Financial Year – New Financial You
Happy New Year – a financial year that is.
Yes, it’s a play on a theme, but it is a very appropriate time of year. Why? Because any business owner or contractor should be aware of where they are financially at any given time. This is a fact often overlooked by many.
A Financial Year is not only about paying taxation, although many people think this. Here are a couple of different examples when you need to be savvy about your financial position at any one time.
- If you are applying for any borrowings and you’re self-employed for example, the banks will also work on financial year income, not a calendar year. They will want to know your incomings and outgoings, writebacks, spending habits as well as paying habits.
- If you are applying for income protection or salary continuance insurance, the underwriters may want confirmation of your earned income by way of copies of tax returns or financials. If you’re lucky, your BookKeeper or Accountant can approve if you have kept them updated, otherwise they will have to prepare interim statements and to do this you will need to provide them with details of transactions and cash flow movement.
- If your Accountant wants you to contribute to superannuation or apply for tax variations, due to contributions to super, this too will also be calculated for the financial year, not a calendar year. You will need a record of what has already been paid and what type of contribution/s it was. You would typically then have to call your financial adviser or the actual superannuation fund to confirm this since statements are only issued once a year and that is usually after the tax year has ended already.
Do you manage your Cashflow at work and at home, so you know where the $’s earned are going? Do you have everything easily categorized, so you know you are on a budget in those areas? Do you even have a budget for various categories?
Business-wise or even only personally wise wouldn’t it be great to have all this information easily at your fingertips at any given time AND IMPORTANTLY ALL IN THE ONE PLACE! In this day and age of ever-improving technology, some various programs and apps allow this. Say goodbye to spreadsheets and hello to the various “portals” available.
The things to look for in such a program are:
• Everything in one place: so you can add your credit cards, bank accounts, properties, car, home loans, investment loans, and so much more, to easily track and manage your finances.
• Always be up to date: view your self-managed super funds from the portal and receive live property and investment data feeds.
• Cashflow & budgeting: auto-categorized transactions and powerful budgeting tools make setting goals and getting a full picture of your income and expenses a breeze.
• Tax time made easy: use the tax wizard to track, tag, and store relevant tax information (from transactions to receipts) securely online.
• All your essential financial documents can be stored in your “portal” for easy access.
• The ability to add your essential financial team (Accountant, Lawyer, Financial Adviser, Bookkeeper) to your program and allow them access to only what is relevant to them. So they can access when they need to without worrying you, and they can send things to you for digital signing, etc.
• A reporting facility so that you can generate a required report as and when needed.
Don’t be caught out again. If you are interested in finding out what’s right for you, or your clients for that matter, and have what is needed to be financially savvy, contact me, and we can have a cuppa and a chat.
