So, with just a few weeks remaining until Christmas, there’s just enough time to make sure your business digital marketing initiatives are prepared for the Christmas season.

Regardless of whether your business sells gifts, professional services or trades, here are some digital marketing tips that can be useful in the final weeks before Christmas.

For Social media campaigns
There are more posts, shares, and comments during the Christmas holidays than any other time of year and each passing year more people are using mobile devices to shop online, access websites and find deals and gift ideas.

If your business sells products or services that can be bought as gifts, make a social media schedule, and prepare Christmas themed social media images and advertising. This will include special Christmas deals, season countdowns, and feel-good festive stories.

Queuing your social media posts in advance is a great option for decreasing your stress. Social media platforms offer the option of future queuing your posts. This will help you keep in touch with your customers throughout the crazy season without manually posting each time. You may want to continue it into the New Year so that you aren’t working over Christmas.

If your business will be closed for a period, you can set an auto-reply in Facebook Messenger to inform people when they send a Facebook message to your business.

For AdWords campaigns
If your business will be closed over the Christmas break, or running on skeleton staff, remember to turn off your Adwords ads or scale them down during that time. However, if you do have staff available, AdWords campaigns can be highly profitable during that time, as many businesses turn off their campaigns. This means you can often gain cheaper and more profitable leads during that time.

If your business sells gifts, you should consider adjusting your AdWords budget to match increased search queries before Christmas. Search growth peaks in this season for products and services. Evaluate your historical performances in Google AdWords & Analytics from last year and accordingly adjust the budget to build on your best-seller campaigns.

Adapt text ad content to advertise Christmas promotions. Ensure remarketing tags are active and conversion tracking is all working in the place for Christmas campaigns. Also, make sure you measure ROI so that you can analyse what worked, what didn’t and do more of whatever worked!

If you need to allow for shipping times, it’s a good idea to promote strongly near the start of December – don’t wait until it’s too late. Shipping timeframes become a major concern for almost every online customer leading up to Christmas, so advertise early to get those sales.

For email campaigns
People are looking for last-minute bargains around this time and emails can be effective to attract your subscribers/listed customers. According to McKinsey & Company, email marketing is three times more effective than social media, and the average customer order is 17 percent higher.

If you’re selling products or services that can be gifts, then send at least two emails during December (preferably more) to promote the products or services you’re featuring over the Christmas season and spread the word. Have a look at what other businesses in your field are doing. Sign up for mailing lists of your competitors and visit websites.

This season is competitive time for email marketers. Customers in boxes will be full of offers and updates, so you will have to be prepared to compete for attention. Look at your data and see what tactics yielded the best open and clickthrough rates last year. The subject line is a key factor in whether a recipient will even open your email, so make it punchy and intriguing enough to get those opens.

And if you’ll be closed over the Christmas holidays, make sure you send an email to your customers to let them know what dates you’ll be closed, and emergency contact details if needed.

Google My Business hours and posts
If your business is listed on Google Maps (and it should be!) then you’ll have a Google My Business listing.

If you have special opening hours leading up to Christmas, or have dates that you’ll be closed over the Christmas break, make sure you enter these details into your listing. When you login to Google My Business just enter these different times in the “Special Hours” section.

There is also a little-known feature that Google realised earlier this year that is perfect for highlighting announcements. It’s called Google My Business Posts.

Google My Business posts last for a week, making it perfect for events, guides, products and more. Small businesses can use these posts to announce new daily promotions, highlight newest products or best-sellers and even holiday closing periods. These posts can have up to 300 words of text, an image, a title and a range of call to action buttons. These posts show up on Google search as well as Google Maps, depending on the nature of the query and the nature of the post.

So, if you have special promotions or events leading up to Christmas, you should use this feature. It’s free – just log into Google My Business and click on dashboard to make a post.

Embrace digital marketing in the festive season
Christmas is an important time for small businesses. If you’re selling gifts, then be sure to apply these tips to get the most out of your digital channels to increase sales and revenue during this season. If you’re not selling gifts, these tips can still help you keep strong relationships with your customers.

Embrace the festive season and its spirit, and keep winning customers with well-planned digital marketing…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Reference http://wbn.co.nz/2017/11/27/digital-marketing-tips-christmas/

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Staff parties

Throwing a staff party can be a great way to see out the year and celebrate successes, but there are tax considerations to think about.

You can claim some costs of a party or staff gifts, but they may be subject to fringe benefit tax. This is paid on benefits workers get as a result of their employment.

