At the beginning of time man’s records of what had been collected, gathered and stored was through marks scraped on rocks or bundles of sticks. Hence the very first “book keeper was born”. We then evolved to abacus, papyrus scrolls, rock carvings and even inscriptions on tombs to count record and reconcile various possessions and transactions.
Today the companies offering services such as outsourced bookkeeping in UK have embraced cloud accounting with software such as QuickBooks Online and XERO that simplify and save incredible amounts if time!
So with the technology available today it is easy! If you are great at maths and love computers, then bookkeeping is for you…..or is it?
Unfortunately this is not always the case and although many bookkeepers in UK are experienced professionals many businesses end up with a very costly fix if this proves not to be the case.
Common errors and problems to avoid
- Incomplete Bank Reconciliations resulting in grossly misleading information to the business owner …let alone the taxman
- Petty cash being used as a general account to code transactions. Not only does this attract unwanted attention in the case of an audit, it is also a very large indicator that the accounts have not been given the due diligence legally required and reliability on reports would be highly questionable
- Sales being accounted for twice via invoices being raised and not reconciled to amounts deposited. Tipping the taxman …not good.
- GST claimed when it should not have been and not been claimed when it should have been. Whether this results in tipping the taxman or unintentionally dodging the taxman given that amounts of funds the ATO allocates to GST audits not a good place to be.
- Cash expenditure on business expenses that never make it into the accounts…yes another tip to the taxman.
- Late or even non-payment of Super, PAYG instalments, PAYG withholding, FBT, GST liabilities resulting in fines and Interest charges (we have in seen amounts in the tens, even hundreds of thousands, of dollars).
- Business owners struggling with day to day accounts when energy spent on other areas of their business would produce much higher returns.
During early history accurate records could be a matter of life or death if supplies for winter were not recorded accurately or the pharaoh realised his provisions for the afterlife weren’t what he expected. The penalties are not so harsh in our modern world however accurate records are a part of every successful business.
Whether your accounts are in the cloud or on a traditional software programme if you are spending too much valuable time, lack confidence in the accuracy of your accounts or need any advice at all you can look for a bookkeeping company in London, Manchester or Boston and all across the UK.