Gobbill has appointed Rochelle Park as the head of the company’s growing disability payment services business unit called Aspect Plan Management (APM).

Rochelle has over 30 years of experience in business and operations management. She was previously the CEO of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) of over 4,000 members. Her business acumen and experience in developing partnerships and stakeholder management will be invaluable.​

#disability #NDIS #leadership #accounting

Gobbill is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with NAB to fight against scams and fraud.

Supported Independent Living (“SIL”) under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (“NDIS”) supports participants to live independently in shared accommodation homes. These homes are designed to enable supports to be easily delivered for daily living and household tasks. While the NDIS will cover support costs, it does not cover everyday living costs which everyone is expected to incur. Examples are food, grocery items, utilities, entertainment, and internet which may be shared with other participants in the home and managed by the SIL operator. 

Participants and SIL operators managing shared costs can find themselves in all sorts of situations which may present a financial risk. It creates risks such as support workers having access to participants’ bank accounts and/or physically handling cash. The SIL operator who employs the support worker is responsible for having proper financial processes and controls in place.  

It also creates headaches and more work to chase payments when they are missed or short paid.

SIL operators using Gobbill technology say it is like set-and-forget when it comes to automatic collection of funds into their bank account. It saves their business time on reconciliation, improves cashflow and increases transparency in the financial management processes.

How Gobbill can assist?

Gobbill is an Australian built solution which helps SIL operators to manage and automate the collection of funds from participants by debiting their bank accounts when payments are due. This is set-up once when the participant signs up with the operator. Participants do not have to give the support worker their credit card, internet bank access or cash to pay for everyday expenses anymore. 

It is a simple 3-step process:

1.           Setup your participants in Gobbill with their bank accounts to direct debit.

2.           Send your invoices into <your_participant>@gobbill.com account.

3.           The amount is debited and deposited into your account by the due date.

With Gobbill taking care of the collections and bill payments, this allows SIL operators to save significant administration time and improve their cashflow while reducing the risk of financial abuse.

Email [email protected] or contact us at Gobbill.

The latest figures reveal phishing is a practice that is only becoming more and more widespread. Phishing was the most reported scam to Scamwatch in 2022, with the government website recording 74,573 complaints — a 4.6 per cent increase on the previous year. In 2022, the total financial losses from phishing reported to Scamwatch and the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange totalled $157.6 million.

Advances in machine learning and AI have made it harder to detect phishing scams.

The success of a phishing scam hinges on manipulating the emotions and behaviours of a potential victim.

Urgent calls to action requiring a victim to pay off an outstanding tax debt or reactivate a suspended bank account are common techniques used by scammers.  Ofir Turel, professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne, says scammers appeal to the impulsive part of our brains, using temptation to override restrained, logical thinking.

Read more..

How scammers use phishing attacks to ‘socially engineer’ their way into your savings
By Judd Boaz and Leanne Wong

We are pleased to announce that Google is our strategic growth partner and supporting us with Google’s Cloud Program as a Scale tier Artificial Intelligence (AI) first – equity backed company.

Google is supporting Gobbill as we explore the next phase of our R&D providing us with ~AU$500K over 2 years to AI financial credits, technology, resources and its community needed for us to grow .

Gobbill’s AI journey started back in mid 2015 when we applied Deep-Learning text-in-the-wild to automate bill payments and machine learning models for detecting fraud.

In our early days, we were based in our AI & Data Science partner Silverpond ‘s co-working space called The Pond (2016).

Gobbill’s journey has been an exciting one working with Silverpond and with plenty of support from Microsoft. Together, we have explored use-cases and what’s possible using AI over the last 8 years.

Gobbill CEO, Shendon Ewans presenting at 2018 and 2019 Applying Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning Conference – Melbourne. Above and Below.

Australian AI submit 2019: Silverpond presenting examples of Australian startups using AI such as Gobbill.

We’re excited about our new strategic partnership with Google and their support in our next phase of Australian AI research and development.

Business Outlook for FY24 – Challenging times ahead for businesses

Many Australian businesses especially SMEs businesses are struggling with cashflow due to higher inflation and interest rates. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has raised the official interest rate known as cash rate to 4.1% in June 2023 to tackle the high inflation level of 7% (March 2023). “In short term, this actually put on more pressure on consumers and SMEs alike.” says Mr Rajic, Founder of Small Business Loans Australia.

