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Meet The Team : Jo Jury

Next up in our Meet The Team series, we have the lovely Jo Jury!What do you do at My Two Cents? I love helping our clients with their day to day bookkeeping and I have a keen focus on improving cashflow through using good debtor management processes and software. How long have you been with MTC?  I started with MTC in February 2020. What do you love about being an all female team? Women understand women!  We have a great team who work well together, understand we all have f...

Meet The Team : Charlotte Hill

What do you do at My Two Cents? Administrator, looking after all the behind the scenes work.  How long have you been with MTC?  6 months (wow, that's gone quick!) What do you love about being an all female team?The laughs..... but more than just that - such a supportive team, I am lucky to be working with a team of amazing ladies who are incredibly clever at what they do. If you weren't doing your current job, what would you like to do?I'd be a Travel Agent again (which I use...

Meet The (ever-expanding) Team: Our Fearless Leader Haley Reyners

The team at My Two Cents has expanded; We are now a crew of 11!  It's also very exciting that the entire team are all women, which is fantastic to see in a male dominated field.  We thought this would be a great time to include some fun -get to know the team- interviews, and of course, what is any team without their leader! So with that, if you have not already met the vivacious Haley Reyners, she is the great mind My Two Cents sprang from. ...

Excise Tax Refunds - could you be due a refund?

With rising fuel costs and financial stresses placed on businesses due to economic uncertainties, we want to make sure that clients are clawing back on costs in any way possible. A lot of you have off-road vehicles, plant or equipment that you fill with petrol. Some of you may not know, but the excise tax paid at the pump can be claimed back!  NZ Petrol refunds is a registered excise tax agency that works directly with businesses to process claims. We would encourage you to get in touch wit...

Do you need help managing your debtors?

Does this scenario sound familiar? We complete a job for a customer or client, invoice it out with agreed payment terms, payment due date rolls around but no payment is received. We send an email or a text to remind the customer - maybe they forgot? It happens. A couple of days later - still no payment. As time goes on, it starts becoming awkward asking for the money we are rightfully owed - what happens now? Unfortunately this scenario is all to common for small businesses, and can result in a ...

Business support under the COVID Protection Framework

Issued from IRD, November 2021: The Minister of Finance has announced a number of changes to the financial support for businesses once New Zealand moves into the COVID Protection Framework at 11.59pm on December 2nd. The changes are as follows: There will be a one-off Transition Payment to acknowledge the restrictions businesses have faced due to the higher Alert Levels in in Auckland, Waikato and Northland. This payment operates in the same way as the Resurgence Support Payments, with the same ...

MTC plans under the new Covid-19 Protection Framework

From 3rd December 2021, the new Covid-19 Protection Framework will be in place.  As we are based in Northland, we will start under the Red Light settings. This limits who we can have in the office and how client meetings will look going forward. We hope that under Orange and Green, we can reassess the measures we have chosen, but at this stage we will have to go forward as detailed below. The decision we have made is to protect our staff, and families. As most of our clients know, our ...

Rental Tax Changes

With the Government's latest legislation changes to remove various tax deductions and previously introducing ring-fencing on rental losses - residential rental properties aren't the great investment that they once were. Property is still a great investment, in that you will nearly always make gains on the sale of the property. Actually being a landlord though, has very little attraction or benefit anymore. The Government previously released draft legislation around the removal of tax deductions ...

New COVID-19 Framework and Business Support

The Government’s announcement on the next stage in the COVID-19 response plan introduces a new framework of measures that will commence when 90% of eligible New Zealanders are fully vaccinated. The new framework has three levels: Red, Orange and Green. Each has different levels of restrictions. At all levels businesses will be able to operate, in some form, for vaccinated people. The advice states, If a business, organisation or service does not wish to request proof of vaccine, they will...

Update and Check in.....

It's been some time since we last wrote an update or did a post. We have been very, very busy working through wage subsidies, RSP payments, tax returns, GST returns, AIM returns, as well as working from home and trying to educate and entertain children. Most of NZ is in the same boat being at L3 and it makes being in business really tough. We are a small family business as well, so we are not immune from all these things. Please be patient with the team and be kind. We share your frustrations an...

Improve your cashflow with great debtor management processes

Good cashflow is the lifeblood of business.  Without it the day to day and long term growth of your business will be impacted. In an ideal world every business would receive 100% payment up front before their customers take possession of the goods or the services you provide.  But the reality is that very few businesses work on that model.  So for those who offer credit terms to their customers Debtor Management is a crucial component of good business management.  You have so...

ICNZB Bookkeeper and Bookkeeping Business of the Year 2021

Wow! I'll think I'll be on cloud nine for the next few weeks. What an amazing end to the annual ICNZB conference - Haley and the My Two Cents Team have taken out both of the top awards for the ICNZB Annual Awards Ceremony - Bookkeeper of the Year and Bookkeeping Business of the Year 2021. Every year bookkeepers from all over NZ flock to the annual ICNZB conference for two days of networking, learning, and meeting with industry specialists from all over - and to have fun of course! This year the ...

