Kerry Packer once told a parliamentary committee in 1991; “Now of course I am minimizing my tax and if anybody in this country doesn't minimize their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra.” Truer words were never spoken! So how do we go about living up to this objective? The answer? Keep detailed records of expenditure!! Analysis shows that many self-employed workers are not maintaining their financial records in a manner designed to optimize their tax deductions and are potentially paying way too much tax.

The Australian Department has made available free of charge a superb software product called e-record. This is an excellent spreadsheet driven record management facility providing cash book management, BAS processing, reconciliation of daily sales, cash flow management, tax invoicing, inventory management and many other very useful features. The system is easy to use and provides full backup facilities ensuring you never lose the data and has excellent on phone support.

We strongly recommend that you run through the tutorial provided. You can find e-record at here.