MYOB Tip: Tracking More Than Salesperson Data

The majority of small business owners do not need nor use the Salesperson field to track employee sales. Did you know you can use this feature to track all kinds of other useful information such as which methods of advertising are paying off?

Example: Assume I want to track my marketing efforts. I use the Yellow pages, newspaper advertisements and my website for promotion. To do this, I would create an employee card for each item I want to track. I simply go to 'lists' in the top menu and scroll down to 'cards.' Click the employee tab and "add new."

You can see above I have added a cards for Newspaper Ad, Website and Yellow Pages. When you create a sale, simply use the salesperson field to begin tracking. In my example, I am tracking marketing. If my buyer heard about my products from the Yellow Pages, I would enter this into the salesperson field as shown below.

Now I can generate reports such as Analyze Sales [Salesperson] to see information at a glance on the new data I am collecting.

This is a handy little feature and can easily be adapted to track information of interest to you and your business.

Possibilities include easy monitoring of:

• Referrers
• Payment methods
• Preferred appointment times
• Geographic location of customers

If you are not tracking the sales prowess of your employees, it makes sense to put this feature to good use elsewhere.

If you would like to see more MYOB tips and tricks in the blog, please leave your feedback in the comments field or contact me at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.

Your thoughts and suggestions are always very welcome.

Changes to Super for Employers

From 1 July 2007:

• you must give your employees' tax file numbers to their super fund when you are given a Tax File Number (TFN) Declaration.

• you will be bale to claim a full income tax deduction for all super contributions you make on behalf of your employees provided certain conditions are met, and

• 'eligible termination payments' will become 'employment termination payments' and can no longer be rolled over into super funds.

Other new rules also apply.

Visit www.ato.gov.au/bettersuper or give us a call to find out more.

Source: Activity Statement Update - Quarter 4 2006-07

Tax Concessions for Small Business

From 1 July 2007, small businesses with turnover of less than $2 million a year will be eligible for a range of tax concessions under the Government's proposed changes to the law. Small businesses will also be able to pick and choose which tax concessions best suit their business.

It's important to find out more about the new tax concessions now if you are currently registered for GST because the proposed changes may affect the way you report and account for GST early in the 2007-08 income year.

Visit www.ato.gov.au/SBconcessions or give us a call to find out more.

Source: Activity Statement Update - Quarter 4 2006-07

Terms of endearment # 4

Something that often causes confusion with taxpayers are the accounts that the ATO maintain in each taxpayer's name. There are sometimes more than two, but for the moment we will cover the two most common.

Integrated Client Account (ICA): This account is active if you receive a BAS or IAS and is a kind of dump account for all the obligations that you have in regard to your BAS. If you are registered for GST, PAYG Withholding and are asked to pay PAYG instalments, then all three components are debited to this account and your payments are credited against them.

Taxation Account: This account is active if you have ever lodged a tax return in Australia. It holds each year's income tax result (whether refund or payment) and credits any payments made to clear outstanding amounts. If you have paid PAYG instalments, these are credited across at the same time as lodgement.

What catches a lot of people is why they are having to pay two different accounts. If you have not made all of the payments to the ICA account and part of your obligation was PAYG Instalments, the ATO will still credit the instalments to the Taxation Account despite you not paying them. The result of this is that you still need to pay the ICA account. If there is still an amount payable even after the PAYG Instalments are credited then that residual amount will be payable on the Taxation Account.

If there is a credit in either the Taxation Account or the ICA, the ATO will transfer any credit against any existing payment liability.

And remember, if you are operating as a partnership then the partnership will have an ICA account which will deal with GST and/or PAYG Withholding but each partner will have their own Tax Account in their own name (a partnership doesn't pay income tax, only the partners do).

Tax Help for NSW Flood Victims

ATO Media Release:

The Tax Office has assured people affected by the floods in New South Wales that they do not need to worry about their tax at this time.

