June marks the end of the first quarter of the financial year. It's a critical time to re-evaluate and reforecast your budget – identify how you’re tracking against the plan, and how the plan needs to change to avoid leaving money behind.

As we sail closer to the end of the financial year, it's the perfect time to tidy up our financial decks. This isn't just about getting through tax time; it’s about setting sail smoothly into the new financial year with a clear view ahead.

Financials need to take yesterday’s information, combined with where you are today, to predict the future financial position. For many businesses, this is a fraught tasks. However, with the right Virtual CFO (vCFO), you’ll get not just financial management, but strategic guidance tailored to your business's unique needs. Convex believes in providing a comprehensive vCFO service that encompasses the wisdom of 'yesterday', the action of 'today', and the vision for 'tomorrow'. Let's explore what you should expect from your vCFO.

The recent release of the Xero Small Business Index report for New Zealand, spanning July to September 2023, offers a wealth of information about the state of small businesses in our country. In this article, we’ll dive into the top five takeaways from the report and discuss three vital considerations for small business owners in response to these insights.

We all know the drill with old-school business plans – they're like those long emails from the bank that nobody reads. You're supposed to have this massive document that covers everything from A to Z, but let's be real: it just ends up collecting digital dust on your hard drive.

It needs to be done differently.

You work hard to make money for your business. But do you know where it goes? Sometimes, you may look at your bank account and wonder why it doesn’t match your profit.

The reason is that profit and cashflow are not the same thing. Profit is the difference between your income and expenses. Cashflow is the movement of money in and out of your business. To keep more of your profit, you need to manage your cashflow well.

In this article, we’ll show you how to do that.

Finding a new accountant can be daunting.

You don’t switch often and want to build a relationship so the cost of getting it wrong can be significant.

To help, here’s seven secrets you want to know about when choosing your new accountant.

Carbon accounting is a way of measuring how much greenhouse gas your business produces. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. By doing carbon accounting, you can help reduce your environmental impact and improve your reputation with customers and suppliers.

How are you feeling these days? I know, it’s crazy out there. Elections, inflation, unemployment…you name it. It seems like nothing is certain anymore. And that makes it hard to plan for your business, right? You don’t know what’s going to happen next, so you just keep doing what you’ve always done. Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

But, there is an alternate approach. A way to be ready for whatever comes your way. A way to have a clear vision of your future, and a strategy to get there. A way to be proactive, not reactive

eInvoicing is sending invoices electronically between accounting systems. Instead of someone sending you a PDF of a bill to pay and you uploading it into Xero, eInvoicing takes the bill straight from their accounting system and into yours.

The good news is that if you use Xero, it's really simple to turn on. All you need to do is jump into the Bills to Pay menu, click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner and turn on eInvoicing. This does your registration and everything like that for you. Nice and easy.

With the new financial year approaching, you need to check your financial information and gather all documentation we’ll need to complete your accounts and get your tax returns filed. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can notify you of your tax position.

If your business is looking significantly different this financial year, talk to us so we can more accurately estimate provisional tax.

Last week, I (Hamish) was in a meeting for around 45 minutes. Afterwards, I checked my phone and saw missed calls from seven different customers. For me that's unusual, so I started to wonder what was going on... I checked my texts, and it turns out people were freaking out about the increase in the NZ Minimum Wage.

We've got a bit of chaos coming up. Property prices, interest rates, inflation, tightening cash flow. Everything just feels a bit wobbly right now. And you cap that off going into the Christmas break, kind of wondering how you're going to get through and what business is going to look like next year.