News and Articles

It’s safe to say that artificial intelligence (AI) is now part of common language and everyday life. But while we’ve all heard of the term, not everyone really knows what it is or how to use it (or rather, whether it can be useful for them). 

Believe it or not, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ has been with us since as far back as 1955, when a number of academics and professionals in the field of technology first proposed a study of the term. In that same year, the first AI program was developed, and in the many decades since, AI has held an evergreen fascination for the human race.

This fascination led us to explore and experiment our way into the first industrial robot, devise bold predictions about what AI will be capable of in our personal and professional lives, and even prompt a raft of popular culture references that captured our hopes, fears and imaginations surrounding the technology — from driverless cars through to robots with empathy, and even foolproof computers incapable of error.

While many predictions, hopes and fears surrounding AI have subsided or been disproven, we’ve gone on to make significant gains with AI in a huge variety of areas. For instance, the fun and time savings we all enjoy from products and services such as Netflix, Spotify and the various app stores we use every day. There’s a lot to be learned from the watching, browsing and purchasing habits of humans around the globe — and this is only possible thanks to AI.

As we’ve seen most recently with the advent of ChatGPT, the hype, fear and conjecture surrounding AI may never wane. But AI is here to stay. And for those not yet familiar with how to leverage its benefits, it can be the source of great angst — particularly when trying to figure out how to make use of it in your business.

Working with AI

Just because something is available to use, doesn’t necessarily mean you should use it. The best way to think about AI is as a tool — like a hammer. Just like a hammer, AI can be extremely helpful in the right situations, and less useful (maybe even dangerous!) in the wrong ones.

When used well, AI can create a magical ‘whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ experience, where humans and AI work in close partnership and accomplish things faster and with less effort.

Harnessing that partnership lets companies of many sizes deliver new and better experiences, remove manual toil, and provide helpful insights at a hyper-personalised level. Consider the many decisions made in your business each and every day. In many cases,  AI can help make the process easier, faster and better informed.

For example, if you’re managing paper bills and invoices in Xero, AI is quietly at work for you every time you upload a new document — thanks to intelligent form filling and credit note detection.

Even as you’re busy reconciling your bank statements, AI is right there suggesting the best matches from your contacts and accounts.

These products look for patterns and trends in the data flowing through the Xero platform. And in even better news, every time you point out a mistake — by changing a suggested account or correcting the extracted receipt amount — you’re feeding back vital information to help the AI get better and better.

A great rule of thumb to follow when trying to work out if AI is right for your business is to consider a current business challenge you’re facing. If you can figure out the answer to the problem in a couple of seconds — and if five other humans would likely come to the same answer — then AI is likely going to do a reasonable job of answering that question or completing that task for you.

If the answer is more complicated or ambiguous, AI is probably not the right tool for that particular business challenge and humans will likely do a better job than AI — at least for the next few years.

Understanding AI and its value

Generally speaking, AI has proven to be fantastic at augmenting or extending human abilities and intelligence.

This is most notable in our interactions with AI-powered products and services. These products are brilliant at learning from the wisdom of crowds, and when millions of users complete billions of small tasks everyday, it’s possible to glean significant value in very little time.

But AI comes in more than just one type or form. In fact, there are two key types of AI that you should know how to distinguish from the other:

• General AI is just what it sounds like — a generally smart, reasoning entity that can tackle many varied tasks and learn from lived experience
• Narrow AI on the other hand is fantastically efficient at performing a particular task — so it’s never going to learn how to read the kids their bedtime stories!

Expert consensus says that General AI has a long way to go before it is ready to enter mainstream usage and deliver tangible value on a large scale.

Narrow AI, on the other hand, will become more and more useful to us. The only factor holding it back is us — specifically, the speed at which humans can define the problems for it to solve and build the data sets needed to train the algorithms. When used well, Narrow AI will continue to help remove toil from our everyday tasks.

A word on bad data

When used correctly and responsibly, AI is capable of contributing great value to our lives. When used incorrectly, there can be terrible consequences.

One of the contributors to negative AI outcomes is bad data. The good news is that there is a really simple way to avoid these negative consequences, and this is to keep accurate, up-to-date and consistently categorised accounts.

Data is the food for powerful AI. By feeding AI algorithms with great data, you’re less likely to run into trouble.

Understand bookkeeping in the time that it takes to order takeaway.

By the time you find the number of the local pizzeria and argue with the kids over what to order, we’ll teach you about bookkeeping.

We’ll satisfy your curiosity over what a bookkeeper actually does, how they’re different to an accountant and how to work with your bookkeeper.

And we’ll do it in about five minutes of reading time.

Top 3 takeaways

1. Bookkeepers are involved in the day-to-day financial running of a business. They typically record revenue and expenses, prepare wages and maintain accounting systems.
2. One way to remember the difference between bookkeepers and accountants is that bookkeepers record business data and accountants analyse the data.
3. Consider hiring a bookkeeper as soon as you start your business to get your financial records right from the start.

Stay in the know

Sign up for added insights and business-critical news from MYOB.Submit

If your business isn’t making money, it won’t last.

It’s important to make sure you have someone in your business who knows exactly what financial state it’s in. That’s why bookkeepers can be a huge help.

Bookkeepers are the people who deal with the cash flow of your business on a day-to-day basis. Having a good bookkeeper and establishing good bookkeeping practices will help your business thrive.

---

What is bookkeeping?

---

Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions for a business. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other business episodes.

---

What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?

---

A good way to think about this is that the bookkeeper keeps financial records about your business activities, while your accountant will analyse these records and give you advice on how to act accordingly.

Sometimes it can be hard to understand the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant – especially since many accountants may perform bookkeeping duties as well as accounting duties.

