RBizz Corporate Accountants - Resources #Management

Mastering Your Business Break-Even Point

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:09:03 +1100

Mastering Your Business Break-Even Point

Understanding your break-even point is one of the most fundamental requirements for running a sustainable business. Many owners focus solely on total sales, but without knowing exactly how many units or services you need to sell just to cover your costs, you are navigating without a map. In 2026’s fluctuating economy, knowing your "zero-profit" number is the first step toward true profitability.

What is a Break-Even Analysis?

A break-even analysis identifies the specific point where your total revenue equals your total expenses. At this stage, you aren't making a profit, but you aren't losing money either. Everything sold beyond this point contributes directly to your bottom line.

The Two Pillars of Your Costs

Fixed Costs: These are the expenses that stay the same regardless of how much you sell, such as rent, insurance, and administrative salaries.
Variable Costs: These costs fluctuate based on your sales volume, such as raw materials, packaging, and shipping fees.

Why This Number Changes Your Strategy

Knowing your break-even point allows you to price your products with confidence. If your analysis shows your break-even point is too high, you have three clear strategic levers: you can raise your prices, find ways to lower your variable costs (like negotiating with suppliers), or reduce your fixed overheads.

Testing "What-If" Scenarios

A break-even point isn't static. By running a "what-if" analysis, you can see how a 10% increase in rent or a 5% discount on your products will impact your survival line. This data-driven approach removes the emotion from pricing decisions and helps you set realistic sales targets for your team.

Talk to Us About Finding Your Break-Even Point

Ready to get clear on your numbers? Our team can help you categorize your costs and calculate your precise break-even point. We’ll provide the insights you need to ensure every sale moves you closer to your profit goals—get in touch today to start the analysis.

Five Ways to Keep Your Business Cash on Track

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 20:02:54 +1100

Five Ways to Keep Your Business Cash on Track

There’s a common saying in business: cash is king.

Having a strong cash position gives a business a critical buffer when it comes to covering day-to-day operational expenses, paying suppliers and making capital purchases. However, cashflow can be notoriously difficult to manage in practice, even for profitable businesses.

Five ways that can help keep your business’s cashflow on track

Prepare a cashflow budget

One of the best ways to keep track of cashflow in your business is to budget. A budget or cashflow projection can help you monitor your cashflow position, while also identifying the times of year where cash might be a bit tighter and help you plan accordingly.

You can choose how often to prepare a budget – monthly, quarterly, or even annually – but make sure to compare your cashflow budget to your actual performance to make sure you’re on track (or to fix things if not).

Know your funding options

Ideally, a business should have enough cash to cover its operational and compliance costs. However, this is not always feasible. To keep your business afloat, identify any additional funding sources your business might need. This includes traditional options such as loan financing or organising an overdraft, but funding can come from other sources too, such as from an angel investor or (depending on what the cash will be used for) a government grant.

Shorten payment times

Another way to boost cashflow is to look at the payment terms your business currently offers customers, whether that’s one week, 30 days, or more.

If your payment terms are on the longer side, consider shortening them to bring cash into the business a little quicker. Ways to encourage prompter payment include sending payment reminders to customers, introducing a modest early payment discount, or including a policy on your invoices that you may charge customers a fee or interest on any late paid amounts.

Extend payments to suppliers

Just as it’s a good idea to bring cash from customers into the business as quickly as possible, it’s also a good move to review your current payment arrangements with your suppliers. Some suppliers can offer generous payment terms, so if you need cash to sit in your business account a little longer, consider negotiating longer payment windows, or ask a supplier if they would be willing to offer an early payment discount if not.

Inventory review

If your business needs to free up extra cash, consider conducting an inventory review.While some level of inventory is necessary for almost all businesses, excess stock can be a quick way to suck up cash that could be better deployed elsewhere. An inventory review can tell you whether you hold enough stock to meet customer demand and can help prevent over-ordering going forward.

Keep on top of cash

Need help preparing a cashflow budget, or have other questions about how to better manage your business’s cashflow position? Come and talk to a member of our team for a tailored discussion on your business.

