Bookkeeping Legislation News - Australia
July 8, 2007 by Kylie Short · Leave a Comment
Yesterday I attended an interesting seminar with the Australian Professional Bookkeepers Association about the upcoming changes that would affect the bookkeeping services I currently provide.
When I first started my business, it frightened me the number of people who apparently complete two day workshops on how to use accounting software such as MYOB and then proceed to market themselves as bookkeepers. I have had the misfortune to come across the work of a number of so-called bookkeepers and it just makes me frustrated and angry. Why? If you could only see the standard of work being produced you would cry too. I know that when I have to tell the client exactly what has been done to their financial records, it nearly makes them cry too.
The new legislation will hopefully stamp all that out.
The main changes include:
- Establishment of a national Tax Practitioners Board to replace the current state based boards,
- a Legislated Code of Professional Conduct,
- a wider range of disciplinary sanctions which may be imposed by the Board,
- Civil penalty for certain significant misconduct by tax practitioners,
- Registration and regulation of people providing Business Activity Statement (BAS) services,
- a ’safe harbour’ for taxpayers from tax shortfall penalties
For more information visit www.aapb.org.au
Virtual Assistant searches for Virtual Office
July 2, 2007 by Kylie Short · 6 Comments
What a concept, a Virtual Assistant searching for a Virtual Office. So why would a Virtual Assistant need a Virtual Office?
For me it came about because of my need, my drive to share tasks, files, to do lists and more with my clients and subcontractors in a more efficient manner. Email is not secure and problems pop up once you start emailing back and forth a document being edited. So what other options are available to a VA such as myself?
For the past month and a half, I have been searching high and low for software that I could host myself, was secure and easy to use. I did install a two open source project management software packages but they proved to be cumbersome, hard to navigate and plain ugly. My needs are simple. I don’t need gantt charts. I don’t need flow charts. I don’t have a huge team to manage (yet!). So why is is hard to find software to do I want it to do?
I then turned to paid online hosted services. Sure, it wasn’t the same as hosting myself and I had to (gulp!) pay for it but I revisited places like www.hyperoffice.com, www.webex.com and www.basecamphq.com and had another play with the freebie versions.
I eventually decided to use Basecamp as it had all the features I needed and wanted. They include:
- Security
- Multiple projects
- Unlimited logins
- Customisable including my logo on every page
- Document storage
- Time tracker
- RSS and ICal suscription
To set up my paid account was as easy as shopping with Visa. All I had to do then was transfer my existing system which consisted of a multi-sheet spreadsheet and my whiteboard (don’t ask) into Basecamp. After an hour, I was done. Each client has their own login. Subcontractors were taken through the new system and we had a couple of test runs, and more importantly, I started to feel more in control of my client tasks and projects.
My clients can now see at a glance, what is scheduled for this week and who has been allocated the task. They can view documents, uploading and downloading at any time. Instead of emailing and instant messaging with task updates, all updates are shown in Basecamp with the ‘Messages’ facility my favourite so far.