Expert Advice

We all need to get paid… but for many small businesses, getting invoices out and money back in, can become an ongoing issue. We have five top tips to get your invoices working hard. 1. Systemise The more you can automate the invoicing process, the easier it will be for you (and your team) and the more transparent it will...

Many organisations spend large amounts of money hiring outside consultants to analyse risks to ICT systems. Surprisingly in almost all cases, consultants working in IT Security do not have access to all relevant data, including history of previous incidents, which is particularly important when conducting risk assessments. The lack of access to such data makes it extremely difficult to make...

In this column I have previously opined on how independent financial experts, such as insolvency practitioners, add value in Family Law property disputes. During the past decade, amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 (FLA) and Bankruptcy Act 1966, have largely aligned procedures between the two jurisdictions, where one party is a bankrupt. However, no such accommodation exists for the...

Labels assist consumers in distinguishing one product from another. Domestic industries protect their home turf against imported products that make ambiguous claims about origin of products. Laws at both the international and domestic level enforce a differentiation between local and foreign products. There are two broad categories of labelling laws you need to keep in mind when selling into any...

The 2016 Hays Global Skills Index has been released, highlighting Australia's talent mismatch between the skills unemployed workers possess and those employers want to hire. The report, published in collaboration with Oxford Economics, shows that despite an existing pool of labour, employers in high-skill industries such as IT, accounting, healthcare, life sciences and professional services can still find it difficult...

On Friday the 7th of October 2016 Strata Community Australia (ACT) held its third annual awards night at the National Museum of Australia. As President I had the honour of addressing the crowd with a few thoughts on the preceding year. Reflecting on the past twelve months was a timely exercise for me personally following a hectic period at the...

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the science of adjusting and fine-tuning a website's content and structure so that it can rank better on search engines for one or more keywords. The idea is simple. If your website ranks high on search engines such as Google, more people are likely to find you, contact you and eventually buy from you....

Much of the whopping 25 percent jump in the uptake of bank debt recorded within our thinkBIG survey 2016, may be attributed to an increasing number of SME's buying their own premises. Having picked up on the rare opportunity of 'owner-occupying' being a cheaper option than leasing, more SMEs now favour buying office space in the name of their self-managed...

I could not stress enough how important Customer Service is to the success of bookkeeping business. Once, a young graduate staff asked me: "why did our client stay with us for years?" Up until then, I thought that accounting industry is competitive. A slight reduction in the fee of the competitor could make us lose a client. I explained to...

When starting a new business, a franchise can be an attractive prospect. Entrepreneurs often find the promise of a well-established brand, bankable goodwill and the guiding hand of the franchisor too good to resist, a seemingly safe alternative to starting your own venture from scratch. Success stories, neatly captured on the franchisor's website, might well convince you that a franchise...

No business can afford to toss money out the window, including on electricity. Across the ACT, many businesses are acting smart and going solar. They've discovered the benefits of solar and are enjoying the savings. Let's start with the facts: 1. Solar photovoltaic (PV) prices are decreasing and becoming increasingly affordable. 2. Solar PV is a proven technology. 3. Electricity...

Invoice finance is becoming an increasingly popular choice for businesses looking for cash flow solutions. We look at scenarios where invoice finance could provide a smart answer to cash flow needs. 1. If customers take a long time to pay, or are late to pay… Long and late paying customers can quickly absorb a company's capital, making it hard to...

Organisations are continually investing in protecting and defending against substantial online threats. Significant levels of IT resources are being invested into costly technologies aimed at protecting against these new threats. Unfortunately, many of these investments fail to understand the methods of an external attacker and as a result fail to prevent a system breach. An external attacker has a number...

As a further step towards combatting illegal phoenix activity, the ATO has sent a clear message to accountants, pre-insolvency advisors and other 'facilitators' that they are firmly in the Commissioner's cross-hairs. Recently, ATO Assistant Commissioner Scott Parkinson foreshadowed further "access visits" (ATO code for search warrants), aimed squarely at the advisory space around company 're-birthing'; suggesting if the pre-insolvency industry...

We often meet with clients who are surprised to learn that their registered Australian trade marks do not extend to registered rights in other countries. Like other forms of IP, trade marks are registered on a per country basis. If wishing to extend protection of your Australian trade mark rights to other countries, do you need to engage lawyers or...

One of your top performers asks to see you and hands you their resignation letter - what do you do? Many employers are tempted to make a counter offer in the hopes it will retain the employee, but this is rarely a successful strategy. Even if a resigning employee does accept your counter offer, their original motivation for looking for...