Sally Barker

Good morning and welcome to Local Business Focus I’m Sally Barker. With me this morning is Sonia Pilkington from Asset Financial Accounting. Good morning, Sonia.

Sonja Pilkington

Good morning, Sally. Thank you for having me.

Sally

Our Pleasure. Now to start off with, can you tell me what is Asset Financial Accounting?

Sonja Pilkington

We are a small business with small business, bookkeeping and accounting firm, and we service clients that need bookkeeping and accounting services.

Sally

So tell me what would a day in the life of your business mean?

Sonja Pilkington

And often, then our life is to help our clients with their financial needs. So doing their bookkeeping and accounting for them, getting them their GST calculated, paying the wages and preparing payment summaries at the end of the financial year for the client and for their staff.

Sally

Is that the most important part of your business for small businesses,

Sonja Pilkington

That is the most compliant part of the business. Because most people need to register and pay their GST on time. So that’s important for businesses, but that’s not the most important part of it.

Clients need to know where the business stands and what the accounting or what they books look like. Whether they are making money and whether it’s worthwhile being in business.

There’s nothing worse than being in business and making a loss, and then getting stressed about it and wondering whether it’s worth it.

Sally

Of course, do you think there’s a bit of a gap there in terms of what small business owners are aware of in terms of compliance.

Sonja Pilkington

There is a gap and they all think that they can do it themselves. But it’s always better to engage a professional to do it right? And to do it right from them the first time, then paying somebody to fix them afterwards.

Sally

It’s like trying to tune up your car, if you’re not a mechanic,

Sonja Pilkington

Exactly. If you don’t know, you can really make a big mess of it.

Sally

And then I’d imagine that could be the end of your business, if you don’t do it right to start off with.

Sonja Pilkington

It could. Sometimes, I say it’s fixable, most things are fixable. But if it’s so bad, and you owe the taxman a whole bunch of money, it is really bad and you can lose a business, you can lose your house. So it can be really bad.

Sally

So tell me if I’m a small business owner. And I think accounting or bookkeeping is something I might be able to do for myself, because I don’t have the funds, are there a few ways you can get someone to do a little bit?

Sonja Pilkington

We’d like to work with our clients. So yes, I want them to be part of the accounting solution. So we work in conjunction with our clients by letting them do say the invoicing for the business. They know better what what they’ve done for their clients. I don’t necessarily want to do the invoicing for them. But yes I can do the compliance for them at the end. Making sure that the bank reconciliation is done properly, completing the GST forms for them lodging it with the tax office. So yeah, there’s always a means of getting the client up to date. And we also train them on making sure that they’re doing it right and properly and correct. So there are solutions,there is always a solution.

Sally

Now, accounting and bookkeeping is probably one of the least favourite parts for a lot of people in business. So why is how did you get into this area?

Sonja Pilkington

It’s something I’ve always liked and love doing. I am degree in accounting, I am a chartered accountant. So it’s what I love doing. So why not? I love helping people. And it’s good to see people, the relief on their face. They Oh, that’s so much better. And that is just having a chat. That’s not even doing anything yet.

Sally

Do you have some example of a client who may have been a little bit in over their head, and you’ve been able to come in and get that response from them.

Sonja Pilkington

I have a client. He started his own business had been running his business for many years, was doing his own bookkeeping. He came and literally dropped off a file with all his stuff. And I went I feel so much better, We had not done the work yet. It was just the relief of handing it off to somebody that knows what they’re doing. And that is one example, many of my clients have exactly the same experience. And therefore I like to call myself a stress reliever, instead of a bookkeeper or accountant. Because I take the stress away from them by doing the accounting for them.

Sally

So how important is it for you to be servicing local small business?

Sonja Pilkington

Accounting is doing more than just compliance and entering the data. Accounting is also recognising that there are different ways of treating some income or expenses. Having the conversation with a client about what what has happened in their books, and giving them an analysis and oversight of what they can do and should be in the future to fix it.

Sally

Okay, perfect, Sonia, how can people find you?

Sonja Pilkington

They can call me either on my mobile or on our phone line. We have office an office in Wangagra and they are more than welcome to pop in there too.

Sally

Okay, so what is your email address, so we have a web email address, they can contact us on

Sonja Pilkington

admin@assetfinancialaccounting.com.au

Sally

Wonderful. So thank you very much for joining us this morning on local business focus.

Sonja Pilkington

Thank you Sally.