Terms and Conditions

This document is a guide to establish and agree upon a working relationship.  Our full range of services is outlined in Our Responsibilities below.   

​Our responsibilities

Our services will primarily be performed by us at our office.  Meetings with you can take place at your office as required.
Following is a list of the services available through us. 

​Bookkeeping Services

• Raising purchase orders and/or entering supplier invoices into accounting software.
  
• Raising customer invoices.
• Entering and/or verifying the entry of payments and receipts from bank.
  
• Emailing / communicating any queries related to the accounts for the period.
• Ensuring the correct integration of different business systems into the accounting record, (for example point-of-sales systems or add-on solutions).
• Reconciliation and/or verification of the of all bank, loan and credit card accounts.
• Reporting Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, other reports as required
• Reporting outstanding debtors and creditors (if applicable).
• Chasing accounts receivable.
• Paying accounts payable.  This will require a dedicated bank access authorisation for us. 

Payroll Processing

• Setup employees in payroll system
• Prepare payroll weekly / fortnightly / monthly.
• Lodge Tax File Number declarations.
• Review, advise and lodge PAYG Withholding and Superannuation.
• Reconcile End of Year wages.
• Report, lodge and send employee payment summaries.
• Roll over payroll year if applicable.

Payroll Intermediary Services

• Ensure you are complying with the relevant Act, modern award or agreement and other employer obligations

BAS Services

• Review and report on monthly/quarterly BAS.
  
• Email reports and declarations to you.
• Lodgement of BAS upon receipt of authority from you.
• Payment of BAS upon authority from you.
• Yearly GST reconciliation and relevant BAS adjustments.
  

End of financial year

• Review end of year reports.
  
• Provide accountant with information as required for year end.
• Liaise with the accountant as to any End of Year journals or adjustments.
• Ensure essential and required business records are maintained and stored for the financial year.
  

Other services

• Analysis and advice on Industry Award.
  
• Provision of subscription of accounting software.
• Consulting/Training of staff in accounting software
• Other administrative work as required
  

Your responsibilities

Provision of information

You will provide us with access to your current software and systems to enable us to process the work.
You will provide access to the relevant business records as discussed.  This may include ongoing access to the Business Software, bank statements, credit card statements, cheque books, receipts/invoices, bank deposit book or relevant bank transfer information and answers to queries as required.

By law

1. You are responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of business records and availability of records either for our processing or for verification and provision to authorities if required.
2. We may request source documents for some items and process transactions based on the information provided by you, which does not necessarily include all source documents.
3. It is a requirement that you must hold copies of all relevant documentation in compliance with the ATO standards. 
4. It is a requirement by the ATO that ABNs of suppliers be checked at least once a year to ensure that they are valid.
5. All relevant documentation and information required to allow us to prepare and produce financial reporting to comply with legislative requirements must be received 14 days prior to due lodgement dates.  We will not be liable for any penalties if documentation and information has not been provided.
6. A separate signed authority must be provided to us if we are engaged in making payments on your behalf.
7. A separate specific authority form must be provided to us for each lodgement of documentation with the ATO; we will provide this form to you before each lodgement.
8. You authorise me to contact your tax agent via email and phone as required.

Terms of engagement

Service Fees

• Our fees are $80 per hour excluding GST, plus a BAS Lodgement Fee of $120 per lodgement.
• An invoice will be sent upon completion of work per calendar month.
• Payment of that invoice is due upon receipt.
• If payment is not made without prior arrangement by the due date, we may charge a 2% compound interest charge on balance of bill.
• Telephone calls and travel time to and from meetings is charged at our hourly rate.
• Any urgent work requiring overtime or weekends will be charged at double time.  The need to undertake such work will always be discussed with you and your authorisation gained before commencement.
• We reserve the right to stop work if you fail to make payment when and as it falls due.
• Any debts beyond 30 days (unless a prior payment arrangement has been entered into) will be referred to a debt collection agency and any costs associated in recovering such debts will be passed onto you.
• We reserve the right to review fees for services rendered on a regular basis; any change in price will be notified in writing.
• We shall discuss with you any intention to change the fee arrangement due to changes in the work required.

Payroll

Employing staff (including contractors) is a complex matter.  The employment laws in Australia are the most complex in the world.  If you employ staff, you have the option of engaging us to:

1.  Process your Payroll as per 'Our Responsibilities'

If you choose to engage us to perform your payroll processing without our intermediary services, the onus is upon you to determine your employee's award, pay rates and conditions. If you choose to have us act as your HR Intermediary, we will process the payroll based on that information.
If at any time we believe the parameters set by you are not compliant with the law, we will notify you in writing.  If you do not source independent advice to the contrary or make the necessary amendments, we will have no alternative than to remove our services to your business.