---

What qualifications do you need for bookkeeping?

---

To keep financial records in your own business, you don’t need any qualifications. But you do need to know what’s involved and how to manage all the different types of financial data and processes that you must stay on top of to be compliant. This can take a lot of commitment, time and reading – it’s not a business function that can be skimped on.

To become a professional bookkeeper and manage other people’s business data and record-keeping, you’ll need some training and certification. There may also be legal requirements for setting up a bookkeeping business. For example, to provide BAS and GST services you need to be registered as a BAS agent.

---

What do bookkeepers do?

---

Bookkeepers are the financial record-keepers of a business. They collect invoices and receipts, record cash flow, pay wages and prepare tax documents.

These are some of the tasks that bookkeepers perform.

1. Manage accounting systems

Getting your accounting system set up and maintained requires close attention. A bookkeeper will help you get your accounts and invoicing set up, and get your clients into the system – and will keep it all up to date.

2. Process invoices, receipts, payments and other financial transactions

A good bookkeeper will make sure invoices are sent promptly, follow up on late payments and manage all cash coming into the business.

A bookkeeper will manage all invoices, receipts, payments and other financial transactions by entering them into the system regularly and accurately, and allocate them to the correct accounts in your accounting software.

3. Manage payroll

A bookkeeper can check timesheets, allocate any commission payable, calculate payroll tax and superannuation, and keep accurate employee records including their bank account details.

Payroll also needs to be processed through both the accounting system and the bank account.

4. Prepare financial statements

A bookkeeper will provide regular financial reports, producing weekly or monthly reports that provide useful information on your business performance

Bookkeepers will also prepare important financial reports like profit and loss, balance sheet, budgets and cash-flow forecasts that will give you all the information you need to improve the financial performance of your business.

5. Reconcile accounts and prepare reconciliation reports

All business expenses need to be recorded and reconciled to any purchase orders and receipts of delivery.

A bookkeeper takes on this role and can enter any petty cash and credit card purchases into your accounting system.

They can also monitor who is spending what and identify any potential excess expenditure.

6. Manage any loans or debt repayments

If you have any business loans or debt repayments, a bookkeeper can manage and report on these as well.

7. Calculate GST & prepare and lodge your BAS

Your bookkeeper should be a registered BAS agent, which means that they can prepare your BAS in line with the ATO requirements.

They will also be able to prepare any payroll tax and superannuation records and payments.

8. Prepare forecasts for your business

A forecast contains fixed costs, variable costs, revenue and cash flow and helps you plan for your business’ financial needs.

A bookkeeper can help you manage this, ideally a few times a year.

---

When should I hire a bookkeeper?

---

Getting your financial processes set up as soon as you start your business is one of the best things you can do as a business owner. A bookkeeper should be one of the first people you hire.

Bookkeepers often work as freelancers, so you can employ them on an hourly basis. In the start-up phase of your business, you may only need them for a few hours a week.

Beyond an initial consultation with an accountant to set up the legal and tax structures of your business, a bookkeeper will look after the day-to-day running of your business.

---

How to work with your bookkeeper

---

One of the benefits of hiring a freelance bookkeeper is that you can work with them remotely. Many bookkeepers work from home or online, which will help you keep your business overheads down.

Here are some tips for building a good working relationship with your bookkeeper.

1. Work out the terms of your arrangement

Whenever you start working with someone, discuss the responsibilities and expectations of both parties.

Discuss the tasks you need done and ask for an estimate of how much that will cost you. They’ll probably want set boundaries around their working conditions and how available they’ll be for your business on a weekly basis.

2. Find out how you prefer to communicate with each other

Good communication is crucial for any professional relationship to work.

Whether you prefer to communicate via email, text message or phone call is something you should discuss with your bookkeeper.

As your business grows and their role in it evolves, keeping communication open and honest will help maintain a good working relationship.

3. Have regular catch-ups

Even if they work from home, having face-to-face meetings, either in real life or via video call, will go a long way towards making sure you’re both on the same page.

Consider catching up every fortnight or once a month.

There can be a lot of competing priorities for a small business. But there’s one thing that shouldn’t be overlooked, or treated as a ‘nice to have’. It’s customer success. A strong customer success strategy can help you increase customer loyalty, increase revenue, reduce churn – and encourage your customers to become ambassadors for your business. 

So what is customer success? The best way I can describe customer success is that it helps customers maximise the value they can get from your product or services through their entire lifetime. Traditional customer support is reactive, while customer success is proactive, in the moment and relevant to each customer. 

Read the full article - The importance of customer success for your small business | Xero Blog

1. Bookkeepers are involved in the day-to-day financial running of a business. They typically record revenue and expenses, prepare wages and maintain accounting systems.
2. One way to remember the difference between bookkeepers and accountants is that bookkeepers record business data and accountants analyse the data.
3. Consider hiring a bookkeeper as soon as you start your business to get your financial records right from the start.

If your business isn’t making money, it won’t last.

It’s important to make sure you have someone in your business who knows exactly what financial state it’s in. That’s why bookkeepers can be a huge help.

Bookkeepers are the people who deal with the cash flow of your business on a day-to-day basis. Having a good bookkeeper and establishing good bookkeeping practices will help your business thrive.

Read the full article - https://www.myob.com/au/blog/bookkeeping-basics/

The uncertainty of last year is in the rearview. A bumpy road still lies ahead. Businesses need to understand and manage their finances to not just survive but thrive. Take a view of the 13 tips for surviving 2021.

https://bit.ly/3tZRdRh

"Small gestures — whether signage or speech, body language or handwritten messages — send big signals about who we are, what we care about, and why we do what we do." A good reminder to never underestimate the power of a small gesture.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/2vh35VF