Welcome to the Capitis Accounting Solutions group news.

We are proud to bring you the Capitis Accounting Solutions newsletters that will keep you up to date with the latest news and information that affects you and your business.

In the newsletters you receive from us, we will keep you fully informed on our full range of products and services to enhance your company’s business operations and share some success stories and other amusing tales with you as well.

We will also give you tips on simple new ways you can get the most out of our brand-new interactive website. You can also register to receive valuable information quickly, easily, and securely and much, much more. And it is free!

And of course, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail us at info@capitis.com.au. We wouldd be happy to assist you!

The Team
Capitis Accounting Solutions
www.capitis.com.au

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 TAKING ACCOUNT
 
Contents
Capitis Christmas Trading Hours
Medicare Levy Surcharge Thresholds - 2010/11
Incorrect Amounts of RESCs (Reportable Employer Superannuation Contibutions) on Payment Summaries
New Super Clearing House for Small Business
Calxa Budgeting & Cashflow Forecasting Software
Fairport Farm Software - PAM QA Plus
MYOB Tips: Reconciled Transaction Deleted
On-Line Training
Staff Profile
Key Dates
 
Capitis Christmas Trading Hours
Capitis will be closing over the holiday period to give our staff a well-earned break.

The Horsham, Dimboola and Warracknabeal offices will close at 4.30pm on Thursday 23 December 2010 and re-open at 9am on Monday 10 January 2011.

The staff at Capitis would like to wish all our valued clients a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all in 2011.

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Medicare Levy Surcharge Thresholds - 2010/11
A surcharge of 1% is imposed on top of the 1.5% Medicare Levy where a taxpayer, their spouse and dependants do not have private patient hospital cover and the taxpayer's income 'income for surcharge purposes'(*) exceeds the relevant threshold.

The Medicare levy surchage (MLS) income thresholds have been increased for the 2010/11 income year as follows:
  • Single surcharge threshold - $77,000 (up from $73,000 for 2009/10); and
  • Family surcharge threshold - $154,000 (up from $146,000 for 2009/10).

(*) A taxpayer's 'income for surcharge purposes' is the sum of:

  • their taxable income (including the net amount on which family trust distribution tax has been paid);
  • reportable fringe benefits;
  • reportable superannuation contributions;
  • exempt foreign employment income;
  • total investment loss (including net financial investment losses and net rental losses);
    • Less any taxed component of a superannutaion lump sum received which does not exceed that taxpayer's low rate cap.
If you estimate your family income to be above the threshold as listed above, it may be worth you considering taking out private health insurance, which will reduce the amount of MLS you pay, and will provide you with the additional benefits that private health insurance can provide.  The end result may mean that your 'after tax income' will be much the same, but you will have the added benefit of private health insurance. Please contact us if you would like any further clarificiation on this.

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Incorrect Amounts of RESCs (Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions) on Payment Summaries
The ATO have advised that some employers have been incorrectly including compulsory super amounts as RESCs on their employees' payment summaries for the 2009/10 income year, such as; 
  • super guarantee contributions; and
  • industrial agreement (award) super contributions
RESCs should only include additional super contributions made by an employer, for example, super contributions made on behalf of an employee under a salary sacrifice arrangement.

If you have compulsory super amounts incorrectly included on your payment summaries, you should ask your employer to provide an ammended payment summary. 

If you are an employer and you have issued payment summaries that incorrectly include compulsory super amounts, that ATO asks that you contact them, so the employer can notify any affected employees about the error and issue them with amended payment summaries. If these employers have already lodged their annual payment summary statement with the ATO, they will need to lodge an ammended annual report.   

The ATO has increased the number of paper payment summaries that can be ordered by employers needing to issue amended payment summaries, using the electronic ordering services at www.ato.gov.au/onlineordering to make this process easier.

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New Super Clearing House for Small Business
A free (and optional) super clearing house service is being offered to small businesses with less than 20 employees to help them meet their super guarantee obligations

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is administered by Medicare Australia and allows employers to pay their super contributions to a single location in one simple electronic transaction.

Small businesses that register to use the service will have their super guarantee obligation discharged, as long as all of the following conditions apply:
  • they pay the correct amount;
  • they pay by the super payment cut-off date;
  • the payment is accepted by the clearing house; and
  • the payment is not rejected by the super fund.

