It seems lately that all the articles I’m reading relate to having a contingency plan. We discussed it briefly at the Australian VA Conference and we also discussed the article in the ICB newsletter at the Lilydale ICB network meeting last week.

Having a contingency plan just makes good business sense. You can’t plan and remove all potential problems but you can anticipate what they might be then figure out a solution to minimise the risk to your business and those of your clients.

A few weeks ago I got a phone call I didn’t want to get. My sister and her husband needed me, could I fly up to QLD that day? Needless to say I rang my husband, organised afterschool pickups, packed my clothes and my laptop, booked my ticket and left. Just like that. (In case you’re not aware, I’m a bookkeeper/BAS Tax agent and the Q3 BAS was due in a weeks time for all our clients)

Because of the way I’ve structured my tech in my business, the fact that I have a reliable employee to man the station and we have some pretty frickin awesome clients, I was able to do this. My clients didn’t know I was gone because they still got the same high level of service.

We ended up spending 48 hours straight in the hospital with only my iphone to keep me connected to the world. I was able to keep an eye on my business and my clients without having to compromise. I was able to be there for my sister and her husband and I was able to stay connected to my husband and my kids.

Contingency planning means thinking about the risk of certain events happening within your business (power outtage, internet goes down, supplier doesn’t deliver on time, family emergency etc) and having a backup plan just in case. When was the last time you thought about the worst that could happen to your business and what you would do about it?

Just a quick note to let you all know that the Tilda Virtual office will be closed this Friday 4th May as I will be attending the Australian VA conference. It’s not too late to register if you are interested in attending yourself.

Are you using QuickBooks in Australia? You may want to check out this article and what it means for you and your business.

When this article was first brought to my attention I was quite shocked but on I can understand why the company has decided to do this.

In the bookkeeping space, software and how it’s used has changed so much and is due directly to changes in how we do business. How business is done today is very different to how it was done 5 years ago and the tools and software we use has to keep up with that. We have social media to connect us to customers or suppliers, we work remotely/from home/on the road with iPads, smart-phones and mini laptops. We communicate instantly with more people than we ever have before with a quick status update or tweet. Getting your bookkeeping done needs to be just as easy.

Business owners have more than MYOB and QuickBooks to choose from when keeping their books. The days of only having desktop based software for any function or department within the business are over. Today business owners can choose between online bookkeeping software packages or the more traditional desktop based software and it’s my humble opinion that the number of users of online software packages will more than take over the number of users of MYOB and QuickBooks within the next two years. Players like xero and Saasu are

If the article above has got you thinking about the package you are using and how you could change the way your bookkeeping is done to suit the way you run your business then please contact me.

As you may already be aware, the Short family have recently purchased their new home. As a result, the Tilda Virtual office has also moved. If you need to stop by or need to drop off some paperwork, please note that you’ll need to make an appointment. Give us a call on 1300 991 306 and we’ll give you the new street address, otherwise just address everything to the post office box.

The Tilda Virtual office will close for the Christmas break from Friday 23rd December and will reopen Monday 9th January 2012. For any enquiries during this time, please use the contact form.

The team and I would like to thank our clients, suppliers and familes for all their support this year and to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!!

I’d just like to ask you a quick question… what happens to your business when you get sick? Do you have a team of rockstars that look after everything for you or are you still doing everything yourself? If you have a team, can you rely on them to get their work done and keep your business running?

At the end of August I was knocked down with a cold but with a home-based business, a family and a sick little girl I persevered and kept going. Surprisingly the next week I was better and back to full steam. The following week the cold came back for a week but left the week after. This coming and going of a seemingly mild cold happened for 4 weeks and finished up being a rockin’ chest infection that kept me down for 3.5 weeks. I woke to drink some water, visit the bathroom, take my medication and then go back to sleep. I was useless to my family and to my business. My poor long suffering husband had to pick up the slack and take time off work just to look after me. It was a horrid time for us as a family but as a business owner I coped. Why? Because I have rockstars on my team.

Now I’m not saying everything was perfect and that everyone (clients and team members) were completely happy, but the business kept going and it still brought in money. I’ve spent the time on my systems and I have great team members who know exactly what they need to do for me. This is what made it easier for me to recover from a chest infection that ordinarily would have sent me to the hospital.

Getting sick should be part of your contingency plan and if you work by yourself consider what being really sick would do to your business. How would this down time effect client satisfaction? Who would look after your role for you while you take that much needed time off? How would using a Virtual Assistant on your team help alleviate your stress while you’re off sick and how can they help you generally within your business any other time?

Start thinking about your contingency plan and assess the risk of your business failing simply due to you being sick. Take the time now to figure out how everything will work without you BEFORE you get sick or need the time off. I promise, you’ll thank me for it!

