smart_bookkeeping

Log Books

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Wed, 19 May 2021 08:41:47 GMT

Lets talk Log Books

If you have a vehicle that you use for personal and business use you will need to keep a log book for 3months to work out the percentage of expenses you can claim as a business expense it should record the following:

the start date and the vehicle's odometer reading on that day

the date, distance and reason for each business journey

the end date of the 90-day period, and the vehicle's odometer reading on that day

To calculate the proportion of business use

Add up the distance that was travelled for business and work out what proportion this is of the total distance the vehicle travelled.

Allocate this proportion of all your vehicle costs to your business. This includes things like buying petrol, getting a Warrant of Fitness, paying for maintenance and repairs, insurance and parking.

Your calculation can be used for up to 3 years if the proportion of business use doesn’t change by more than 20%.

After 3 years you will need to keep a logbook for another 90 days.

https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/income-tax-for-businesses-and-organisations/types-of-business-expenses/claiming-vehicle-expenses/use-a-logbook

6 things that can go wrong with Hubdoc

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Wed, 19 May 2021 08:28:29 GMT

With using Hubdoc you first need to know the basics.

It will save you the most time using it for transactions that are always coded the same ie petrol, entertainment etc. These can be set to auto sync and every time a receipt is uploaded to Hubdoc for that supplier it will create a transaction in Xero with the correct GL code as specified in the initial set up.

6 things that can go wrong.

Wrong bank account – if you have more than one bank account then I recommend setting the sync settings to awaiting payment instead of spend money and this will create an invoice in Xero waiting for the bank transaction to match to.

Paid with cash or personal bank accounts – it is always best to use your business bank accounts as these are automatically fed into Xero but we all do it at some time so it is a good idea to have Hubdoc set up correctly so these do not create a big problem, if you do upload a document that you have paid for out of your personal account then it will sit as an outstanding invoice in Xero, to clear these I create a batch payment and the bank account they are paid out of is your drawings or funds introduced.

Credit notes – if you have a regular supplier and you have set the invoices to sync automatically with Xero then any credit notes that are uploaded to Hubdoc will be pushed through to Xero as invoices. The best way to avoid this is to manually enter the credit notes or remove the automatic sync in Hubdoc for that supplier and then you will have to manually check each invoice/credit note being pushed through to Xero, this process is still easier than manually entering every invoice and credit note in Xero.

Double bills – I always recommend clients mark the invoice or receipts that have been uploaded to Hubdoc so that they are not scanned again by mistake. Hubdoc is now better at picking up duplicates and will ask you to check. Sometimes though if it can not recognise the image these may slip through, this is where you need to reconcile your outstanding bills regularly and check them against any statement issued by your supplier.

Invoices coming through with incorrect coding – click on the cog top right click on the supplier’s tab under manage accounts find the supplier you would like to change, click on the name and scroll down to the integration area and change any details.

No transactions in Xero to match to the bank rec or invoices still showing as awaiting payment but have been paid – as with anything you need to know the correct processes to follow, I always recommend checking Hubdoc first and sync any invoices in there before doing the bank rec so that the invoices are in Xero waiting to be matched to the payment. To fix this error, find the payment by using the magnifying glass top right to search, click into the payment and click on remove and redo. Now the bank statement line will free to be matched to the correct invoice.

If you would like to change the email address for invoices to be forwarded to click on the cog top right, organisation, then click on edit email.

I also recommend setting up rules from your email to automatically email invoices to Hubdoc or within Hubdoc you can link a supplier to retrieve invoices automatically click on the cog top right and click on add account it will show you a list of common companies that link to Hubdoc.

Hubdoc is free with any Xero subscription from Starter or above or you can pay a subscription fee of $12USD a month.

Hubdoc is a great filing cabinet even if you do not use the Xero integration this way you do not need to keep your receipts and you can find a copy easily on your phone when out and about if needed for returning products.

Mysms texting app

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 23:57:39 GMT

Let's talk mysms, a texting app that makes our lives easier.

I have been using mysms for a while now and it has been a life saver.

Mysms will allow me to type my txt messages on my computer and send to any cellphone via my phone (you need the app on your phone first)

I accidentally left my phone at a client’s office, and I could not retrieve it till the next day as their office was closed. Since mysms was already installed on my phone, I could see on my computer at home, any missed calls and txt anyone that rang me or messaged me through my computer.

I can correspond during the day with multiple people quickly and easily, as I can type faster than I can txt. Our team uses it as a great tool for debt collection, it is easy to copy and paste the phone number then send the same message to a group of people.

We can print screen at any time if we are needing to keep a record of a request by a client.

We can back up all our texts, and we can export them to excel, this has been great when we have needed to print out the history for a client of correspondence .

