Behind every resilient small business sits a hard-working accountant. Our latest Xero research shows just how crucial the accounting industry has been over the last year – helping businesses to stay open, retain employees and map growth. More than half (56%) of South African small businesses say their accountant has been crucial in helping them…
SEIZING TOMORROW TODAY May is an important month − it almost marks the middle of the year, and we all are taking stock of the first part of the year, probably wondering what happened to the past four months. As professionals managing change in these uncertain times, it is important to reflect and see how…
Tackling the greatest threat to human survival The United Nations paints a grim picture of what may happen if we are unsuccessful in our climate change efforts. With average global temperatures increasing beyond 3 °C (on the current trajectory), every ecosystem will suffer the consequences. Since we all share one planet, these changes threaten our…
I always compare reviewing a working paper to marking an exam paper, for the simple reason that when you were writing an exam and it was all over the place without proper structure, untidy and hard to follow, the marker generally did not tend to be lenient when scoring marks. Whereas when your exam paper…
Looking at how this year has started off, with the second wave of COVID-19 combined with restrictions imposed by government, small businesses will continue to suffer. It will thus come as no surprise if this upward trend in new business registration continues to rise in 2021. Parallel to this, here is another important statistic −…
A registered VAT vendor on the invoice basis that fails to make payment within 12 months after the expiry of the tax period in which the deduction was made must account for an output tax adjustment to SARS calculated on the unpaid amount. Recent amendments clarify the value of the output tax adjustment CREDITOR: IMPLICATIONS…
Technology is a constantly evolving entity, one that penetrates every aspect of leadership, business and life, bringing significant progress and change. How might leaders meet the challenges of the age of AI and wield technological disruption to their – and their people’s – advantage? Early in my career, I received an excellent piece of…
Do you feel like you are speaking to a robot during your online meetings – speaking to a series of letters? Have meetings become mundane and disengaged? Let’s bring back the engagement into meetings using a range of online technology The basics It should be standard virtual meeting etiquette, that everyone on the meeting…
We begin with the obvious: team cohesion is decisive in whether an organisation succeeds. The finance function should critically challenge to what extent it adds to this cohesion. Are we intelligently weaving ourselves into the fabric of our organisations? With real buy-in from our colleagues, we can drive the positive change we seek The…
Xero integrated with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), to launch a VAT eFiling beta earlier this year. The closed beta is live now, with general release set for later this year when all Xero small business and accounting customers will be able to eFile directly with SARS. This follows the launch of two other…