What's New at Zeller

The petty cash box is empty, you can’t find the business credit card, and you’re up to your knees in receipts. Thankfully there’s an easier way to manage team and project expenses. Meet Zeller Corporate Cards. If you’ve ever checked your bank balance at the end of the week, you know how quickly incidental expenses can add up. Now imagine a team of employees, each with their own needs: a round of coffees for clients, a flight for an upcoming conference, a grocery order for the office, a software subscription. The list goes on. If you’re not staying on top of these purchases, not only is it going to hurt your bottom line, but it’s also going to cause many a headache when it comes to your end-of-month finance reconciliation. Thankfully, there’s a simple way to track who’s spending what, and it doesn’t involve flashing corporate credit cards or leveraging sophisticated expense management software . Zeller Corporate Cards are designed to help businesses – and finance teams – stay in control of employee and project-related expenses, while also giving staff the freedom to make necessary purchases. Read on to discover how Zeller Corporate Cards will give you back money, time and peace of mind. Introducing corporate cards Not to be confused with corporate credit cards or corporate debit cards ( learn what these are here ), corporate cards are payment cards linked to a business’s transaction account, and are specifically designed for employees or teams to be able to pay for business expenses. A finance team or CFO can easily order multiple cards, assign them to employees, and individually adjust their spending limits. In addition, they typically have built-in expense management features like recurring budgets that reset periodically, set transaction limits, and tools to help cardholders track and manage their expenses. Zeller Corporate Cards can be created from Zeller Dashboard. Simply follow the prompts to create a new Corporate Card, assign the card to an employee, set the spend limits and choose your card colour. It’s as simple as that. Your card can then be added to your employee’s mobile wallet or a physical card can be ordered. What are the benefits of using Zeller Corporate Cards in your business? 1. Flexibility for staff With Zeller’s corporate card program, your staff are empowered to make purchases as they need them. Rather than having to ask your permission every time they need to process a payment, or paying with their own money and submitting an expense report for reimbursement, a corporate card will give them the freedom to pay for expenses, within the limits that you prescribe. 2. Reduced financial admin Without the burden of having to process employee reimbursements, administrative time is greatly reduced. With Zeller Corporate Cards, all your expenses are centralised into one dashboard, where finance teams can easily and efficiently track who has spent what. 3. Improved tracking Every corporate card is assigned to an individual employee, team, or project, meaning that it's easy to track and isolate expenditure into different areas of your business. Employees will know that their spend is being monitored, engendering a greater sense of responsibility and ownership over expense management — as everything will be traced back to them. What’s more, businesses can choose to make it mandatory for employees to provide certain information, such as the expense category (‘travel’ or ‘entertainment’, for example), the receipt, and a note (with additional information or reasons as to why the purchase was made). 4. Receipt reconciliation With Zeller Corporate Cards, employees can log in to their account on Zeller App or Zeller Dashboard, take a photo of multiple receipts, including tax invoices and transaction receipts, and upload them to a transaction processed with a Zeller Corporate Card. Not only does this do away with having to collect paper receipts, which can get lost or damaged, but it also saves a huge amount of time when it comes to reconciling receipts against their transactions. 5. Cash flow management Zeller Corporate Cards draw money directly from Zeller Transaction Account , which means that you can track your business cash flow in real time. Unlike a corporate credit card which draws on borrowed funds that you need to pay back later (with interest), corporate cards ensure you always know your business’s cash balance – with no hidden surprises at the end of the month. What’s more, you can see a visual representation of your cash flow from both Zeller Dashboard and Zeller App. 6. Budget control for projects Instead of assigning a card to an employee, Zeller Corporate Cards can also be assigned to individual projects. This allows all expenses for a specific project to be paid for on one card, ensuring that the budget is adhered to and that finance teams or managers can easily identify costs directly associated with that project. 7. Fraud protection By allocating corporate cards against individual employees, or by teams or projects, you are able to implement a greater level of fraud protection in your business. You’ll know exactly who is using each corporate card, what the card is being used for, and why — meaning any examples of expenses that fall outside of these guidelines can be identified immediately. 8. Mobile management With Zeller App, you can create and manage cards directly from your smartphone. If a team member needs to pay for a large expense above their usual transaction limit, you can quickly log in to the app and make the necessary changes within a few clicks. The same goes for issuing cards, if you’ve got a new employee or volunteer on the team, simply log in to Zeller App to add a new card, which – if you choose the virtual option – they can start using immediately. 9. Instant virtual card creation Zeller Corporate Cards can be created and added to a mobile wallet instantly. Your employees can start using their virtual card within minutes of you setting it up, meanwhile you can have a physical card sent out in the mail, if you wish. This convenient solution is not only fast to set up, but also ensures your employees will never lose their card. 10. Affordability In comparison to corporate credit card schemes which can cost upwards of $25 per card with establishment fees and late payment charges, or expense management software, which is likely to set you back hundreds of dollars a year, Zeller Corporate Cards are an affordable alternative. There are no monthly or annual subscription fees, and no transaction fees on domestic purchases either. The first 60 days are free, after which you will pay one low, flat cost of $9 per corporate card, per month. Whether you’re running a small business with just a few staff or a rapidly growing company: managing your expenses doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be controlled. Reduce your administrative burden, empower your employees and know where your money is going, all with Zeller Corporate Cards.