Half your holiday party expenses may be claimed in your GST and income tax returns if the expenses relate to your business. Expenses can include:

• food and drink
• entertainment
• venue hire.

Business Gifts and Entertainment

Generally, you can claim the costs of gifts as a business expense, eg hampers or gift vouchers. But you may need to pay fringe benefit tax on these gifts.

A meal out provided by the business is an entertainment expense and you can claim 50% as a business expense.

Giving to charity

You can deduct 100% of the cost of entertainment you provide to members of the public for charitable purposes. For example, if your business donates food to a party at a hospital.

Source: IRD

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Kelly has joined the Team at Accounting One and is looking forward to her role as Practice Manager.

Kelly’s previous role before starting at Accounting One was at Bennetts Proactive as a Client Service Co-ordinator. She was responsible for the administration for a team of accounting specialists. Responsibilities included workflow management to ensure the team had enough client records to keep them busy, having all necessary files ready when the team needed them and obtaining records from clients in a timely manner. She has an excellent attention to detail.

Kelly is looking forward to supporting Dale and Sonja. She is the glue that holds everything together within the firm so that Dale and Sonja can spend more time with our clients.

She also helps manage the family business which is a busy boarding kennels in Paengaroa. Kelly has a passion for dogs and their wellbeing and enjoys being amongst both her own dogs and the boarding guests when not assisting at Accounting One.

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What constitutes a ‘Classy Client’ in your mind? Do you have a framework to decipher such clients? How does your business attract such ‘Classy Clients’?

Beyond this, once you have these ‘Classy Clients’ onboard what are you doing to give them the WOW experience that differentiates your business from your competition?

Your Classy Clients

We all want them right? Clients that we get on with, that take on board our advice and clients who pay on time (or in advance).

Get really clear on who it is you want to work with as ‘Classy Clients’. Write it out and communicate this to your team. Have a standard as to who you will take on as a client. We know to often many businesses just take on anyone who comes knocking. Uphold your standards, remembering quality not quantity.

Beyond this, once you know what your ‘Classy Clients’ look like, you are able to design targeted campaigns that attract them. At which point you are able to illustrate synergies, expertise that align to their needs and wants, then you can move them through your smooth engagement process.

Your Wow Experience

Once you have attracted your ‘Classy Clients’ you need to wow them…. What wow experience are you giving your clients? Some businesses pride themselves on regular communication and meetings with their clients. Sending personalise notes and cards for Birthdays, business milestones or invites to special events. Other businesses have a drinks menu in reception as clients arrive. Most importantly the wow factor comes through servicing these clients to the fullest. Businesses that have the wow experience in place, make it part of their culture, and have processes that are detailed in their service standards.

Communication

Regular communication with your ‘Classy Clients’ is vital. Having a structure around this is imperative. Such as…

• Regular scheduled meetings
• Educational events, whitepapers, blogs and newsletters
• Phone calls and personal contact
• Regular analysis of your communication

This all adds to and enhances your relationship with your clients. Which leads to identifying more opportunities to help your clients.

Start this process today! Make this a priority for you, your business and your clients. Be the best you can be.

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Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most successful comedians of all-time.

He is regarded as one of the “Top 100 Comedians of All-Time” by Comedy Central. He was also the co-creator and co-writer of Seinfeld, the long-running sitcom which has received numerous awards and was claimed to have the “Top TV Episode of All-Time” as rated by TV Guide.

Seinfeld reached his peak in earnings when he made $267 million dollars in 1998. (Yes, that was in one year. No, that’s not a typo.) A full 10 years later, in 2008, Seinfeld was still pulling in a cool $85 million per year.

By almost any measure of wealth, popularity, and critical acclaim, Jerry Seinfeld is among the most successful comedians, writers, and actors of his generation.

However, what is most impressive about Seinfeld’s career isn’t the awards, the earnings, or the special moments — it’s the remarkable consistency of it all. Show after show, year after year, he performs, creates, and entertains at an incredibly high standard. Jerry Seinfeld produces with a level of consistency that most of us wish we could bring to our daily work.

Compare his results to where you and I often find ourselves. We want to create, but struggle to do so. We want to exercise, but fail to find motivation. Wanting to achieve our goals, but — for some reason or another — we still procrastinate on them.

What’s the difference? What strategies does Jerry Seinfeld use to beat procrastination and consistently produce quality work? What does he do each day that most people don’t?

I’m not sure about all of his strategies, but I recently discovered a story that revealed one of the secrets behind Seinfeld’s incredible productivity, performance, and consistency.