Cash Flow Forecasting Puts You Back in Control

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:20:30 +1100

Cash Flow Forecasting Puts You Back in Control

We all know that positive cashflow is the beating heart of any successful business. And with so many external pressures on your cash right now, it’s important to have one eye on the future.

Cashflow forecasting is an increasingly important tool for any finance team. With a better view of your future cashflow position, you can make well-informed decisions about your finances.

But how does cashflow forecasting work? And how does it help you maintain a positive cashflow position throughout the year?

What does a cashflow forecast tell you?

The cashflow process is all about balancing your income (cash inflows) against your expenditure (cash outflows). If your cash inflows are greater than your cash outflows, this is called a ‘positive cashflow position’. In other words, you have cash left over, even once you’ve covered your costs and paid your bills – cash that can then be reinvested in the business.

Forecasting apps, like Float, Fathom and Futrli, use historic cash data to project your cash position forward in time. This helps you see where your cash may be in future periods.

Running detailed cashflow forecasts means you can:

Understand your future operational cashflow – helping you spot any cashflow holes, seasonal dips or predicted months of high expenditure before they become an issue.
Plan your costs and expenditure effectively – allowing you to stick to your planned budgets, manage your costs and plan for any steep price increases.
Avoid the cashflow issues before they happen – using your forecasts to look ahead, plan and get tighter control over your cashflow management.

Talk to us about setting up cash flow forecasts

Staying in a positive cashflow position is a challenge in the current economic situation.

When supplier prices and operational costs are fluctuating and revenues are hard to predict, it is difficult to juggle your inflows against your outflows.

We’ll help you get a tighter grip on your cashflow. Setting up detailed forecasts helps you understand your financial story and puts you back in full control of your cashflow.

Get in touch. We are here to help.

Planning for All Eventualities: Scenario Planning

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:20:11 +1100

Planning for All Eventualities: Scenario Planning

In a business environment that's currently highly volatile and changeable, it pays to scenario-plan for all eventualities.

What is scenario planning?

Scenario planning is the process of using your existing business data to project and forecast the future path of your finances, sales and growth as a small business.

By running various scenarios, you get an overview of the potential opportunities, threats and financial pitfalls that lie ahead, giving you time to plan for these eventualities.

Let’s look at three specific scenarios and how they help you drive your success

1. Worst-case scenario

It pays to hope for the best outcome, but also to consider the worst outcome.

Using forecasting and your knowledge of the current market, you can plan the potential worst outcome for the business. If there’s a 20% price hike in your supply chain, what impact would this have on your operational costs, cashflow and profit margins?.

When you know what the big threats might be, you can develop a scenario plan that prioritises immediate cash preservation and spend management, while also minimising debt.

2. Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario

It may be that no significant changes happen in the market. What does this mean for you?

This baseline scenario relies on historical projections of your existing sales, customer retention and growth. Having managed the business through similar markets, you can use your experience to project your costs, spending and budgets forward in time.

This helps you plan for a stable and consistent business journey over the course of the upcoming periods, with detailed numbers to guide your hiring, resourcing, cash management and investment strategy.

3. Best case scenario

As an entrepreneur, you need to think positively and aim for positive outcomes.

Scenario planning helps you understand the impact if everything turns out as planned. By forecasting a surge in market demand or a successful product launch, you can see the outcome and plan your growth strategy and projections accordingly.

This kind of scenario planning focuses on scalability, showing you exactly when to invest in new tech, hire new staff or expand your inventory to maximise the potential profits.

If you want the key insights that scenario planning can deliver, now’s the time to sit down and start planning the most beneficial scenarios for you and the future of your business.

Talk to Us About Your Scenario Planning

If you want the key insights that scenario planning can deliver, now’s the time to sit down and start planning for the future of your business. Book some time with our team to kickstart your scenario planning; we can help you run the numbers and build a resilient strategy for any eventuality.