CreditorWatch Chief Executive, Patrick Coglan says “The new financial year 2024 is looking tough for businesses with insolvencies at a 10-year high and trading conditions further weakening”. Further from Trading Economics statistics, the bankruptcies in Australia have increase to 387 companies in May 2023 as compared to 308 companies in April 2023. Signs from commercial property index remains weak at -6 for Q1 2023 as reported by NAB – Commercial Property Survey (Q1 2023) specially affecting the retail (-32) and office (-16) properties still in negative zone.

Household consumption growth is expected to remain sluggish through this year as inflation and higher interest rates weigh on real disposable income. “It is unlikely be a cut to the cash rate until both goods and service inflation is on a sustained downward trend and the unemployment rate is roughly at 4.5%” (vs April 2023 at 3.7%), accordingly Ms Anneke Thompson – Chief Economist of CreditorWatch.

Alarm bells should be ringing for business owners to focus on cashflow management as it is crucial for businesses to survive in these economic conditions. The most practical approach for businesses to be in a healthy financial position is to:

1) Optimise its cashflow with steady inflow – collections via:

1. Timely billing of invoices to clients – minimise delay in collection
2. Early payment incentives to clients – encourage prompt settlements
3. Expanding payment options – allow flexibility to encourage prompt settlements

2) Filing of tax returns – ensure any funds owed are returned to the businesses promptly

3) Payment to suppliers on time or to negotiate for favourable payment terms (i.e. longer payment terms or early payment discounts)

The efforts above will be better managed by an automated platform to automate collections from clients when it’s due, streamline the follow-ups process and paying invoices on time to suppliers.

Gobbill is a solution used by many businesses to organise and automate their collections from clients and payments to suppliers.

Accounts Receivable automation: Business owners can easily forward their invoices into Gobbill for the system to debit their clients’ bank account before the due date. A client direct debit authority will need to be in place. It eliminates money handling, money transfers or even having to chase for payments.

Accounts Payable automation: For payments of invoices, the system automatically does the data entry of invoice (no need to type anything it), checks for any fraud/scams, pays just before the due date and allocates it to correct expense account. This reduces significant administration and reconciliation time. The invoices are then stored in one place which removes the hassle of finding all the expenses/ invoices when it comes to tax time. Our clients can synchronise the data into Xero or just export a file for their accountant which also contains all the information required including the associated clients/entity for the bill.

Contact us to find out more about Gobbill – automated collections and bills payment platform or email [email protected]

Sources:
1) Accountants Daily – Businesses told to brace for ‘challenging’ FY2024
https://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/business/18651-businesses-told-to-brace-for-challenging-fy-2024

2) Augusta – Margaret River Mail – Australian businesses are struggling with cash flow due to inflation and high interest rates

https://www.margaretrivermail.com.au/story/7924793/study-highlights-inflation-pain-for-australian-businesses/

3) Commercial Real Estate – The commercial property outlook for 2023

https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/the-commercial-property-outlook-for-2023-1188460/

4) Trading Economics – Australia Bankruptcies

https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/bankruptcies

5) Reserve Bank of Australia – Economic Outlook (May 2023)

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/smp/2023/may/economic-outlook.html

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is on the move to crack down on landlords that incorrectly claim or omit items for investment properties on their tax return. The ATO found nearly 9 out 10 landlords making various mistakes such as submitting incorrect claimed expenses and rental income.

Assistant tax commissioner Tim Loh said the Tax Office was targeting areas where people often made mistakes on their returns such as leaving out rental income and overclaiming expenses. “We encourage rental property owners and their registered tax agents to take extra care this tax time and review their records before lodging their return,” Loh said.

Not having the eligible expenses digitally stored and correctly categorised in one place is a big hassle when it comes to tax time.

Senior Accountant Anthony Fernando from Xantias financial management says that he sees this all the time while he assists many clients with their tax returns. “Clients are time poor and need to collate all their expenses for claims. They also need to be aware of what expenses are claimable as per ATO’s standards. A good tax accountant can guide you through.” 

It takes a lot of time and effort to pay bills relating to investment properties and keep on top of records for expenses. Maintaining proper records is important to calculate and substantiate your deductions.

An Australian technology company called Gobbill has been helping property and business owners over the last 5 years. The system automatically does the data entry of bills, check for any fraud/scams, pays the bill before the due date and allocates the bill to correct property (or entity) after the initial setup. This helps property investors to avoid errors, save them a lot of time throughout the year and remove the hassle of finding eligible claims at tax time.

Gobbill is a solution used by many Australian property investors to organise and automate all their bill payments, then store in one place the relevant expense claims. It removes the hassle of finding all the expenses when it comes to tax time. Our clients just export a file for their accountant which also contains all the information required including the associated property/entity for the bill.