Building your most important asset – your team

When you’re running a small business, you’re only as good as the team around you. Hiring the right people is a start, but how do you turn your employees into a well-oiled dream team? Here are five tips to get you started: Get to know them - Different backgrounds and personalities typically come with different strengths. By really getting to know your employees and what makes them tick, you can harness their strengths in a way that complements the overall team.Involve them early and ofte...

The 39% tax rate - Your questions answered

Individuals earning over $180,000 a year will now pay a 39% tax rate, which came into effect on 1 April 2021. If this includes you, are you aware of how your tax obligations change when it comes to shares, property, FBT, superannuation tax, or trusts?The 39% tax rate and trustsFrom now on, you’ll need to disclose a lot more information to Inland Revenue in your annual trust tax returns. The additional information will provide the Government with information on how trusts are being used, partic...

What is depreciation? And why is it important?

Something we see time and time again when clients have done their own tax returns, or engaged somebody who isn't quite up to the job, is a lack of claiming depreciation. Almost all businesses will have assets, and if you don't claim depreciation against these assets you may be paying more tax than you need to. Depreciation is what happens when business assets lose value over time. It’s an all to often forgotten cost of doing business – but it shouldn’t be. Here’s why depreciation is so i...

The minimum wage increases on April 1st 2021

From April 1 2021, the adult mimimum wage will increase from the current rate of $18.90 per hour to $20 per hour.There are 3 types of minimum wage — adult, starting-out and training.The adult minimum wage - applies to employees aged 16 years or older.The starting out minimum wage - applies to workers who are:16 and 17 years old and have been with their current employer for less than 6 months18 and 19 years old:have been paid a benefit for 6 months or morehaven’t worked for 1 em...

Should you buy or lease your business assets?

There are certain items of equipment and machinery that are essential to the operation of your business – whether it’s the delivery van you use to run your home-delivery food service, or the high-end digital printer you use to run your print business.But when a critical business asset is required, should you buy this item outright, or should you lease the item and pay for it in handy monthly instalments?To buy or to lease? That is the questionBuying new pieces of business equipment, plant, m...

Tenancy laws are changing in NZ

New legislation in NZ tenancy law brings in a number of changes for landlords and tenants. Below are some of the changes:Increasing rent - From 12 August 2020, rent increases are limited to once every 12 months. This is a change from once every 180 days (six months).Required notice periods are changing - If the landlord or a family member is moving in, the notice period is 63 days notice and if the property is being sold, landlords must give 90 days.Ending periodic tenancies - Und...

Selling with Empathy

Everyone has been affected by Covid-19 and lockdowns. Some people are worried about job security and spending cash. Others have the cash they’d usually spend on overseas holidays available to spend locally. To recover from such a major economic downturn, we need to increase our business activity and sales. So, how do we do this while being mindful of the struggles our customers have faced? The last thing we want is to come across as opportunistic or pushy and damage our brand. The answer lies ...

Building a Better Business in 10 Steps

You’re in business, congratulations, that takes courage and commitment.It’s not easy, and at times you might question why you’re even doing it, particularly after the impact Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns had on business. But you’re here because you had a vision. You decided being in business was a better way to achieve that vision than working for someone else. And, you’re right; you just have to work on it. It's likely that you're an expert at what you do… may...

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very merry Christmas and seriously well-deserved end of year break. Stay safe and spend time with loved ones. 2020 has been a very challenging year for everyone. Small business in NZ has changed for good, and the way we did things before will not be the same again. This year we have been so proud to work with an amazing bunch of clients, you have all showed so much resilience and strength and managed to get through the tough times with your businesses and sanity mostly intact. ...

When life gives you lemons, pivot

The world of business has been transformed this year and the only way forward is to adapt.  When we have had advisory meetings with our clients, there has been much discussion about diversifying product or service offerings; and pivoting business to be able to make the most of the situation we find ourselves in. It's time to be creative and think outside the square, to be able to drive your business forward. Here are two businesses who pivoted their business offerings, to keep the invoices ...

Top Tips for Prospering in a Pandemic

There has been much discussion in our office about what a business owner can do to keep their business - not only trading but successful, in the current climate. Business is challenging at the best of times, now more than ever. There will be some tough decisions to make, but also new opportunities that could lead to a different way of doing business. Be open minded!Zoe has come up with her top tips to help your business prosper during a pandemic.1. Diversify your business - new product or s...

Running effective online meetings

In these unprecedented times, businesses must adapt to remain productive. Staff must be able to work remotely to keep the business going. If face-to-face meetings are a key part of your daily business operation, here are some tips to take your meetings online with minimal disruption. Find the best system for you.There's a range of free or low-cost platforms, including GoToMeeting, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and TeamViewer.Before you choose one, consider:How many people generally attend your meetings...

Time management tips I swear by!

Good time management is crucial to sustain or increase productivity at work. But everyday brings new distractions that take your attention away from what needs to be done - phone calls, emails, unexpected client queries that need to be actioned NOW. Before you know it, it's 5pm and you have achieved nothing that you set out to get done that morning. Sound familiar? This is a normal day in the office for me. My biggest struggle running a business is being time poor. There seem to never be enough ...