Australian Government Surplus-Saving: 10 Key Points

With the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook statement revealing a drop in the revenue for the next four financial years amounting to a whopping $20 billion, Wayne Swan, Federal Treasurer, has been prompted to put a halt to spending in order to save the 2012-2013 budget surplus promised to the Labor.

"We are experiencing the worst bout of global instability since the global financial crisis,” said Mr. Swan.

Though the economy of Australia is seen by the Treasury to grow by 3.25 percent in the financial year 2011-12, Mr. Swan is still trying to illustrate the global economy and its impacts on Australian economy using the MYEFO report.


"Global economic and financial conditions have deteriorated markedly in recent months, and the risks to global stability from the European sovereign debt crisis have intensified. Global growth prospects have been downgraded markedly in 2012, with the euro area expected to return to recession. This has led to a weaker near-term economic and fiscal outlook for Australia since the budget and substantial reductions to government revenues,” said Swan.

Here are the MYEFO’s ten key points:

1. The Australian economy is expected growth in 2011-2012 by 3.25 percent. This same rate will be followed until the next financial year. But for 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, this growth will drop to 3 percent.

2. In 2011-2012, there has been a deficit of $37.1 billion. But in 2012-2013, this is expected to return to surplus of only about $1.5 billion.

3. Employment will not be doing much good as it is expected to grow in 2012-2013 by just 1 percent. For the succeeding years, this will be grown by $1.5 percent each year.

4. There is a big hole to fill in the tax revenue as this will have fallen over the next four years by $20 billion.

5. There is a deferral of automatic tax deductions.

6. People working away from home are receiving living-away-from-home allowance which is costing the government a dear amount of money. If changes in this area will be enacted, a good $700 million will be saved by the government in the next four years.

7. The government reducing co-contributions on superannuation will help the government save about $1 billion over the next four years.

8. Middle-class welfare has been applied by the government. Baby bonus will be frozen at $5,000.

9. A good $436 million will be raised over the next four years by adapting better data matching.

10. A 2.5 percent cut in spending by public service is called upon.

With these key points, small businesses may also have to be on their feet and be ready for changes. It would be best if they utilize an Australian accounting software or any reputable accounting software for business.

Australian SME Businesses Not Happy with Federal Government

An MYOB report reveals that about half of Australian SMEs are now dissatisfied with the federal government. The rage of these small and medium businesses has reached a three-year high. From just 31 percent during the last three months, the number of dissatisfied SME’s has soared to 56 percent recently.

Only 14 percent of the 1000 surveyed business owners in October say they are happy. This shows a decrease from the 27 percent last August.

According to Tom Reed, MYOB Chief Executive, business owners are a pragmatic group and they may be appeased if the government takes some straightforward measures.


“Business owners... go into business because they are passionate about delivering a product or service better. They don’t tend to have ideological views, but support clear policies that will strengthen the economy and remove red tape,” he added.

The state that has the highest dissatisfaction rating is Queensland at 65 pecent. Last March, this was only at 46 percent. On the other hand, Victoria has the lowest dissatisfaction rating of 41 percent which is still nine percent higher than the previous survey results.

"We call upon all political parties to stop ignoring the SME sector and start developing policies that will genuinely make business life easier," is the call of Mr. Reed.

The MYOB also found out that small business owners want some immediate action in the following:

• A good 69 percent want policies that simplify GST/BAS reporting processes

• Another 66 percent want more government investments in transport infrastructure in cities and states

• 63 percent want more funding for innovation, research, and development

• 61 percent want a “Buy Australian made” policy for procurements in the government

• And 61 percent want the carbon tax abolished.

“It needs to shore up business tax revenue shortfalls if it’s to meet its surplus promise, while at the same time stimulate non-mining sector business investment and growth,” said Reed.

“With the carbon tax legislation off the immediate agenda, the Gillard Government can take back the policy initiative and positively respond to the recent tax forum,” he added.