Mastering the Art of Delegating for Small Business Success

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:29:48 +1100

Mastering the Art of Delegating for Small Business Success

As a small business owner, the "do-it-all" mentality is often what gets your venture off the ground, but it is also the very thing that can prevent it from scaling. Many founders find themselves trapped in the cycle of micro-management, handling every administrative task and minor decision while their long-term vision sits on the shelf. In 2026, where business moves faster than ever, learning to delegate is no longer a soft skill—it is a critical survival strategy.

The High Cost of Doing Everything Yourself

When you spend your day responding to every email and managing every basic social media post, you are effectively paying a "CEO salary" for tasks that could be handled by a specialist. This creates a bottleneck that slows down your operations and leads to rapid burnout. By refusing to delegate, you limit your business’s capacity to what a single person can achieve in 24 hours, rather than what a coordinated team can accomplish in a lifetime.

Three Steps to Effective Delegation

Identify Your High-Value Tasks: Audit your weekly schedule and separate "revenue-generating" activities from "maintenance" tasks. If a task doesn’t require your specific expertise or creative vision, it is a prime candidate for delegation.
Build a Culture of Trust: Delegation fails when there is a lack of trust. Instead of assigning tasks and hovering over your team, assign "outcomes." Provide the necessary resources and clear expectations, then step back and let your team find the best way to reach the goal.
Invest in Proper Training: You cannot delegate successfully if your team doesn't understand the "why" behind the "what." Taking the time to document your processes today ensures that when you hand over a responsibility, it is handled with the same care and quality you would provide yourself.

The Freedom to Focus on Growth

The ultimate goal of delegation is to create a business that can run without you. When you empower your team to take ownership of the daily operations, you regain the mental space needed to explore new markets, develop new products, and focus on the high-level strategy that will define your business in the years to come.

Talk to Us About Scaling Your Leadership

If you are struggling to let go of the reins, our team can help you build a structured roadmap for growth. We’ll work with you to identify the operational gaps and help you transition from a "hands-on" operator to a strategic leader. Reach out today to start your journey toward a more balanced and scalable business.

Do Customers Still Want Personal Customer Service?

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:06:45 +1100

Do Customers Still Want Personal Customer Service?

“Q: Do customers still want good, old-fashioned customer service?”

Customer service has changed. We now have multiple options for automating our customer interactions or offering self-service options to our customer base. Customers can talk directly to AI agents or sort out a query with an automated chatbot. It’s fast, efficient and (from your viewpoint as an employer) highly cost-effective.

But is automated customer service always the best option? In an environment where your customers are surrounded by digital interactions, wouldn’t it be nice to offer a more human and personalised level of customer service? And does that mean hiring more staff?

“A: There’s still great value in personalised customer service.”

Fundamentally, customers are still seeking out the human element of customer service, amongst the sea of digital and online noise that we’re now surrounded by daily.

There are three core reasons why customers crave this more personal touch:

Trust and empathy: When dealing with complex or emotionally charged issues (like financial errors or faulty products), customers want to talk to a human agent who can demonstrate empathy and take ownership of the problem. Chatbots may be efficient, but they don’t deliver when it comes to customer empathy.

Context and recognition: Old-fashioned service means being recognised and having your history remembered. Customers expect the business to know their needs, history and preferences without forcing them to repeat this information. A human agent with access to a CRM system can deliver this recognition in a personalised and tailored way.

A need for exceptional service: A recent Australian survey found that 88% of consumers expressed satisfaction with customer service interactions that were managed mostly or fully by human agents. When customers have a good experience with a human agent, this increases their brand advocacy and can also generate positive word-of-mouth referrals (one of the best ways to attract new customers).

The impact of human-led customer service can be immense. AI agents and software automation can boost your overall efficiency for many simple tasks and customer interactions. But having the human touch drives customer loyalty, retention and your competitive advantage.

Hiring more customer service staff (and investing in their training) could be a way to find your own competitive advantage as a business.

If you want to talk through your people strategy, please do book some time with our team.

5 tips for controlling your cashflow

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:06:21 +1100

5 tips for controlling your cashflow

Is your cashflow position keeping you awake at night? Don’t worry, we have five simple tips to improve your cashflow management and achieve a positive cash position.