Let’s talk about that what he does and how you can use the “Seinfeld Strategy” to eliminate procrastination and actually achieve your goals.

The “Seinfeld Strategy”

Brad Isaac was a young comedian starting out on the comedy circuit. One fateful night, he found himself in a club where Jerry Seinfeld was performing. In an interview on Lifehacker, Isaac shared what happened when he caught Seinfeld backstage and asked if he had “any tips for a young comic.”

Here’s how Isaac described the interaction with Seinfeld…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”

You’ll notice that Seinfeld didn’t say a single thing about results.

It didn’t matter if he was motivated or not. It didn’t matter if he was writing great jokes or not. It didn’t matter if what he was working on would ever make it into a show. All that mattered was “not breaking the chain.”

And that’s one of the simple secrets behind Seinfeld’s remarkable productivity and consistency. For years, the comedian simply focused on “not breaking the chain.”

Let’s talk about how you can use the Seinfeld Strategy in your life…

How to Stop Procrastinating

Top performers in every field — athletes, musicians, CEOs, artists — they are all more consistent than their peers. They show up and deliver day after day while everyone else gets bogged down with the urgencies of daily life and fights a constant battle between procrastination and motivation.

While most people get demotivated and off-track after a bad performance, a bad workout, or simply a bad day at work, top performers settle right back into their pattern the next day.

The Seinfeld Strategy works because it helps to take the focus off of each individual performance and puts the emphasis on the process instead. It’s not about how you feel, how inspired you are, or how brilliant your work is that day. Instead, it’s just about “not breaking the chain.”

All you have to do to apply this strategy to your own life is pick up a calendar (here’s an inexpensive one ) and start your chain.

A Word of Warning

There is one caveat with the Seinfeld Strategy. You need to pick a task that is meaningful enough to make a difference, but simple enough that you can get it done.

It would be wonderful if you could write 10 pages a day for your book, but that’s not a sustainable chain to build. Similarly, it sounds great in theory to be able to deadlift like a maniac every day, but in practice you’ll probably be overtrained and burnt out.

So step one is to choose a task that is simple enough to be sustainable. At the same time, you have to make sure that your actions are meaningful enough to matter.

For example, researching good jokes each day is simple, but you’re never going to write a joke by merely researching. That’s why the process of writing is a better choice. Writing can actually produce a meaningful result, even when it’s done in small doses.

Similarly, doing 10 pushups per day could be simple and meaningful depending on your level of fitness. It will actually make you stronger. Meanwhile, reading a fitness book each day is simple, but it won’t actually get you in better shape.

Choose tasks that are simple to maintain and capable of producing the outcome you want.

Mastery Follows Consistency

The central question that ties our community together — and what I try to write about every Monday and Thursday — is “how do you live a healthy life?” This includes not merely nutrition and exercise, but also exploration and adventure, art and creativity, and connection and community.

But no matter what topic we’re talking about, they all require consistency. No matter what your definition is of a “healthy life,” you’ll have to battle procrastination to make it a reality. Hopefully, the Seinfeld Strategy helps to put that battle in perspective.

Don’t break the chain on your workouts and you’ll find that you get fit rather quickly.

Don’t break the chain in your business and you’ll find that results come much faster.

Don’t break the chain in your artistic pursuits and you’ll find that you will produce creative work on a regular basis.

So often, we assume that excellence requires a monumental effort and that our lofty goals demand incredible doses of willpower and motivation. But really, all we need is dedication to small, manageable tasks. Mastery follows consistency.

Source www.entrepreneur.com

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You may have noticed that Inland Revenue (IR) has been featuring in the media quite a bit lately. Reported to have received additional funding, it has resulted in a sharp increase in audit activity and now, more than ever before, individuals and businesses are at risk of being selected for a random audit, enquiry, investigation or review.

If your business or individual return is subjected to a random audit, enquiry, investigation or review you are responsible for the professional fees involved in us providing the required information. Even the simplest enquiry can require hours of work. In some cases, when there are complex environments, unusual circumstances, multiple years or multiple companies and trusts, thousands of dollars in accounting and legal fees can be incurred.

We have responded to this growing threat by finding you the most comprehensive tax audit insurance available and are pleased to offer to you and your business our Audit Shield Master Policy. The Audit Shield Master Policy is fully tax deductable for businesses and self-employed providing you with peace of mind in relation to audit, enquiry, investigation and review associated costs. The features of this are:

• Our accounting fees in responding to audits, enquiries, investigations and reviews of your lodged returns, including those from previous years are covered.
• Specialist’s professional fees if we need to engage a tax expert or lawyer for an opinion or defence are covered.
• Cover commences from as little as $215pa (inc GST) for a sole trader or partnership.

