February 2017 - Foley Business Management

BEWARE accounting package addons- Don’t get burnt by the sizzle!

Addons for small business accounting packages, as MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks, are now becoming increasingly popular to use by small business owners. They offer an efficient and effective way to improve profits and reduce costs. But there are quite literally thousands of addons in the marketplace. So where do you begin? As a management accountant with experience with the addon industry, BEWARE. There is a saying in sales…..

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak”

What this means is that you do not sell the customer the product, you sell the benefits the product offers the customer. For example, you may buy a shirt not because you need a shirt, but because you like the colour and design of the shirt. The salesperson will compliment you on how it looks on you. But many people have experience in buying their own clothes. How many small businesses have experience in buying accounting addons?

Experience adds value

For the inexperienced, knowing where to find the right addon can be difficult. But what can be of greater concern is being sold something that is not right for your business, or your business doesn’t even need.

The makers of addons are out to sell their product. For the unknowing buyer, this can mean being sold a product that is not everything the seller is promising. For example, I recently contacted an addon supplier to be given a demonstration of their product as part of an evaluation for a clients problem. In being given the demonstration, I asked questions of the product as “Where does it extract it’s data from? Does it work with these features of the accounting package? Will you be making improvements in these areas?”. These questions allowed me to identify the addon was not suitable for the client.

Salespeople SELL!

These are important questions many small business owners will not consider as part of the product. Instead, the salesperson will lead them through to the buy. Is it the responsibility of the salesperson to tell the business owner to ask these questions? NO! The role of the salesperson is to SELL the product, not to put up potential reasons for the business owner not to buy. The salesperson is responsible to answer your questions or find the answer when asked. But sometimes the sales pitch doesn’t tell the whole story, or tells you what you want to hear.

Don’t get burnt by the sizzle!

If you’re not experienced, it’s very easy to buy an addon that is not right for you because you were sold by the salesperson. DON’T GET BURNT BY THE SIZZLE! There are some ‘consultants‘ that also offer to find or sell you addons for your accounting package. What is not disclosed is the consultant may receive an incentive or commission from the sale. So you may be told that it’s the right product for you, when in actual fact it is the commission that determines what product they direct you to. I am currently seeing LinkedIn and Facebook posts for a particular type of addon being pushed by consultants. A product I know pays a very good commission based on the marketing strategy of the supplier. There is nothing wrong with this. As business owners we can relate to having a business where you want to maximise sales.

Does Foley Business Management receive incentive’s or commissions?

Yes we may. But we disclose this as part of our engagement with the client. We also make it clear we are acting in their interests as our client and not in the interests of the suppliers or our own. In fact, we have probably gone beyond this by announcing to the world in this article we may receive incentives and commissions! But we value the trust in the relationship we have with our clients by assuring them our advice is based on what is in the interests of them and their business, not what we are paid by the supplier.

Why does Foley Business Management want you to know this?

Our purpose is to build sustainable communities and to create a better world for our childrens’ children. It is easy to be sold something that is not right for you and your business. It can potentially make a good business go bad very quickly. Knowing what is best for your business is the right thing for all involved.

This is why we take a holistic approach to our clients, not just preparing financial statements and leaving it to the client to work out on their own. We provide financial management solutions to small businesses, not for profits and social enterprise so they can make informed decisions. For many people, owning a business is a big step. One that will affect you, your family and your community.

If you would like to speak to one of our consultants for a free 30 minute consultation, please contact us to organise a time that is convenient. A business can be a rewarding experience for you, your family and your community! Let’s make sure you do it the right way.

Xero Roadshow 2017 Brisbane

The Xero’s Roadshow for 2017 in Brisbane gave some great insights into some of the features that not only already exists, but they will be releasing. We were also able to hear from addon providers who had stalls at the event. The number of addons and apps you can now have either attached to Xero or as separate features is always growing and changing.

Why having an accounting package will improve your business success!

According to ASIC data, after 5 years the success rate of a business is 51%. Who enters into business with the odds of your business not being a success being 49%. You may as well toss a coin to decide if you go into business!

For a business that uses an accounting package, especially cloud software, this dramatically improves to an 88% success rate! The numbers speak for themselves, if you don’t have an accounting package, you are gambling with the success of your business.

Addon for Boosted Benefit

An interesting fact is that only 40% of businesses use an addon connected to their Xero package. While many apps don’t require being connected to your accounting package, businesses could be losing benefits of adding value to their business and clients by not doing so.

The scary thing is some bookkeepers don’t know what addons are out their to recommend to their clients. This means they aren’t even able to offer them the ability to decide if they could benefit from an addon.

As a management accountant, I am constantly looking at ways to not only improve my business, but those of my clients to ultimately improve their ability to make decisions. For this reason I provide clients with software evaluations.

Let’s be honest, as a business owner you want to do what you are good at. You don’t want to be on a computer doing research and being shown through demo’s when it’s not your thing! We can do that for you considering the needs of you, your business, your customers and your suppliers.

