Accurate Accounts

Earning extra cash on the side? The ATO wants to know about it.

With the cost of living putting serious pressure on households, picking up a side hustle through the gig economy is an incredibly smart move.

But whether you are doing freelance work or renting out a spare room, there is one crucial rule you cannot ignore: you must report every single cent you earn to the ATO.

Digital platforms leave a clear paper trail, and the ATO is watching this space closer than ever. You need to declare any payments you receive for:

🔹 Ride-sourcing and delivery services (like Uber, rideshare, or food delivery).
🔹 Short-term accommodation or property sharing (like Airbnb).
🔹 Renting out personal assets (like vehicles, equipment, or even a parking space).
🔹 Creating or selling digital content and online goods.
🔹 Task-based or freelance services arranged online (like Airtasker or Fiverr).

How do you actually report it?

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗕𝗡: You must include this in the 'Other income' section of your individual tax return.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗕𝗡): Include it as business income in the 'Business and professional items' section of your individual return.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆: This must be included as assessable income on your company tax return.

Review your income carefully and make sure everything from your digital platforms is accounted for before you hit submit.

If you are staring at your Xero dashboard or feeling completely lost inside MYOB, you are not alone. Accounting software is meant to make your life easier, but it can be incredibly frustrating when you do not know how to utilise its features properly.

Did you know the team at Accurate Accounts offers dedicated training?

We can get you fully up to speed and entering your data with absolute confidence in no time. Whether you want to master the basics of invoicing, learn how to reconcile properly, or just stop guessing where to code your expenses, we can show you exactly how it is done.

The best part? This service is not just for our existing bookkeeping clients. It is open to any Perth business owner who wants to level up their financial skills and maybe even make their tax accountant's life a little bit easier at the end of the financial year!

Stop battling with your software. Give us a call today on (08) 6243 1623 or send an email to [email protected] to find out how we can tailor a training session just for you.

Cybercrime is not going away anytime soon. For business owners, prioritising your cyber security is absolutely vital. While having insurance is a helpful safety net, the primary goal must always be stopping breaches before they happen.

Investing in a reliable anti-virus program is a great first step, but it will not catch everything. Sophisticated attacks, like email intercept scams, are designed to bypass your software by tricking you or your team directly.

These scams occur when a hacker intercepts an email and quietly changes a supplier's payment details. Because the email looks perfectly legitimate, the change often goes completely unchecked until weeks later when the real supplier asks why they have not been paid.

The fix is surprisingly simple: adopt a strict verification process. Whenever you receive a request to change payment details, pick up the phone and call the supplier directly on a trusted, previously established number to confirm it.

Stay vigilant, keep your team informed, and regularly check the ACCC website for the latest scam alerts. Staying up-to-date is the best way to stay one step ahead of potential threats.

For a lot of business owners, payroll is a weekly headache. Between tracking fluctuating hours, keeping up with changing award rates, and managing superannuation compliance, it takes up a serious amount of your valuable time.

And if you rely on a single staff member to run it, a simple sick day or holiday can throw your entire week into chaos.

Outsourcing your payroll to Accurate Accounts completely eliminates that risk. You get a dedicated team ensuring continuity of service, meaning your staff are paid accurately and on time, every single time, no matter what.

But it is not just about avoiding disruptions. Handing your payroll to professionals means:

☑️ Reduced costs: You save thousands on internal administrative labor.

☑️ Flawless compliance: We minimise errors on PAYG, super, and payroll tax, keeping the ATO happy.

☑️ Up-to-date tech: You never have to worry about updating software or changing tax tables again.

Let us handle the numbers securely so you can focus on building your team and growing your operations.

Give the Accurate Accounts team a call on (08) 6243 1623 today to get a seamless payroll system sorted.

Manual data entry is one of the biggest time drains for a growing business. If you are still manually typing out invoices or matching bank lines 1 by 1, you are doing it the hard way.

Automation is no longer a option, it's a neccessity if you ever expect to not be IN your business in the future.

The right cloud accounting software, like Xero, acts like a 24/7 digital admin assistant. It can automatically chase up late-paying clients, read the data off your receipts, and reconcile your regular bank transactions for you.

When you automate the backend of your business, you instantly free up hours to focus on what actually generates revenue: looking after your customers and finding new ones.

