Bookkeeping Notes
Some things to help bookkeepers (Australia). References to Business and personal names have been changed.

Client Notes
Every time you visit a client you should take notes about items to follow up. This simple sheet (PDF) helps collate this information.

Award Summary
Have you ever had trouble applying a particular award to the business you do payroll for? Often, only parts of the Award apply to the particular business and it can be complicated to work out what parts apply to your client. This Excel sheet details how the "MA000025 - National Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award" applies to a client. You can adapt the sheet for other awards and clients. You should also subscribe to the Fair Work Australia subscription service which emails you when changes are made to particular awards.

Too Much Bookkeeping
Do you overdo the Bookkeeping and generate unnecessary work? I have worked with many other Bookkeepers and here are some of the things I have observed:

• A detailed entry for every fuel station that their client visits and all fuel purchased is posted to the correct fuel station. This is complete waste of time. Just have one supplier called "Fuel". Tally up the fuel used for the month and have one entry near the end of the month. In the memo field of the transaction state how many dockets the entry is for. Staple the fuel dockets together and write on the front the month, total amount and number of dockets.
• Similar to above for small purchases used for repairs and maintenance.
• Similar to above for small purchases used for staff amenities.
• Writing a cross reference to every transaction on a bank reconciliation. I have asked why they do this and the reply is that it makes it easy to track any problems. Well yes, it does make it easier but how often do you need to track problems? Not very often in my experience and if you do they don't take long to solve. The inbuilt audit trial and reconciliation problem trackers in MYOB and Quickbooks helps track problems.
• Having too many accounts. Work this out between your client and their accountant and minimise the number of accounts.

Vehicle Loans
Whether the loan is a Chattel Mortgage or other you need some information detailing the principle and/or interest payments each month. Sometimes it is impossible to get this information from the Mortgage company or they can only supply the total interest paid each year. If you do manage to obtain the information it can be wrong because they have omitted the deposit paid or some other reason. I have tried the Loan Manager in Quickbooks but it does not work properly. I usually create my own based on the limited information you obtain from the Mortgage company. This Excel sheet is an example.

Supplying Accountants with Files

The businesses accountant will require a copy of the MYOB/Quickbooks file in the months after the end of year.

• Before sending the file, make sure that as at 30^th June, the file is “clean”. This should have been done when processing the BAS ending 30^th June.

• Make sure that you send the file and not someone else from the business. That way you know when it was sent, the state of the file and that the correct one was sent.

• Make sure there is a Username/Password on the file. If you are sending files around the internet, the content must be protected.

• Use one of the free large file transfer internet sites such as www.transferbigfiles.com to transfer the file via the internet. This one transfers free up to 100Mbytes. There are others for larger sizes.

• Send a separate email to the accountant advising that you have sent the email, that it is a backup in whatever version of MYOB/Quickbooks, any Username/Password required, the size of the file and how long the file will be available for download (somewhere at transferbigfiles.com will tell you how long).

• Upload the file and setup the transfer to the email address for the accountant.

Housekeeping
It is important to have a clear and logical directory structure where company files are stored. I have been to many businesses where files are all over the place and someone ends up using the wrong file. By default, MYOB and Quickbooks place company files within their installation directories.

• If the main disc is C:, have a primary structure like C:/Bookkeeping/Your Company Name

• Under this primary structure have a directory that indicates the version of the software. ie Version 2011-2012 Premier. Store the primary Quickbooks files in this directory. Whenever you install a newer version of Quickbooks, create a new directory and copy any relevant files into the new directory. So over time you will have built up a number of directories such as Version 2009-2010 Pro, Version 2010-2011 Pro, Version 2011-2012 Premier etc

• Under each directory have a series of directories containing files for specific needs. eg Backup, EOY 2011, Loans, Notes, Payroll, ATO, Public Indemnity Insurance etc.

Accountants Adjustments
At the end of each Financial year Accountants generate Financial Reports for their clients. In the process, changes are made to account values. It is imperative that you reflect these changes in your clients accounts. Some Accountants provide you with this information. If they don't supply it, you have to generate it yourself. This Excel sheet attempts to show you how to do this for both MYOB and Quickbooks. Note that it is still a work in progress.

Avoid Using the Mouse
Learn how to use the keyboard to move around a window. In particular, the TAB key and Shift TAB. Using the mouse all the time is very slow.

Using the Electronic Commerce Interface (ECI)
Should be used for lodging pay as you go (PAYG) withholding annual reports rather than the paper system. If you are not the registered BAS Agent for your client, you cannot use the ECI as it will throw up an error when you try to upload the so called "EmpDupe" file created by MYOB or Quickbooks. However, anyone can lodge a paper report so why shouldn't you be able to do this via the ECI? The EmpDupe file is just a text file and can be modified in Notepad so that you can upload it even if you are not the registered BAS Agent for your client. Just modify the first 3 lines (they start with 628) to reflect your business attributes rather than your clients. That is, your ABN, Business Name,  Name, Tel Number and Address. I believe you only need to change the ABN in the first line but it is good housekeeping to change them all.

MYOB (AccountRight Plus) or Quickbooks (Pro)
A question I am often asked. It depends on your business. Here are a few of my observations:

Quickbooks
Pros

• Very slick user interface.
• Good feedback and escape for things that may time a while to complete (eg a verification).
• Very flexible reporting.
• I have never experienced data file errors that required repair (at cost from Quickbooks).
• End Of Year (EOY) rollover is automatic.
• You can purchase subscription versions of the software which are considerably cheaper. The premier subscription version is a bargain. You get 5 licences that you can use on different computers.
• Quickbooks remembers transactions and automatically recalls them.
• Local help uses windows help and is good.

Cons

• Support for exporting and importing transactions support is very poor. There are 3rd party products to help. I have used them but they can be a bit confusing.
• Can appear to be over complicated.
• The on-line support is very basic and has not improved over the years.

MYOB
Pros

• Relatively simple to follow.
• Exporting and importing transactions support is excellent.
• On-line support is very good and has improved over the years

Cons

• Very poor user interface.
• Extremely bad feedback and escape for things that may time a while to complete. For example, if you have a large data file and start to optimise it forget trying to stop it. It is impossible. The window displaying the optimisation status is not refreshed properly and eventually gets overwritten.
• Reports are very basic and only one report can be displayed at a time.
• I have experienced many data file errors (with various clients) that required repair (at cost from MYOB).
• End Of Year (EOY) rollover is manual for both accounts and payroll. With payroll, you cannot enter transactions for a new year until you roll over. With accounts, if you don't roll over, you may not be able to select the required period when using BASlink. I don't know why MYOB has this "feature", it is a nuisance.
• Instead of remembering transactions (like Quickbooks) MYOB uses recurring transactions which take longer to implement.
• No subscription version of the software.
• Local help is informative but uses an internet browser rather than windows help file.

In summary, use MYOB if any one of following apply:

• If your business is simple.
• The MYOB operator is not skilled.
• You need to import/export transactions.

Otherwise, use Quickbooks.

I have used paid technical support for both Quickbooks and MYOB. Often, the person I have spoken with has agreed with me that the problem I have raised is a bug with the product. "So can you report this problem to the developers?" I ask them. "No, we have no communication with developers, they say". Their response is hard to accept but I have found this for both Quickbooks and MYOB.

Last Updated
Oct 2011