Petra in Jordan leaves one in awe. The beauty, mystic and scale of this Rose City are hard to comprehend, even by today’s standards. It was built around 2 400 years ago by nomadic Bedouin tribes Today, Petra is part of a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the Seven New Wonders of the…
In day-to-day operations, most businesses interact directly and indirectly with clients and service providers. Many transactions that take place during this interaction are legitimate transactions, whereas some of these transactions might raise a few questions as to the validity of the source of the money, or even just that the transaction does not make business…
It has now become apparent, beyond any doubt, that a company planning to become or remain B-BBEE compliant must have some level of black ownership. This is not because black ownership is somehow ‘compulsory’, but simply because of how the point-scoring system works. From multiple calculated scenarios we have done, more than 95% of companies…
Legislative changes have been introduced to the Value Added Tax Act 89 of 1991 to clarify the implications for both the lessee and the lessor when the lessee undertakes voluntary or compulsory improvements on leased land for no consideration. Lessee implications A deemed supply is triggered in terms of section 8(29), which deems the lessee…
Strategies for Improving Job Margin: In the first part of our article (March ASA), we looked at the pressures on an accounting firm’s profitability. Now we will explore strategies to improve the gross margin of an accountancy business as we look further at some aspects of reducing write-downs. Take three steps to receiving client records…
Millennials. They’ve come of age in a digital era. Exposed to the world’s woes − climate change, human rights abuses, recessions and more – their social and political consciousness says, ‘we expect more’. And, they’re pulling the rug from under us all. Millennials – people born in the 1980s or 1990s − have a whistle…
The robots are heading straight towards us and we are inviting them in to our homes, workplaces and vehicles. Not surprisingly, because they make our lives more convenient, our work more efficient, our buildings more sustainable and our roads safer. But at the same time we need to think about how we maximise the upside…
In 2017, amidst much fanfare, BMW launched the all-new 5 Series. With the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class starting to take centre stage and hardcore BMW aficionados expecting only the best from their beloved brand, the new 5 Series certainly had a lot to live up to. But has it delivered? To start with, the refreshed look…
In this, the first of a series of two articles, we look at the pressures on an accounting firm’s profitability There was a time when accountancy business owners were seemingly guaranteed high profit emanating from a business model that was often characterised as the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 model. That model is also known as the…
Spatial technology allows CFOs and managers to drive massive improvements in financial management, reporting, and governance at local government level by analysing financial data within its real-world context, in other words on a map I have tremendous difficulty in explaining to my former audit colleagues exactly what our company does. The few CAs(SA) that have…