Tips for Bookkeepers & Owners
If you are a bookkeeper or you do the books for your own or someone else’s business, the following points may assist you in preparing those books for the accountant or tax agent.
Now why would you want to be concerned about the accountant?
The value of any bookkeeper is based on the information they supply to both the client and the accountant the client uses. One of the reasons why a client would consider using a bookkeeper is because of their affordability in maintaining the business books. However, if their accountant is spending as much time redoing the work because it is either inaccurate or not in a usable format, the bookkeeper’s affordability quickly disappears!
As an accountant and tax agent I regularly see clients who bring in work from their bookkeepers that I have simply not been able to use! In these cases it was more cost-effective and accurate to redo their work myself than try to audit what their bookkeeper had attempted to do.
This is a crying shame because there is certainly a place for accredited bookkeepers/BAS providers and accounting software between the business owner and their accountant. The problem is that some simple basics are not followed in providing a service that is suppose to enable a bridge between the two.
The following articles provide points and suggestions that can improve the information you are supplying to both your client and their accountant. These articles are written with accounting software such as MYOB or Quicken in mind, but still have relevance if you are using other software packages or are doing the books manually.
1. Reconcile your bank accounts
2. Get rid of non-relevant accounts
3. To Expense or to Cost of Sales… that is the question
4. Know what assets, liabilities, debits and credits are
5. Treat credit cards as bank accounts
6. Correctly transfer funds between accounts
7. Know what to do when you don’t know what to do
Links to the above coming soon. Please note that not all articles may be available initially. If a link does not work then please check again another time. Thank you.
This information is for guidance only and is not intended as specific advice to any reader. Professional advice should be obtained before acting on any information contained herein. The publisher accepts no responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or organisation as a result of action or the refrain of action as a consequence of the contents of this publication.