Running the Business

Setting up clean money admin for a trade business — the dedicated business account, keeping business and personal money separate, a simple daily/monthly/quarterly bookkeeping routine, reconciliation, the cloud-accounting options, and what to hand your accountant. Guidance only.

How tradies take card and digital payments — EFTPOS, mobile readers, payment links and PayID, the cost of acceptance, the RBA ban on card surcharging from 1 October 2026 and what to do about it, and how card payments interact with GST. Guidance only.

When to bring in help with the books — the trigger points, the difference between a TPB-registered BAS agent and a tax agent, what they do versus what you keep, indicative costs, getting value from the relationship, and how to choose one safely. Guidance only.

How to think about job-management software for trades — the workflow from enquiry to payment, the questions to ask at each stage, how it connects to your bookkeeping and payments, and the frameworks (size, mobile-first, data export, onboarding) for choosing the pattern that fits. Guidance only.

Running customer comms as a system, not heroics — layered channels, published response-time norms and out-of-hours boundaries, a follow-up rhythm for quotes and bookings, a minimal CRM and reusable templates, and the privacy hook. Guidance only.

How the Privacy Act applies to small building businesses — the $3m threshold and contractor exceptions, what POLA 2024 changed (and what the announced small-business-exemption removal hasn't yet), handling customer data and site photos, consent for marketing, and the core APP obligations. Guidance only.

Cyber basics for small trade businesses — the threats beyond invoice fraud (business email compromise, ransomware, account takeover, impersonation), the ACSC baseline (MFA, updates, backups, device security), staff awareness, and what to do and who to report to after a breach. Guidance only.

How tradies protect business-critical data from a lost phone, laptop or van — what to back up, cloud vs local and the 3-2-1 rule, a simple daily/weekly/monthly routine, why cloud accounting isn't a backup, and testing your restores. Guidance only.