1) Do you really need an accounting software?

SimpleBookkeeping

Uri Maimon - Founder Nominal Accounting

1) Do you really need an accounting software?

Welcome to the first session of which I hope will be an interesting series of small business bookkeeping tutorials, and while I start writing these first words I realise this might be harder than I thought. To make bookkeeping interesting is probably a little bit more that my writing has to offer. But nevertheless we will give it a go.

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In this series I plan to cover different aspects of using accounting software to do your business bookkeeping tasks, I believe this is NOT a complicated tasks and anyone can do it. I realise different businesses and different people have different ways of doing this. Some may go to an accountant to do all their bookkeeping and tax matters, others will work with a bookkeeper in house, others will do most of the bookkeeping themselves and do some of the reporting with an accountant and so on.

I think that as a business owner you should at least have the minimum understanding of these principles which will allow you to understand a very important part of your business ¢â‚¬" your books!

So the first topic is Accounting Software, what does it do and do you really need it?

The way I see it accounting software helps with the following aspects of your business:

  • Create and send invoices

Most businesses will need to send out invoices to their customers to pay for items or services, an invoice needs to be of a certain format (specified by the ATO) and include certain information. An invoice is also a kind of a marketing tool for your business so you should make it stand out.

A small business accounting software will help you create invoices and send them to your customers.

  • Keep GST records

If you¢â‚¬â„¢re above a certain threshold in Australia you¢â‚¬â„¢re required to registered and report on your GST, this means that every month or quarter (depending on the business) you will need to submit a Business Activity Statement to report this figures.

A small business accounting software will help you keep good records to fulfil this requirement.

  • Record payroll and create payslips

Companies are required to record and supply their employees with a pay slip, to deduct certain amounts and to keep all records.

Same thing here, most accounting software packages will help you do this.

  • Track the status of your business

I think one of the most important things you can, and should do, with your accounting software is keep track of your business: how many sales, what are you getting in and out, what your expenses on advertisement are and how much money you are owed. All of these things and many more that are relevant to your business can be tracked using (a good) small business accounting software.

Do you absolutely have to have a small business accounting software? Not at all

There are two other options, you can keep your records on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet and if you have very (very!) simple records this might do the trick. It will certainly not allow you to do all these things we discussed but you might be able to do it :-)

The 2nd option is not to do anything at all, just go to your bookkeeper and/or accountant and let them do absolutely everything for you. Although this sound tempting I wouldn¢â‚¬â„¢t do it myself but it might be just the right thing for some people. The accountant might be able to supply certain reports of actually walk you through the status of your business.

Personally I need to be in touch and do things myself, that¢â‚¬â„¢s the only way I learn.

So in the next post we¢â‚¬â„¢re going to look at installing a small business accounting software

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What is this about?

Nominal Accounting is all about making bookkeeping simple, we created Nominal to be a provide a simple solution for Australian Micro Businesses. In this newsletter/blog we're going to cover different aspects of business bookeeping and to try and provide a some 'lessons' or tips on how to go aboutdoing some of these simple tasks.

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