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Shoebooks is a premium provider of accounting software in Australia for SME businesses. Check out Shoebooks bookkeeping software and experience the advantages of our bookkeeping accounting services for your business. Shoebooks is located at Unit 12, 118 Church Street, Hawthorn Victoria 3122, Australia. Call Shoebooks at +613-9818-1515 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +613-9818-1515     

VMware Releases New Cloud Computing Solution

The release of a new cloud computing solution has been confirmed by VMware, a leading virtualization company.

The new vCloud Connector 1.5 is aimed to make public and hybrid clouds a reality for businesses. This was stated through the company’s official blog. Among its top features is being able to transfer between cloud-based portals certain company data with such ease, efficiency, and speed.

More specifically, the vCloud Connector 1.5 features include:




1. Blocking tasks and notifications. The vCO can dynamically respond to vCloud Director tasks and notifications if the plug-in is combined with the AMQP plug-in.

2. Query service. This allows the software to collect information about numerous objects with speed.

3. 142 new actions as well as 47 new workflows allow complex automation to happen in less time.

4. From 160 objects before, there are already close 500 new objects with the support of the 1.5 API.

When businesses opt to use this vCloud 1.5, they can already do the following:

1. Efficiency through utilization and automation
IT performance can be increased with resource pooling and a dynamically optimized environment.

2. Agility with control
End-users are given the power to ensure security and preserve IT authority with the use of the vCloud. With this solution, businesses can now be able to address and respond to business concerns brought about by changing demands of time.

3. Freedom of choice
With the use of this solution, IT can still support traditional systems and still have that same flexibility.

Perhaps the best feature of this vCloud is that it is also compatible with other VMware products. This enables users to move from one solution to another in a seamless and hassle-free way.

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Shoebooks is a premium provider of accounting software in Australia for SME businesses. Check out Shoebooks bookkeeping software and experience the advantages of our online accounting programs for your business. Shoebooks is located at Unit 12, 118 Church Street, Hawthorn Victoria 3122, Australia. Call Shoebooks at +613-9818-1515

Former Dragons' Den James Caan Talks Cloud Computing

The amazement that cloud computing brings is not only felt by small and medium-sized business owners but even by celebrities and big business people alike. This time, no less than James Caan was pleasantly surprised when he was offered to invest in the online accounting software.

The businessman and entrepreneur who stars the hit BBC show, Dragon’s Den, spoke to the Ahead in the Clouds event in London where he was quoted for saying that he was won over by the cloud’s technology earlier this year.

”It (cloud computing) has changed the landscape quite significantly. Companies no longer need to have large bulky archives with all their databases written on papers. Cloud computing enables all this information to be stored online in a digital format, with little limitations on size,” he said.


“What’s also very important is that cloud computing enables infomation and data access anywhere in the world, as long as there is an internet connection. My private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw uses cloud computing and I’m still amazed how efficient the system is.”

Caan said he was recently abroad and decided to show some large documents to his colleague. He was truly amazed to have been able to access the information with speed.

However, Caan also admits that there are risks associated with using the accounting for small businesses. But the administrators of this online accounting programs are putting at the top of their agenda the solutions to such concerns.

“Business owners are typically so swamped with everyday tasks and issues they tend to push their business security to the bottom of their priority list. However, I believe that a company’s information is one of their most valuable assets and should be at the top of every entrepreneur’s agenda,” added Caan.

Almost Half of SME Businesses are Using Cloud Computing

At present, half of firms are already adapting cloud computing in their business processes after being convinced of the technology’s benefits. According to a new research by Spiceworks, a social business network company, a good 46 percent of the total 1,200 small and medium-sized businesses is already using this online accounting.

In CloudPro’s report, this figure reflects an increase from what only used to be 28 per cent who were using the Australian accounting software earlier in 2011.

"Despite market fluctuations, 2011 proved to be a great year for disruptive technologies as SMBs increasingly adopted tablet computers, cloud services and virtualisation technology," says Jay Hallberg who is the co-founder and vice-president of marketing at the research study.


This development may be attributed to the cloud’s easier IT management with the use of the internet as well as its secure off-site storage of data which are deemed necessary by business enterprises.

Setting cloud computing apart from other hosting services is the fact that data are being stored and handled independently by the service provider. This also further means that the data are kept confidential.