New Product- Fixed assets for tax purposes

This is a great new product addition to Xero. For businesses with assets, this will be a great way to keep track of what you do and don’t have. It will also assist with tracking and entering depreciation so you have more accurate reports. I look forward to using this feature for clients!

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Indigenous professionals measure up to Close The Gap- But how many Indigenous Accountants are there?

Indigenous professionals highly sought

How many Indigenous accountants are there?

The Australian Federal Governments 2017 Closing The Gap report didn’t quite meet expectations of 9 years ago. All but one of the 7 areas had been met, being Indigenous year 12 completion rates . This coincides with findings Indigenous professionals are meeting parity in employment, per Stan Grant’s article for the ABC.

This is not surprising. Indigenous professionals are highly sought given the low supply of university graduates. The number for Indigenous students studying a business related degree in 2016 was 1,500 students in Australia. To compare, this is the number of first and second year students studying a commerce degree at one university. But this number is not in one course in one university, it is in the whole of Australia.

Professions driving Indigenous professional numbers

The work of many different bodies have assisted in driving increased Indigenous professional numbers. There is the ‘More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Teachers Initiative’ (MATSITI) which promotes more Indigenous teachers; Australian Indigenous Doctors Association who promotes more Indigenous doctors; and Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland who promotes more Indigenous lawyers. All have created means and support to further the pipeline of Indigenous professionals in their fields.

Indigenous Accountants Australia initiative

Indigenous Accountants Australia is a little different, but has the aim to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants in Australia. This is not an association or body but a ‘joint initiative’ of the two peak professional accounting bodies, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and CPA Australia. I commend both organisations to take it upon themselves to promote increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants. I currently sit on the initiatives ‘advisory committee’.

New Zealand and Australia First Nations People accountants

Both bodies operate in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, there was a gathering of First Nations people accountants and business people last year at the Indigenous Accounting and Business Conference at Deakin University in October 2016. Here we met with our Maori accounting cousins from across the ditch, Ngā Kaitatau Māori o Aotearoa (National Maori Accountants Network). Both accounting bodies through the joint initiative were event sponsors.

Accounting professions standards and ethics

The two professional accounting bodies stand on their being the peak accounting bodies for the accounting profession in Australia and New Zealand. A profession built on reputation of holding standards and ethics. Some words that come to mind for accountants, especially in audit, are ‘quality, accountability, addressing risk and areas of concern, objectivity’. The most resonating words in audit is the term ‘true and fair view’ for an auditors opinion.

Reaching parity for Indigenous accountants unrealistic in the short term

For parity of 3% to be reached in the accounting profession, there would need to be more than 6,000 accountants with a professional designation (sometimes referred to as a ‘qualified’ accountant). such professional designations are Chartered Accountant (CA), Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA), IPA or similar. This is not a realistic number in the short term considering the time to become a professional designation accountant. A high school student must complete any prerequisite subjects in high school which is decided in year 10 for year 11 and 12 studies. A degree is 3 years minimum and the professional bodies programs take upto 18 months. This is a 7 year pipeline from start to finish without deferral.

Who is accountable?

So how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants with a professional designation are there? The honest answer is it is not known. Why not?

The question is

How would you logically expect to find out this number?
Who would you expect to be asking the question to measure and report?
Who is in the best position to do so? Who would take an onus of ensuring ‘quality, accountability, addressing risk and areas of concern, objectivity’? Who would ensure the number presented was a ‘true and fair view’?
If you wanted to know how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand and CPA Australia there were, who would you expect to have this number? In what documentation would you expect them to gather this data?
How would you track year opening and closing balances, like a balance sheet, to know the movement to know if the number increased or decreased? And by how much?

Has the number increased?

In summary, Indigenous professionals are in high demand with a low supply from universities. There are Indigenous associations and initiatives that are driving to increase this number in their respective professional fields. The Indigenous Accountants Australia initiative is one such initiative with the aim to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants in Australia. It is a joint initiative of the two peak professional accounting bodies, Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand and CPA Australia. However, we do not know how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants with a professional designation there are. The numbers are not being collected and reported. So how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander accountants are there? And has the number increased year on year?

Indigenous Accounting and Business Conference 2015

(Photo credit to Primetime)

Fall in love

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That special feeling

Love is in the air with Valentines Day. It’s one of the days to celebrate the joy and happiness that comes from when two people find each other. That feeling you get when you think about them and how much they have made a difference in your world. The excitement it gives you to tell your friends and family how much they mean to you and the difference they have made in your life. That feeling you get when you see them. The little things they do for you that makes you feel extra special and them so extra special to you. You couldn’t imagine your life without them.

