Setting up Accounting Systems for Success

Accounting Systems… everyone’s favourite topic, right?! OK, maybe not, but saving time and money might be. And your accounting systems will help you do this. Big time.


Good systems include both processes, and software choice. Putting the right systems in place can make a world of difference. They make your accounting so much easier to tackle, and give you much better outcomes down the track.

But… how do you choose the best options? Where do you even start?!

If you hadn’t guessed, here at Qlink we love a good process. So of course, we have one for this too.

Because there’s no best one-size-fits-all solution, when we work with clients to help them get set up, we always start by building a complete and clear picture of the person, their business, and its structure and needs. Once we are clear on this, we can recommend what processes are needed and will work best for the situation. From there, it’s then much easier to make a choice on which software out there is going to support your business’ needs most effectively.

There’s a lot to think about, but we always suggest a conversation as a starting point – because it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. That’s why you work with experts… We’re here to work through it with you and make it easy.

Call us when you’re ready.

…and see below for an overview of what you could expect at each step in our process:

 

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Step 1. Understanding Your Business

Some key areas we would address with you to start building a full picture and getting you on track would include:

  1. Where you are: Defining the structure and ‘type’ of business you have (eg how and where you operate, what you offer, staffing and all the processes and obligations around that)

  2. Who you are: Understanding your preferences and personality in how you work

  3. Where you want to go: Understanding your business goals – what you want to achieve, how much you want to earn – is crucial for us to be purposeful in helping you get where you want to go.

  4. Getting the basics right: (e.g. ensuring you’re au fait and correctly set up for things like liability and insurances, funding where eligible, how to structure bank accounts, getting to grips with GST, establishing an accurate Chart of Accounts, and whether or not to sole trade or become a registered company, etc)

All these questions influence how you set your business up, what records you need to keep, legal and tax obligations and implications, and thus what processes and software we recommend to make managing it all more straightforward.

 

Step 2. Establishing Processes

What processes we recommend always depends on the answers above and the unique structure of your business. But there are some basic process considerations that apply across pretty much any business:

  • Monthly receipt keeping
    There are loads of good software options out there for capturing receipts – and some (like Xero) have apps that allow you to upload photos straight into the system. Keep receipts filed by date and separated by month to make it easy. Make sure you keep hard copy receipts of items over $500, these are counted as assets.

  • Excel Spreadsheets
    While it won’t replace good software, Excel is still an important tool for all types of businesses whether you are a startup, sole trader or Limited Company. If you are using Excel for budgeting, tracking, forecasting, quoting etc then getting spreadsheets set up correctly can save you a mountain of time. (We can help with this).

  • Invoicing
    Good records on jobs, and a clear monthly process will make each month-end so much easier (eg tracking progress, and scheduling time in before the last day of the month to sort invoices). Also make sure you have an accurate invoicing template with all the necessary information on it (eg if you’re GST registered – it needs to state ‘Tax Invoice’, if you are not, it should say just ‘Invoice’ . (See here for a list of what information you should include on a Tax Invoice or non-GST Invoice).

 

Step 3. Software Selection

Once we’ve established a clear picture of your business and have agreed on suitable processes, we can start looking at software options that’ll suit, based on the specific functionality you need.

The main consideration really revolves around what end results you want to achieve. For example do you simply want to make GST filing easy, or do you want detailed reporting to run your business from (e.g. monthly creditors, debtors, profit and loss etc).

If you’re a sole trader, you won’t need lots of complex functionality, but rather, just ledger type accounting software to record transactions for GST and Year-End. Whereas, other companies may need more complex functionality for invoicing, record-keeping, inventory, managing CRM/POS data, inventory, and project management.

Talk to your financial advisor or accountant (or call us!) before you make any decisions – they’ll be able to help, and may also be able to set you up on a partners plan that might not be available to the public (e.g. we do this with software such as Xero).

 

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As you can see, there are a lot of considerations to get systems humming for your business – but again, it doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful. It just takes some conversation with someone ‘in the know’ who has your best interests at heart.

Any questions – call us for a no-obligations, free initial consultation.

Hannah Parkman