We can schedule our txts to go out at a certain time of day, great for when we are working late, or in the weekend and don’t want to disturb clients at 2am.

We can search back through our txt messages from years ago.

I have it on my tablet, laptop, and computer so I see all this information no matter what device I am using.

https://www.mysms.com/apps

What are the stories we tell ourselves about money?

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:52:19 GMT

Do you want to have lots of money, but you can never seem to hold onto it?

When someone recently asked me what success looked like to me, it didn’t factor large amounts of money, it was more about having the time to do the things I wanted to do with my family and friends. But to do those things I would probably need money, right? But even thinking about having enough money to do those things seemed to feel wrong. I found myself avoiding anything that would increase my chances of becoming wealthy enough to achieve them.

I needed to find out what was behind this reluctance to be successful when I came across Kerwin Rae, who sums it up nicely in one of his videos https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1811129745600761

Basically in all of the story books we read as a child the evil guy was usually rich and the good guy was usually poor. We are encouraged to be kind to our neighbours, look after the less fortunate than us… but in the stories we have been reading that person is more often than not downtrodden and poor. If our values are not in alignment with what we are trying to achieve then nothing will ever line up and we will continue to carry on running around the hamster wheel.

So when we try to make money we can’t see ourselves being as insanely rich as these people because they are nearly always seen as bad

When it comes to seeing income opportunities that are around us, if we have a value that says having money is bad, we are less likely to see the income opportunities open to us, but if we align having money with our core values, ie family, then we will be open to more opportunities to make money through our business. When the core value is to have more time with our families we can actually link the values together and focus on those values instead of the belief that money is bad.

Do you believe you deserve to have everything you have ever wanted?

Invoices to Hubdoc using Outlook or Gmail

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 02:23:23 GMT

1 easy way to manage the overwhelm of your inbox is to use automatic forwarding of invoices to Hubdoc using Outlook or Gmail

Outlook - Create a rule on a message

In this example I have set up a rule to forward any messages with invoice in the subject line from Niftee to Hubdoc and to then move them to my INVOICES folder in outlook

Right-click a message and select Rules > Create Rule.

Select a condition, and what to do with the message based on the condition.

select - with specific words in the subject – click on the blue underlined words and add in your conditions ie Invoice

click next

Then tick the actions you would like outlook to take when those conditions are met

ie select forward and add the Hubdoc email address then select Move it to the specified folder, again click on the blue underlined words and select or create a New folder, and then select next.

Click next through the next options unless you need to add anything ie if you don’t want statements forwarded to hubdoc then you would select the option - except if the subject contains specific words , click next till the finish rule set up screen is showing and create a name for this rule and select finish.

You can also run this rule now on the messages already in your inbox, be careful with this as all invoices in your inbox will be sent to Hubdoc automatically (I have done this by mistake and forwarded invoices for the last year which then were imported into Xero straight away based on my Hubdoc settings)

Gmail

At the top of the screen find the search bar and click the dropdown button

Type in the keyword ie invoice in the “Subject” field and add any other filters ie from, click “Create filter”

Select the “Forward it” box and fill in the address of your choice ie your Hubdoc email address or click add forwarding address if you have not set this up already

Also, you can click “Mark as read” so the messages won’t be displayed as unread, you can also have it automatically apply a label ie Invoices sent to Hubdoc

Now all emails with the specific keyword in the subject line will be automatically sent to the chosen address.

4 Easy steps to collecting your money using Xero

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 23:26:08 GMT

4 Easy steps to collecting your money using Xero

Everyone would love to get paid as soon as they send their invoice, right?

Below are some ideas that can make it easy to get your money quicker.

Payment services - Xero has the ability to add payment services to your invoices and makes it really easy to set up and manage them.

I have found clients pay quicker when it is easier for them to make an online payment, for some reason they are more willing to make payments at the time of opening their invoice than if they need to make a manual payment through their bank account.

Online link – when sending invoices to your clients ensure that the email going out has an online link attached, this way they can then see their invoice online and view any other invoices that may still be outstanding.

Email reminders – In Xero you can turn on automatic reminders to be sent to overdue invoices, these can be set at any length of time that you require ie 7days 30days etc. You can even create email templates to go out with each different reminder, remember to add the online link as well in these. In the awaiting payment area it will show you what reminder has been sent to each invoice to enable you to target those clients with a follow up call.

Client Notes – Again in the awaiting payment area there is a column called expected date if you click on the + sign next to the invoice that is overdue you can add an expected date and any notes from your client if they have let you know that there may be a delay in payment, this is really handy when debt collecting to see what has been discussed previously without having to open each invoice. These notes are not seen by the Client.

If you find you are falling behind in collecting payments or feel uncomfortable requesting money, we can help you with one off or ongoing phone calls.

