Business On Software

Photo by RavenHawk via Flickr

What is with the sales team at the Australian Taxation Reporter magazine?  Over the years, they keep repeatedly calling me, and when we try and tell them we are not interested in their product, they start getting really, really pushy and downright rude.

For the first time in my life yesterday, I slammed down the phone on one of their sales reps when she absolutely refused to take ‘No’ for an answer.  I tried to be polite and to explain my reasons, but these guys must have the mother of all script sheets in front of them to try and work around every known objection to their newsletter.

Now, I don’t have a problem as such with their product – we actually used to subscribe to it many years ago, but like everything else, it was just one more thing to suck up our limited attention and time during the day, and we just did not see the justification in carrying on with it.  Our accountant does a really good job to ensure that we maximise our tax breaks, and being accounting software developers, we actually have all the latest feeds on rules and regulations directly from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) anyway.

But try telling that to these guys.  I know they have been rude to other staff members in my company over the years.  So, my message to the Australian Tax Reporter – Please leave us alone now.  We will not buy your product, and we suggest that you tone down your sales techniques somewhat to not be so confrontational and pushy.

The British government has just announced that the VAT rate in the country will drop from 17.5% to 15.0% in order to combat their worsening economy and hopefully kick start consumer spending.

The main problem is that they have only given local businesses about a weeks notice to make the changes.

Given that I was right in the trenches during the changeover to a Goods & Services tax here in Australia in 1999/2000, I can appreciate the implications of this.  While a change in the tax rate will not be as drastic as a change in the whole underlying tax system, I have still seen too many software systems where the tax rate is ‘built in’ as a fixed constant and is not user editable.

Most reputable accounting systems will let the user just go to an options screen and change a ‘Tax Rate’ field or change a line in a tax data file somewhere, but users of old systems may not even know where to find these system option screens.

Here’s hoping that the Australian Govt. does not see the need to change out GST rate from 10%.  Ben Kepes over at Cloud Avenue has an article on how online accounting systems will handle this change with far greater flexibility that traditional software systems.

I think that for most business owners, the visit to your tax accountant is on par with a trip to the dentist, or to your childs PTA meeting…

I am not sure what it is – but personally, I always get the worst feeling of dread before a visit, and am moody for a whole day before my appointment time.

It’s not that I really have anything to fear.  All my accounts are currently up to date (unlike a few years ago – that is a whole other story that I might dissect on here another day).

Also, Angie, my tax accountant is one of the loveliest, smartest, gentlest people you can meet.

Come to think of it – I wouldn’t dread my appointments quite so much if she actually yelled at me every now and then.

I think I know what it is that causes me so much discomfort.  It is just that Angie is so thorough in everything she does.  She has that typical accountant’s implacable patience.  She can ask me a simple question such as “And where did such and such a figure in this expense account come from?”, and then she will just sit back and wait…and wait…and wait.  Until the sun turns into a cold, dark white dwarf.

The thing is, I know I cannot try and escape using my usual pathetic excuses.  She is too darn clever for that.  I mean, I am supposed to be an expert at this sort of thing aren’t I?  I pretty much wrote most of the accounting systems I use, and the reports that I give to her, so I should be able to explain every last oddity to her shouldn’t I?  Problem is, it is exactly under these sorts of conditions that my brain disengages and my mouth babbles incoherently for minutes on end.

Ah well, at least I provide tons of amusement for my wife, who accompanies me to most of these meetings.  She cannot believe how I turn into a quivering mess under Angie’s cool stare.   I think she is taking secret lessons on how to disarm me.

We are back from leave now!  Had a fantastic time in the US.  Gosh Boston is a lovely city.

Now that I am refreshed and all recharged, I intend to step up the frequency of postings on this blog.

One of the emails that was awaiting my flooded inbox when I got back was a short missive from the Australian Tax Office (ATO).  They routinely send out statistics to subscribers of their software development newsletters, and in this one, they reported that as of the financial year ending 30/06/08, about 16.7% of ‘pay as you go’ (PAYG) submissions were done via their electronic ECI interface.

In raw terms, 32543 submissions were made via their ECI software, and 194513 submissions were done via the usual disk, CD-ROM and other magnetic media.

It is refreshing to see the uptake of electronic submissions with Australian businesses.  This is pointing to a better awareness of managers and owners that electronic data interchanges can save time and cost.  I look fotward to next year’s statistics to see if this percentage picks up again.