1. Give your accounts receivable a boost

Invoice your client as soon as the job is completed, or consider invoicing in instalments once key milestones are reached. Also, make sure you have strict payment terms in place.

2. Negotiate longer payment terms

Talk to your suppliers to negotiate 30 or 60-day payment terms. This delays payment for your most common overheads, helping you spread the cost over a longer period.

3. Always have a cash reserve in place

Putting surplus profits into a cash reserve gives you a buffer to draw on when cashflow is challenging. This can be a great way to get through quiet periods or cover unexpected costs.

4. Make the most of your cashflow forecasting tools

Use the cashflow tools in your accounting software or forecasting app to create a rolling cashflow forecast. This helps you spot the potential cash shortfalls and budget accordingly.

5. Keep a close eye on inventory levels

Review your inventory levels and warehouse stock to make sure capital is not tied up in slow-moving stock. Think about a leaner approach that reduces your costs.

More helpful advice on managing your cashflow

If your current cashflow position is worrying you, come and talk to our team. We’ll give you tailored advice on how to boost your cash inflows and reduce your cash outflows.

Hiring staff for your business

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 11:28:12 +1100

Hiring staff for your business

Recruiting new employees is a vital part of your growth as a business. As your company expands, you’ll need more people in specific roles and a larger workforce in general.

But once you’ve found the right person for the job, what are the key things to consider?

Here are four key elements to include in your hiring checklist

1. Get the legal side in place

Make sure you issue a clear, written employment contract that outlines all the key details of the employment. This will include the role title, hours worked, location of work, pay rate and any included benefits and bonus entitlements, etc.

It’s also important that you’re compliant with the Fair Work Act, which governs all legislation relating to employment in the workplace.

2. Add the employee to your digital systems

As soon as your new employee starts working, add their details to your payroll system. You will need their tax file number (TFN) and their superannuation details, so you can pay them correctly through Single Touch Payroll and make tax and super deductions from their wages.

You’ll also need to add their personal details to your HR system, so everything’s set up for leave requests, performance reviews and recording their employment records and training, etc.

3. Plan the onboarding journey

Making your new employee familiar with the business is vital. Put together an onboarding process for your employee that covers orientation, training and an overview of the business.

This onboarding will cover both their specific job responsibilities and mandatory training on Work Health and Safety (WHS) policies and site procedures.

4. Manage their superannuation choice

Provide your new employee with their Superannuation Standard Choice Form. This allows the employee to nominate their preferred fund. It can also be used to sign the employee up to the company’s default super fund.

You’ll be required to register each new employee and to make the necessary contributions correctly via a SuperStream compliant method.

Getting it right from the start

Whether you’re a new start-up or an established business, it’s important to cover all the right bases when taking on a new employee.

Our team can help you put together a hiring checklist to ensure you’re meeting all your legal, HR and payroll requirements.

Gen Z in a Boomer workplace?

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:59:36 +1000

Gen Z in a Boomer workplace?

Gen Z workers may not be able to slide seamlessly into a workplace that was designed for Baby Boomers.

Managing Gen Z – those workers born between the late 90s and the early 2010s – is proving to be a challenge for even the most hardened people managers and supervisors. Some managers view Gen Z employees as ‘unprofessional and immature’, but is that a fair assessment?

And if you have a large Gen Z workforce, what are the key ways to encourage their talents, while managing them in a way that suits the needs of both the worker and the business?

A recent survey by Resume Templates spoke to 1,000 US people managers to gauge their opinions on managing a Gen Z workforce. Worryingly, the survey found that 7 in 10 managers liken supervising Gen Z to babysitting or parenting.

On the whole, the study shows that some Gen Z workers lack what people managers see as the fundamental skills and behaviours of a professional worker.

Why does Gen Z act so differently to previous generations?

Gen Z workers grew up as digital natives and are used to instant access to information and constant online communication. This can make the traditional, hierarchical communication methods we’re used to in the workplace feel slow, inefficient and…well, kinda boring.

The COVID-19 pandemic also profoundly impacted Gen Z’s entry into the workforce, often delaying the development of critical in-person ‘soft skills’ like professional etiquette and non-verbal communication.

