Accounting On Purpose

What does it mean when you are a Treasurer of an Association moving to a Company Limited by Guarantee and then becoming a Director on the Board, and what affect does the role change bring?  Before we start thinking about the size and sophistication of your organisation, it’s important to see things from an operational perspective when defining roles and responsibilities. Some Treasurers of Associa...

The topic of Right of Use Assets has come up in several NFP Board and Finance Committee discussions.  It causes a bit of confusion, especially when organisations, for example, are used to recognising their rent or lease payments as an expense.  In this video I’m not going into the accounting rules, this will be more conceptual, so you can have an appreciation of what Right of Use Assets means when...

As the CEO of an NFP, telling your story in meaningful and consistent ways is vital to delivering on your purpose.  In this podcast, I discuss storytelling through the language of accounting, and why the CEO, Board and stakeholders should speak it regularly to tell their story.  Creating a meaningful story with the numbers on the page may be challenging at first, however when spoken regularly, thi...

Today I want to talk to you about recruitment bias and how it plays into the daily running of your business. The cost of recruitment bias needs to be examined in order to make good decisions as you move the business forward. In this episode we look into unconscious bias in recruitment that you may have and general unconscious bias in the workplace and how once we recognise where it shows up, we ca...

In this episode I want to talk about paying yourself first from your business and also why, how and when to do it. So, the question is, are you paying yourself first? And if so, do you know how to pay yourself first? If your business is bringing in income and you are doing all the work then it stands to reasons that you need to pay yourself first. It’s a big step for a lot of people to pay themsel...

Firing a client is never easy and it’s not something any of us ever really want to do. However, it’s important to maintain a profitable business so that sometimes means doing the difficult thing. In this episode I want to take you through my process of understanding when you should be firing a client - tips to determine client profitability. To understand when to fire a client, a great place to st...

Are you part of the finance team in your organisation or do you have a finance team? Today I want to talk to you about understanding finance team culture and its organisational impact so that you can make strides towards enhancing your team culture. While the finance culture is just one area of organisational culture, it is an important one.  In today’s episode I delve into how culture not only im...

Personal/professional development training is one of those expenses where it can be difficult to measure in terms of impact and ROI as it’s a long term venture. Personal development training expenses can also eat up a large portion of your PD budget if you aren’t careful. In this episode we look at personal development and professional development and how these business expenses should be consider...

Finding an accountant can be a daunting task at the best of times. On the one hand there is an abundance of accountants all seemingly performing the same duties. On the other hand, how do you know who to trust? Do they specialise in your type of business? How do you go about asking the right questions when you’re hiring an accountant? I’m going to answer these questions and more in today’s episode...

I want to discuss job automation and job loss and what this means for jobs in the future. Globally, It’s already been a wild year and the future of the workplace might feel even a little more uncertain for some. Robots taking over jobs in the near future is a real possibility as we have tasted a crisis that has, for the most part, shut the world down. The question on many people’s lips is ‘will ro...

If COVID has taught us one thing, it’s that having a business continuity plan is necessary moving forward.  In this episode I want you to think about your own business continuity planning for your business and how that has effectively become a business continuity planning process that can now be documented and written into your business systems. Second to this, I want you to think about the change...

Are you thinking of starting an enterprise here in Australia that has a social purpose? Perhaps starting a social enterprise is something you have in your long term business plan? Well, starting a social purpose enterprise is a little different to starting a nonprofit organisation and many people think they are one in the same. I want to use this episode to walk you through the differences and wha...

It’s a strange time right now in the business landscape and there are very few businesses that aren’t dealing with a business crisis.  In this episode I am going to walk you through some tips around how your accountant can help with crisis management. This isn’t the time to shy away because you need business crisis management, it’s the time to have a chat with your accountant and perhaps come up w...

We’ve officially moved into an interesting time here in Australia, as well as globally, where working from home and flexible working arrangements have been enforced. It’s not an easy task understanding how to facilitate flexible working arrangements in Australia and as we move back into the regular pace of work (when this is over) we will likely be faced with flexible work as an expectation. So ho...

 When you begin to go down the rabbit hole of building a business in Australia there are so many questions involving the ‘how’. One of the biggest downfalls of that thinking is that we need a ‘how to start’ motivational speech just to get us off our couch and into action. If you want to know how to start a business you simply get it done. There isn’t a magic formula, you just start it. Just start...

It’s an interesting question and I want to walk you through how to think about it in a way that positions you well for business. I want you to ask yourself, who do you want to be? Better still, who do you want to be today? If you want to win, if you want to be the best, listen to this episode on business mindset and start strong! Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit our website rightsource.com.au...

Now more than ever we need to be thinking about how we will emerge on the other side of a national crisis. In today’s episode I am going to give you a handful of tips on crisis management and what to do now that we are actually in need of business crisis management.  This crisis management plan is for those of you who have had business affected by Covid-19 and any smaller internal crisis yet to em...

Are you a leader of a company and tearing your hair out because building trust in the workplace is HARD?! You aren’t the only one! Building trust in teams isn’t easy but it also isn’t complicated! The good news is that a culture of trust is a top down initiative so the buck starts and stops with you. Learning how to build trust in teams is really you learning how to give trust TO your team. If you...

Sometimes it can be difficult to put empathy and care about the fiscal needs of the business but today I want to talk to you about caring in business and how caring about employees makes for good business. It seems obvious right? That we should care about our business and our people within its four walls but empathy in business and more specifically, empathy in business leadership isn’t always pre...

Do you feel overwhelmed when you think about how to systemize your small business? You’re not alone! Figuring out your business procedure after business procedure and turning them into some type of documentation is a bit of an area a lot of business operators avoid. It’s not the most fun task but it IS important! Creating systems and processes for small business can be the difference between selli...

Internal fraud is a very real thing in business but unfortunately by the time you know anything about it, it’s too late. Preventing employee theft is possible though - but for you it can feel awkward. In this episode I look at employee theft and specifically employee theft prevention so that you know how to frame it in your mind when you’re putting measures in place. Employee theft in the workplac...

If you want to know how to close a business or how to dissolve a business and you own a small business in Australia, then stick around. In this episode I walk you through some business exit strategies that include (but are not limited to), selling a small business, closing your business and passing the business on. These business exit strategy examples are the main options open to you and I discus...

Are you wondering what your first steps to starting a business should be? In this episode I walk you through three things you should consider when planning your first steps to starting a small business or a large business. The list of things to do when starting a business in Australia can be endless and I want to give you three practical steps from an unbiased standpoint (ie I’m not selling to you...

Are you an accountant or lawyer and want to give back but not sure where to start? Well, let me share a bit of my story in this video about how I became a company secretary for a non profit company in order to give back. Non profit governance is much like corporate governance (Australia) except that it doesn’t have all of the positions filled. For example, they often don’t have a CFO or an HR depa...

We got rid of sick leave! Instead of 4 weeks annual leave and 2 weeks sick leave, we combined them. Our employees have 6 weeks of leave, to do with as they wish. No doctor’s certificates required, and the combined leave vests (we pay it out if the employee leaves). Need a day off? Just take one, no questions asked. Sick days, mental health days, caring days, holidays – all covered in the 6 weeks....