You will soon be receiving a letter from us explaining the policy and inviting you to participate under our Audit Shield Master Policy. Should you have any queries in relation to the offer we encourage you to contact our office upon receipt of the letter.

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“How To Improve Your Game” and develop a ‘Builders Kick-Arse Business Success Toolkit”

Come along for breakfast and a golf day on Monday 2nd May 2016. Either stay for the Builders Kick-Arse Business session or stay for the whole day for a round of golf (and great networking).

With the Bay of Plenty building industry booming with sixty million dollars worth of building consents were issued in Tauranga in December in 2015. The value of building consents issued during the years was the highest for both local authorities since Priority One records began.

In these booming times as a builder you are required to balance the busy demand and run a smooth profitable business. We don’t have to tell you what goes into running a successful business – blood, sweat and tears are only the beginning.

With so much paperwork to complete, keeping on top of all the bills and invoicing, rosters and site work plans – it can all go wrong very quickly.

Too many builders and subbies go bust because they have been blindsided by bad debt, huge outstanding bills to pay and everyone looking the other way when you need extra finance.

If you’re finding it hard to:

• Communicate effectively and efficiently with your customers and suppliers
• Understand your numbers
• Know where your cash flow is at
• Get your invoices out on time, your debtors are growing and the money isn’t coming in like it needs to
• Provide financial reports so the banks get off your back and gives you some breathing space
• Keep up with who the best suppliers are and how to negotiate the best deals

You’ve come to the right place.

During breakfast we will host a short presentation. We have speakers who can help you with efficiencies, productivity and money management. These guys are equally as passionate as you are about their trade, which is assisting business success and growth.

One of the riskier periods of business is when you in a growth phase. You have wages and suppliers to pay and then wham – one big, bad debt and it could be all over. With good people and good systems we’ll show you how to eliminate this real risk to your business.

Accounting One’s, purpose is to help the Bay of Plenty Builders Kick-Arse with the right toolbox and thrive, grow and succeed! They’re a great team who work for you and with you to keep your business humming.

Dale is a golf fanatic so he would love as many of you to stay for the day and play a round of 18-hole golf on him. Enjoy a game of golf and grab a great networking opportunity.

Why not bring a few of the crew? Building a successful business relies on building a winning team around you.

The day kicks off at 7.30am with a hearty “builders” breakfast at the Omanu Golf Club. You get to mix and mingle with other guys and girls in the building trade – meet your next best sparky or buddy up with a builder to build your business with.

Contact Dale or Sonja to secure your spot today.

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For most assets, it is straightforward to determine whether expenditure is deductible. If the asset is only used to derive income or used in business, related expenditure will generally be deductible.

If the asset is only used privately (such as a private house or a car) then no deduction is available for related expenditure.

Because mixed-use assets combine both private and income earning use in a single asset, questions arise about the appropriate portion of expenditure that will be deductible.

The easiest way to explain this is to divide expenditure into “daily amounts”. If a bach is used by its owners for 40 days in a year, and rented out for 25 days in that year, it is clear that:

• 40 days’ worth of expenditure is not deductible
• 25 days’ worth of expenditure is deductible.

What is not clear is what happens to the expenditure which relates to the 300 days of the year when the asset is not used at all.

Under the previous rules, the 300 days when the asset is “available for income-earning use”, also gave rise to deductions. This means the owner would claim deductions for expenditure relating to 325 days, or 89% (325/365) of total expenditure.

This was not considered an equitable outcome, given that the asset was used both for income earning and private purposes, and indeed, the principal purpose of acquisition may well have been private.

In order to address this issue Inland Revenue undertook an extensive review of the rules applying to mixed-use assets and new apportionment rules were introduced from the 2014 tax year for assets relating to the provision of short-term accommodation and the 2015 tax year for boats and aircraft (with a market value of more than $50,000 at acquisition)

For the purposes of these rules, the asset will include any assets which are related to it. For example a holiday home includes items such as the furniture and appliances and a yacht includes items such as the dinghy and lifejackets.

The new rules establish an apportionment method to determine the deductibility of expenditure associated with them. In this case the proportion of expenditure that is now deductible is calculated by dividing the number of days in which the asset was actually used to earn income by the total number of days the asset was actually used for both purposes.

