How To Catch Up On Overdue Business Admin

No one likes doing business admin, but unfortunately there’s a lot to do as a sole trader or independent contractor. Catching up on, and then keeping on top of, your admin will prevent nasty surprises at tax time. Business admin includes lodging your BAS, recording your receipts and invoices, and reconciling accounts. When catching up on overdue admin, you could choose a cost-effective online service like Just Done, or you could attempt to do it yourself. Whatever you choose, these four steps will guide you through the process.

Step 1 – Gather Your Invoices

The first step to catching up on your admin is to gather your invoices and receipts. These will be required at tax time and for some time after in case your returns are audited. Try to keep all of your invoices and receipts, whether hard or soft, in the same place, and try to process them as they arise. However if you haven’t done that, do your best to dig up as many as you can and organise them. Among these documents you’ll need invoices from customer purchases, as well as receipts of your business expenses. If you’re unsure of what business expenses you can claim, see the ATO’s website for deductions you can claim.

Step 2 – Collect Money Owed to You

Once you’ve gathered all your customer invoices and expenses receipts, it’s time to chase up the people who owe you money, your debtors. This may mean getting on the phone and reminding them of what they owe you. If after taking these steps you still have outstanding payments, you can claim these as bad debts on your tax return. However, you will have to prove that you made efforts to chase up money owed to you. If you haven’t done so already, this is also the time to repay any money that you may owe.

Step 3 – Reconcile Your Accounts

Reconciling your accounts involves comparing the record on your bank statement with your business records, as well as your invoices and receipts. Your bank statements should match your business records exactly, and if it doesn’t, you’ll have to go back and work out what went wrong. This step is crucial if you want to avoid creating a big mess and then having to hire an accountant to clean it up.

Step 4 – Do Your BAS

It’s time to lodge your overdue BAS, then stay on top of them. Late BAS can incur fines and penalties from the ATO, so be aware of this in the future. When you’ve got a backlog of repayments to make, you can set up a weekly repayment scheme with the ATO so you don’t do too much damage to your business’s finances. Another strategy to managing your BAS is to have a separate bank account that you put money into regularly to pay for your next BAS.

If you’d like your overdue accounting and tax lodgements cleaned up for you, sign up to Just Done and our people will take it off your hands.