But you’re missing out on having these same feelings and emotions with your bookkeeper and accountant. The beautiful relationship you could be missing out on.

having that special someone

Missing out on the feeling of both joy and relief you have when you find everything is much better and simpler by having them involved in your business. Your missing the feeling of excitement to tell others about what your bookkeeper has done for you. The feeling you get when your bookkeeper has done all your bookkeeping for you is like when you come home after a hard day of work and find your partner has cleaned the house. You know they care about you and that feeling of stress relief from not having to do it. Yes, we can sometimes take these things for granted in our relationship, but it makes your life so much easier by having them in it.

Telling your friends and family about how much they have changed you and your business with the new addon they recommended. It’s like your partner buying you a new foot massager or fragrance. It makes you feel special to know they’re thinking about you and how happy that makes you feel to know they want to make you happy.

Spending quality time with them

But your relationship is so much more than doing things for you. It’s the quality time you spend together, talking and getting to know one another. Knowing your loves and passions and what experiences you want to have with the people around you. Let’s be honest, we want to spend more time with the people we care about and give them the best in life. We don’t want to be working all the time and not being able to share quality time with the people we care about.

Make a regular date time to talk and communicate with your management accountant. Take the time to talk about what you have been doing and what you would like to do. taking time to discuss what your plans are for the next month, quarter or year. Talk about that holiday you want to take overseas, the house you want to buy, the school you want your kids to go to. Share with them both your good and bad times. Tell them about the rotten experience you have just gone through. Share with them how you haven’t had the best time lately. Sharing with them will let them know what you want, need and desire. Life is meant to live and be shared with loved ones.

Finding ‘The One’

Sometimes we have to learn from our experience in relationships. Sometimes we stay in relationships because we feel it’s ‘good enough’. You start out okay but you may feel they are not doing enough in the relationship. You feel they don’t listen, or don’t even bother to ask how you are. They are only there for one thing in your relationship. This relationship can be damaging to you and the people you care about. Sometimes we feel like in our search for ‘the one’ we settle for ‘good enough’.

You want to find someone who makes you a better version of you. Who makes you more than you are when you’re together. But do you feel satisfied in your current relationship? Are you wanting more? Do you deserve more? Do you feel your relationship is not allowing you to be more than you are? Do you feel your goals and aspirations are not aligned with one another? Do you feel there is someone out there who has more to offer you?

At Foley Business Management we want to build a relationship with you. We want to a have a trusting relationship where you feel comfortable talking with us. Tell us your dreams and aspirations for you, your business, your family, your community. We want you to enjoy our time together and look forward to our conversations. Where we take the time to listen and to understand what you are going through. We want to help you grow and become more than who you are right now.

7th February 2017- SEQICC Networking Event

The South East Queensland Indigenous Chamber of Commerce welcomed in 2017 with a Networking Event and presentation in Brisbane. It was great to catch up with some of SEQICC’s regulars as well as meet some if its newer attendees. We were fortunate to be joined by some of the Queensland Government advisory committee who were fresh out of a all day meeting chaired by Leanne Enoch, Minister for Small Business.

The presentation was delivered by Justin Bayliss from Five Star Experiences. Justin discussed the difference and importance of customer service as to customer experience and how people are a key part of this difference.

MYOB INCITE Roadshow 2017

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Tomorrow, today

This event was predominantly for bookkeepers and accountants who use MYOB. The event opened with Gus Balbontin, former Executive Director of Lonely Planet. The theme of the event was ‘Tomorrow’. Gus spoke of how Lonely Planet had to adapt to the change of media and publishing from the ‘old media’ of papers and magazines to the ‘new media’ of the digital age where everything could be found at the click of a button. A reminder that if you do not move to meet what your customers want for tomorrow, then you will be left behind.

Customers buy holes, not drill bits.

The second part of the roadshow centred around add-ons and getting the most out of them. With a number of add-on exhibitors, this allowed me to re-acquaint myself with those I knew and those I had yet to meet. The event re-inforced the fact business needs are constantly changing. This includes accounting and financial management products. There are literally thousands of add-ons available and our business clients require us to be able to give them recommendations for these add-ons that will allow them to make informed decisions.

Leaders in Business

For this reason Foley Business Management invests time in understanding not only the needs of our clients, but the tools they require to make their businesses better to serve their clients. We are finding our services not only consulting to our clients, but to the providers of accounting and add-on software. Why? Because of our expertise in management accounting, we understand what is needed in software to make it a benefit to users. We are advising the makers of drill bits what the drill bit needs to be able to do and what it needs to do that serves the client.

Businesses need a hole.
Add-on providers make drill bits.
We advise Add-on providers what is needed to use a drill bit, such as a power drill, and how the client will use it, such as in hard wood or soft wood.

How we can assist you and your business or ‘make sense of your dollars’

Our purpose is to build sustainable communities. What we do is provide financial management solutions to small business, not for profit and social enterprise that allows their owners and board members make more informed decisions. We do this by providing bookkeeping, management accounting and consulting services, specialising in the Indigenous sector.

Your business is a valuable part of the community. You provide employment, spend money in the community, provide goods and services the community uses and needs. We want to assist you to do this better by allowing you to make more informed business decisions. Basically, we help to make sense of your dollars.