Time is money – bookkeeping reinvented

Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Amy Hua and it’s been almost five months since I started with Gilligan Sheppard, and I would like to express my gratitude to all of you; thank you for being so welcoming. While this is a new beginning, by no means is this an unfamiliarity, having known both Yi Ping Ge and Kathy Xiong for over twenty years, Gilligan Sheppard is already a second family.

I left my position as senior accountant at Globus, following the relocation of their finance department to Sydney. Globus was a global travel company I devoted thirteen years to, and the idea of ending my decade long tenure to embark on a new journey was simply foreign; it never occurred to the Amy five months prior. At least, not until a fated encounter with Yi Ping.

Over a two-hour discussion at a restaurant, Yi Ping and I both saw the potential in bookkeeping, this combined with her sincerity convincing me to join the Gilligan Shepard family as the bookkeeping team leader with Gilligan Sheppard. The following weeks were spent planning the future bookkeeping, and it was a team effort that saw my seamless transition to Gilligan Sheppard.

From February to March, Yi Ping and I developed a new service module we call ‘combined service’ which has already secured many happy clients. This has extended our bookkeeping service from Xero coding for GST returns, to daily business support including payments, payroll, internal system set ups, reporting and financial controls to avoid errors, fraud and theft.

I have summarised some crucial steps for good bookkeeping:

1. Understanding the client’s business to be able to analyse financial transactions and assign them to specific accounts
2. Establishing a system for organising receipts and other important records
3. Identifying the accounting method – cash or accrual?
4. Paying extra attention to the following types of receipts: meals and entertainment, out of town business, vehicle related expenses, repairs and maintenance
5. Making sure at the end of month to check the AP (accounts payable) & AR (accounts receivable) aged report agrees with the GL (general ledger) balance, determining whether any past due balance is to be written off and any aging receivables to be applied to unapplied credits
6. Confirm that the intercompany account has the same balance in each entity’s books
7. Prepayment – verify that balances agree to supporting schedule and can be traced to payment for items paid for in advance and confirming the reasonable amount has been recognised as monthly expenses, for example, a lease schedule
8. A procedure followed by the team at the end of every month to close the period. Once closed, no entries will be posted in the closed period. Doing this also helps in early identification of any accounting or bank related issues rather than at the end of the year. 

The bookkeeping combined service is still under development, straying from the traditional service we have provided our clients. As per the old quote “time is money”, this combined service will help you save both. If you are interested, please get in touch and we can meet to discuss your requirements.