Over recent years, Perth, as with much of Australia, has seen an increase in small businesses. In order to ensure the longevity and success of your business, it is vital that your business is compliant with all relevant reporting and taxation requirements. For those new to owning or running businesses, this can seem quite the minefield. It can also come with a range of challenges. This is where engaging a bookkeeper can help to save you time and money. It will also help to ensure the success of your business. Let’s take a look at how to work out how much you should be paying for Perth bookkeeping services.
Bookkeeping rates vary quite widely across Australia, with most bookkeepers charging between $40 and $100 per hour. However, they can also be as cheap as $20 or as expensive as $200+. The average across all bookkeepers in Australia is around the $60/hour mark, although this varies depending on:
At Darcy Bookkeeping, we have a number of fixed-price bookkeeping packages with fees clearly marked. We also offer low bookkeeping rates from $36 per hour.
One of the biggest factors to weigh up when it comes to Perth bookkeeping fees is the scope and volume of work required. Some bookkeeping services are considered standard. However, some businesses might require either a scaled up or scaled down service. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most commonly requested bookkeeping services that our Perth clients need.
One of the most basic tasks that bookkeepers undertake is data entry – which is exactly what it sounds like. Entering invoices and receipts, ensuring that all relevant data is where it should be and correct. For some businesses, data entry is all that they require. If that's you, you could expect to pay as low as $30/hour for someone to do your data entry.
After your bookkeeper enters the data into the accounting software, someone will need to reconcile bank accounts. A good bookkeeper can account for all transactions and classify all income and expenditure appropriately. Depending on the bookkeeping software that you use for your business, this task can vary slightly in complexity.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has recently introduced Single Touch Payroll and continues to update superannuation and employer reporting requirements. That’s why having an external bookkeeping service help with payroll can help you to remain up-to-date with regards to your obligations as an employer. Our experienced Perth bookkeepers can help with processing your payroll on a regular basis. They can also help ensure that you remain compliant with all of your employment obligations.
The ATO requires Australian businesses to lodge Business Activity Statements (BAS) either monthly or quarterly. In addition, some individuals are also required to lodge Individual Activity Statements (IAS) monthly or quarterly as well. With most of the accounting software programmes on the market, so long as the bank reconciliations are complete and correct, preparing the BAS or IAS should be a fairly straight forward exercise.
It is important though, that the person preparing and lodging the BAS or IAS is confident that everything is correct and allocated appropriately. If the BAS or IAS is lodged and incorrect, this can create a great deal of drama when it comes time for your tax returns to be completed and lodged. This can cost a lot in time, money and stress, especially if the mistakes have been made in your favour. You end up with a large tax bill at the end of the fiscal year.
All of the Perth bookkeepers at Darcy Bookkeeping & Business Services are registered BAS agents. This means that they all hold qualifications and are registered with the Australian Tax Practitioners Board. This allows you peace of mind that your books are in safe hands with us.
Some businesses like their bookkeeper to handle all of the invoicing and receipting of money going in and out. Some even like the bookkeeper to chase up outstanding payments, also known as aged receivables. If your bookkeeper is looking after accounts payable and accounts receivable, they would be more familiar with the day-to-day running of your business than someone who was just doing data entry. You could expect to pay more per hour for someone who is contacting clients to follow up on outstanding accounts than you would for someone who is just doing data entry and bank reconciliations.
How regularly you require bookkeeping services will depend upon the volume of transactions that go through your accounts and the complexity of your business structure. If you are a sole trader with one or two invoices a week and very few outgoing expenses, you may only require a monthly or quarterly service for a few hours.
If, however, you are a small business with payroll requirements, accounts payable and receivable, you would want them to be working on your file at least as often as your pay cycle. You may even need someone every day or every second day.
For a business that has a larger volume of transactions, but does not require payroll nor accounts payable or receivable, having a bookkeeper work on the file on a weekly, fortnightly or on a monthly basis may be more efficient and effective. This is because most businesses in Australia will have their BAS due within the same three-week block. That means that there are three weeks of every quarter that your bookkeepers will be extremely busy. If they have been working on the file regularly, the preparation and lodgement of your BAS should be much less time-intensive than if they only worked on the file once a quarter.
As with most industries, largely speaking, you get what you pay for. If you require someone to do more basic bookkeeping and have a low volume of transactions, you could expect to pay anywhere from $30-40 per hour for a Perth bookkeeper.
If you require more complex bookkeeping tasks, you use a more niche accounting software, or you require your bookkeeper to chase up overdue accounts, then you might expect to pay $40-100 per hour.
At Darcy Bookkeeping & Business Services, we offer flexibility of hourly rates and also the convenience of monthly set fees. We have expert Perth bookkeeping packages starting at $36/hour. We can tailor a package to suit the needs of your business.
Give us a call or drop us a line to see how we can help to tailor a package for your business.