Your Business Holiday Season Check-up

The Christmas shutdown time can be busy and eventful for most small businesses across New Zealand, who are preparing for the holiday season.

To ensure that your Christmas break stress-free and for the best interests of your business, We thought it might be useful to prepare a quick list of items you should focus on before the shutdown:

Payroll: Have you managed to get your staff’s holiday pay sorted? Working out what an employee gets paid for taking a day off on annual holidays will depend partly on what they have earned in the previous 12 months. Using a software like Smart Payroll should also help in minimising these hassles and ensuring your staff gets payed correctly and on time. To know more about managing your staff’s payroll, you can simply get in touch with us by contacting us on the details provided in the article below.

It is also important to note that Boxing Day and the second of January (day after New Year’s Day) fall on a Saturday this year. So, if you have an employee who wouldn’t normally work on Saturday, their holiday entitlement is transferred to the following Monday. If your employee would normally work on Saturday, then they’ll get their holiday entitlements on Saturday (the calendar date of the public holiday).

Cash-Flow Forecasting: It’s imperative for you to have a look at your cashflow forecast over December-January. This should help you prepare your business for the holiday period, and ensure you have sufficient cash reserves during the holiday season, to ensure your business is operating smoothly.

Tax Obligations: This is another important aspect of your business you should focus on before the shutdown, especially if you are impacted by seasonal revenue (such as Christmas revenue as a retailer). Both November and December GST are due for payment in January as well as provisional tax.  If you are concerned that you may not be able to pay the tax due, or if you’re facing any other issues get in touch with us and we can look at the available options in the current situation.

Make sure to check on these aspects of your business before you head into the holiday break, and in case your facing any issues with the above items, please get in touch with us by calling us on +64-9-972-2236 or email us at info@jzr.co.nz.