Every business here had the same problem: bookkeeping was eating their time, creating stress, or costing them money. Here is how we fixed it.
A licensed electrician running a one-person operation across Sydney's Inner West. Ten years in business, doing everything himself — quoting, invoicing, receipts, BAS. His bookkeeping was six months behind when he called us.
Receipts were in a literal shoebox under the van seat. Bank statements were unopened. Two BAS lodgements were overdue with penalties accruing. He had no idea whether he was profitable or just busy.
Within 60 days his books were current. BAS has been lodged on time every quarter since. He discovered he was under-charging on three recurring jobs — that insight alone covered a year of our fees.
“I used to dread tax time. Now I do not even think about it. They just tell me when it is done.”
— Electrical contractor, Inner West
A café owner in Mascot running a busy breakfast-and-lunch operation with 12 staff across two shifts. Payroll was being done on a spreadsheet by the owner's partner every fortnight.
Single Touch Payroll was lodged inconsistently. Super guarantee contributions were late on three occasions. Award rates had not been reviewed in two years. They were exposed to a Fair Work compliance risk without realising it.
Payroll is now fully compliant. STP and super are lodged on time every cycle. When the ATO issued a routine super audit notice six months later, every record was already in order.
“We had no idea we were exposed. They found the problems, fixed them quietly, and now we never worry about it.”
— Café owner, Mascot
An online fashion retailer selling via Shopify and marketplace channels, turning over around $600K annually. She was growing fast but had no clear picture of margins by channel or product category.
Sales data was spread across three platforms. Inventory costs were tracked in a personal spreadsheet. She knew revenue was up but could not tell whether profit was following. BAS was being lodged late because the data was messy.
She discovered one product category was running at a 4% margin while another was at 38%. She shifted marketing spend accordingly and grew net profit 22% in the following year — without increasing revenue.
“I was flying blind. Now I have a quarterly report I actually read and act on. That has never happened before.”
— Online retailer, Sydney
A Sydney IT consulting partnership with three directors and around $1.2M in annual revenue. Their previous bookkeeper had left suddenly, and the books were partially reconciled for seven months of the financial year.
They needed their year-end close completed for a bank refinancing deadline. The outgoing bookkeeper's chart of accounts had inconsistencies. Trust distributions needed to be modelled before 30 June.
Year-end was closed in 5 business days. The bank received the financials on time and the refinancing went through. We have handled their bookkeeping monthly ever since — no more surprises at year-end.
“They inherited a mess and turned it around in a week. We should have called them two years ago.”
— IT consulting director, Sydney CBD
Two physiotherapists running a practice in the Eastern Suburbs. They had a Xero subscription and were "doing their own bookkeeping" — which meant logging in once a month, clicking auto-match on bank transactions, and hoping for the best.
Auto-matching had been miscategorising transactions for over a year. GST was being claimed on items that were GST-free. Private health insurance rebates were coded as income instead of being tracked separately. Their BAS was technically incorrect every quarter.
Their GST reporting is now accurate. They reclaimed over $4,800 in previously unclaimed deductions from the corrected coding. Monthly books now take zero hours of their time.
“We thought we were saving money doing it ourselves. Turns out we were costing ourselves thousands in mistakes.”
— Physiotherapist, Eastern Suburbs