I believe keeping track of your money should be easy, simple and fun, if you are not enjoying it then we can help make it easier.

4 things that can mess up your bank accounts in Xero

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 21:51:19 GMT

We have all heard Xero’s catch phrase “Beautiful Accounting Software” and it is, don’t get me wrong I love Xero with a vengeance, but I am the first to admit that it can go so so wrong if it is not set up and maintained correctly.

Yes, Xero is easy but if you haven’t used any accounting software before it can be confusing. Sometimes you just need a sounding board to confirm if you are doing things correct or someone to show you there is an easier way, don’t over complicate it, keep it simple. Below are some of the things that can go wrong with your bank accounts in Xero.

Opening balances - Ensure the balance of your bank account and credit cards in Xero are the same as your physical accounts in your online banking app.
Missing bank transactions - there is a delay from when you set up your bank feed till they start (with some banks or an error with a bank feed) once the bank feeds are working correctly check the balance is the same at the end of the day with your physical bank account.
Duplicated transactions - Imported from the bank, sometimes this can happen if there was an error with the bank feeds or you have imported extra transactions when setting up the account.
Manual transactions unreconciled - With Xero you do not need to create any bank transactions prior to it appearing on the bank rec they will appear in Xero the next day (except for refunds, that is another issue). I see a lot of clients creating payments received or bill payments applied to invoices, the problem with this is that when it comes time to reconciling the bank account the transaction could be matched to another item instead of the one you have created, or a transaction created again and then you are double entering items.

If in doubt run the bank reconciliation report and check this against your online bank accounts.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and not sure how to fix any of the above give us a call and we can show you the easiest way forward, we offer clear concise training in exactly what you want to know, we live and breathe Xero every day.

As Kerwin Rae says

This is Simple

This is Easy

This is Fun

Smart Bookkeeping is 18 years

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 03:39:12 GMT

Wow! that has gone quick!

It has been 18 years since I started Smart Bookkeeping.

My business is now old enough to drink.

I started smart bookkeeping in 2003 after a job interview, I asked the office person that was interviewing me why she was leaving if the job was as good as she said it was. She said she was going to start contract bookkeeping, well that was a light bulb moment for me when I realised that there was nothing stopping me from doing that either. I had been looking for a job that could fit in around my oldest son starting school and this was the answer. I was already doing my partners accounts, so it was a short jump to start taking on other clients.

I have not looked back since.

In the beginning I have had friends ask me are you ever going to work for someone else again and my answer has and will always be NO, I love what I do, I love what I can do and I intend to do this for many years yet.

What do you love doing?

ssshhhhh it's a secret

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 03:07:26 GMT

Lets talk about passwords, who reuses the same password all the time? – yep I’m guilty of that.

Who writes their passwords down?

Who uses a password manager?

I have been using Lastpass for a few years now and it has saved my bacon a few times as I have the app on my phone as well.

I have a client that I set up most of the accounts for their admin and bookkeeping purposes so I need to keep track of a lot of passwords for them and myself and Lastpass comes in quite handy when I am at their different sites or he has forgotten his password I get the phone call.

Imagine if someone found your little black book with all your passwords written in it or it was destroyed in a fire how would you recover all that information let alone the time it would take to do so.

Check out Lastpass’s blog on 7 Bad password habits to break

http://blog.lastpass.com/2021/01/7-bad-password-habits-to-break-now-2/

Her Way

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:11:41 GMT

I am reading this awesome book Her Way by Jacqui Thomas given to me by my business mentor Stephanie Crawford from Business Headspace. It is all about women business owners succeeding on their own terms while caring, sharing, nurturing, collaborating, treating people well and being mindful of the planet.

This is really making me think about the how and why of my business. Every story is really interesting and I stop and google that particular business, so you can imagine this is taking me awhile to get through (with my normal speed of reading I would have finished this in a couple of hours)

Another side effect of googling each business is that so far I have bought a few of their products online for xmas gifts, good for the environment and xmas sorted love it.

I love the business models and need to focus on how I can make more of a difference myself.

What are you doing to make a positive difference this year?

https://www.jacquithomas.com/herwaybook

https://www.businessheadspace.co.nz/

Just ASK

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 02:28:52 GMT

Not sure the best way to do something?

Ask.

There is no point in reinventing the wheel, other people have been where you are and will have a solution for you. Use that knowledge.

I had a conversation with a client today. He needed help with a report from the new payroll software that he had never used before. That was fine, I showed him what he needed to know.

I had done some tidy up work for this client after some sudden staff movements which meant that the current staff member had not been given enough training due to Covid getting in the way.

