Newsletter 14 December 2009

"One who fears failure limits his activities." Henry Ford

Season’s Greetings

Seasons greetings, from all the team at Paul Enoka Chartered Accountants! We would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Our last day in the office will be the 23^rd December 2009 with staff returning to work on the 11^th January 2010 ready to help you with all those last minute provisional tax and GST issues before 15^th January 2010.

 

This year has been a challenging one for many small businesses but current economic indicators show that the economy seems to be on the improve. Those businesses who have managed to ride it out are hopefully finding themselves in a stronger market position than before and are poised to capitalize on this as the economy grows again.

 

We are always happy to have a chat to see if we can help you improve the profitability and efficiency of your business and have some great tools we can use to help identify areas of strength and areas which could be improved. Stay tuned for more information in the New Year.

 

New Appointment

Rachel Lorimer has recently joined the firm after working in various industries including investment banking, relocations, and of course chartered accountancy. She has a wide range of experience and a particular passion for the IT and systems side of accounting. Rachel completed her degree at Victoria University here in Wellington and gained full membership to the college of Chartered Accountants earlier this year. In her spare time Rachel has a passion for all things motorsport and is currently renovating her home with her husband.

 

Ringbinders

We have been having a big tidy up in our filing room and as a result have a huge surplus of A4 lever arch ringbinders. If you would like some please feel free to drop by (you may wish to call first to make sure we still have some available!)

 

 

New Service – Xero Support

Many of you may have heard of the new Accounting Software package on the New Zealand market called Xero. One of our team members, Rachel, is certified in providing support for this software. This could involve having a discussion to see if Xero is a good option for you and your business, helping you set up a Xero file, or providing assistance with day to day processing.

 

Briefly, Xero is different from other products on the market because there is no software to install on your computer – everything is done online meaning there is no need to update software each year and no requirement to back up your company file as this is done automatically for you by Xero. You can set up as many users as you like, with different levels of access for different roles in your organization. Best of all, you can set up a ‘Financial Advisor’ role so we can look at your information in real time without you having to email us a large backup file. Because Xero is online, you can access your data from anywhere in the world, which can be a great comfort to business owners who are travelling and want to check on how things are going back at the office.

 

If you would like to find out more information about Xero, please call the office on (04) 939 7977 and speak to Rachel, or visit www.xero.com where you can set up a demo account and see the features for yourself.

 

End of Year for 2009

Many of you have already had your 2009 financial statements and tax returns completed and we thank you for bringing your records to us in a timely fashion. However there are still a number of clients who have yet to bring their records in.

 

While the due date for filing tax returns for those of you with extension of time is 31 March 2010 (tax returns completed for the year ended 31 March 2009) terminal tax is due on 7 April 2010. If you leave completion of your accounts till the last few days this doesn’t leave a lot of time for planning your cashflow to make the terminal tax payment on time and avoid late payment penalties and interest charges. In addition, it can be very stressful trying to get everything completed at the last minute if there is missing information.

 

Planning for 2010

As usual we will advise you in March when our 2010 end of year questionnaires are available from our website so you can start putting your records together. Many of you will have third parties such as your bank or other lending institution who require a set of accounts each year as part of your borrowing arrangements.

 

Time and time again we have encountered clients calling us because their bank urgently requires a copy of their completed accounts. If we are already part way through your job it is normally fairly easy to get them to the bank quickly. However if we haven’t even received the documents it can be a real stretch which can cause issues if you are trying to refinance or purchase new assets and you have a tight deadline.

 

If you know a third party will require a copy of your financial information by a certain date, please do let us know when you bring your records in so we can plan our resources accordingly and give you the best possible customer service.

 

Coming up in Our Next Issues

• An explanation of how IRD late filing penalties, late payment penalties and interest work
• Details on how we can help you improve the profitability and efficiency of your business
• Tips on how to ensure your MYOB file is in good condition for year end
• A new feature – ‘Questions from our Clients’ where we share some knowledge based on real questions we have been asked recently by our clients.

 

If you have any ideas for content or questions you would like to submit please phone or email us, we would love to hear from you.

 

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Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this newsletter, the information is necessarily generalised. Clients are therefore requested to seek specific advice and not rely solely on the above, if they are interested in any matters mentioned.

 

Paul Enoka Chartered Accountants Ltd

PO Box 31-348 Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Phone (04) 939-7977