In the illustration above, this would mean the owner would now be able to claim 38.5% of expenditure (25 days of income earning / 65 days of total use).

A number of other changes have also been made:

• Owners can opt out of the tax system if the asset has earned gross income of less than $4,000 in the tax year, this means no tax on the income however no deductions are allowed.
• when the income received from the business use of the asset is low (2% or less of the assets market value) any tax losses generated by the mixed-use asset cannot be offset against other income, but must be carried forward and offset against future profits generated by the same asset.
• in order to avoid an unfair advantage to taxpayers who choose to hold their mixed-use assets in a corporate structure the new rules apply to mixed-use assets owned by all forms of entities except companies that are not close companies (i.e. with more than five unrelated shareholders).

What constitutes private use?

There are three categories of private use.

The first is use of the asset by a natural person (an individual) who is either the person who owns, leases, licenses, or otherwise has control over the use of the asset.

The second is the use of the asset by a natural person who is associated with the person who owns, leases, licenses or otherwise has the asset. For example a close relative of an individual, a partner in a partnership, a shareholder of a close company, a trustee or beneficiary of a trust.

The third category is where the asset is used by a person who is not associated with the owner, but who pays less than 80% of the market value of that use but would exclude an asset that is rented by an unrelated person at a lower price for reasons such as:

• the asset is being rented in an “off-peak” or “quiet” period
• the asset is being rented for a longer period than it is usually rented for
• or the asset is being rented at a reduced price to establish profile or a market share.

Use by a person who falls into one of the above categories will constitute private use even if the person uses the asset along with others – such as when the owner stays in the bach along with some of her friends, even if the friends pay market rental.

Use by a person who falls into one of the above categories will also constitute private use regardless of any amount paid for the use.

When does private use not apply?

In the following situations private use does not apply when the owner uses the mixed-use asset to:

• earn income in the ordinary course of their business. For example, a person who owns a boat and operates a business that provides skippered fishing charters will not be treated as using the boat privately when he or she takes out the boat in the ordinary course of the business.
• carry out repairs caused by someone who rented the asset. For example, a bach might be rented to people who damage it. The owner might then need to stay in the bach to repair that damage because the owner lives some way away, and it will take more than one day to repair the damage. The use by the owner to repair the bach will not constitute private use.
• relocate it at the beginning or end of a period of hire, the relocation is necessary to enable the hire, and the income derived by the owner directly or indirectly includes an amount for the relocation.

References: www.ird.govt.nz keyword: mixed-use

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Business is not all work and no play. You can also claim the cost of entertainment to build up business contacts, keep your employees happy or promote your goods or services as an expense. If it’s helping you earn your income, it’s usually deductible.

It should be clear when expenses are business-related or private. An entertainment expense is business-related if you spend the money to help your business earn income. If the expense doesn’t help your business earn gross income, it’s private and you can’t claim it as a tax deduction, even if you paid for it out of your business account.

50% deductible entertainment expenses

Some business-related entertainment expenses are 100% deductible. Others are set as 50% deductible because they have a significant private element. Even if you think that the private element was more or less than 50% of the expense, you can only claim 50% of the expense as a deduction.

In general, any entertainment away from work or out of usual work hours has a private element.

If you provide entertainment that’s only 50% deductible, you can only deduct 50% of any “supporting” expenses. For example running costs, repairs and maintenance for corporate boxes, holiday accommodation and recreational boats, hire of crockery, glasses, waiting staff and music.

Entertainment expenses and FBT

An entertainment expense where the benefits are enjoyed or received by employees may be subject to FBT. If it’s a business-related entertainment expense which is only 50% deductible, it isn’t subject to FBT. But there is an exception. FBT will be payable if the employer provides the 50% deductible entertainment and the employee can choose when and where to enjoy the benefit, or the benefit is enjoyed outside of New Zealand, and the benefit is not provided in the course of the employee’s employment duties.

100% deductible entertainment expenses

Some business-related entertainment expenses might look as though they are only 50% deductible, but specific rules mean you may be able to claim 100% of the expense. You need to check the rules carefully when there’s a mix of situations which have different rates.

Food and drink while travelling on business

If you or one of your employees buys a meal while travelling on business, the cost is 100% deductible. But you can only deduct 50% of the cost of food and drink consumed if the travel is mainly for the purpose of enjoying entertainment, or at a meal or function involving an existing or potential business contact as a guest.

