Play in the sand by all means, but don’t bury your head in it.
Sand is important in building like record keeping is to accounting. It is necessary for a strong structure.
What records do business owners need to keep? Lots of payroll records – you need to know the start, finish and break times of staff. If breaks aren’t taken at the right time or staff work too long, overtime becomes payable. The staff don’t have to prove you’ve paid them incorrectly, you need to prove you have paid everyone appropriately.
Apprentices need to attend TAFE.
You need to know where staff are for workers compensation purposes.
Tax needs to be deducted appropriately. The ATO says: Generally, to be able to claim a deduction for the payments you make to your workers, you must first comply with the pay as you go withholding (PAYGW) and reporting obligations for each payment. So if you don’t receive a valid Tax File Number declaration and withhold tax correctly you may not be able to claim the payments as a business expense. Paying workers as contractors when they should be considered employees may also mean no deduction is claimable. And expensive if you later have to pay leave entitlements and super on top of what you have already paid. Like the sea reclaiming your sandcastle.
Do you need help to manage your team? We’d love to help you relax on the sand once you’ve pulled your head out.