While I had the client on the phone I asked if there was anything else that he needed help with or wanted me to have a look at in Xero. Yes he said there was, he was unsure why something was coded to a clearing account but he could not remember which one, so I showed him an easy way to find the information he was looking for.

It turned out he was missing 6 months’ worth of credit card payments not being applied to debtors’ invoices as no synchronizing had been done between their online bookings system Enrolmy and Xero. In the end, we solved 2 of his questions but still needed to resolve 3 more created by this situation.

The point of my story is ASK.

ASK the little niggling questions.

ASK why if something doesn’t make sense.

Even if it is a little thing at the time, it is better to ask straight away to stop it turning into a bigger issue that could get out of hand.

I prefer to have little questions during the day that are easy to resolve, either by email or a quick phone call, rather than trying to unravel 6 months of transactions that have been done incorrectly.

What questions do you have today that need to be answered? Give us a call and we can help you sort through them.

What's your passion

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:29:57 GMT

I was talking with a client today and she mentioned that one of her items sells well but she really hates making it as it is fiddly, time consuming, and has a lot of breakages in the process.

She was thinking that because it is her top seller, that she couldn’t stop making it. But then she said that she suspects that she is even losing money on it.

My answer to her was, if you really don’t like making it you don’t have to, especially if you’re losing money on it. Find another item to replace it that you do like making. It is your business and you are the boss.

She looked at me and went huh, I have never thought of it that way.

What she was thinking was that because it was a top-seller, she had to keep making them. It was like she needed someone to give her permission to do something different than what she’d always done.

We then went on to talk about alternative solutions, like doing bigger runs of that item for better economies of scale, and scheduling the making of them for when she feels like doing it so that she is not feeling ruled by her work/passion.

We also talked about putting their price up and creating a marketing message around them that they are only going to be available at a certain time of the year, so get in quick then.

It is about thinking outside the box and sometimes a random conversation will have the answers you need.

E veryone is your teacher. What do you need to learn today?

Sometimes you do have to do things you don’t like, but if you are not following your passion on a consistent basis then you will start to resent the work you are doing.

If our business is not filling us with excitement and passion should we be doing it?

Something for us all to think about.

Bookkeeping is often one of those tasks that business owners are not excited about. Get in touch and we can help you to free up your time to do the things you are passionate about.

Today

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 03:28:45 GMT

I know starting something new can be scary but that is what makes it fun in the long run knowing that you did it anyway and succeeded. If you have been putting off changing your accounting systems or asking for help with understanding how your business is doing, then now is as good a time as any to contact us.

50% Off Xero Subscriptions

donna@smartbookkeeping.co.nz (Donna King) — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 01:41:40 GMT

Who likes discounts - We do, that is why for a limited time we are discounting our Xero business subscriptions by 50% for new clients for a 6 month period conditions apply.
Contact us to find out more.

Google is your business friend

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:48:38 GMT

Claim your business with Google my Business.

Hi guys I learnt a lot of new and exciting stuff the other day and thought I'd like to pass some of it on to you. This post is about getting free Google maps and free Google my business linked to your company. If you enter in the Google search bar your business name it will come up with any listings for your company and it will show on the right hand side your position on the Google maps and a picture of your business if this does not come up then click on the learn more button below to add your business to google maps – click on manage.

If your listing does appear please check that you have claimed your business see picture above as this business has no details and it says Own this business. It is a good idea to claim it and add relevant details on your business ie phone number, business hours, website and what areas you operate from which is really great for boosting your listing in google searches.

If you have multiple companies they can all be linked to the same google login and everything can be managed from the same account. There is also a free website you can set up and an area to post information about upcoming events, you can even create a google adwords campaign. You can download the google my business phone ap and make these changes or updates directly from your phone.

So get googling and claim your business.

smart_bookkeeping

Log Books

Lets talk Log Books

6 things that can go wrong with Hubdoc

With using Hubdoc you first need to know the basics.

Mysms texting app

Let's talk mysms, a texting app that makes our lives easier.

What are the stories we tell ourselves about money?

Invoices to Hubdoc using Outlook or Gmail

1 easy way to manage the overwhelm of your inbox is to use automatic forwarding of invoices to Hubdoc using Outlook or Gmail

4 Easy steps to collecting your money using Xero

4 things that can mess up your bank accounts in Xero

Smart Bookkeeping is 18 years

ssshhhhh it's a secret

Her Way

Just ASK

What's your passion

Today

50% Off Xero Subscriptions

Who likes discounts - We do, that is why for a limited time we are discounting our Xero business subscriptions by 50% for new clients for a 6 month period conditions apply. Contact us to find out more.

Google is your business friend

Who likes discounts - We do, that is why for a limited time we are discounting our Xero business subscriptions by 50% for new clients for a 6 month period conditions apply.
Contact us to find out more.