REQUIRED - small business accountant melbourne inner eastern suburbs

[brad black]

anyone know a good one?

how about a bank?  i guess i'll need credit card facilites, etc.

man there's a lot of stuff to do.

[madalf71]

Howdy Brad.

All the tradies and small business's I know use the Bendigo Bank.
Been researching this myself and the big 4 slam the fees on.
Not sure if they have a branch near you.

Cheers.
Madalf.

[G]

Brad,

I'd check with your professional associations (e.g. VACC or Institute of Engineers) to see if there are particular banks they go with. Sometimes they offer a discounted rate on credit card merchant facilities. From recollection, I think the order of difference was a reduction from 3 down to  1.9% per transaction. It doesn't sound like much, but it does reduce your costs.

Cheers,
G

[DosVerde]

I have mate in Thornbury who has worked for one of the St Kilda Rd accounting firms and is currently with one of the big 4 banks. He has been building up his own business which he is workng on going fulltime with, he does my accounts as well. He is a real down to earth guy and has done alot of small business accounting in the country. PM me if you're interested.

And all the best for the new venture 

[Speeddog]

You don't *have* to get credit card facilities, but it's good.

I'm currently in the process of getting the capability of running credit cards via my PC / online.
Monthly costs are lower than doing it through a bank.
Not sure if that's any help at all in Oz, as I'm in California... 

[brad black]

thanks dos.  i'll keep that in mind.  i have seen someone who gave me some good info at no cost, but they're not really a long term prospect as we'd have to pay a lot for them.

one of my mates told me the commonwealth is offering the internet card system, about $30 a month.  i couldn't find it on their web site tho.  it'll cost me $40 for a phone line to take the eftpos machine (shared with fax most likely) and $30 a month for the machine, so the internet card system would be cheaper.

the last few months at moto i was handling all the workshop admin, and it was almost a novelty to get paid in cash.  but when someone comes in with $1,500 or so in cash then you have to get rid of it and the time you lose going to the bank once would almost pay for the eftpos machine for the month.  if everyone paid in cash then i'd have a fair amount of cash to carry around, etc, which i don't really want.  plus you have to keep a lot of change, etc.

[bigiain]

it was almost a novelty to get paid in cash.  but when someone comes in with $1,500 or so in cash then you have to get rid of it and the time you lose going to the bank once would almost pay for the eftpos machine for the month.

As a customer, eftpos is great - if you _don't_ have it, I've got to make arrangements to get the cash out (this is mainly a concern for when the cash required is more than the daily ATM withdrawal limit), which is _way_ more hassle then giving you my card and keying in my pin.

Credit card facilities are also nice, for those times when I'd rather a new set of tires goes on Mr Visa's account for a month rather than mine. I guess it depends on how much of your business ends up being new tires/brake pads/chain and sprockets - the sort of "emergency" stuff that people might need done right now but not have the cash on hand, compared to major services or complete rebuilds which are more likely to be budgeted for. (and that's the "real world" comparison, not the "what I'd _like_ the business to be" version... No matter _how_ much you want it, your business is not going to mainly be race builds for 1098's and MV F4 1000s...)

big

[WTSDS]

Any accountant should be able to set you up. You'll need to get a business name, an ABN and a bank account with credit card facilities.

The banks are all stinkers. Find one with an ATM which is convenient and takes cash and credit card deposits, you'll never have time to do banking during the day when you run your own business.

I've been self employed many decades and trade on the road so to speak. These days I use a manual card swiper and paper forms - no worries about finding a phone connection or using mobile eftpos machines. If I'm pulling over $150 out of someone's card I must make a phone call to check the dough is available, and if less than that with a suss customer I can also do the check. Only takes 30 seconds

I only take Visa and MasterCard, the others are a pain to deal with.   99.999 % have either of those cards and the occasional  punter who doesn't can go visit a bank to get cash.

Remember, it's your business, and you can dictate how ya wanna get paid.

And, hey, lemme know when you are up and running, my babe is almost due for it's 40 K service. Since it had it's 20 K service at Moto One just over 2 years ago it has been running like ( dare I say it ) a new Jap 'bike.

[brad black]

realistically, i'll do all i can to be paid by card or bank transfer even.  cash is just a pain in the arse, especially if it's a lot as you need to bank it and that's the hassle.  i hadn't thought of using the atm for deposits, but that might be an idea.  at moto only one job in twenty or even thirty would have been paid for in cash, everything else was card.

i have a business name, abn and registered for gst.  bank i'll do once the premises is secured, which will hopefully be very soon as i need to move the stuff out of moto fairly quickly and i'd rather have it all out if you know what i mean.  i don't think 120m2 is really going to be enough, but most places are that or over 200m2 and priced accordingly.  but i don't want to wait too long as i need to get in and set it up and earning.