Chapter 4
Playing a Bookkeeper’s Rhythm
In This Chapter
Meeting the deadlines for GST reporting
Keeping tabs on payroll obligations
Scheduling reports for management, tax and more
Pulling together a record-keeping system
Creating your bookkeeper’s calendar
Most books about bookkeeping focus purely on the technicalities of debits and credits, balancing bank accounts and creating financial reports. This stuff is good, but doesn’t address the core questions many novice bookkeepers ask: How do I organise my paperwork? What deadlines need to be met? How often should I do my books?
In my own business, while I get a real kick out of the results that bookkeeping yields (essential reports, sales figures and so on), I don’t relish all that data-entry, and I really, really hate filing. As a result, I do my own books with a ruthless efficiency, and with a personal motto never to handle a single piece of paper more than once.
So dear readers, this chapter is not about sharing the love. Nay, this chapter is about laying down a battle plan so that you organise your own bookkeeping to achieve maximum results with minimum fuss, meeting all of a bookkeeper’s regular deadlines along the way.
Reporting for GST
Reporting for GST tends to be a tyranny of existence for most bookkeepers. Everything else can fall behind, but the date for submitting GST activity statements or returns is set in stone. If ...
