Bookkeeping & Payroll Services for Small Businesses

  $731,648 in unpaid wages has been recovered after a national investigation into emerging fast food, restaurant and café franchises. Almost 80% of stores were found to be breaching the law. More than 50% had underpaid staff. Fair Work Inspectors audited franchises that have recently commenced operations in Australia - Chatime, GongCha, Hot Star Chicken, PappaRich, Sushi Izu, Nene Chicken and The Sushi 79. Franchises were selected based on intelligence data that raised concerns about compliance with workplace laws, including anonymous tip offs, requests for assistance and stakeholder referrals. Six of the seven emerging franchises were founded overseas - five in Asia and one in the USA. During the audits, Inspectors questioned employers and employees in 76 stores and assessed time and wages records. Inspectors found that almost 80 per cent of the stores they visited breached at least one workplace law. More than 50 per cent of all businesses audited had underpaid staff. ...

  It’s only a matter of time before paperless offices become the norm rather than the unusual. With technology and software the way it is these days, it’s easier than ever to do away with the administrative headache a paper trail can bring. Recent research found that 35% of the businesses surveyed had adopted paperless policies and were consuming less paper and increasing productivity as a result And consider how we work these days. So many of us have ‘mobile’ offices or work remotely. Hard copies of business expense material whether it be invoices, receipts or payslips is just not a practical solution anymore. There’s a really interesting theory we read about recently called ‘The Theory of Constraints’ (TOC). TOC says that a system is controlled by a number of constraints and the secret to improved productivity is to identify the major constraint and then focus resources on fixing that constraint. When we speak to our clients, one of the big constraints they identify is man...

  Many CEOs and business owners rely on in-house bookkeeping and accounting to receive their financial statements each month because it’s what they’re used to. However, with technology advancements in recent years, traditional is not always best when it comes to managing your company’s financial standing. In-house and outsourced bookkeeping services offer different workflows when managing the bookkeeping and accounting for your company. While we understand that outsourced bookkeeping and accounting is not right for every business, if it does fit your business’s needs, it can often cost less and provide more expertise than a traditional in-house accounting department. Below we outline a few differences between what in-house and outsourced bookkeeping services and accounting services can offer your business. Quality and Training for In-House vs Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting When hiring for in-house bookkeepers and accountants, you want to look for experience and prove...

  Over the past 18 months, Cornerstone Group Australasia Pty Ltd has gone through a significant amount of change. The business is now 8 years old, things that worked well 8 years ago were due for review to make sure we operating at 'best practice'. We have reviewed every piece of software that we use to ensure that it is the best in it's class, we have reviewed every process to ensure that it is both efficient and effective; we have assessed every team member for skills and competency and their passion to help the businesses that we work with. The next step in this process of change is the name. The name Cornerstone Group Australasia says nothing about what we do (and the URL on our email is ridiculously long), so we have come up with the name iKeep . We will formally be changing the business name on the 31st October 2019. Our ABN, and all other company details are remaining the same. It can be viewed as a play on words: " I keep  your books and records up to da...

  Positive cashflow is a business owner’s best friend. Great for business and great for your confidence. Unfortunately, tight cashflow is the reality for many small businesses in Australia. Research shows 51% of start-ups close within four years with poor cashflow responsible for 41% of those closures. That’s a sobering statistic. And we believe an avoidable one. With our clients at iKeep , cashflow is high on the agenda when we talk accounting strategy with them. They ask us to manage cashflow and we push back. They get surprised and we get the chance to tell them why it’s better if bookkeepers don’t touch cashflow. With traditional forms of accounting – think desktop and multiple manual entry – a bookkeeper would create a spreadsheet with cashflow information. This takes too long to do properly and requires somebody to continually update and monitor cash in and cash out. Not easy if there is multiple transactions and bank accounts. They pass this the business owner who does...