget as well as advice on how to stick to it. Call our business bookkeepers Australia-wide on 1300 015 130.

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Source: ATO

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Preparing for the holiday season

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Small business owners: Don’t wait to prepare for the holiday season

The holiday season is normally one of the busiest times of year for small business owners in the retail space and this year will prove no different.

In fact, due to continued supply chain challenges like bad weather, container shortages, product shortages and continued port closures due to the pandemic, business owners all over the world should start holiday preparations even earlier this year.

Consumers have also been warned about shipping delays for this upcoming season. As such, many are getting a head start on holiday shopping. Fortunately, there are many things that small businesses can begin doing now to prepare. Here are some tips to get ahead of the holiday rush.

Ensure you have the right tech stack

A comprehensive tech stack can be your secret weapon as a small business owner.

The right technology and partners can help you seamlessly manage cash flow, inventory and staff – all important variables around the holiday season and especially during times of crisis. For example, a reliable POS (point-of-sale) system can help with efficiencies, inventory management and cost savings.

Working with cloud technology platforms like Xero and those offered in Xero’s app ecosystem to support back-office and bookkeeping can save you valuable time better spent handling inventory, marketing plans and other tasks to run your business.

Get your funds in order

There’s no time like before the holiday rush to make sure your finances are totally in order before your attention shifts to focus heavily on inventory and deliveries. It’s important to have an accurate, up-to-date view of how much cash you’re going to need as well as account for any spikes or dips you expect to see over the next few months.

Small businesses that still operate on paper or within Excel can easily misplace or miscalculate important figures. If you’re having trouble on your own, partner with a bookkeeper to make sure you don’t miss a beat. We can advise and help with all finance functions for the business.

Doing the pre-work will pay off. When year-end sneaks up on you right after the holidays, you’ll enter the New Year organized and ready to hit the ground running.

Double down on your online presence

In the age of lockdowns and continued uncertainty, an online presence has never been more important.

Brick and mortar retailers are not only competing against Amazon and other eCommerce websites but other digitally-savvy small businesses.

Consider the end-to-end customer experience for a hypothetical customer across the country. How easily can they find information about your business? How can they place an order or get in touch with your team?

Also consider how new customers find you. Can you beef up your presence on social media? Boost your marketing with targeted advertising? These are all tactics that can positively impact customer experience and your bottom line around the holidays.

Play up the benefits of being a small business

There are many traits that make big business different from small business that you can take advantage of during the busy holiday season.

For example, make sure your seasonal staff understands the ongoing flexibility available to them. If you don’t need their hand in the store or onsite, consider how they can help in other ways.

For shoppers who need more personal attention, play up the one-on-one in-store shopping experience to help people find the perfect gifts for their loved ones. Use the ability to personalize to your advantage. Playing up the personalization now within your orders and shipping will keep shoppers coming back.

In addition, to battle supply chain issues, diversify shipping options and utilize different carriers to fulfil orders.

During the holidays, it’s important to remember to stay nimble and flexible as things change because, of course, even the best-laid plans can always be disrupted during unexpected periods. Despite ongoing challenges and lots of change, you can prevent disorganization and feeling unprepared for the busy period by doing a little bit of advanced planning to make sure your customers have the most seamless experience.

For more tips, advice and bookkeeping essentials for your business, visit How We Help You and get started today with Notch Above Bookkeeping, Australia-wide.

Source: Xero

retail shopping mall

NSW Summer Holiday Stock Guarantee

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Fresh support announced as NSW gets back to business

As part of the Economic Recovery Strategy, the NSW Government has committed to providing a Summer Holiday Stock Guarantee grant for Small and Medium Enterprises.

What is the SME summer holiday stock guarantee grant?

Under the SME Summer Holiday Stock Guarantee, hospitality and retail businesses will be able to apply for a grant of up to $20,000 to compensate for loss of perishable stock, or claim $10,000 for reduced capacity to sell non-perishable items, if they’re forced to close their doors between 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022, due to a public health order.

What businesses are eligible?

Hospitality and retail businesses with an annual turnover between $75,000 and $50 million.

How do businesses apply?

Businesses will be able to apply via the Service NSW website. More information will be made available shortly.

In the meantime, contact Notch Above’s team of Xero certified cloud business bookkeepers Australia-wide on 1300 015 130.

Source: NSW Government

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Increased penalty rates for casual hair and beauty weekend workers

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Hair and beauty workers get penalty rate hike

As part of the agreement, the casual weekend penalty rates will increase in five instalments starting from 31 January 2022 and finishing on 31 December 2023. From 3 November 2021 to 30 January 2022, casuals will continue to be paid their usual weekend penalty rate.

Currently, under the Hair and Beauty Award, a casual’s weekend penalty rate doesn’t include their 25% casual loading. This is changing so that casuals who work weekends are now entitled to be paid a weekend penalty rate that also includes their casual loading to compensate for permanent entitlements like sick and annual leave.

The announcement follows a decision made by the Fair Work Commissioner back in October after a process involving unions and industry associations.

Back in January 2020, Fair Work invited the Australian Workers’ Union (the AWU), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (the SDA) and Hair and Beauty Australia (HABA) to provide notice as to whether they wished to provide further materials in relation to the Saturday and Sunday penalty rates applicable to casual employees covered by the Hair and Beauty Award.

In July, Hair Stylists Australia (which is powered by the AWU) announced an agreement had been reached between themselves, the SDA and HABA which they would put forward to the Fair Work Commission.

HSA said a total of around $5.75 per hour will be added to weekend casual rates, and at the end of the phasing-in period, this means a casual hair stylist working a full eight-hour day over the weekend would take home an extra $92.

Meanwhile, the Hair and Beauty Award has already increased by 2.5% from 1 November alongside a whole bundle of industry awards as part of its Annual Wage Review 2021, as announced back in June.

Notch Above Bookkeeping are Xero business bookkeepers and Certified Xero Platinum Partners Australia-wide, specialising in cloud bookkeeping setup, training and ongoing support. Call us on 1300 015 130.

Source: mybusiness

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Stapled super funds start this month

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Request stapled super fund details for employees

What you need to do from 1 November 2021

From 1 November 2021, if you have new employees start, you may have an extra step to take to comply with choice of fund rules if they don’t choose a super fund. You may now need to request their ‘stapled super fund’ details from the ATO.

A stapled super fund is an existing super account that is linked, or ‘stapled’, to an individual employee so that it follows them as they change jobs.

If you don’t meet your choice of super fund obligations, additional penalties may apply.

The change aims to reduce account fees by stopping new super accounts from being opened every time an employee starts a new job.

Get ready

To make sure you’re ready to request stapled super fund details, check and update the access levels of your authorised representatives in ATO online services.

If an authorised representative doesn’t:

  • have full access to ATO online services, they will need to have the ‘Employee Commencement Form’ permission in order to request a stapled super fund
  • need to access this service, you should remove this permission for them to protect your employees’ personal information.

What employers need to do from 1 November 2021

You may need to request stapled super fund details when:

  • your new employee starts on or after 1 November 2021
  • you need to make super guarantee payments for that employee, and
  • your employee is eligible to choose a super fund but doesn’t.

You don’t need to offer a choice of super fund to some employees, but you may still need to request their stapled super fund details. This includes employees that are either:

  • temporary residents
  • covered by an enterprise agreement or workplace determination made before 1 January 2021.

To review each itemised step of the stapled super fund process, visit the ATO website or contact Notch Above’s team of Xero certified cloud business bookkeepers Australia-wide on 1300 015 130.

Source: ATO