Sam (Partner)
Receives an email from a valued small business client who is considering selling a business and wants a valuation. Sam collects all of the relevant information and goes to Calculations / Business Valuations to assess the value of the business using the discounted cash flow method.
Receives a call from a client who has applied for an overdraft. The bank has asked the client to provide a cash flow forecast. Sam opens Calculations / Budgets & Projections / Cashflow Forecast and prepares the forecast from the most recent set of accounts and the client’s advice.
Receives a call from a client who is leasing a new motor vehicle. The client has been told that there are minimum residual values for the lease to be accepted by the ATO. Sam goes to Rates / Leasing to get those figures.
Meets with a long term client who wants help in improving the profitability of the business. Sam uses Calculations / Budgets & Projections / Profit Manager to project and test different scenarios which will increase net profit.
Call from a client who has problems managing the company’s cash flow. Sam sets up a worksheet from the template Calculations / Tax & Super Debt – Company, which will allow the client to set amounts aside on a weekly basis to cover future amounts payable for company tax, GST, PAYG withholding, FBT and superannuation guarantee payments.
Meets with a client for some tax planning. Shows the client a graphical illustration of the different tax rates applying to various entities, which Sam gets from Rates / Income Tax / Tax Thermometer.
Prepares a return for Sam’s sister who has used her line of credit to run her business and pay for personal expenses. Uses Calculations / Interest – Mixed Loans to calculate interest on up to four different business uses of that loan.
Call from a client with a number of highly paid workers. Client asks about the maximum contribution base for SG purposes. Sam goes to Rates / Superannuation Guarantee / Maximum Contribution Base to look up the maximum quarterly earnings base for the current year.
Client updates the company’s cloud accounts to 31 March and wants a projected profit and tax figure for the year. Sam goes to Calculations / Tax Planning to prepare the estimate and do some tax planning.
Reviewing a set of accounts for a butcher prepared by Alex and noticed that goods taken for private use had not been accounted for in the Profit & Loss Statement. Goes to Rates / Stock / Private Use to determine how much should be shown in the accounts for that year.
Meets with a client who wants advice on purchasing a specific rental property. Sam enters data to Calculations / Budgets & Projections / Property Investment Analysis to determine pre and post tax cash flow, gross and net rental yield, investment equity after 10 years and internal rates of return after 10 years if the property is either sold or still held.
Alex (Accountant)
Alex is starting a new set of annual accounts for a company and downloads Calculations / Annual Accounts which is a full set of working papers for this job. Alex sets up the file and sends it to Admin staff for pre-job tasks before the work is started.
Shortly after, Alex receives an email from a client who wants to vary a PAYG instalment. Alex downloads PAYGI – Variation Individual and enters estimates to calculate the varied rate.
One of Alex’s individual clients, sends an email with information for the current year tax return. The information includes a significant number of Cryptocurrency transactions during the year so Alex downloads CGT – Cryptocurrency and enters details to calculate the gain/loss.
On another job in progress, the client has not been able to provide an estimate of the cost of stock on hand at 30 June. Alex goes to Calculations / Stock – Estimate to estimate the closing stock figure for the accounts.
On completing these accounts, Alex notices that there is a debit balance loan at 30 June which the client is unable to pay back by the lodgement day. Alex goes to Calculations / Division 7A Loans to prepare the agreement and manage the loan over its 7 year life, including calculating minimum payments each year, balances outstanding at the end of each year and deemed dividends where there is a minimum repayment shortfall.
On reviewing these accounts, Alex decided to run the figures against the ATO small business benchmarks. Alex opens Calculations / Benchmarks and enters some basic figures to check that they are within ATO expectations.
Client attends to seek an estimate of CGT payable on the sale of the family home. It was originally a rental property, then became the family’s main residence during which time part of the home was used to run a business during three separate periods. Goes to Calculations / CGT – Property to prepare an estimate.
Meets with a client to take details to later prepare a personal tax return. Prints Interview – Tax Return under Forms to use during the meeting.
This return has hire purchase interest to claim on a structured loan for a car. Goes to Calculations / Financial Calculations / Hire Purchase – Monthly Structured to calculate the interest and borrowing expenses claimable over the life of the loan.
Next, Alex prepares a personal return for a mining employee. Being a suburban practice, not many returns are completed for mining employees. Alex goes to Library and clicks on the link Occupation and Industry Specific Guides to view an ATO publication on deductions that can be claimed by a mining site employee.
Alex prepares an FBT return for an employer client with several car fringe benefits and other benefits including Expense Payments and Entertainment. Goes to the JobPaper Fringe Benefits Tax to calculate the benefits and produce a summary for the FBT return software.
Prepares a return for a client with overseas travel expenses. Needs to calculate the maximum amounts that can be claimed without receipts for several destinations. Goes to Calculations / Travel – Overseas for automatic calculations based on salary range and destinations.
Charlie (Personal Assistant)
It’s time for the practice to review their tax return lodgement performance to date and chase up not lodged returns. Charlie downloads Lodgement Dashboard – Returns and inputs two csv files containing the ATO lodgement report and a practice management report matching clients with client managers. The workbook combines that information and produces a dashboard with a comprehensive summary of the status of returns by type, due dates and the managers responsible. Drill down at the dashboard to see the actual returns. The combined report is circulated to managers in the practice to take followup action.
Alex gives Charlie a shoe box full of receipts and asks her to summarise them. Charlie uses the Blank Worksheet from Quick Links on the home page to enter amounts, calculate totals, automatically deduct any private use and keep a record of her calculations.
While summarising the above receipts, Charlie notices that some amounts are in a foreign currency. To convert to Australian dollars, Charlie uses the worksheet at Calculations / Foreign Currency.
Charlie receives a call from a new client who makes an appointment to have a personal return prepared. The client wants to know what information to bring to the meeting. Charlie goes to Forms / Records – Personal Return Short and emails this checklist to the client.
Sam received a call from a client who has just purchased three negatively-geared rental properties and needs to reduce PAYG Withholding amounts being deducted from the client’s pay. Sam asks Charlie to send the client a request for information needed to prepare the application. Charlie goes to Forms / PAYGW Variation Questionnaire and emails this form to the client.
Sam has asked Charlie to send emails to FBT clients asking for information to prepare their FBT returns. Alex prepares the emails using Letters / FBT Info Requested and encloses a checklist of potential benefits from Forms / FBT Benefits along with a schedule on which the client should record details of car benefits (Forms / FBT Car Details).
A number of assessments were received from the ATO this morning. Charlie prepares a letter on their practice management system and inserts standard wording from a template on Accountants Desktop at Letters / Assessment EFT.
Alex has just completed a set of company accounts and tax returns and asks Charlie to prepare a standard invoice for this type of work. Charlie goes to Invoices / Accounts Preparation / Company Accounts.
Alex gives Charlie a collection of dividend and tax statements for a retired investor client who is not required to lodge a return but wants to claim a refund of the imputation credits. Charlie goes to Calculations / Franking Credit – Refund Worksheet to prepare the figures for the application form and submits back to Alex for checking.
Alex gives Charlie 12 monthly real estate agent’s statements for a rental property and asks for a summary for the tax return. Charlie goes to Calculations / Rental Income – Standard to prepare a summary for the return.
Charlie receives an email from the client who wants a PAYG Withholding Variation (see above) with the questionnaire duly completed. Charlie prepares information for the application using Calculations / PAYGW – Variation Rent and passes it on to Alex for checking.