The Bookie & The Beano

It's fair to say that 2020 has been a highly unusual year so far.

With that in mind we go back and examine our goals that we had at the start of the calendar year and whether they have changed. We also discuss whether the COVID-19 pandemic has led to us questioning whether we want to do this for the next 20 years?

It's an honest look back and forward all at once.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

myGovID is an easy and secure way to prove who you are online. Add identity documents like your Australian driver's licence, Medicare card or Australian visa and magic access to your client information as an accountant or bookkeeper.

If only it was that simple.

MyGovID is great when it works, but there are a few quirky issues that can cause and do cause problems when your situation is a it unique.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Being an accountant or bookkeeper over the last 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially frantic. While we all likely got into our respective professions to help people, we probably never thought that we would be the gatekeepers of the business welfare system for the government during a pandemic.

Yet here we are.

This week we discuss the different things we have done to cope during this unique time and what habits we are forming now that we hope to carry with us when it clears.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

Accountants and bookkeepers are the frontline for small business government stimulus and no consideration is being placed on that and that burden is placing increasing demands on their mental health.

In addition to their regular tax, accounting and lodgement services accountants and bookkeepers have now found themselves playing a key role in supporting the delivery of the largest series of government support packages in Australian history, the JobKeeper Subsidy.

Not only are we being tasked with saving their clients' livelihoods, but we are all battling our own COVID-19 anxieties.

We talk about the challenges this week.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

In this episode we discuss bite sized topics such as Facebook Marketplace, Square Readers, claiming deductions, underpayment of staff, SG Amnesty, George Colombaris, and Tax/BAS Agent staff leaving with the MyGov access.

We cover a lot of ground and a lot of smaller, interesting topics in this episode.

Well worth a listen.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

This week on Bookie and the Beano we are interviewed by Kaylie Dueck from QuickBooks Online (Intuit) and we are discussing COVID19, the Government Stimulus packages and how we are coping working from home.

Some of the things we cover are:

- the key questions clients are asking us right now, particularly in regard to the cashflow booster and JobKeeper payments.

- the benefits for SMB's & Advisors that cloud software are providing at the moment.

- advice for a business, sole trader or employee that is ineligible for the JobKeeper Payment.

- managing your workload during this time (key priorities)

- advice for parents who are now working from home.

- how to stay up to date on the latest development.

- some feel good stories.

It's a really interesting chat in a trying time and well worth listening to, especially if you or your clients are struggling with adapting to the COVID-19 world.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

While software development itself is important, but the constant software enhancements are a slippery slope.

Inevitably when the software changes or something doesn't work properly the first place a client or user will go to is their accountant or bookkeeper.

Having different integrations is great if they are actually enhancing what you can offer your clients as accountant or bookkeeper, but integration for the sake of integration usually just causes a hot mess.

Maybe it's the cabin fever of COVID-19, but we are a little bit frustrated this week.....ad software is taking the brunt of it.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

It is clear now that Cornonavirus COVID-19 is going to cause significant issues to the health of many, many thousands of Australians and cause significant hardship on small business.

We recorded this podcast less than 2 weeks ago and in that time the situation has evolved to the point that we have already probably lost control of the situation and we need some luck to make sure this doesn't become a real disaster on so many fronts.

Since this was recorded Kane hasn't been to the "office" and any trip out since has basically been ducking to the supermarket at really weird times (opening or closing times) or just to exercise and/or get some fresh air.

No coffees.

No client face to face meetings.

What does this mean for our businesses?

What does it mean for our clients businesses?

Are we ready for a lockdown?

Have we planned for this?

We discuss all of this on this episode.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

With so many accountants and bookkeepers adopting cloud technology to deliver their services to clients information security has never been a bigger issue for everyone involved.

Accountants and bookkeepers must therefore understand how to identify and respond to cyber security risks, rather than ignore the issue and hope it never happens to them.

This week we have a special guest, cyber security expert and CEO of Practice Protect (https://www.practiceprotect.com) Jamie Beresford.

Practice Protect is the only complete cyber security solution that lets accounting and bookkeeping firms secure sensitive data and work efficiently in a cloud-first world.

Diane Lucas chats to Jamie about cyber security and what accounting and bookkeeping firms can do to protect their clients data.

They discuss:

•How real the threat of a cybersecurity breach is

•Common breaches that hit accountants and bookkeepers

•Why email is a teasure trove for a hacker

•Where to start when looking at cybersecurity

•What kind of measures to put in place

•How Practice Protect can protect your firm and clients.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.

There are concerns from the ATO and the Tax Agents Board about the number of people claiming to be Tax or BAS agents, often promising refunds that sound too good to be true, or providing discounted services much cheaper than registered, legitimate tax agents.

Unregistered preparers will often use a taxpayer's personal login details to access their ATO Online account through myGov to lodge tax returns.

So what happens to these unregistered operators?

Well the newly funded and resourced Tax Agents Practitioners Board can apply to the Federal Court of Australia for an order for pecuniary penalties for up to $42,500 against an individual and up to $212,500 for a body corporate for each contravention.

We chat about our experiences with unregistered agents and what to do if you come across one.

Diane (The Bookie aka Bookkeeper) from https://www.directmanagement.com.au and Kane (The Beano aka Accountant) from www.activeoutsourcing.com.au and www.accountancyonline.com.au are professionals practicing who encounter these issues and many more every day.