How We Work

Our Approach

We’re really enthusiastic about working smarter rather than harder (on both our side and yours). We don’t believe in paper-shuffling simply for the sake of it, and prefer to use technology to do the mundane, repeatable stuff so that we are freed up and more available to help you with the things that actually add value.

We commit money and effort to good systems to make sure that things are easy for you so that you’re having a great experience with us as your accountants and advisors.

Minimising tax is a given and we’re more interested in conversations around growing profits and using your business as a tool to live the life you want outside of work.

Where Are You?

We’re based in Coffs Harbour, on the NSW Mid North Coast, but have clients all around Australia, with particular concentrations in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Cloud accounting software like Xero means you’re not limited to getting great advice from only the accountants in your local area anymore and as we all know, the COVID years accelerated that movement.

We do consults out of our space in Sawtell but just as many of our meetings - like everything else - happen online too. Getting together over lunch is also a nice way to connect.

Introductory Calls

Everyone deserves the time of day and our Intro Calls are about getting to know eachother to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

After booking a time, you’ll receive a short questionnaire to complete before our call. This allows us to understand your circumstances so that our time together can be meaningful and we can have a real conversation about your needs now and into the future.

Off the back of one of these calls, we’re able to provide for you a tailored proposal and of course field any other questions you may have about it.

Onboarding

If we’re moving forward, we need to undertake a one-off “Onboarding” exercise. Basically, this represents gathering all the information we need in order to set you up in our systems and act on your behalf when dealing with the ATO and ASIC:

1. An ID check (via phone),

2. An Onboarding Questionnaire which captures everything in one place, and

3. A letter to your previous accountant, through which we try to obtain as much as we can to lighten your load.

We try to make this all as easy as possible for you so that we can get you going quickly and on your way to success.

Delivering the Work

The financial year runs July-June with (the following) May 15 being the tax return lodgement deadline for most taxpayers.

Each year, we allocate and communicate to each of our business clients a month that we’ll be completing their annual tax work. Both sides are informed and prepared in terms of providing information and being available to answer any questions that arise during preparation.

We get in touch a fortnight before your month to collect everything and of course we do need information on time in order to start on schedule. Delays here could result in your work not being completed within your allocated month and needing to be allocated to the back of the queue. In fairness to everyone, we cannot bump next month’s clients simply because we didn’t receive information on time.

Some years your given month may not be ideal - you may be taking a holiday or seeking finance and need your tax return earlier than planned. We encourage those conversations early in the financial year while we’re mapping out our capacity and will always do our best to “swap” your month with someone else to keep everyone happy.

Fixed Fee Plans

Businesses are really our specialty and where we can add the most value. We have three (3) Business Plans to choose from - Gold / Silver / Bronze - based on your requirements. Their main differences are around how proactive and involved you’d like us to be as your business advisors/partners, but they all include at a minimum an Industry Benchmarking Report so that you can see how you’re going against your competitors.

The Business Plans are offered with fixed monthly fees, and we have some more information about these prices are determined under the Costs and Billing section below.

Personal Tax returns, yes we do these too, though typically only those associated with an operational business. It’s easier to get the best group tax outcome for you if we have oversight across all of the entities in your group.

Some clients talk to us about SMSF (self managed super funds) and that’s great too. SMSF is a complex area of it’s own, with ever-changing laws and harsh penalties for falling foul of them. We believe everyone should play to their strengths and so partner with a great SMSF-specialist team (who work on nothing but SMSFs day-in, day-out) to achieve great outcomes in the SMSF space.

Costs and Billing

Costs are very tailored to your circumstances and some more detail on this process over on our Pricing page (coming soon).

In brief, the financial year runs July-June so each year in June we consider what services you’ll need in the next 12 months (July-June period), price it up and then cut it in 12 for equal monthly retainer amounts.

We commit to scoping well and then delivering fixed fee services so that you have certainty of your monthly payment and can manage your cashflow without large bumpy shocks.

What happens if you’re signing on part-way through the year? Most likely a one-off “catch up” payment to bring you up to speed as at start date and then you’ll drop back to the regular monthly retainer amount from then on.

What happens if you decide to leave part-way through the year? That’s no problem. We do a transparent square-up of what has been paid against what services have been provided in order to be fair to both sides. you’ll either get some money refunded or owe a final payment.

Billing takes place on the 1st each month and we collect via direct debit arrangement. Very easy your end once we’ve agreed terms and prices.

Communications

We have a great email newsletter through which we communicate tax updates, business tips and upcoming due dates. Feel free to sign up using the link below, obligation free of course.

You may need to “Add to Safe Senders” if you find it landing in your Spam folder.

In full transparency, we don’t give a lot of love to Socials at this time. That may change in future but for now, we’re simply focusing on other priorities.

Quick Questions

We see working together as a partnership and we want you to feel comfortable to contact us (how else can we work proactively for you if you’re not talking to us regularly?).

Our tiered plans offer different levels of access - as our limited time has a value like anyone else’s - but as a general rule we’re happy to help with anything that can be resolved in under ten minutes.

We’ll speak up in advance to identify larger projects and things that need proper consideration and quoting BEFORE investing significant time. It’s all a matter of upfront and transparent communication.

At times, we use video as a clearer and more human way to explain concepts that would be difficult to communicate via email.

Why You Shouldn’t Work With Us

You just need a cheap tax return. We focus on high end service and the big picture. Minimising your tax is a given but the focus should be on growing your profits and making your business less dependent on you. This sets you up to either sit back while your business prints cash or maximise the sale value when you decide to sell (a business owner’s best shot at a retirement plan).

You have straight forward tax. If this is the case, we recommend just DIY or go with a simple operator like H&R Block who can handle this.

You’re not into technology. We use a lot of it to do the boring stuff so that our people are freed up to help with the value-add that can help you grow your business.