DIY accounting might sound like a good economy, but investing in an accountant could be the best financial decision you make as a business owner. When you’re starting out as a small business owner, the temptation is to go DIY with your accounting. Hiring a professional accountant or tax
Are you making any of these accounting mistakes? We’ve outlined the top 5 accounting pitfalls that small business owners trip over, so you don’t have to make the same mistakes. Starting a business can be a challenging experience, especially when it comes to managing your numbers and staying on
There’s a goldmine of financial data buried in your cloud accounting ledgers. We’ve dug out five of the key ways that real-time financial data can help to drive your business decisions. As a business owner, you want to make the best possible decisions for your business. The choices you
Using your cloud accounting software to just do the bookkeeping barely scratches the surface. Here are four important ways to get more from the cloud with a bespoke tech stack. If you’re managing a small business, the chances are that you’re using one of the current crop of cloud accounting platforms. Whether your
Why is good bookkeeping so vital for your financial management? We’ve got some top hacks for maximising your bookkeeping, and the options for outsourcing this job to the professionals. In today's digital times, you're probably used to having unrivalled access to your financial numbers, key performance indicators (KPIs) and
Turning a profit will be high on your list of goals as a business owner. And if you want to generate the best margins, that means keeping an eye on the money that’s going out of the business, as well as what’s coming in. So, how can your accountant help with this? The
Here's our plain English guide to profit and loss and what this report reveals about your finances. What is Profit and Loss? Your profit and loss statement is commonly called your ‘P&L’. It’s also sometimes referred to as your income statement or statement of earnings. Your P&L is
Giving is good! Donations not only help the charities that receive them, but they can boost your happiness and provide you with tax credits. Christmas Donations: The Tax Upside Christmas is a time for giving – and it’s not all about presents. Donating to charitable organisations is a fantastic way to support the causes close
INTRO CONTENT Holiday breaks are a time to re-charge for the year ahead. However, for some business owners, holidays can be a stressful time for cash-flow. Have you got the strategies in place to ensure you are in the best financial position this year? CONTENT Holiday breaks are a chance to recharge for the year
Keeping on top of your cashflow is even more important during tough economic times. With a global slowdown on the cards, energy prices soaring and supply chain still challenges, cash is likely to be tight over the coming year and beyond. Cloud technology and fintech apps, can give your business the best possible control over
A major tax difference between commercial and residential buildings is that for commercial you can claim depreciation on your building. Depreciation for buildings was removed across the board in 2010, then reinstated – but only for commercial buildings – as part of a 2020 emergency pandemic support package. Residential
To understand the financial position of your business at a specific point in time, you must look at the balance sheet, together with the Profit and Loss Statement and the Statement of Cash Flow. Together, these reports provide a complete understanding of your business. The balance sheet has three sections: assets, liabilities and equity. What
New trust rules mean that beneficiaries can automatically become settlors if there’s more than $25,000 in their beneficiary current account with the Trust. This has the potential to put assets at risk, so consider making changes now. There have been a lot of rule changes for trusts over the past few years – and now
In our experience, many small businesses don’t know which key performance indicators (KPIs) they should be tracking, how to access the relevant information, or what those metrics actually mean. Tracking specific metrics and financial KPIs allows you to see how you're performing against your targets – so you can take action to improve performance, sales,
You’re running a business, so you know the legal requirements around producing accounts and submitting tax returns. But do you understand the value that a good accountant and business adviser can add to your company? That's where management accounting comes in! As a business owner, managing director or CEO, there are three fundamental areas of
Business budgets and cashflow forecasts are only for the bank, right? It’s just accounting jargon that doesn’t really have anything to do with the day-to-day running of your business, right? Wrong! As accountants we do like talking about business budgets and cashflow forecasts – guilty as charged! But what many small business owners may not
Is your business using e-invoicing? It’s a fantastic way to protect yourself and your customers from invoice scams, and it can help you get paid faster. E-invoices replace emailed PDF invoices or links to online invoices. Instead, e-invoices are delivered securely to your clients, even across different accounting systems. Preventing Invoice Fraud Invoice scams are
Although this year many businesses are having to do their end of year celebrations differently, this is still the time of year when you usually spend more than usual on staff and client entertainment. Inland Revenue provides specific rules regarding different types of entertainment expenses. Here are some rules regarding Christmas business expenses that are
A common decision that business owners need to make is whether to lease or buy equipment for running their business. This dilemma happens when first starting up a business, during phases of growth or expansion, and periodically when equipment needs to be upgraded or replaced. So how do you decide which is the better
In one of our recent articles, we talked about the benefits of using a Chartered Accountant. If you’ve decided to use an accountant for your business that’s great, but how do you find one that’s right for you and will add value to your business? Here are some things to consider for finding an accountant
One of the questions we are often asked by our clients is: what are accounts payable, and why do you need to manage them? If your business purchases goods or services and doesn’t pay for them upfront, you will receive an invoice from the supplier. These are your accounts payable, i.e. the bills you owe.