The faster funds settle, the quicker you can use them. Waiting for a large settlement to clear is a frustrating experience that can have a roll-on effect for your business operations. Delays in settlement can disrupt wage payments, impact your ability to order business supplies, and even mean the difference between paying a bill on time or being penalised for late payments. Until your takings clear, you won’t be able to use the money that you’ve earned. So why do bank transfers and settlements take so long? When you accept payment via Zeller Terminal , funds are swept to your Zeller Transaction Account nightly — ready for spending the next day. Keep reading to discover why large institutions take multiple business days to complete a transfer. Next-gen payments technology has arrived A cyclist in search of their morning caffeine fix could tap their phone to your coffee cart’s EFTPOS terminal , and immediately see the transaction in their online banking app; their accessible balance is now $4.50 less than it was a moment ago. So why can’t you, as a business owner, see those funds in your account immediately? Banks don’t allow for automatic transfers to reduce the risk of fraud. It’s always been the case that a settlement must go through a number of checks and balances before the process is complete, which is why there has traditionally been a delay of a few business days between a customer paying for your product or service and that payment landing in your account. Money transfers from one bank to another still take time to clear — yet new technology speeds up the pace of transactions, while safeguarding against fraud. Choose a provider who taps into next-gen payments, and your business and your customers remain protected, while you benefit from quicker access to your takings. To understand why there are still transfer delays into bank accounts, let’s look at how the process works.  (Need a quick reminder on what EFTPOS is and how it works? Read this quick explainer .) How does settlement happen? The payments process appears simple at a glance, with only a few steps between funds leaving the customer’s account and being settled into the merchant’s account. However, scratch beneath the surface and you’ll see there are a number of important checks that happen along the way. The term “settlement” refers to the transfer of funds — accepted from customers, via your EFTPOS terminal, into your business transaction account. It’s the final step of the payment process and, arguably, the most important; it’s when your takings are available for spending. Here’s how it happens, in simplest terms. Your customers taps, dips or swipes their card or smart device to your EFTPOS terminal. At a particular point of the day, of your bank or payment provider’s choosing, those funds are settled to your merchant account. Funds become available in your account for spending, or settled to another account of your choosing. Some payment providers will require you to complete a few manual steps to begin the settlement process at the end of every working day; however, with Zeller, this is done automatically. Now let’s walk through the process in more detail. Whenever a customer chooses to pay for your goods or services with an electronic form of payment (i.e. anything but cash), their card must be in compliance with your business bank — which means the card must be able to be accepted through the bank’s processing network. Once your bank (the acquiring settlement bank) accepts a payment, the transaction must be processed. The payment brand network contacts the customer’s bank to ensure that funds are available for spending. Assuming funds are available, the correct amount is deducted and sent through the processing network to the settlement bank — which settles the transaction. Depending on your bank, funds may be available in your merchant account immediately. In some cases, settlement may take 24 to 72 hours. However, when it comes to accessing business funds, business owners need a quick and streamlined process that will give them access to their money with little wait time. How long should it take? First, let’s define what a business day is. According to the Australian Acts Interpretation Act (1901), business days are those considered to be “any day, other than a Saturday or Sunday, or public holiday”. Yet with each institution varying in timeframes for funds to clear into accounts, the general understanding is that it can take anywhere between one to ten business days for funds to be settled. The online banking industry has a “three-day good funds model” policy in which transfers can take anywhere between two and four business days, as the banks want to make sure that the money is there before allowing the receiver to use it. Still, a considerable wait to gain access to your business’s takings. Other factors to consider are different time zones and locations. If you’re transferring money internationally, there are also public holidays and differences in business hours to consider. This will likely impact the time taken for transfers. Adding to the complexity of this, international transfers are made via the SWIFT network. The network issues a payment order that passes electronically through a few banks until it lands in its destination — further adding to the delay. Yet, given debit cards have made it possible to withdraw and spend money in just a few presses of a button (with real-time updates, to boot), why does it still take so long for funds to settle? It’s no wonder that merchants are starting to question why it takes days to receive their takings when money transfers can be done almost instantly. How to get your takings faster At present, if money needs to be settled into one account and then swept into another account (belonging to a different bank), it can take approximately three business days to reach its destination. This is because banks transfer money at certain times of the day and only during business hours. To speed things up, you could keep all your business banking accounts under one financial institution — or, for even faster access to your business’s money, Zeller provides the perfect solution incorporating speed and flexibility. Using Zeller Terminal means transactions are settled into your Zeller Transaction Account that same night (and available to spend using your Zeller Mastercard , the very next day). As a business owner, you'll have access to your money and avoid any delays that could affect your business’s operations. For more business resources, subscribe to the Zeller Business Blog . By sharing your details with us, we may contact you from time to time. We promise we won’t bug you — and you can unsubscribe from communications at any time.