2. Act as HR Intermediary for your business

We are engaged to assist the business with all aspects of managing and administering the payments to all employees.  We will ensure payments are in accordance with the Fair Work Act 2009 and Modern Awards requirements and will advise the business of any concerns or changes that may impact the business.
As part of the HR Intermediary role, we will engage an HR expert to provide legal advice where necessary for all aspects of your payroll requirements.  This is an additional cost to your business.
If the business is in breach of Fair Work provisions, we will immediately notify you and discuss this.  We note that we will not continue our engagement with you if the business continues to be in breach of the Fair Work Act after receiving our information and advice.
Conditions of the HR Intermediary role include:
The business owner must inform the HR Intermediary of any current or prior:

• compliance action taken by the Fair Work Ombudsman, including but not limited to penalty infringement notices, compliance notices, enforceable undertakings, proactive compliance deeds or court orders or
• other court orders arising from non-compliance with the Fair Work Act 2009 or Fair Work Regulations 2009 by the business, and any remedial action that the HR Intermediary is required to take, has taken or proposes to take as a result of the compliance action or court order.

During the term of the contract, the business must comply, and take all reasonable steps to ensure they comply, with all applicable obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work Regulations 2009.
During the term of the contract, the HR Intermediary will undertake audits quarterly to determine that the correct wages, loadings, allowances and penalties have been paid to its employees, and the HR Intermediary will rectify any underpayments within a reasonable timeframe of identifying the underpayment.
During the term of the contract, the business must actively and cooperatively participate in all compliance activities associated with its obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 and Fair Work Regulations 2009, including but not limited to participating in investigations of workplace complaints and audits undertaken by the Fair Work Ombudsman or other regulatory agencies.
The business must commit all necessary resources, financial or otherwise, and meet all necessary expenses associated with the effective implementation of the requirements payroll.
The HR Intermediary reserves the right to terminate the contract in the event that the business fails to comply with any of the above within a reasonable time frame.

Responsibility for bookkeeping records

We use Xero software and Dropbox file storage, both of which are cloud-based programs that have solid backup protocols in place.  This means that documents are backed up offsite and security is extremely reliable.  You will have access to both of these programs so that you have full visibility of your accounts and information at all times.
This means that your responsibility for the maintenance of business records (which does rest with you), including security of those records and prevention against fraud, is taken care of. It is important to remember that you are personally responsible for the information contained in any statutory return and that you must retain all necessary supporting documentation to substantiate the transactions.  Supporting documentation that is scanned by you or us and kept in the cloud will not require hard-copy retention, however should you wish to maintain hard copy primary source documents, these will need to be retained by you.
We have discussed the need for you to scan source documents such as receipts and invoices, and make them available to us for data entry purposes into Xero.  That facility will be set up soon, and we can walk you through that process.  By your sending us electronic files of documentation, we are assuming that such records are accurate and correct. 
It is also important to state that as a BAS Agent/Bookkeeper, if we are advised in writing by yourself that you have copies of the invoices and the GST is applicable, we will process on the basis that you have the correct records.

Review of documentation

The responsibility for reviewing final reports and/or work rests with you.  You will not be charged to correct errors which are clearly our fault.

Communication

Please let us know of any change to your business details or change in personnel.

Confidentiality 

EXCEPT for the following two instances, any information and all matters connected with and relating to your business and its performance are confidential and we shall not disclose them to any other person/entity unless authorised to do so in writing. This includes the ATO and your accountant.

Exceptions to this may be as follows:

1. There may be times when our IT professional, Steve Decia of PC Tailor Narraweena may have limited visibility into client information during PC maintenance.
2. If Xero customer support is required for a technical issue, they may be invited to view your file to assist with remedy.

Ownership of the accounting software subscription

For new Xero subscriptions, we act as the agent for your subscription.  In the event that our agreement is terminated at any time, your subscription will be transferred to yourself or another party when all outstanding fees to us are paid.  
​For existing Xero subscriptions, the subscription will remain with the entity that originally set up the subscription.

Lodgement of information with the ATO

We will always request authorisation to lodge your information with the ATO.  This is done through Adobe e-sign.  Failure to lodge on time can incur a fine and this will be your responsibility to pay if the authorisation has not been received by us.

Indemnity

You agree to us indemnify us for any loss that may result from third party claims arising from the provisions of the services. If there is a claim against us for loss, the loss will be proportionately reduced by the extent of your contribution to the loss.

Standards

We aim to provide the highest standard of professional service. If for any reason you feel you have not received the level of service expected or have an issue to raise, please contact myself to discuss how the problem may be resolved.
Furthermore, as a Member of the Institute for Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), I am subject to the ethical requirements of ICB and its investigations and disciplinary processes. These requirements cover issues such as Code of Conduct and ethics, adherence to bookkeeping standards, requirements to undertake continued professional education. Should there be an issue regarding the ethical or business practices of myself or my company, you may refer such matters to ICB. 

Utilisation of other workers

Employees or contractors may be utilised to help complete the agreed work as required.  The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers Code of Conduct binds all representatives of We’ll Get You Sorted, which is inclusive of confidentiality agreements as per the Terms of Engagement in this document.  We will never employ offshore workers.