"Cloud computing has been on the business radar for some time and our report proves that we are at the tipping point for mass adoption among small and medium-sized businesses.” This is according to Chris Stening. Managing director of Easynet Connect.

The only concern seen by the same study is that some firms are neglecting to take steps at raising their security levels to cope with the demands of cloud computing.

It may be recalled that there was a prediction by Rob Lovell, Chief Executive at ThinkGrid, that 2010 was going to be a year for cloud computing providers to grow and reassure businesses of the technology’s safety and features.

Cloud Computing Services for SME Businesses

Cloud computing has been considered helpful and efficient by many small businesses. This is because IT functions such as database servers, file servers, document storage, and application development are given an alternative.

There are many advantages that can be achieved by any business that engages in cloud computing. The following is a rundown of these.

1. Savings on infrastructure
Instead of businesses buying additional computers and database servers, they can opt to utilize cloud computing by paying a monthly fee. The savings are enormous considering that one server with OS and applications is tantamount to thousands of dollars.


2. Saving on Set up and Management
Once a new OS or application is purchased, the IT staff will have to know how to install and manage it. This is time-consuming. However, if the small business uses the cloud as its small accounting software, this part of management and maintenance is already taken care of. There are administrators whose main task is just to support specific applications.

3. Saving on Utilities
When a business uses its own data center, it may be under-utilized due to the fact that it is too big for the small operations. This means that the company is paying for something that is not maximized. But when utilizing accounting online through cloud computing, the costs to run the business’ operations are smaller.

4. Better performance
Since cloud providers cater to many small and big businesses, they buy high-performance systems to provide nothing but the best services.

5. Increased agility
Even external contractors, partners and customers may also be served by cloud providers. This feature will allow the small business to respond more quickly and efficiently to changes in the needs of the customers.

6. Increased fault tolerance
When using an in-house server, technical problems are taken care of by the IT people themselves. And sometimes, this gets to be too tough that it would need more time and money to troubleshoot. However, when utilizing the cloud as accounting software, faults are addressed more efficiently such as power outages and nightly backups.

It is no wonder that bookkeeping online is the choice among many small businesses today.

SME Business in Queensland Slammed $7 Billion Charges Annually

As the government red tape is increasing more than 30 per cent over the past five years, a total of $7 billion a year in taxes, fees, and other charges are slugging small businesses in Queensland.

Family businesses in Queensland are struggling through 90,000 pages of regulation that govern the sector.

Burgeoning paperwork and some extra cost of taxes are being blamed by a huge chunk of operators as the reasons behind slumped growth and progress. These paper works include mandatory permits and licenses, calculation methods, audits by payroll tax officials, and the fear of what might be brought about by the carbon tax next year.


An operator feels the pressure and has decided to bring his operations to China.

It has been found that 93 percent of businesses think that Queensland has become a “nanny state” by a report from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland. Due to regulation, 70 percent of businesses were prevented from investing.

The state government had increased red tape cost by 6.6 percent. This has driven the overall burden growing to 31.6 percent according to the Blueprint for Fighting Over-Regulation Report.

To add to this, the 2011 National CEO Survey by the Australian Industry Group revealed that it is the Queensland businesses that faced the largest direct cost of compliance that averages 6.5 percent in total expenses.

"During a period when there has been concerted effort to reduce the regulatory burden on business and claims by government of regulatory burden targets being achieved, the compliance costs have increased, not decreased. These costs are expected to further increase in the next three years," said the AiGroup.

Queensland has lost its way and that its government is “all talk, no action” on the matter of cost reduction as stated by CCIQ President, David Goodwin.

"We've gone from being the leader to being the cellar dweller from being low cost and low regulation to now being the highest regulated and no longer the lowest cost. We need the Premier to actually find her voice and stand up for Queensland business," he said.

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Shoebooks is a premium provider of Australian accounting software for SME businesses. Check out Shoebooks small accounting software services and experience the advantages of our bookkeeping online software for your business. Shoebooks is located at Unit 12, 118 Church Street, Hawthorn Victoria 3122, Australia. Call Shoebooks at +613-9818-1515 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +613-9818-1515      end_of_the_skype_highlighting