Tracking invoices is an important task for every business. Managing your accounts receivable by monitoring when invoices are paid means you can take action as soon as payment is overdue. This is essential for healthy business cash flow, and can also help you to make informed decisions about extending credit to customers. If you don’t
If you are a small business owner, you may wonder if you should use a Chartered Accountant. After all, accounting software packages are increasingly sophisticated in the tasks they perform, while still being user-friendly for people who are not overly tech-savvy. Small business owners often need to wear many different hats: CEO, Business Development Manager,
Q. What’s the big deal about business expenses? A. Put simply, business expenses can help to lower your tax bill. Many business expenses can be claimed to offset your business income, reducing the amount of tax you need to pay. So it’s in your interest to know what expenses you can claim. Q. Who can
If you are in business one of the most useful things you can do with your bank accounts is set up a separate account for tax. Setting up a separate bank account and regularly putting money into it will ensure you can pay your tax bills on time and avoid costly penalties and interest. For
UHY Haines Norton Manager Paul Eckford explains why the Accounting Income Method for provisional tax could be a good option for small businesses struggling with managing cash flow. Provisional tax can be a real burden on cash flow. Normally due in 3 instalments during the year, most small businesses must budget for these payments which
Claiming business expenses against your income is a great way to save you money by lowering your tax bill. The number one rule about claiming business deductions is that the expense must be incurred in deriving or earning business income. That's why there isn't a definitive list of claimable business expenses because there must be
Planning for the financial year end on 31st March now will help make the process easier and quicker. Getting all of the information together that we need to prepare your year-end accounts can take quite a bit of time, but getting organised now can help you to have the right information all ready to go.
Business.govt.nz has a convenient tax invoice template that small business owners can use for designing their invoices. Its simple layout ensures that all of the correct information is included for the purposes of both the issuer and the recipient. What Information Should A Tax Invoice Include? Business name. Invoice number. Date the invoice is issued,
The IRD and other government agencies regularly select individuals and businesses to conduct audits on. They examine your finances to see if you’ve paid the right amount of tax and comply with the applicable tax laws. This may consist of a simple check of your GST registration through to an in-depth examination of your business
Understanding Depreciation Fixed assets are long-term assets that a business owns which are expected to be used in the business for longer than one year. They are often used to operate the business, such as machinery, buildings, equipment and vehicles. As you can’t deduct the cost of fixed assets from your taxable income as expenses,
You may notice that our practice is called “UHY Haines Norton Chartered Accountants”, not “UHY Haines Norton Accountants”. Here at UHY Haines Norton there are a total of 26 chartered accountants on our staff – that’s over 2/3 of our professional staff! But what does “Chartered Accountants” mean and what’s the difference between that and
Although you may think of your year-end financial statements as an annual exercise to keep the IRD happy, your statements are actually a valuable resource showing how your business is performing financially. They give you the opportunity to compare financial performance from the previous year and look at ways to improve future performance. Profit and
Your year-end accounts shouldn’t be just an annual exercise that you and your accountant go through to placate the IRD. They do, in fact, offer essential insights into how your business is performing and provide an opportunity to make changes to improve future performance. In this beginner's guide to understanding your balance sheet, we take
We previously explained the various elements in a typical balance sheet. Now in part two of our “Beginner’s Guide To Understanding Your Balance Sheet” articles we take a look at some of the ratios you can calculate to gain valuable insights into the financial position of your business. Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity Solvency
Your year-end accounts shouldn’t be just an annual exercise that you and your accountant go through to placate the IRD. They do, in fact, offer essential insights into how your business is performing and provide an opportunity to make changes to improve future performance. In part one of our two-part “Beginner’s Guide To Understanding Your Balance
Kiwis love DIY – it’s in our DNA! When it comes to home renovations, fixing cars or managing your own business and books, we love to do it ourselves. This makes sense for a lot of small businesses when cash is tight and there are accounting software options readily available in the market which theoretically
Taking the guesswork out of common SME topics so you can get it “right first time”. This month we take a look at some other very common types of expenditure: home office, uniform and protective clothing expenses. One fine, sunny morning I was with my children at the local playground when I met Rika, a
Taking the guesswork out of common SME topics so you can get it “right first time”. Having discussed entertainment expenses in our previous issue, we now take a look at another very common type of expenditure: motor vehicle expenses. We will use some examples to illustrate how and what we can claim as motor vehicle
Continuing on from our article “Business Expenses: What Can You Claim?” in our April/May newsletter, we provide further advice on different claimable business expenses that can be claimed against your income. Claimable Expenses: Home Office If the home is used for work purposes then a proportion of expenses relating to the property are deductible. To
