3 end-of-year planning tips for your small business

Batten down the hatches EOFY is almost upon us yet again but by making sure a couple quick and simple things are in order will mean 30 June will come and go and you’ll barely feel a thing.

Tip #1 – Bank reconciliations are the foundation to your financial systems integrity.

Always, always make sure you have done bank reconciliations for all your bank and credit card accounts dead on 30^th June.  I like to do my bank reconciliations every Monday morning so I start each week fresh and up to date but even if you’ve done your last reconciliation on the 29^th June make sure you do it on the 30^th June as well. You don’t have a bank statement? No problem. Simply login to your online banking, take a screen print of the balances for all accounts as of 30 June and go reconcile. Oh and make sure you keep copies of both in a safe place to give to your accountant.

If you’re one of the people that dread doing your bank reconciliation I can bet it’s because you’re not using bank feeds. Give yourself an EOFY present and sign up for bank feeds today and I can assure you bank reconciliations will become infinitely quicker and easier.

Tip #2 – If you employ staff make sure you have all their details so you can prepare their payment summaries.

With a fairly tight deadline of 14^th July making sure you already have their full name, address, tax file number and date of birth details correct will mean you’re not scrambling at the last minute to find out the details so you can get the payment summaries out to your employees on time.

If you’re using MYOB AccountRight or MYOB Essentials you can save yourself a lot of time by printing the payment summaries directly from your software rather than having to fill out the ATO forms. A bonus is you can also lodge them with the ATO too. For those of you who only started using software mid-year make sure you have the right year to date figures for your employees gross wages and tax withheld in your accounting system.

Tip #3 – Get your filing under control.

Filing is a necessary evil but like most things there’s an easy way and a hard way. I personally prefer easy any day and thanks to technology easy just keep getting easier. I use a combination of Shoeboxed and MYOB’s new In Tray feature.

With Shoeboxed I take pictures of all my receipts and invoices on my phone or I just email them to my Shoeboxed account and they are all stored in the cloud. The best thing about this service is I can search by supplier name, date or amount, it’s ATO compliant and you can even invite your accountant or bookkeeper into your online filing cabinet so they can view whatever they need quickly and easily too – remember if it saves them time, it saves you money.

Using MYOB’s In Tray I simply attach copies of invoices to the supplier’s purchase transaction in MYOB. This is an awesome feature which also means you don’t have to provide your accountant with copies of supplier invoices as they’re all there available at the press of a button. This is particularly useful for purchases of new assets as you can also attach the finance agreement if there is one and once again your accountant can access it with the press of a button while he’s reviewing your accounts. Too easy, too quick, too simple. A great thing about this new feature is you can go back and attach invoices to old transactions too.

If you do still prefer the old-fashioned paper way of filing may I suggest you keep it simple. Get a lever arch folder with A-Z dividers and just put your invoices and receipts in there. Don’t go over the top worrying about dates or putting things in strict alphabetical order just put things like Officeworks under O and Bunnings under B. Remember filing is all about being able to find something if and when you need to.

If you’re not ready for online filing yet its worth keeping a separate folder for all new assets purchased during the financial year along with any finance documents so you can just hand that to your accountant at the end of the financial year.

Subscribing or upgrading your MYOB software will ensure your business is always compliant with tax changes, including the government’s new SuperStream system for paying super contributions. If you don’t have MYOB online accounting software, compare the range, there’s an online accounting solution for every stage of your business. If you’d like to learn how to make your business more successful, visit myob.com.au/businesstips.

The information provided here is of a general nature for Australians and should not be your only source of information. Please consult an experienced and registered tax agent as each small business’s circumstance will vary.