If you are not sure if your current setup is doing the heavy lifting, here are 3 simple steps:

1️⃣ Make a list of the manual tasks you hate doing every single week.

2️⃣ Do a little research into the automation tools or add-ons that can handle them.

3️⃣ Talk to your bookkeeper to ensure it is the right fit for your specific business.

The time you save, over a year, through even the simplest automations, is astonishing and it will definitely motivate you to find more.

It is incredibly common for business owners to miss an ATO deadline simply because they are busy running their actual operations. But those late fees and penalties add up fast.

It might sound basic, but setting a simple calendar alarm is a highly effective way to stay on track. Jump onto the ATO website, find your specific lodgement dates, and set a reminder for at least 7 days before the actual deadline. That gives you a solid buffer to gather your paperwork without the last-minute panic.

But if that still sounds like too much admin, you can hand the entire process over to us.

At Accurate Accounts, our bookkeeping services ensure your lodgements and payments are calculated correctly and submitted on time, every single time. You never have to check the ATO calendar again.

Give us a call on (08) 6243 1623 or for a free review and quote today.

Running a business without a budget is like driving with your eyes closed. You might be moving forward, but you have no idea what is coming next.

A good budget does not exist to restrict your spending or tie you down. It is simply a clear financial roadmap for the next 12 months. It helps you anticipate exactly what is coming so you can plan for the slow seasons and capitalise on the busy ones.

More importantly, having a baseline means you can easily check if your real-life spending actually matches your original plan. When you compare the two, you can quickly spot expensive habits or sneaky price increases from suppliers, and fix them before they seriously drain your cash flow.

If sitting down to map out an entire year of expenses sounds completely overwhelming, we can take it off your hands.

Accurate Accounts can build a practical, easy-to-read budget tailored exactly to your goals, freeing you up to focus on what you do best: actually growing your business.

For product-based businesses, your COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) is so much more than just a boring accounting term. It is the ultimate health check for your financials.

Instead of getting bogged down in complex formulas and spreadsheets, just think of it like this: it is the direct, total cost of creating or buying the exact products you sold this month. It covers the raw materials, the wholesale purchase price, and the direct labour it took to get that item ready to sell.

Knowing this exact figure is crucial. It tells you if you are pricing your products correctly, helps you spot hidden tax deductions, and shows you exactly where you can improve your profit margins.

The easiest way to keep your Cost of Goods Sold perfectly accurate, without having to do the manual math yourself, is to use a reliable inventory tracking system that connects directly to Xero.

When your inventory software talks to your accounting software, you get a real-time picture of your true profit.

If you are still guessing your margins or struggling to track your stock, the Accurate Accounts team can help you set up a system that does the heavy lifting for you.

As your business scales, the financial admin workload gets heavy fast. You should not have to be the CEO, HR manager, and bookkeeper all at once!

That is exactly why we created the Prestige Package. Starting from $1095 a month, it is essentially having an entire off-site finance team in your corner to take absolutely everything off your plate.

We handle it all:

✅ Complete payroll and superannuation management

✅ Single-click supplier payments

✅ BAS preparation and lodgement

✅ Monthly financial reporting reviewed by a CPA

✅ Multi-currency and 3rd party app integrations

The best part? You get total peace of mind with zero lock-in contracts and fully transparent pricing.

Ready to stop drowning in high-level admin and step back into the CEO role?

Call us on (08) 6243 1623 or visit bleow to see the full breakdown. 👇

We all know the routine: you promise yourself you will sort out the receipts on Sunday afternoon. Sunday turns into next weekend. Suddenly, it is the end of the quarter and you are staring at a messy Xero file at 11 PM, stressed that you are going to make an expensive mistake on your lodgements.

There is a huge difference between being great at what your business does and being an expert in tax compliance.

Handing your bookkeeping over to a professional is not just about keeping the ATO off your back. It is about buying back your own time and your sanity. When you outsource to Accurate Accounts, you get your weekends back. You get the peace of mind knowing the numbers are 100% correct without having to double-check everything yourself.

Plus, instead of just guessing how you are doing based on whatever is left in the bank account, we can show you a clear picture of exactly where your money is going.

If you are ready to ditch the late-night data entry, call us on (08) 6243 1623. Let us handle the paperwork so you can get back to actually running your business (or just enjoying your Sunday).