It answers: Did we make money this month, and where did it come from?

What to look for:

• Margin, not just revenue. Is the percentage of each sales dollar you keep holding steady?
• Costs that moved. Any category that jumped compared to the previous month or the same month last year.
• Anything unexpected sitting in a catch-all category.

It answers: Do we have enough money, and where is it going?

What to look for:

• The actual bank balance against what you will owe in the next few weeks: wages, GST, super, suppliers.
• The gap between profit and cash. If profit is healthy but cash is falling, something is tying money up.
• Money set aside for tax obligations, so it is not treated as spendable.

It answers: Who owes us money, and for how long?

What to look for:

• Invoices older than your payment terms.
• One client making up a large share of what is outstanding.
• A growing 60 and 90 day column, which is usually the earliest warning of a cash problem.

A loan repayment is made up of two parts:

• Interest, the cost of borrowing. For a loan used to earn business income, this is generally deductible.
• Principal, the reduction of the amount you borrowed. This is not an expense. It repays a liability.

Your bank feed shows one payment. Only the loan statement shows the split.

• The whole repayment is booked as an expense. Profit looks lower than it really is, and the deduction is overstated.
• The whole repayment is booked against the loan. The interest deduction is missed, and tax is overpaid.
• The loan balance in the books drifts away from the lender's. Over time, the balance sheet stops being reliable, which matters when you apply for finance or sell the business.

Loans also raise questions worth checking each year:

• Was the borrowed money actually used for business purposes? The use of the funds, not the security, generally determines deductibility.
• Are there fees or establishment costs that are deductible over time?
• Does an asset finance arrangement such as a chattel mortgage or hire purchase split interest and cost differently?

• Confirm your Q1 BAS figures are genuinely reconciled, not assembled from a rough estimate that still needs proper checking.
• Check whether your PAYG instalment for this quarter reflects reality, or whether it's still running on an outdated assumption from earlier in the year.
• Make sure any Q1-specific superannuation or contribution decisions are finalised today, since some of these carry hard cut-offs tied to the quarter itself.
• Flag anything uncertain to your accountant right now, rather than waiting until it's already part of a closed quarter.

Nobody's suggesting a full financial audit in the next few hours. This is about running through the short list above today, specifically because today is the last moment any of it counts as "still Q1" rather than "already closed and needing correction."

RBizz is available today for a same-day check on anything Q1-related that still needs confirming. Get in touch now if there's anything on your mind before the quarter closes tonight.

• Deductions that require someone to ask the right question. Home office apportionment, depreciation timing, prepaid expenses — none of these surface unless someone specifically checks for them in your circumstances.
• Concessions tied to specific eligibility tests. Small business offsets, instant asset write-offs, R&D incentives — all genuinely available, all requiring someone to actively confirm you qualify rather than assuming you don't.
• Structuring opportunities nobody's revisited. A setup that made sense years ago might now be quietly costing more than it needs to, simply because nobody's checked whether something better is available.

• Slow-paying customers on a growing book of work. The more the business grows, the more revenue sits waiting to be collected — and growth itself can quietly starve cash flow even while profit climbs.
• No cash buffer to bridge the gap. Without reserves, there's nothing to fall back on during the period between doing the work and actually being paid for it.

• Debt repayments that don't show up as an expense. Loan principal comes straight out of cash, with no corresponding line item reducing the profit figure that makes everything look fine.

• Is your income information complete? Income statements and other employer or bank data usually need to be finalised in the ATO system before you can lodge accurately. Lodging early on incomplete data can mean an amendment later.
• Are your business records reconciled? If you're a sole trader, your income and expenses for the full year need to be tied to actual records, not estimated from memory.
• Do you have evidence for every deduction? A deduction without a record behind it is a deduction you may not be able to keep if reviewed.
• Are you sure the 31 October date applies to you? It generally applies to self-lodgers. If you use a registered tax agent, a later date may apply under their lodgment program, and some circumstances differ again. Confirm your specific due date on ato.gov.au.

• Division 7A can apply to loans from a private company to a shareholder or an associate. Without a compliant loan agreement and the required repayments, the amount can be treated as an unfranked dividend, taxed in your hands.
• Informal withdrawals are exactly what this rule is aimed at. The intention to "sort it out later" does not change the treatment.