Many small business owners see the end of the financial year (EOFY) as a busy time during which you need to prepare tax returns for the business and group certificates for employees, as well as finalise sales, do stocktakes, and ensure all your financial recordkeeping is in order. The thought of adding another task to that seemingly-endless list can be daunting. However, there is one more important task you need to add to that list: business planning.
EOFY is an ideal time to focus on planning for business growth. Whether you intend to upgrade equipment or buy new assets, or simply revamp your business processes to increase efficiency, the key is to start planning your EOFY activities as early as possible. This ensures you’re taking advantage of the right tax rebates available to your business, reducing the stress of closing out the financial year.
There are six key ways to turn tax time into a growth opportunity for your business:
If you wait until the end of June to consider how to make the most of EOFY, you’ll find it difficult to manage the baseline tax and financial requirements, let alone make time for advanced business planning. It’s important to keep your financial records and processes up to date throughout the financial year so that it’s not a huge burden in June.
This will also free up time to start considering some of the strategies and approaches you want to adopt to facilitate growth in the coming year.
Review your current business plan against actual performance to get a clear picture of where your business currently stands. If you’re on track, great. If you’re not on track or your objectives have changed, now’s the time to tweak or redevelop your business plan to make sure you’re positioned to achieve your goals for the coming year.
This process should include a thorough review of your business’s current capabilities and assets, and a gap assessment so you can see what’s needed to reach the next stage of growth.
Most businesses, regardless of how streamlined and modern, can benefit from regularly revising processes. This can be anything from how you take orders and fulfil goods to how you account for income and pay invoices. In many cases, these processes can be completely or partially automated using technology solutions that are becoming more affordable all the time. Businesses can achieve significant cost savings through automation so it’s well worth investigating the tools that are available.
For example, you could automate the invoice processing workflow to minimise human involvement, reduce errors, and save both time and money.
Reviewing your print policies can help reduce print costs substantially. Simple, free measures such as setting waste-reducing policies like mandating duplex and monochrome printing can shave costs off the top line.
The next level is to implement optimised print services that can leverage even more opportunities to reduce cost. This can include pull printing that requires users to present a swipe card or PIN at the printer before they can collect their printouts. This reduces wasted paper and improves security at the same time, since sensitive documents won’t be left in the output tray.
Optimised print services technology can help you track print costs and tie them back to departments, cost centres, and even individual users. This lets you see exactly what’s going on including who is printing what, how much they’re printing, and how much it costs your business. You can then allocate costs more accurately and even recoup those costs by charging them back to customers.
Another way to reduce costs is to ensure your business is using the latest equipment. If your printer fleet is older, it may not include energy-saving and waste-reducing features that can deliver demonstrable savings. Having efficient and reliable equipment is essential for smooth operations, so it’s worth considering upgrading your fleet.
At the end of the financial year, there are lots of tax rebates and other benefits for businesses investing in assets, so it’s important to speak with your tax advisor regarding what’s available to your business.
Since this year is an election year, there may be changes to the rebates and incentives available. It’s important to stay abreast of these to ensure you maximise the value of your investment. For example, under the current Coalition government, using simplified depreciation rules, you can purchase assets up to $30,000 and instantly write them off as long as your aggregated turnover is less than $50 million. The specifics could change under a Labor government, so it’s essential to get professional advice before investing.
It’s important to purchase the right assets for your business. For example, if you need a new printer fleet, it may not be advisable to simply replace your existing machines like-for-like. A comprehensive review of your print requirements may reveal that you can consolidate your fleet and get better results with fewer machines, while saving money. The same applies to any business asset you may be considering replacing; it’s important to thoroughly research the market and get the best, most advanced equipment you can afford.
To find out more about how Konica Minolta can help you streamline and automate business processes, and optimise your printer fleet, this financial year, contact us today.
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