Academy Chartered Accountants Limited
Chartered Accountant
You are here: Accounting Services - What are our accounting services about?

Accounting Services

What are our accounting services about?

Saving you from worrying

In a previous chartered accounting company, we had a saying: "It's our job to do the worrying". We still believe that. Businesses have plenty of things which rightly occupy the owner ahead of accounting and tax matters. We see it as our job to keep on top of your tax responsibilites so you don't have to. Sure they are still your responsibilities - but as professionals we can take the pressure off you, leaving you confident that the tax-man won't suddenly come knocking unexpectedly (not to mention all the other parties like banks, creditors, etc).

Of course it's not just today's tax laws that are part of our responsibility - it's the future as well. Tax law is constantly changing. We keep up to date with developments, and where they might affect you, we let you know. Many businesses cannot afford to have a full-time accountant on their team. Having us there is the next best thing. As an on-call team member, we're always available to support your business.

Professional job

We believe accounting is about doing a proper job of producing accounts that will provide managers with information they need, as well as keeping IRD and other bodies happy. Obviously for companies this includes the Companies Office and anyone else specified in the constitution or other documents (e.g. lenders). For trusts it includes the trustees, sui juri beneficiaries and anyone else specified in the trust deed. For partnerships it includes the partners - and anyone else specified in the partnership agreement.

IRD compliance

Accounting provides the information needed to return and assess taxable income. We fully support taxpayers who feel they should pay as little tax as legally possible, but we do not encourage "cheating". In technical terms while we encourage tax avoidance by legitimate means, we will not support tax evasion. To be fair, we have found that IRD have improved their attitude to business in the last decade or more, and we do all we can to make everyone's life relatively simple.

Help

We also believe accounting should help one key person or team - the owner(s) / manager(s). Often this will not mean exactly the same reports and systems as those used for the IRD and other third parties. Yes businesses have to provide various reports to various bodies. But sadly the owners all too often feel that it's all for others - there's nothing in it for them. In fact, nothing else really matters. The primary aim of accounting should be to ensure managers have the information they require when they require it so they can look after the business. That's why many of our clients run their own accounting system, with our training and support.

What's missing?

So what don't we do? Basically we aim to provide maximum service with minimum input. We'd rather focus our energy on the four goals above. That means we're really not interested in working with various one-off systems or spreadsheets. So we don't work with spreadsheets. We have, in the distant past (when Lotus was still king) - but not now. For businesses today, specialist programs are available and generally avoid messy situations. And we don't work with non-Kiwi programs - or at least programs that don't cater for NZ needs. Thus MS Money is out. But Quickbooks, MYOB, MoneyWorks and Xero, among others are in. If in doubt talk to us.

There is another option - BankLink. If you want GST and accounts done for you, using information provided by banks, this option allows us to do it effectively and efficiently (with some data provided by owners).

There is a cut-down version of Xero available only through accountants and the like. Basically it works much like BankLink except that bank feeds are daily. It's more expensive - but is available through the Internet. We've generally found BankLink clients are happy with their product. We have been big fans of BankLink for a long time - there are been few firms providing their level of support these days. But we're keeping up with options as they develop.

So read on -


next page - Taxation