The Role of a Professional Bookkeeper in Your Business

Unlike an accountant, your bookkeeper looks after the day-to-day duties within your business. Your accountant may audit the books monthly, quarterly or at tax time and give specialist tax advice, but your Bookkeeper has their “finger on the pulse” of your business—if it skips a beat, a good Bookkeeper will know about it.

The six key duties and responsibilities of a Bookkeeper are:

Keeping Financial Records

While your accountant will not appreciate you handing over a shoebox of papers and will likely charge dearly to sort it out, a bookkeeper will be glad to organise your records for you. A Professional Bookkeeper will record every transaction of your business, ensure that the tax coding is correct, and reconcile your accounts to make sure they balance.

To excel at this job, one must pay close attention to details and be very accurate when recording numerical data, while maintaining ethical practice and confidentiality of a client’s financial records.

Most bookkeepers now manage financial information electronically, such as employee payroll. This requires a professional bookkeeper to master the use of spreadsheets, databases, or specialised computer software like Xero, MYOB, and Quickbooks Online, which are also used by AURIC Financial.

Keep up to Date With Current Legislation

For a professional bookkeeper, making sure that the client’s financial matters are being handled in accordance with the necessary rules, laws, and regulations is important. Whilst not accountants, bookkeepers have a big responsibility to act in accordance with regulations that apply across the entire financial industry.

There are significant compliance matters that must be observed when running a business, especially GST, PAYG, STP (Single Touch Payroll) and Superannuation Guarantee law. An AURIC Financial Professional Bookkeeper will be current in these matters to ensure you are BAS compliant and maximising your legitimate input tax credits.

The other important part of doing the right thing is knowing when to do it. When things get busy in your business, it’s easy for due dates to sneak up on you and missing lodgement dates can result in interest, penalties, or even court action by the ATO. Getting a bookkeeper who can keep up with these dates will save you a lot of time and money.

Chase up Unpaid Invoices

Dealing with late payment and unpaid invoices can feel a bit like walking a tightrope. On one hand is the need to push clients for prompt payment. On the other is the desire to keep things cordial, continue doing business with them, and stop the relationship crashing and burning.

Chasing after slow payers has bee one of the most important yet least enjoyable part of running your business is. You need the cash but don’t want to hassle an otherwise good customer.

Your AURIC Financial Professional Bookkeeper is able to do this with tact but in a professional manner, so that the next time you see that customer, you can genuinely thank them for their business. The other side of that is making sure your suppliers are paid according to their terms which keeps them on side, happy and more likely to fill that rush order you need in a hurry.

Payroll Management & Processing

Payroll compliance and processing is a crucial part of running a business. It also involves calculating employee pay, deducting things like tax and retirement contributions, then distributing money to all the right people by the right dates. You also have to show all your workings to the government so they can make sure you’re doing everything correctly.

Whether it is STP, Superstream, or paying on time, this is an area that causes many problems and complaints within a business. Payroll is critical to keeping employees happy, but it’s also important to keep the government happy. There are lots of regulations, and failure to comply can result in fines.

AURIC Financial is able to handle your payroll as part of your bookkeeping service using your accounting of choice OR as a stand-alone payroll service using our payroll solution with built-in award interpretation. We can assure you that our AURIC Superstars are the most qualified professionals to handle your Payroll, BAS, and Bookkeeping and ensure you get your financial reports quickly and accurately.

The Right Accounting Solution for YOU

These days, your business may not just be run out of an office with desks, PCs, and a staff room. It might also be from your laptop at the airport, from the front seat of your ute, or even from your yacht at the Whitsundays. With the prevalence of the remote work setup, you can bring your business anywhere you like, at your own convenience.

With this, a single copy of MYOB or QuickBooks at the office may not suit you anymore. There are specialist on-line accounting solutions such as Xero that give multiuser access wherever you can connect to the internet or even on your iPhone; MYOB & QuickBooks are also providing remote access options.

As AURIC Financial Professional Bookkeepers, we can assist and advise on the best solution for you. We provide tailored solutions that will fit your business’s specific financial needs.

Working with Your Accountant

When tax time arrives, you will need your accountant, no question about it. A Professional Bookkeeper is the link between your daily business activities and the expertise your account has in business structures and tax planning.

Regular Bookkeeper – Accountant liaison is critical for the best results. This will make it easier for your accountant to pull out the necessary information that they’ll need while also making it easier for the bookkeeper to keep records since someone else helped them develop it. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that people make mistakes, and there’s nothing wrong with bringing in some oversight to be sure everything’s running smoothly. A bookkeeper can also serve as good quality control for your accountant. They can let you know if your business in its current state can realistically take the next steps that your accountant is suggesting.

When you can deliver clean and reconciled accounts to your accountant in the 3rd quarter for tax planning and at year-end, you will appreciate the value added to your business by your AURIC Financial Professional Bookkeeper.

If you are in need of bookkeeping, payroll, or compliance services, give AURIC Financial a call at 1300-287-421. Our team of dedicated, qualified professionals can give your business the expert service it needs.