Wow, here we are again almost at the end of another financial year. We can’t believe how fast time has flown since Christmas. Maybe it’s because of the awful weather we have had!
Office Updates
As a lot of you are aware, Wayne has started a career in Commercial Real Estate. This means he will no longer be as accessible as he has been in the past. Most of you will have already been dealing with someone else in the office anyway. One of our team of either Veronica, Talia, Kim or Vicki will be doing the processing of your GST and annual accounts already and will continue to do so. If however you have more complicated issues or questions, Anna or Joanne are the ones to talk to. Veronica will usually decide when you phone or come in who you need to talk to.
With 2023 looking to be a very busy year we will be scheduling everyone’s job into various months during the year. Your client manager will get in contact at the beginning of your scheduled month and send the the end of year questionnaires. It is a requirement of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) to have a completed and signed questionnaire on file for all our clients. This a) gives us your authority to complete the accounts and tax returns and b) means we get all the correct information we require. Please take your time to complete these thoroughly and if you have any questions regarding them, please get in touch with us. If for any reason you require your accounts early this year, please let us know as soon as possible so we can schedule you in. This year we will be charging an interim fee as soon as your information comes in. Once this has been paid your accounts will be progressed.
Anna will be out of the office from April 12th returning on May 22nd. She is taking her caravan to the South Island on a biking, hiking holiday. She will still be keeping up with emails and keeping things ticking over but may not be able to answer the phone all the time if she is on her bike… If you need anything flick her an email or give Veronica a call – she may be able to help.
Xero Fees
Xero is the software we use at JMA to prepare your GST and annual accounts. Xero has advised that the fees for their non-GST cashbook is increasing by one dollar and the GST cashbook by two dollars per month. If you are using one of these you will see a slight increase in your monthly charges.
Cyclone Gabrielle Assistance
As you’re likely aware the Government has made available $25 million in recovery support for regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Some of this funding is available for businesses in Taitokerau. Northland Inc. has been appointed as the delivery partner for cyclone business support funding by MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment).
Applications for Cyclone Gabrielle business recovery grants are now open. Apply for a Cyclone Gabrielle Business Recovery Grant
CYCLONE RECOVERY FOR BUSINESSES
If you own a business in Taitokerau Northland and your cashflow has been affected as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, you can apply for support to help you recover.
Grants of between $5,000 – $40,000 are available to businesses in the Taitokerau Northland region who have been impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The grants are to help you with any immediate cash flow related needs and position you for a successful recovery.
WHO CAN APPLY:
You can apply if you are self-employed, a sole trader, or an employer (with up to 50 FTE’s)
You must also meet these criteria:
- You’re facing significant cashflow issues due to continued challenges with customer access, ability to source stock, supply chain issues, inability to operate as usual due to the physical damage to equipment or premises, or delays in insurance assessment and repairs.
- Your business is otherwise viable both before and after the flooding.
- You are not receiving any funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries recovery fund.
- You commit to acting in line with employment law and with due regard to your employees.
If you do not meet the eligibility criteria for the Cyclone Gabrielle Business Recovery Grant, other help could be available to you:
- Whangarei Mayoral Relief Fund
- Kaipara Mayoral Relief Fund
- First Steps: Mental Health Wellbeing support packages for Nationwide Businesses impacted by recent weather events.
- Te Puni Kōkiri: $9 million will be distributed through their Māori Development Fund to provide:
- Capacity support such as relief staffing, clean-up expenses, generators and communication equipment
- Recovery planning and co-ordination costs
- Marae infrastructure and support costs such as securing temporary storage for taonga and food.
Contact your local Te Puni Kōkiri office for application: Whakapā mai (tpk.govt.nz)
WHEN TO APPLY:
Applications are now open. If you think you are eligible, please follow the link below to the full application form.
Apply for a Cyclone Gabrielle Business Recovery Grant
End of Year to do list
As the 31st of March approaches, here is a list of what to check, gather and look for.
Bank Reconciliations: All bank reconciliations, including credit card and loan accounts, should be up to date at the end of march. This means that all transactions have been entered, that there are no unreconciled transactions, and that the bank account balance at your bank matches the balance in your accounting software. We will also need to see verification of bank account balances in the form of bank statements.
Accounts Receivable: Make sure all sales for the previous financial year have been invoiced (dated in March or prior months) and run your Aged Receivables report to verify that the information on this report – what’s owed to you – is accurate. Follow up any overdue customer balances and consider whether or not any are uncollectible and should be written off as bad debts.
Accounts Payable: Make sure all supplier bills for the previous financial year have been received and entered into your accounting system. Check the statements from your suppliers and verify that their balance owed is the same as what you have recorded. Run your Aged Payables report to verify that the information on this report – what you owe – is accurate.
Inventory: If you carry inventory you need to complete a stock take at the end of each financial year to account for all the stock that you have purchased but not sold. This means doing a manual count of all of your stock on hand as at March 31st.
Fixed Assets & Depreciation: Have a look at your fixed asset register from last year and let your accountant know if anything on that register has been sold or disposed of. Fixed Assets are any asset over $1000*. The rules around these assets are that the cost of them gets spread over the expected lifetime of the asset rather than expensed all in one financial year. The spreading of the cost is called depreciation. As your accountant, we may need to see invoices for fixed asset purchases so attach them to the transaction in your accounting software or create a file or folder that you can share with us.
Payroll and Wage and Leave Liabilities: If you have staff, ensure that the final payroll for the financial year has been run and entered into your accounting software. You need to account for any wages owed to staff (this can sometimes happen with timing between the end of the pay week and pay day) and annual leave liabilities at the end of the financial year in order to accurately reflect the business’s liabilities on the balance sheet. If you’re using payroll software you will be able to generate a report telling you how much these are. These two liability accounts also need to be reconciled to verify the accuracy of the balances.
Loans and Hire Purchases: Any loans or hire purchase balances will need to be verified and accurately accounted for at the end of year. Gather up your loan documentation that includes the balance at year end along with the interest accrued and payments made.
GST: Ensure your final period GST Return (usually ending March 31st) has been finalised and filed with Inland Revenue.
Cash on Hand: Do you keep petty cash for small purchases? If so you will need to ensure that all cash expenditure is entered and accounted for and that you accurately account for the value of cash on hand.
Vehicle Expenses: We will need to know if you use your personal vehicle for business use, or vice versa, so that they can accurately account for motor vehicle expense.
Home Office: If you use part of your home for business use you can claim a portion of household expenses, such as rent, insurance, power, against your business income. How much you can claim depends on how much of your house you use. Total up your household bills for the year and talk to us about how much you can claim.
Other Balance Sheet Items: All items on your balance sheet must be able to be verified and have supporting evidence for that. If you are unable to verify a balance talk to us about it.
Profit & Loss Report: Run your Profit & Loss report for the year and check if your figures look reasonable and as expected. It can be helpful to run this report by month so you can easily see variations from month to month. You may also compare against budget and/or last year’s actual figures. If things don’t look quite right, consider whether any variances may be caused by transactions miscoded to the wrong account.
If you need anything or have any queries, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We look forward to catching up with you soon!