In June we travelled to the USA (New York City) to meet with our North American members.
I’m constantly on the lookout for business ideas, things that can be transferred to our business and that of our subscribers and members. So
wherever I visit, I always take time to read the press, watch the news and keep my eyes wide-open for any business that does things differently. (As an aside, this is something I urge you to do as well.)
There was one significant thing I came across, which can have a big impact on your business. Let me explain…

Is there a dead spot in your day? It’s probably a good time to look at boosting your energy. Lack of energy is a motivation crusher for you and those around you. It’s unhealthy too – it leads to bad posture which in turn can cause workplace injuries. And of course lack of energy shows up in your office output or, rather, lack of output.

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to New Zealand. If you are not a New Zealand business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

p>Are you planning a Christmas function for special clients and/or suppliers and business contacts? Be aware that this will come under the entertainment regime for purposes of tax deductibility. Any expenditure on food and drink
that your business provides off your business premises will be 50% deductible. This extends to any incidental expenditure on things like hireage of crockery, glassware or utensils, waiting staff, and music or other entertainment provided for the function you’re planning.

One of the business philosophies I’ve adopted for a number of years is that to be ultra-successful, your business must be SYSTEMISED. Even before I read Michael Gerber’s brilliant ‘E-Myth Revisited’ (if you haven’t read it, you need to—it is required reading) I realized the importance of systemization and what it can do for a business.

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to New Zealand. If you are not a New Zealand business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to New Zealand. If you are not a New Zealand business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

Thinking about giving your staff a well-deserved Christmas Present of Bonus this year? Cash bonuses are always subject to

PAYE and should be put through your standard payroll process. There is a category called “Extra Emolument” designed to avoid overly penalizing lump sum payments. Other non-cash gifts (gift baskets, flowers, vouchers, etc., are subject to the FBT rules. An FBT-free allowance of $300 per employee per quarter is available.

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to New Zealand. If you are not a New Zealand business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

So you have a retail outlet and are using Xero to manage your accounting. Great start. But in retail you have a number of settlement issues. There are sales on account, customers may pay on account over the counter, EFTPOS (debit cards) and various credit cards may settle on different days and some settle gross and some settle net of commissions. How do you handle all this?
First, let me recommend that you consider using a Point of Sale system that integrates with Xero. We use Vend, and highly recommend it. Vend has a Register Close function that will handle the balancing of each register and post the appropriate totals to Xero. If you would like to look at implementing Vend please let us know – we are Vend partners and can help you evaluate, implement and integrate properly with Xero.

My eldest son, Thomas, turned 17 last November. Since then, in between his studying, he has been learning to drive (no accidents yet, although his driving instructor reliably informs me there have been a few close shaves!). He will shortly be taking his test, so my wife Helen and I decided to buy him his first car (ouch!).
As always, I can’t help myself in evaluating the sales process businesses use. Most businesses really don’t have any ’process’ at all when it comes to sales and selling and, whilst the car industry is a fairly old and sophisticated market in terms of ’selling’, it’s no surprise to me that there are hugely differing approaches, most of which SUCK.
One of the problems we have in the UK is that once new drivers pass their test, especially at 17 – 21 years old (but in particular at 17 and 18 years old), the insurance companies hike their prices to a ridiculous level. So much so that it just wasn’t feasible to put Thomas on either my wife’s car insurance or mine (the lowest figure was £8,400 a year – yes, that’s eight thousand four hundred pounds!). Typically, most people will therefore drive very small cars with engine sizes of less than 1.4cc.

There are plenty of times when you need to be able to offset Receivable Invoices against Payable Bills. This is usually the case when you working on “trade” with someone (no cash changes hands, but you each do work of equal value to each other – you still need to account for the HST and income tax on these transactions) or where you allow a customer to offset an amount you owe them from their bill.

The Bank Reconcile screen is one of my favourite places in Xero. It was, and still is, what makes Xero a clear leader over the other cloud-based accounting systems. If used properly it puts an end to unnecessary data entry and reconciliations. But there is always a catch – if used properly! It is possible to be unreconciled even if you no more entries in the reconcile screen or if the Statement Balance equals the Balance in Xero.

Most businesses deal with Petty Cash at some stage. For the sake of clarity here I will define “Petty Cash” to refer to managing disbursements from a central pool of cash. The following are not meant to be addressed in this article as they are covered elsewhere:

As a business owner it’s not uncommon for you to have to pay business expenses from your personal funds. While we have previously written about the importance of keeping business and personal transactions separate we also know that in reality it happens. Whether it’s some cash spending from your wallet, using a personal credit card, or office expenses on the same receipt as domestic expenses, you need to be able to get these items into Xero (or other accounting system) so that you can claim back the HST and get the appropriate tax deduction for them.

When you own a business everyone’s got their hands out for some of your money. Whether it’s employees, suppliers, the government or even customers – you’re paying bills and paying people left-right, and center. But it’s not just business – you have a family and friends and the sports club and the girl's night out – many things that require you to make payments. Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep it all straight. In fact – it really is like having multiple personalities with you that sometimes all try to come out together,

Xero is a highly complex accounting environment. While the developers have worked wonders to make it simple and user friendly, this approach often masks the fact that it is a complicated accounting system under the hood! The bank reconciliation process in Xero, if provided with correct data and intelligent user interaction, should result in a perfect bank reconciliation where everything balances as expected. But the reality is that this does not always happen.

UPDATE

Xero has now implemented Repeating Manual Journals. The actually reached out to us for feedback because of this article. We’ve kept this article here just so that we can gloat – although it is no longer necessary!!

A few years back I was doing a minor alteration on the family home. One of the builders who I got in to do a quote gave me his price and then said “but if you can pay cash it will be $X” (a figure about 13% lower than his first quote). I didn’t hire him, even though I could have saved a nice chunk of change. I figured that if he was dishonest enough to defraud the government, what would stop him from trying to do the dirty on me as well. And with no records of the transaction, I would have nothing to fall back on.

Most people in business avoid calling their accountant. It’s a bit like going to the Dentist – you don’t know what they’re going to say but you presume that it’s not what you want to hear and you always get a big bill for the privilege. However, like going to the dentist, not checking with your accountant before making business decisions can often lead to more trouble down the line. Your accountant can often save you money by structuring things efficiently or avoiding pitfalls. It’s usually easier to start out the right way than trying to fix it after the fact.

A new report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment looks at outcomes of key changes to employment law made in 2011 to see if they are working as intended.
What the changes were meant to do
The broad aims of the changes were to:

Creating Outstanding Customer Service Levels To Obliterate The Competition

In 1987 Jan Carlzon, the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, wrote the book, ‘Moments Of Truth’. It explained how he took the airline from deficit to profit by ‘moving’ the airline to a customer-focused organisation.

Now, as you know, there have been many books written on customer service, but where this book and Carlzon’s strategies really differ is his focus on each interaction the customer has with the business.

IMPORTANT: This post is specific to New Zealand. If you are not a New Zealand business/taxpayer then it is probably not applicable to you.

After the government increased the minimum wage rates earlier this year, it made a further amendment to the Minimum Wage Order, issuing a new fortnightly rate. The fortnightly rate is $1,140 for adult employees and $912 for starting-out workers and trainees. If you’re an employer already fully compliant with minimum wage requirements and your employees’ hours don’t vary from week to week, stop reading here. For you, nothing has changed.