Employers who receive an employee's choice of fund nomination will have their choice obligation discharged if they pass the information to the clearing house within 21 days of receiving the choice of fund nomination.

Small businesses can register online for the service by;

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Calxa Budgeting & Cashflow Forecasting Software
With 2011 just around the corner and harvest now beginning (albeit in between rain events..!!), it will not be long before a lot of our rural based clients will need to sit down and work out how all of the numbers have stacked up from this year, and how it will effect cashflow for the next season.

Calxa software automatically integrates with MYOB datafiles, and easily produces budgets and cashflow forecasts based on the design of your MYOB chart of accounts.		  

If you add a new account, your budget will automatically recognise the new account. If you delete or make an account inactive, this will no longer appear in your budget.

Budgets can be easily created, by bringing last years actuals through automatically from your MYOB data file, and you can create budgets for up to ten years in advance. Once your budget has been set up, it is literally a couple of clicks for you to then prepare budget versus actual reports, and monitor the progress of your finances easily throughout the year. And with a multitude of reports and graphs available, your bank manager will be more than impressed with the quality of professional reports that can be easily produced.

Furthermore, early in 2011, Calxa will also be able to link to QuickBooks files!!

Capitis is one of a limited numbers of partners Australia wide for this software, and we can assist with sales, support and training. If you would like any more information on this great, time-saving software, feel free to contact us at the Horsham office and we would be happy to give you an overview of the software and how it works. Alternatively, you can view an online demo via the link provided below.



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Fairport Farm Software - PAM QA Plus
In an ongoing commitment to the support of our agricultural based clients, Capitis have taken over the distributorship of Fairport Farm Software for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Southern New South Wales. Fairport produce a range of management software solutions for primary producers, and includes Australia's leading farm management recording software, PAM QA Plus.  
  
PAM QA Plus has a range of modules available, and the standard version will enable users to record all information relating to crop production, paddock records, livestock records, wool records, machinery maintenance schedules, weather records including rainfall and temperature, quality assurance records, laboratory test results, and a whole lot more.

Additional modules include Mapping, where farm images can be imported into the software (i.e Google Maps), to then produce whole farm maps and plans.

Precision Mapping is also an additional module, where yield maps from a range of on board controllers can be imported, and then analysed. Yield maps from multiple years can be merged, to produce images based over several seasons, and VRT (Variable Rate Technology) Projects can easily be created, to then be used in seeding operations in following years.
 
Capitis can assist with sales, support and training of this software, and we are more that happy to provide you with an on-line demo, or in person. Please contact our Horsham office if you would like any more information on some these great management tools for primary producers.

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MYOB Tips: Reconciled Transaction Deleted
Reconciled transactions are treated as finalised. Therefore changing or deleting them will affect your bank reconciliation.  However, understanding how reconciled transactions are treated in MYOB will help you make any changes that may be needed. 

An alert is displayed when opening a reconciled transaction.

Each MYOB transaction record includes a Reconciled Date field.  When a transaction is reconciled, MYOB inserts the Bank Statement Date as entered in the Reconcile Accounts window in this field.  MYOB then uses this field to determine the reconciliation status of a transaction.		  

Ignoring this alert and changing or deleting the transaction can affect your bank reconciliation.

How does changing or deleting a reconciled transaction affect the bank reconciliation?

Referring to the Reconcile Accounts window, the Calculated Statement Balance represents the total value of ALL deposit and withdrawal transactions which have a date in their Reconciled Date field.  Changing a reconciled transaction's amount, or deleting a reconciled transaction, will affect this total and the account will no longer reconcile.

What changes can be made to reconciled transactions that won't affect the reconciliation?
 
Information such as a Memo or allocation account can be changed. However, changing the Amount of the transaction or the bank account nominated in the top-left of the transaction window will affect the reconciliation.  For example:  A reconciled Spend Money payment is opened and the Acc # (allocation account) is changed. Because the amount was not altered, your reconciliation will not be affected.  However, changing the Acc# AND the amount would affect your reconciliation.   

Please note: The fields of recorded Pay Bills and Receive Payments are locked and cannot be changed.  Deleting or reversing these transactions is the only option if they have been entered incorrectly.

