Business ratio
Learn 3 simple business ratios to identify negative trends in your business in less time than it takes to read your favourite newspaper.
Business ratios are tools that help you in evaluating the current performance of your business. They are also very effective in helping you detect problem areas within your business before they get out [...]
Why you should become a company
The New Zealand company tax rate was reduced from 33 to 30 percent from the beginning of the 2008/2009 income year – usually 1 April 2008 for companies with a standard 31 March balance date.
This applies to companies and other entities defined as companies by the Income Tax Act, including incorporated societies and unit trusts.
You’ll [...]
Use your home as a genuine business deduction
Your home office is likely to be one of your biggest business deductions.
Ask any proactive tax accountant or business person and they’ll likely agree with me. Recorded properly, this is one of the all around best deductions dollar for dollar.
Since you probably work at home, quite a bit, you’ll be saving big money just by [...]
Why your bank account may not reflect the sales that you have made
If you are just starting out with your small business, it could be that you are not too comfortable with the “ins” and “outs” of financial management. You may have been misled into thinking that your bank account is a good way to measure the sales that your business has made in a certain period [...]
Impress your bank manager! How to read your profit & loss account report
If you are relatively new to the business arena, you’re probably not too good at reading financial statements. But for someone who is planning to start a small business, it is crucial to learn how to read financial statements and understand what they mean.
Today, we are going to discuss one type of financial statement called [...]
Impress your bank manager! How to read your balance sheet
If you want to do well as a small business owner, it would help you if you could understand the basics of how to read a balance sheet. The balance sheet is an indispensable part of a business accounting information and is essentially a snapshot of a company at a specific point in time.
The balance [...]
Why estate & inheritance planning is so important
Imagine how you would feel if you lost all of your hard earned assets & wealth to a 3rd party or to your offspring’s estranged spouse? Not a pleasant thought is it?
It’s a scary thought but so many families leave their inheritance and estate planning to chance. This article introduces some increasingly popular asset protection, estate [...]
The difference between a margin and a mark-up
I am often asked what the difference is between a margin and a mark-up.
They actually refer to the same thing and it really depends from what perspective you are looking at.
A margin is the difference between the cost of your product and how much you sell it for. Mark-up is the amount you add to [...]
Equipment: Lease versus Purchase
Should you or should you not buy your equipment? Often at times, we are faced with the decision of whether to simply purchase the office equipment we need or lease it for the time being. Depending on your needs, there are upsides and downsides to both leasing and purchasing. Before deciding one way or another, [...]
Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The [...]
