Can't find what you are looking for? Call our customer support at 1300 856 710 or email us at info@austbook.net
Do you want to become a registered BAS Agent but you're not sure where to start? We've provided an outline of the qualifications and registrations required for this profession.
Wondering how to become a registered bookkeeper? Here's an outline of what to expect when working as one and the steps required to become certified and start your own bookkeeping business.
Explore the requirements for gaining relevant experience
Experience benefits like nowhere else with ABN. Explore all the products and services which make up your membership.
Explore all the products and services which makes up your ABN membership.
Meet the team at Australian Bookkeepers Network.
Find out how a bookkeeper can help your business.
Protect your Bookkeeping Business with ABN's PI Partners.
Protect your business with Cyber Insurance
How ABN gives back to the community
ABN is committed to providing professional development opportunities for bookkeepers.
Members Can Access Australian Bookkeepers Network's Bookkeeping Checklists, Contract Samples, Quote Templates, Agreement Letters & More. Join Today!
ABA is a recognised professional bookkeeping association for BAS agents by the Tax Practitioners Board.
Benefits of the ABA Membership
Join Australian Bookkeepers Association today
Australian Bookkeepers Association (ABA) is governed by a Board of Directors
View the ABA Constitution, By-Laws and other current documentation relevant to your membership.
A summary of the essential membership rules which have been extracted from ABAs By-Laws and Constitution.
Code of Professional Conduct for BAS Agents
All the latest news and events from the Bookkeeping Industry
All your Industry events in one handy location.
Meet other bookkeepers, learn new skills, and earn CPE with ABN Coffee Clubs
Hear from prominent industry figures on current industry trends, technology and innovation
Australia's leading Bookkeeper Event!
Download your FREE Tax Office Review and Audit Checklist Pack
The connected world in which we live and work provides us with incredible access and choice. Information is speared at us (sometimes simultaneously) from a variety of mediums, including the internet, mobile devices, intelligent appliances, motor vehicles and even the watches on our wrists.
This incredible abundance of information, while empowering on one level, is also troublesome on another. We’re probably all familiar with the term “information overload” which refers to the sheer volume of information that we face. There is even a single word for it now …. infoxication! However, equally as problematic is what I term information intrusion, which is the automated and sometimes unwelcome manner in which that information is thrust at us, all day long.
Both information overload and information intrusion are arguably controllable but the reality is that for many of us, they have snuck up on us by stealth over the past so many years. The information deluge we are now contending with hasn’t come about through a flood event, but rather drop-by-drop, and perhaps now what we have on our hands (whether consciously or not) is a classic Chinese water torture phenomenon.
Naturally, shutting off isn’t the answer. In many respects, information (like knowledge) is power. It can be the lifeblood of our businesses and it is essential to our daily lives. Rather, the key lies in curating the information we face, thereby delineating as best we can meaningful data from mere white noise.
Curation means using acts of selection and arrangement to “add value”. So how does one introduce curation into their personal and business lives? In reality, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, but there are some principles you can follow to guide the journey. In no particular order, here are the five principles I try to follow in curating my daily life:
Setting principles and finding strategies to effectively deal with the great maelstrom of information is essential for our own state of mind. However, the importance of this extends to our clients as well. Simply supplying a client with more and more information (whether it be financial statements, reports, budgets, analyses, etc.) is not the answer. The solution lies in cultivating an approach that lets a client avoid data deluge, and instead access the information that really matters to them. Indeed it may be the case that a subtly different approach is needed with each client.
In the fast pace of today’s world, a client’s time is limited and their attention span arguably even more so. For professional advisors, this means that your ability to supply relevant information is only half the task; your ability to effectively curate that information is just as crucial. Get this wrong, and you end up with clients that are, at best, overwhelmed, and at worst, disillusioned. Get this right, and you have delivered real value to your client which they will know and appreciate.
Start with your own lot in life first. Curate your own way. Learn what works. Then as you get good at it, put yourself in your client’s shoes and attempt to carry those same principles across to the products and services you deliver to them.