1. It’s my first time filing taxes for my new business, what do I need to know? Many first-time business owners get tripped up by their tax obligations the first time round, because as Sidney puts it: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s understandable: tax law is very broad and complex, with obligations that change depending on a wide variety of factors, from what you’re selling to how your business is structured, and what your annual turnover is. “Everyone knows about income tax, but when you start having to deal with  GST  and  FBT  or  WET , payroll tax, or when you’re working with companies based overseas, it becomes much more complicated,” says Sidney. “That’s why it's very important to have a business tax accountant to discuss these issues with. To help navigate those things and make sure that there are no penalties or fines applied for the incorrect handling of that,” he says. 2. What should I be looking for in a small business tax accountant? As a business owner, it’s not necessary for you to understand every nuance of Australian tax law, however it’s important that you’re not left in the dark either. “You want to find a business tax accountant who is approachable, understanding, and can communicate really well on these issues,” says Sidney. “I have met clients who have misunderstood their tax obligations, purely because they were working with a small business tax accountant that didn’t have experience in their area,” he continues. “With smaller accounting practices, they might be great at doing individual tax returns and sole trader tax returns, but then their expertise doesn't really branch into other areas. So, it's really important to find an accountant that meets your level of complexity.” When looking for a business tax accountant, ensure you ask them whether they have experience working with businesses in your industry, but also, with businesses at the same stage lifecycle as you. “Some accountants work with small businesses, others with startups and scale ups and others with more mature businesses,” says Sidney, it’s very important to find one that understands your particular needs.” 3. What can I expect to get out of working with a business tax accountant? At a minimum, a business tax accountant will ensure you are meeting all of your tax obligations, however a good accountant will also work with you to arrange your financial affairs so as to reduce your tax bill as much as possible. This is what is often referred to as ‘tax planning’ or ‘tax-effective cash flow management. “Tax planning is one of the most important and most beneficial services to pick up from a business tax accountant because once a business becomes profitable, it is the accountant's job to figure out how to maximise that profit,” says Sidney. “There are different strategies that an expert business tax accountant would look into, such as the structure of the business. If they originally started as a sole trader or they're just a one-entity company, maybe they'll consider a holding company or family trust,” he continues. Business tax accountants will also analyse your finances and make recommendations on where income should go, so as to minimise your tax bill. “This includes advising you on certain tax concessions, such as the $20,000 instant asset write-off,” says Sidney. This program, which was extended in  this year’s federal budget , allows businesses to claim an immediate tax deduction after buying a new piece of equipment – a vehicle, a coffee machine, or  EFTPOS machine  for example. “A business tax accountant will ensure you’re aware of all the tax concessions available to you, which can often help you make decisions about whether to purchase an asset or not,” Sidney explains. 4. What can I do to ensure my time with a business tax accountant is productive (and cost effective)? Working with a business tax accountant doesn’t come free – as with all accounting and bookkeeping services, billing is calculated per hour, so the longer you spend, the more you will pay. To help you optimise the time you spend with your business tax accountant, there are a number of things you can do ahead of meeting them. “If you’re managing your own bookkeeping, it's very important to have all of your accounts reconciled at least up to the 30th of June before you meet,” says Sidney. “If there are any transactions that you’ve tried to reconcile but you’re unsure of, it’s a very good idea to note these down in a separate document so that when you have a discussion with your accountant or bookkeeper, you can tackle these quickly, rather than having to trawl through spreadsheets together.” For businesses that are a little more advanced, such as those that are already working with a bookkeeper for their day-to-day reconciliation, but that have not yet entered into tax planning, Sidney recommends preparing a cash flow forecast. “A cash flow projection spreadsheet allows you to easily see how you’re tracking for the year,” he says, “It will be able to tell you whether you’re a little tight on cash, or what your profit looks like. If you’re profitable, your accountant might make recommendations around investing in some assets, restructuring, or paying dividends before the end of the financial year to reduce your tax liability,” he explains. 5. What tools will make managing my tax accounting easier? Whether you’re a sole trader doing all your own reconciliation, or whether you're running a multi-person company with an in-house bookkeeper: using the right tools to manage your money will set you up for success. “When it comes to accounting software, Xero is one of the biggest and probably the most popular,” says Sidney. “For payment processing,  Zeller ’s ease and transparency really stand out. The systems are user-friendly, it’s a modern, market-leading product and it works seamlessly with Xero, so it makes accounting administration a breeze,” he says. Used together,  Zeller and Xero  allow you to provide accurate and up-to-date financial reports to your business tax accountant, which will give them the visibility they need to make informed recommendations, specific to your business. Disclaimer: The information provided on this site is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as advice that takes into account your business needs and objectives. If you are unsure, seek the advice of a qualified accountant or financial service advisor before deciding whether a savings account is right for your business.