Small business benchmarks are a guide to help you compare your business’s performance against similar businesses in the same industry.

Performance benchmarks are financial ranges for your industry to help you work out how you compare to other businesses in your industry and if you need to make any improvements.

Simplified Business Activity Statements can be used in some small businesses to ease the burden of calculating GST payable to the Australian Taxation Office. By using benchmarking, businesses are able to focus their resources where it is needed – on their business, not on preparing Business Activity Statements. This can increase the profitability of the business.

The Australian Taxation Office also use benchmarks and other risk indicators to identify businesses that may be avoiding their tax obligations by not reporting some (or all) of their income.

Information reported in your tax returns or activity statements is compared with the key performance benchmark for your industry.

If you would like to know more about benchmarking and your business please contact us for an appointment to discuss.

Kirra Consulting offers a range of bookkeeping functions to support and enhance daily business practices.

Do you need your sales invoices raised and sent out to clients? Do you need someone to chase up your debtors? Do you need your supplier invoices and employees paid? Do you need a payment arrangement set up and managed with suppliers? As an Accounting practice, we know what your Accountants need at the end of the year and how important accurate bookkeeping is.

We can review and reconcile your account balances to give you confidence that your financial reporting system is providing accurate information and transparent reporting.

Please contact us for an appointment to discuss your requirements.

Do you know how your business is likely to perform over the next 12 months? Do you have any idea how much profit you are likely to earn? Do you know how much cash your business has generated and will generate, based on your budget, over the next 12 months? Is your business running the way you thought it would?

Kirra Consulting can develop a budget for you based on your historical reports and factoring in any anticipated changes. We can then provide regular budget variance reports that show you how your business is tracking against this budget.

We can also provide Forecast reports.  These are a combination of actual Year to Date figures with anticipated Budget figures, to demonstrate your likely financial position in 12 months.  This will give you the information you need to make crucial decisions to correct and realign your business to your plan or to utilise additional cash to minimise borrowing costs.

We have extensive experience in budgeting and forecasting and know you would benefit from sharing our knowledge.  Contact us to discuss how we can help.

Have your bought a business or are you starting a new one? Do you need help navigating this new and stressful environment? We offer initial, pre or post purchase advice to all levels of business. Have Do you need a financial system set up to start tracking your business accurately? Do you have employees or contractors (and do you know the difference from the Tax Office’s point of view)? Do you need to be registered for GST or WorkCover? Do you need an ABN? Do you know which business structure to use? Are you looking to outsource your accounts payable?

We have experience to advise and support you in all of these areas of business, from initial advice to continued, ongoing support.

The team at Kirra Consulting have extensive experience with the following business structures:-

• companies
• trusts
• partnerships
• joint ventures
• sole traders.

We understand how these entities work from a legal, accounting and tax point of view and can explain the differences and the pros and cons of each.

Business success is driven by informed decision making. To be informed, you need reports about your business that tell you how it is performing and whether you are on track to meet your business objectives.

We can tailor reports that will give you the answers you are seeking. What is your annual turnover? What are your gross profit margins? What are your wage percentages? What other Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are relevant for your business and the industry your business operates in?

Please contact us for an appointment to discuss your particular reporting requirements.

Do you have a plan of where you want to go and how you want to get there? That is Strategic Planning. Setting up a strategic plan and then tracking its progress, provides direction as your business grows. In a busy environment, the daily emphasis may shift from forward planning to the tasks at hand, but who is driving your business forward?

We can help you visualise where you want your business to be in the next 5 years, and develop a plan to achieve your business goals. Defining your objectives is a fundamental tool of achieving your dreams. Planning is the vehicle that drives your business forward in the direction in which you want to go.

Do you understand your obligations to the ATO? Are you lodging your statements and returns accurately and on time? Did you know that there is an extension of the lodgement and payment date for most of these returns, if a Tax Agent lodges these returns on your behalf? Some clients choose to prepare some of these statements on their own, and only require us to lodge these documents with the ATO. Other clients choose a higher level of involvement by us, to ensure compliance with ATO requirements in relation to the following:-

• Income Tax returns
  • Company
  • Trust
  • Partnership
  • Individual
• Business Activity Statements (BAS)
• Instalment Activity Statements (IAS), and
• Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT)

Accurate preparation and timely lodgement of these returns, as well as understanding how much tax is due and when, will ensure your business continues to meet its ATO obligations. Our expertise will help you demonstrate successful lodgement and payment history with the ATO.

Contact us to discuss your compliance requirements.