It’s that time again, out with the old and in with the new. I have to admit that June is my favourite time of the year work wise because I get to do so much archiving, filing and purging of documents for myself and my clients. It’s the perfect time to set up new systems, new software packages and to reinvigorate your business with new ideas, budgets and forecasts. The potential of your business is only limited by YOU!

If you have employees, now is also the time to ensure your payroll is up to date so you can issue payment summaries to everyone by 14th July. You’ll need to report to the ATO your PAYG withholding annual report which can be lodged via paper or electronically by 14th August. For more information about payment summaries, please visit the ATO website.

The phone’s ringing, emails are flooding in, repair-man at the front door, full workload for today and the kids are going stir crazy. Sounds like just another day in the Short household but what makes today different is that we are on the second last day of a two week vacation break for Easter and we have survived… just!

In Australia we have four school terms of 11 weeks each which gives the kids a total of 12 weeks’ of holiday/vacation breaks. There are two in between each term and six over Christmas. I have three kids aged 11, 8 and nearly 5 so keeping them entertained these days is a lot different to when they were smaller.

In the past I was able to split my day into ‘during nap time’ and ‘awake time’. I would work really hard during the nap time (and at night) and be with the kids while they were awake. Now that they are older this strategy no longer works much to my dismay. Since going to school my kids have lost the ability to keep themselves entertained and the school holidays require more planning on my part to ensure we all survive it. So here are some tips I’ve found have helped me:

• Organise working play-dates with other mums who work from home. It’s my theory that the more kids you have in the house the easier it is for them to keep themselves entertained for more than 5 seconds. Yes there will be fights but if you give them some basic rules, you should find that they will sort themselves out. While they’re playing, you and your friend can get some work done.
• Email your clients to let them know the dates of the school/vacation holidays. Not all clients will remember that its school holidays and they’re usually very understanding once you explain what is going on, you just need to give them advance notice.
• Bribe your kids. Who would have thought bribery would work!! “Kids, I have a really important call to make, if you’re really quiet you can have 30 minutes on the Xbox” – works every time.
• Find a subcontractor to help. Having a backup person means you can take some of the pressure off yourself and still meet client deadlines.
• Enrol your kid’s in a free vacation care program. Look around in your area for some free kids programs. Some will give you the option of part time attendance while others will require your child to attend the full program.
• Work out a schedule with your kids and then stick to it. I usually try to only work during the morning (8am to 12pm) stop for lunch before deciding on an activity to take the kids along to during the afternoon. Some things we’ve done together include; going to the movies, going to the park, going for a bike ride or a walk, visiting friends/relatives or doing an activity together at home. I let the kids know what kind of behaviour is required of them while I work and what their reward/bribe will be for the day. Works beautifully!

The key here is to employ some planning before the vacation break hits you hard. Both your clients and your kids will thank you for it.

Originally published in the April 2011 IVAACast – The newsletter of the International Virtual Assistant Association. To subscribe click here

Tonight I have my ranty pants on. I don’t lose my temper often but when it comes to money, don’t mess with me!

I have a (now ex) client who owes me money in the thousands. This ex-client used to be a friend so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and every opportunity to pay what she owed me before decided to send it to the debt collector. In cleaning out the office we found a pile of receipts belonging to the ex-client so we posted it to her. The ex-client did a ‘return to sender’ without even looking inside the envelope. This screams to me of irresponsible behaviour and it makes me so glad that she isn’t a client or a friend anymore. I don’t condone her methods of business management or how she would run up huge bills around Melbourne then stick her head in the sand to ignore paying them. She ignores all calls, all emails and now it looks like the post too, just to get out of admitting she made a mistake and owes someone (ME!) money.

What I have learnt from all this is to not mix clients and friends and to send debts to the debt collector sooner. It’s hard chasing your own money but it has to be done. I didn’t start my business to fund someone else’s laptop!!

And to all my lovely clients who pay their invoices on time – we truly love you and without fabulous clients such as yourself, Tilda Virtual wouldn’t be where it is today!!

One of my favourite features of QuickBooks is the ability to do Sales Receipts. Sales Receipts allows you to record the invoice and the payment at the same time!

As promised, here are the steps to record PayPal fees in QuickBooks.

1. Create a new item: Click on Lists > Items > Add new item > Give it an item name that makes sense (I used PP Fee) and allocate it to an expense account called PayPal fees.

2. Create your Sales Receipt: Click on Create Sales Receipt > enter the sale information as you would normally > On the next line insert the item for PayPal fees and enter the fee as a minus figure as per below > Check the deposit to account, if you have PayPal set up as a bank account then this sales receipt will need to be deposited to the PayPal bank account. > Click Save & Close.

So there you have it! Nice and simple, not only are you able to enter the sale for the full amount, but entering the PayPal fee is simple too. Entering your PayPal sales via this method certainly makes reconciling the bank account much easier for your bookkeeper.