Due to an error, a reconciled transaction needs to be deleted.
 
Reconciled transactions CAN be deleted using the normal transaction deletion process.  However, for the account to reconcile again, the deleted transaction MUST be replaced with a reconciled transaction of the same value. The steps to delete and re-enter a reconciled transaction are as follows:

Step 1 - Determine the reconciliation date of the transaction to be deleted.

When the deleted reconciled transaction is replaced, the same reconciliation date should be applied to the replacement transaction
1. Click Banking then Reports.

2. Highlight the Bank Register report and click Customise and click the Report Fields tab.

3. Place a check mark against the Reconciled Date option and then click OK.  

4. Filter the report for the relevant account.  The Date From and To fields need to be such that the report will capture the transaction to be deleted.

5. Click Display and note the Reconciliation Date of the transaction to be deleted.  This date will be used when reconciling the replacement transaction.

6. Click OK to return to the Index to Reports window.

7. Highlight the Reconciliation Report also found in the Banking group of reports

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On-Line Training
Commencing in early 2011, Capitis will be offering a range of on-line training courses, on a number of different business software applications. Planned training courses will include MYOB, Qicken, PAM Farm Management Software, Calxa Budgeting Software, and Excel.

The courses are designed to be very interactive, and participants can undertake the training in the comfort of their own home via an on-line connection. Participants will need access to the internet, and can connect to the audio of the training via telephone, or a headset connected to their computer. Participants will be able to talk with other people in the course, as well as send messages via a 'chat panel' if they would like their questions to remain private.

Eligible primary producers may apply for FarmReady Reimbursement Grants, which may cover the cost of the training fees. Please note that the 2010/11 FarmReady Grant allocation has been filled, and no more rebates will be available unitl the 2011/12 financial year.

If you are interested in what upcoming training courses we have coming up, please visit our webpage here....

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Staff Profile
Nibras Naji

I have been at Capitis for just over a year. My main role is to assist the accountants in preparing financial statements and tax returns. I also perform bookkeeping services. I have just recently become a MYOB Retail Manager Professional,  which will provide me with the knowledge and tools to assist clients with MYOB retail point of sale systems. Along with working full time, I am undertaking a commerce degree through Deakin University, studying part time. Working at Capitis has been great with my study, as I can relate most of what I learn to my job.   

I was born in Reading, England. I lived there for five years, as my father was completing his PHD in Agricultural science there. My family always moved around from one place to another, depending on dad’s work. We were in Syria for 6 years before moving to Australia in 1997. I spent most of my schooling life in Walpeup, in the Mallee region. We moved to Horsham when I was in year 12. 

 
My fiancé Shane Oakley is a local from Toolondo. We got engaged earlier this year, and we are planning to get married in March 2011. We own a house in Horsham. We are in the process of renovations but unfortunately it is not going far. Shane is a builder by trade so he is always busy building and renovating everyone else’s houses and never has time to do ours (I have heard this is normal for builders??).

I love playing all kinds of sports especially the social aspect of them. I’ve been part of five netball premierships with the Noradjuha Quantong football & Netball Club. My plans for the future are to finish my degree and become a qualified accountant.  Shane and I would love to start our own family and eventually build our dream home somewhere on the outskirts of Horsham (when Shane has time off course!!). Horsham is now definitely my hometown and I could not imagine living anywhere else.

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Key Dates
21 January 2011 Final date to lodge and pay December 2010 monthly activity statements.
28 January 2011  Last day for superannuation guarantee contributions to be made to a superannuation provider for quarter 2, 2010-2011 (1 October - 31 December).
21 February 2011  Final date to lodge and pay January 2011 monthly activity statements.
28 February 2011  Final date to lodge and pay quarter 2, 2010-2011 activity statements, including electronic lodgetments.
21 March 2011  Final date to lodge and pay March 2011 monthly activity statements.
Remember, these are the final dates. We need your paperwork early to ensure that these deadlines are met.

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Key Dates21 May 2012
Monthly Activity Statements 

21 May 2012
FBT Returns

21 June 2012
Monthly Activity Statements

30 June 2012
End of Financial Year

14 July 2012
Employee Payment Summaries

Find out more
Chartered Accountants