Business Banking Online in Australia – Seven Handy Tips
Nowadays, no business, big, small or in between, gives a second thought about doing banking online. What used to take hours and days of entering and posting into cumbersome ledgers can be done in a tenth of the time, with a lot less staff. Tedious numerical tasks and manual payroll reconciliations have long gone, replaced by the swift click of a mouse and keyboard strokes. Would we ever go back to the old way of banking? Not a chance.
Online transactions are more convenient
You can bank in your time, not when the bank branch opens for business. Check your finances on a daily basis or plan ahead, that’s the beauty of access – 24-hours a day, 7 days a week access. Pay bills, monitor balances, make transfers between accounts and even integrate your account with other business software applications. Best of all there are no bank queues.
Free yourself from fees
No one likes paying fees, especially for business accounts. Typically online accounts charge lower fees or none at all for making deposits, transactions or paying bills. By using the internet, you can manage your money and make it work hard for you. The trick is to search around and select the best type of online account for your needs.
Put business payments on auto pilot
Banking online brings a great range of efficiencies to the working day, not to mention adding more interest to your bottom line. Once you set up regular automated payments, it can free up your time and your staff to concentrate on building business, improving output and morale.
Relationship discounts add up
There’s a lot of competition for your money today, especially for business customers. Consolidate your banking with one lender and bingo, you’ll be rewarded. What’s more, your personal banking can also benefit from a business relationship, with home and personal loan interest rate discounts, term deposit bonuses, savings account fee waivers and credit card annual fee waivers.
Losing interest in your money?
Many online accounts offer surprisingly good interest rates. Some are better than term deposits and your money isn’t locked away for months on end. Search around and see what you can find.
Online accounts give term deposits a run for their money.
When businesses had some extra cash flow or funds, the immediate answer was to drop them into a term deposit for up to a year. Forget that. With the boom in online savings accounts, think differently. You can get a huge range of benefits, pay no fees and have easy access to funds.
Many banks offer these accounts, but one that caught my eye was the ING Direct Business Bank Account. Just like the name says, it can help you make the most of your money. There’s a high variable interest rate, no fixed term, plus no minimum deposit or balance either. Well worth a look.
Doing business with another time zone?
International trade and payment transactions can now be made online, saving even more time in your working day. You don’t have to wait for the other person or company to be open for business on the other side of the world.
For the banks, time really is money. But through technology you can make the benefits of online banking work in your favor to increase productivity and expand your business opportunities.
Who knows, if you’re dreaming of an early retirement it could well be on the horizon.
Michigan Business Tax
Effective January 1, 2008, the Single Business Tax as we have known it for 30+ years is no longer the business tax for Michigan. The Single Business Tax was often criticized for taxing compensation. The MBT no longer requires this “add-back” of compensation.
The legislature enacted the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) in the summer of 2007. We all heard a lot about the “services tax” which was repealed December 1, 2007 and now the attention will turn to the MBT.
As our economy continues to expand globally, the MBT was developed to reward investment in capital, jobs and research & development within the state of Michigan. It also captures tax revenues from businesses which were previously not taxed in Michigan.
Business income will be taxed at a rate of 4.95% and a Margins tax on sales minus purchases of tangible property at .8%. Due to the elimination of the services tax and the Governor’s requirement that the tax revenues lost be replaced in order to balance the budget, there is a “surcharge tax” which will exist through the year 2017 (unless re-legislated). This surcharge is 21.99% of your MBT liability after allocations and apportionments but before credits.
As was the case with the SBT, if your gross receipts are less than $350,000 you are not required to file Michigan Business Tax. However, with the MBT, if gross receipts are between $350,000 and $700,000 there is a smoothing of the tax rate. This means that you pay fraction of the tax liability using the formula ($700,000 – gross receipts)/$350,000. This smoothing formula was not part of the former Single Business Tax.
Lastly, there are numerous credits available under the new MBT. Certain of them are limited but each of them encourages jobs, investments and research & development within the State of Michigan.
If you are not a 12/31 year end client, please contact your CPA as there are special rules for filing a final Single Business Tax versus your initial Michigan Business Tax return.
Small Business – Cutting Costs
How is the small business owner supposed to cope in today’s tough economy? Entrepreneurs and small business owners talk about this topic frequently. The gist of discussion is that the companies that need assistance are unable to get it, while large companies that are more secure to begin with are able to get the financial and practical assistance easily.
The number of firms with and without employees is a telling measure. In 2006, according to the Office of Advocacy, there were 6 million firms with employees on payroll. By 2007, the number of firms without employees had climbed to more than 21 million.
How, then, is there not a solution for the small business owner? When small businesses make up the majority of employers, why is there not a better way to ensure that their businesses survive, and thrive in a changing and difficult economy?
Consider that the average small business has a host of administrative and paperwork tasks that can fill an eight-hour workday easily. A business owner could do nothing but bookkeeping, paperwork, email, correspondence, customer service, data entry and so on, and not have any time left over for expanding the business.
But expanding the business is the critical task of the business owner. Unless the business owner is able to pursue opportunities to grow their client base and increase revenue, the business will not thrive.
The easy answer is ‘hire help.’ But hiring help is very expensive. In addition to salaries, an employer must provide training, equipment, and office space, if they are to hire additional personnel.
Instead, outsourcing work with the use of virtual assistants can be a viable alternative. To save money and maximize value, outsource administrative tasks through a virtual outsourcing firm.
By using a virtual assistant, you can have help with administrative tasks that can be done via telephone or Internet. Most of the tasks that take up so much of a workday can be outsourced virtually in this manner, leaving the business owner needed time to improve the business.
Don’t suffer another day with juggling business chores and struggling to increase revenue. Hire a virtual assistant, and free up your valuable time!