Welcome! Some things you should know
The majority of our queries and requests for information will come to you via a Karbon task. Within the task you can make comments and attach documents. As soon as you respond in this way we’ll get notified. If you have a question, you can ask you question in the comment section, which is how we can also respond back to you. When you’ve completed the request don’t forget to tick it as completed so you don’t receive pesky reminders.
The other way to contact us is via email. We prefer email to a phone call so there is an audit trail, we can attach to your work, and things don’t (usually) fall through the cracks!
But for matters that are time sensitive or just a little complicated to put into words, you are of course welcome to give us a call!
We’re so glad you asked! Two Factor Authentication is a really important step in ensuring the security of your information online. Setting up 2FA is relatively easy and there are step-by-step instructions on our website. Check them out here.
Bank feeds are amazing! But they’re not fool proof. Sometimes things drop off the bank feed, or there’s an error with the import, or there’s a date discrepancy. As part of our due diligence at the end of the month we like to verify the statement balance against the bank feed.
Please send the statements through as PDF documents with opening and closing balances, and a running balance would be brilliant too!
How do you fancy submitting a backlog of receipts when you could be off sipping wine somewhere or getting in a round of golf? I know what I’d rather be doing! Best practice is to submit to Xero as soon as you receive them – saves backlog, and saves delay. So get some fuel, submit the receipt before leaving the servo, bin the receipt, and you’re done!
Hubdoc is already part of your Xero subscription so we may as well be using it! It’s effectively your electronic filing tray. So forward the bill to Hubdoc, or snap a photo of the receipt through the app, and we’ll take care of the rest. Here’s everything you need to know about submitting to Hubdoc.
If you already use another app such as Dext, that’s totally okay too! Just give us access and we’ll take care of publishing through to Xero for you.
Okay, so this is where we need to get really serious because paying your team correctly is very serious stuff. We can assist in pointing you in the right direction, but we cannot interpret the Award for you. Best practice is to contact Fair Work for a chat or an even better option is to use the P.A.C.T. tool to help you work out the rate.
When you’ve done that, PDF the results and send them to us with the rest of your onboarding paperwork.
Great question, thank you for asking! We need:
* Personal information including bank details
* TFN Declaration Form
* Super Choice Form
* Pay rate – ideally the P.A.C.T. workings (see above)
* Start date
* Position Description
* The level of the Award, if not identified elsewhere
Just providing their name, bank details and hourly rate isn’t enough information for us to process payroll correctly, and leaves you non-compliant.
Please send information through as soon as they start work and before the first pay run. That way we have plenty of time to get the information in our system and get any questions answered. If you’d like a blank TFN Declaration or Super Choice form, let us know.
Oh and don’t forget, you must give them a Fair Work Information Statement for their records.
If you haven’t worked with a bookkeeper before this is likely a whole new way of doing business. If you have worked with a bookkeeper before, we possibly do things a little differently. This is to give you a bit of information about how we work.
Upon engagement we set up workflows within Karbon for each job we’ve been engaged to do – bookkeeping, payroll, end of month, etc. Those workflows are updated as things change with your work and are effectively our checklist to ensure things aren’t missed.
Typically work will be assigned to a certain time each week/month. When information is received from you it’s attached to the workflow and we work through it at the time we’ve allocated to do the work. Sometimes you may need things to be done outside of the allocated time – this is okay, please just make us aware so we don’t miss the urgency and there are no delays. Our whole team has access to your account. The purpose of this is to reduce bottlenecks with work not being completed on your assigned team member’s day off, or if they are sick or on holiday.
You have been assigned a team member for processing throughout the month and Sarah typically takes care of the review and reporting. This means an extra set on eyes running over the accounts to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Wages processing takes first priority with any job, followed by customer invoicing and supplier payments. After that the work gets scheduled throughout the week/month and if there are specific deadlines that we need to be aware of, these will form part of our workflow to ensure we meet those deadlines.
If anything changes at your end that we should be aware of, or if things aren’t happening quite as you’d expect, please let us know as soon as you can so we can ensure our workflow and procedures are correct and up to date.
We try to be responsive to emails but during peak times there could be a delay in getting back to you. If you need us to respond quickly, it might be best to call your assigned team member.
From time to time, you will start receiving emails from myself or our team containing a checklist of items. This checklist is sent to you via Karbon’s Client Requests, the system we use to manage our jobs.
When you receive an email containing a checklist, you will be able to click a link that will take you to a unique Client Portal, listing all of your items that need to be completed. The first time you access this checklist, it will remember your device, which ensures only yourself and our team have access.
If you attempt to access your Client Portal from another device, it will not be recognised and will require that you send a new access link. When you click on ‘Send Access Link’, this will send a new link to the email address it is associated with.
Your Client Portal will provide you with a personal checklist that requires completing. We will provide detailed instructions and requirements for each item. If the item requires, you will be able to upload documents as well. On completion, please mark the item as complete to instantly notify us. It’s important to note that if you upload documents or make comments without marking the item as complete, you may still receive reminder emails.
Watch this video which will give you an overview of how you can use Karbon.
Our objectives of collaborating with you in this way are to help you know exactly what you need to provide, and automatically remind you if there is any outstanding information we are waiting on. It will make our communication together smoother, and enable our team to serve you more efficiently.