Food and drink provided at a conference

You can deduct 100% of the food and drink you provide at a conference, education course or similar event that lasts for four consecutive hours or more (not counting meal breaks). If the conference is mainly for the purpose of entertainment the expenses are only 50% deductible.

Promoting your business, products or services

If you supply entertainment to promote a business or the business’s products or services to the public, you can deduct 100% of the costs. But you can only deduct 50% of the costs if the business contacts or employees of the business being promoted have a greater opportunity to enjoy the entertainment than the general public. 

Secondary promotion costs

You can claim 100% of entertainment expenses which only form a secondary part of a trade display or function held to promote a business. To claim 100% of the cost of this expenditure, the function must be open to the public. A trade display does not need to be open to the public to claim 100% of the secondary expense.

Freebies

You can deduct 100% of the cost of freebies promoting your business. You can only deduct 50% of the cost of freebies you give employees or people associated with you.

Entertainment for review

Entertainment which you provide to someone who’s going to review it for publication (eg, in a magazine, newspaper or on a website) is 100% deductible.

Entertainment as a business

If you provide entertainment in the ordinary course of your business at market prices or in an arm’s-length transaction, you can deduct 100% of the entertainment costs.

Entertainment supplied for charity

You can deduct 100% of the cost of entertainment you supply to the general public for charitable purposes.

Offshore entertainment

Entertainment enjoyed or consumed outside New Zealand is 100% deductible. Note that New Zealand includes the waters around New Zealand.

Claiming for reimbursed entertainment expenses

An employee who pays for an entertainment expense upfront may get an allowance from their employer to reimburse them.

Tax-free allowances

If an employee pays for entertainment that’s 50% deductible, eg, a meal for a potential business customer and you reimburse the employee with a tax-free allowance, you can deduct 50% of the allowance. A tax-free meal allowance paid to an employee working overtime is 100% deductible.

Taxable allowances

You can deduct 100% of any taxable entertainment allowances you pay your employee.

Promotions

You can deduct 100% of expenses in promoting your business. But, if you receive an extra benefit, as are result of that promotion you have to deduct 50% of the value of the benefit from your expense deduction.

Employee contributions

If you provide entertainment to an employee, and they contribute to the costs, you reduce your expense claim by the amount of the contribution.

Source: IRD Guide to Claiming Entertainment Expenses

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Summer is coming, the pohutukawa is about to bloom, the beach beckons – but if you’re shutting up shop for the Christmas holidays, make sure your business is also ready to take a break.

This checklist is a good place to start. You might find you have other tasks to check off for your own business. Print this out – or copy it into a new document – to tick off tasks as the festive season approaches.

Premises

• Check your insurance is up to date so it’s valid over the holidays.
• Test smoke alarms and replace batteries if necessary.
• Let your landlord or property manager know when you’ll be away.
• Turn off heating, lighting, appliances and computer equipment.
• Clean out perishable food from the fridge.
• Give indoor plants an extra good watering (or take them home if you’ve got green thumbs).
• Put the rubbish out.
• Notify businesses that regularly deliver to you of your closedown dates, eg the water cooler company and the sanitation equipment company.
• Put a hold on any newspaper deliveries.
• Notify the office cleaner of closure dates, and consider organising a thorough clean while the premises are empty.
• Order supplies needed in January in time, and ensure delivery isn’t during your closedown.

Finances, leave and pay

Make sure you have enough funds in your business account to cover automatic payments for salaries and other regular bills.

Ensure all your tax requirements (GST, PAYE, student loans and other employer deductions) are in order if they have to be filed during your holiday.

Calculate holiday pay ahead of time.

Give employees 14 days’ notice if you have an annual closedown, eg the office or workshop closes over Christmas and no one is to work.

Clarify with staff what their leave breakdown is – what’s compulsory leave and when they’re due back at work.

Clients and suppliers

Tell clients when you’ll be closing and reopening – post this on your website, in out-of-office replies, on your answer phone, and if appropriate on the front door of your business premises.

• Pay your suppliers’ invoices.
• Send out your own invoices.
• Share emergency contact details with staff and clients who might need them.

And here’s a reminder of those upcoming public holidays:

25 December 2015: Christmas Day (Friday)

26 December 2015: Boxing Day (Saturday)

28 December 2015: Boxing Day observed for staff who don’t usually work on Saturdays

1 January 2016: New Year’s Day (Friday)

2 January 2016: The day after New Year’s Day (Saturday)

4 January 2016: 2 January holiday observed for staff who don’t usually work on Saturdays

Source: http://www.business.govt.nz/

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