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said this is a very difficult time for residents of the central coast and Hunter region, especially those who have suffered damage to their home or business.

“We understand that people have other priorities to sort out now and it may be some time before they are able to focus on tax matters.

“People who are having problems meeting their tax obligations because of the flood can call us on 13 11 42 to make arrangements that suit their individual circumstances,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

Your tax agent can also talk to the Tax Office on your behalf.

The Tax Office can help by:

• fast tracking refunds for people impacted by the flood
  
• giving extra time to pay debts - without interest charges
  
• giving more time to meet BAS and other lodgement obligations – without penalties
  
• helping reconstruct tax records where documents have been destroyed, and
  
• offering personal visits from field officers to help reconcile lost records.

Ye gads! My BAS is late!

It's a week past the BAS deadline and the form is still sitting on the kitchen counter... uncompleted!

What are you going to do?!!

Don't do what many tax payers do and stick your head in the sand. It won't go away!

The BAS has to be done, but don't make the situation worse or more expensive. The first thing that you need to do is contact the ATO and let them know that you are running late. If you make the first move, generally the ATO is fairly considerate and they will probably give you an extension of two weeks without hitting you with fines.

Make sure that you get it in within that time. Whether it's sitting at the kitchen table with a calculator and receipts completing the form yourself or getting a BAS provider or Accountant to do the BAS for you, the form must be lodged.

If this is an issue that tends to occur each quarter, consider nominating the GST instalment option. That way the actual calculation of the GST is not required until the lodgement of your tax return.

One common reason that I hear in regard to not lodging a BAS is that the return is complete but the client didn't have the money to pay it. My advice is always the same. Lodge the return, even if you don't have the money.

By not lodging you attract $110 fines every 28 days up to a maximum of $550... and this is an expense you can not claim against your business income. Even if you are charged interest in regard to the outstanding amount it will most probably be far less than the fines... and the interest is tax deductible!

If you find yourself in this situation, lodge the return and then contact the ATO to organise a payment arrangement. As I said before, if the ATO don't have to do the chasing then they are very reasonable in working with you to payoff the amount.

Keep in mind that from 1 July 2007 the compulsory income threshhold for BAS registration has risen from $50,000 to $75,000. So if your revenue (what you receive before any expenses) is less than $75,000 you may want to consider deregistering for GST.

Contact your Accountant or Tax Agent to discuss whether you may benefit from this.

So you want to start a business?

You've got a great idea! No-one else appears to be doing it at the moment. The people you have told have said that they think it would be a winner!

It's a sure fire business success... right?

Well, it all depends on what you do right now.

Interestingly enough, one of the last people that anyone in this situation talks to is an accountant. Yet they should be the first! There are probably two reasons why this is so: fear of the cost of seeking advice and fear that what they will hear will be negative.

Afterall, no-one likes to have it rain on their idea.

However, 1 in 3 of all small businesses started fail in the first year, 2 in 4 fail by the second year and 3 in 4 fail by the fifth year (CPA Australia). Within those statistics you can pretty much guarantee that there were quite a few businesses that believed they had a 'sure fire' concept that would be successful.

The reality is that the success of any business venture is not directly related to the concept... it is related to the planning. The problem is that when you are fresh with a huge marketing idea, planning is the last thing you are wanting to do!

This is where you need to ask yourself "do I want a great idea or do I want a great business?" If the answer is the latter then you need to start being serious about how this great business is going to occur.

One of the earliest things that you need to do is work out a business plan followed by a marketing plan (a little hint: if you can complete both these plans and still have room at the bottom of an A4 page then you've not really done a business or marketing plan!!!)

I will be writing blogs on developing both business and marketing plans in the future.

In the mean time if you are looking at starting a new business you can get get some great resources at http://www.business.gov.au/. A comprehensive business plan template is available at nt.gov.au and an extensive example of a marketing plan is available at business.vic.gov.au.

An interactive New To Business checklist by business.gov.au is available from our site.