Contact Gobbill to find out more about paying and tracking investment property expenses https://gobbill.com/contact/  or email [email protected]

Contact Xantias to find out more about financial management https://www.xantias.com.au/contact/  or email afernando@xantias.com.au

#taxtime #eofy #accounting #propertyinvestment #tax

Sources:
1) Sydney Morning Herald, April 2023 – Landlords asked to explain $1.3 billion tax shortfall in new ATO blitz: https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/landlords-asked-to-explain-1-3-billion-tax-shortfall-in-new-ato-blitz-20230414-p5d0fp.html  

2) Australian Financial Review, April 2023 – How ATO crackdown is targeting your investment property:   https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/how-ato-crackdown-is-targeting-your-investment-property-20230419-p5d1nt

3) The Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Investments-and-assets/Residential-rental-properties/rental-expenses-to-claim/

4) The Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/general/interest-and-penalties/penalties/statements-and-positions-that-are-not-reasonably-arguable/

5) The Guardian, April 2023 – Australian Taxation Office to force banks to hand over landlord data in investment property crackdown: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/12/australian-tax-office-force-banks-hand-over-landlord-data-investment-property-crackdown

A former business manager of Melbourne High School has been jailed after stealing more than $430,000 from her employer to feed an out-of-control gambling addiction.

Frances Walshe’s first theft in early 2012 went unnoticed by the school because of a poor financial governance model that gave the 65-year-old unchecked access to its bank accounts.

Over the following decade, Walshe made a further 263 illegal transactions, stealing $432,546 from the school’s coffers to feed an out-of-control gambling addiction.

Schools, clubs, not-for-profits and other organisations can’t rely on trusting one person who has banking access. For less than $50 per month, a subscription to Gobbill automates accounts payable saving time and costs. It reduces the need to access Internet Banking for making payments, and eliminates or reduces the risk of internal and external fraud.

Shendon Ewans – Gobbill CEO and a Melbourne High School ‘Old Boy’ says that this type of crime could have been prevented. For such a school where funds are so important and fundraising can be very difficult at times, it is disappointing for the school’s management to not have the proper check and balances.

Find out how Gobbill can protect your organisation – school, club or private business.

Contact Gobbill https://gobbill.com/contact/

Read more from ABC News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/melbourne-high-school-frances-walshe-business-manager-jailed/102057716

Photo of Dr. Paul O’Keefe, Practice Owner of Premier Health Partners

Paul is a small business owner who has overseen the growth of his clinic from humble beginnings to what is now a fully multi-disciplinary medical clinic, combining osteopathy with general practice, physiotherapy, myotherapy, clinical psychology, dietetics and remedial/sports massage.

As his practice grew, Paul was spending more time and energy on managing his accounts payable. Instead of closing up for the day and spending time with his family, he would be sorting out admin. Paul heard about Gobbill from one of his patients. Since signing up and using it for a while, here’s what he has to say:

“Gobbill takes the stress out of bill payments for my business. Once the account is setup everything is totally automated. I just email bills to my Gobbill account and I know they’ll be digitised and paid on time and that Gobbill will check for any duplicate or fraudulent bills. Every few weeks I log in and sync bills to Xero, and that’s my whole accounts payable process done as simple as that.

Gobbill has saved me heaps of time and makes bill payment so easy. It’s a part of my business I don’t even think about anymore, you just set and forget it and know everything is being done right. I would recommend Gobbill to other business owners out there looking for a solution to their accounts payable process.”

By automating the accounts payable aspect of his business using Gobbill, Paul has been able to save time and effort on admin which he has estimated to be around $30,000 per annum. It helps him to manage his cashflow with maximum control and minimal effort.

Many business owners using Gobbill have saved up to 70% of their time spent and around $30,000 per annum on managing their accounts. These include medical health clinics, osteo/physio clinics, dental clinics and more.

Find out more about how Gobbill can help your business, contact Tonisha at [email protected] or visit gobbill.com

In the last three months, the Consumer Action Law Centre has received more than 150 calls from people who are struggling with their energy bills. The average debt accrued among these people is more than $2,000. A recent market report found “large differences between the cheapest and most expensive gas market offers”. Regulatory intervention needs to benefit all in the community, including the most vulnerable already indebted on their power bills. Equity measures need to be central to intervention and fairer pricing.

Source: Guardian 5 Dec 2022, Exploitative gas pricing is causing debt and distress for many Australian households. Gerard Brody

However, waiting for change will continue to cost households and businesses.

It is important to shop around and switch using an independent comparison website.

Victorians: https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/

(The $250 Power Saving Bonus for Victorian households is now open)

Everyone else: https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/