Acumen Accounting & Business Services is a progressive accounting practice focused on servicing small to medium sized businesses, and individuals focused on creating wealth. We provided a full compliance service for our clients which includes advice in the areas of income tax, capital gains tax, fringe benefits tax, GST, installment tax, administering and running SMSF’s, and other taxation and compliance advice. We also provide business advice that focuses on growing and improving our clients businesses. This service includes;

·       Business diagnostics, the analysis of your business to identify possible issues, untapped potential, and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).

·       Strategic planning, developing forward looking business plans and strategies to deal with issues involving the growth of your business. We can also help with the implementation of an advisory board to help with corporate governance and provide independent advice on strategic and operational issues facing your business.

·       Structuring and asset protection, advice on structures that provide an effective operational environment while reducing risk to business and personal assets.

·       In addition we provide advice on buying, selling or setting up businesses and succession planning.

Accounting & Taxation Services

Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF's) offer a great opportunity for business owners and high income individuals to make their superannuation work for them. This opportunity is not only in the accumulation phase but also in the pension phase. By utilising a SMSF individuals have greater control over how their super money is invested. This allows them to use their own expertise to invest in areas they know.

We can help you set up your Self Managed Super Fund and guide you, or administer the fund. A superannuation fund is highly regulated, and trustees need to understand all issues involved in running and administering the SMSF. This is where we can help to ensure you meet your regulatory obligations, and provide advice on strategies to utilise your superannuation fund in the best possible way. 

With the recent changes in superannuation the federal government has made SMSF's highly attractive, particularly in the pension phase where you can now have very flexible control of your super.

While SMSF's offer great opportunities they also bring with them great responsibility. SMSF's are highly regulated, and require careful administration to ensure the fund does not inadvertently breach the SIS Act as there are strong penalties for breaches under the act.

There are numerous types of business structures, while many are very similar they all offer slightly different benefits and disadvantages. Choosing the correct structure for your particular business should be done with regard to not only your present situation but also the future direction of the business, as it can often be difficult and costly to restructure your business.                                  

If you need to restructure your business for what every reason you need to prepare and plan the structure carefully. Restructure can be achieved in most cases within reasonable costs as long as you fully understand the goals you are trying to achieve.

You need to consider who will hold equity in the business, who you will be dealing with, the types and levels of risk the business and the owners will be facing, and many other factors. Many business start off as sole traders or partnerships as they are relatively cheap to set up and maintain, however as your business grows these structures have inherent risks and can make it difficult to grow your business.

An example of the importance of a businesses structure is the R & D tax incentives, these are only available to companies. Many businesses fail to claim these deductions or are unable to access them. If you are starting a business and R & D is a large part of the business you need consider carefully how you structure your business.

Your business structure is integral to protecting your assets and should be well thought through before setting it up. If your business is changing and you feel your structure is no longer suitable it is important to seek advice as there may be ways of reducing the cost of changing your structure.

Strategic planning is the process of developing a common set of goals that will determine the direction of your business, a strategic plan is dynamic and can change over time. Part of this is to articulate a map for the business to achieve these goals. Strategic planning is an important part of developing your business.

In developing a strategic plan a facilitated meeting is conducted with the businesses stakeholders , this can included managers, shareholders, key staff, operational staff representatives. As part of this business owners might also meet with key suppliers and customers to see how any decisions may affect them. The objective is to form a baseline of expectations for the business, and assess whether the business is meeting those expectations. From this a strategic plan is developed with a set of actions and goals. These meetings will also establish who will be responsible for ensuring the established actions and goals are followed through.

Strategic planning is an ongoing process and should be part of regular business meetings. All businesses whether sloe traders or large companies should have some form of board meeting. This is time dedicated to addressing the businesses big picture. Important decisions should never be made off the cuff or on the run, but planned and deliberately implemented. Strategic decisions are separate to day to day operational decisions. Strategic decisions affect the viability and profitability of your business.

All businesses no matter their size should have regular meetings in which important decisions are discussed and decided. For want of a better term these can be called board meetings. The board meeting may consist of just you and your partner, or it may be representatives from your business and include external advisors like your accountant. This provides the business with a more diverse and challenging arena in which to measure performance and float new ideas.

A good board structure for most small to medium businesses would be the business owners, senior management and an external director/advisor like your accountant. They would meet for two hours every month to review the business and discuss any up coming decisions.

Business diagnostics and development, is a process of assessing the clients business to identify areas within the business that are underperforming or restricting growth. From the initial diagnostic stage strategies are developed in consultation with the clients to address the identified issues.

We use a number of tools to help diagnose problems within the business, questionnaires, financial analysis, systems audits and observation. From this we develop strategies in consultation with the clients to overcome these issues. A major part of this is setting priorities and identifying the resources needed. Forward plans are formulated and put into action to implement, monitor and assess the progress of the strategies.

We educate clients in the use of cashflows, budgets and KPI’s to monitor progress. Regular meeting are held to to ensure the strategies are working.

In today's every changing and competitive market small and medium business need to take a large business approach. Using outside advisors to provide strategic and operational direction, and implementing a board structure to provide over site and to assess the success of operational decisions.