Gen Z workers have different values to preceding generations. They have a far greater focus on work-life balance, their own mental health, and their personal values and morals.

They want work that has a purpose and a transparent, flexible working environment, often prioritising these factors over a traditional career ladder.

As a result, they may challenge established norms in the workplace, which can be perceived as immaturity or unprofessionalism by older generations.

4 ways to get the best from your Gen Z workers

If you’re used to a certain way of working, and an immovable way of managing younger employees, you’re unlikely to get the best work from your Gen Z workers.

As a good people manager, your responsibility is not just to enforce a static way of working. It’s also to look for ways to refine, update and improve your processes, so they work well with all generations in the workplace.

To inspire your Gen Z workers:

Provide frequent and and highly specific feedback

Gen Z thrives on real-time feedback, not annual reviews. Be direct, specific and consistent in your praise and constructive criticism. This helps to guide your younger workers’ development and show them that their work is valued – a key driver for Gen Z workers.

Embrace technology and modern AI tools

As digital natives, Gen Z workers expect to use modern technology in the workplace. Give them user-friendly digital tools, collaborative online platforms and AI apps to help them work more efficiently and feel like they work in a supportive, tech-savvy environment.

Connect work to a larger purpose

Gen Z wants to feel that their work matters. Be clear how their tasks contribute to the company's mission and its positive social impact. Get your workers involved in community projects and charitable work. This gives their work meaning beyond just a pay check, increasing motivation.

Offer Clear Growth and Development Paths

This generation is ambitious about career progression and skill development – they want to hit their career goals fast. Provide a clear career path, mentorship opportunities and access to skills training. This gives Gen Z a tangible path to growth within the company.

Your management style has to be both agile and flexible, and that means keeping up to date with the latest in people management and HR thinking.

The Right to Work From Home: What It Means for You

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:45:32 +1000

The Right to Work From Home: What It Means for You

Having the option to work from home (WFH), without the commute and the cost, has proved to be a very popular benefit for many time-strapped employees.

But until now, this ability to do your job from home has never been enshrined in law. This may be about to change, with Jacinta Allan’s Labor government proposing new legislation that would give employees the right to work from home two days per week.

This is great news for the flexible working arrangements of many hard-working Victorian workers. But what would this legislation mean for your business?

What does the proposed legislation suggest?

Under the legislation proposed by the Victorian State Government, the right to work from home would be made a legal right, available to employees that can work from home.

The Government proposes that:

All employees have the right to work from home at least two days per week
Employees would have this right if they can ‘reasonably do your job from home’
It would apply to both public sector and private sector workers.

What are the advantages of working from home?

The Allan Government believes there are plenty of advantages to encouraging the move to hybrid working, where workers work both from the workplace and their own home.

The Government’s recent media release states that:

WFH is a more flexible way to work. More than a third of Australian workers – including 60% of professionals – regularly work from home.
WFH saves families money. It saves Australians on average $110 a week or $5,308 every year, helping families make their dollars go further.
WFH cuts congestion. Victorians are now spending less time commuting, saving more than three hours in their week on average.
WFH gets more people working. Work from home supports women with children, carers and people with a disability to work.
WFH is good for business. Those who work from home work nearly 20% more hours than those who are working in the office full time.

Is WFH good or bad for your business?

Once the COVID pandemic was over, many businesses mandated a ‘return to work’ policy that was at odds with their employees’ desire to continue with hybrid working.

The worry among less enlightened business leaders was that your workforce needed to be in the office or place of work 5 days a week – and that this was the only practical way to manage a team and keep employees productive.

However, most research has shown that employees are happier, more motivated and more productive when allowed at least some time working from home.

80% of survey respondents in a recent survey by the Australian HR Institute expect that hybrid working levels will increase or stay the same in the coming two years.

Increasingly, employees feel that a hybrid mix of working from the office and from home is a standard expectation of their role – and one of their hard-won, work-related benefits. So, what can you do to get the best from hybrid working and WFH?

Here are five key ways to achieve WFH productivity:

Build a culture of trust and autonomy: Empower your employees by making it clear that you trust them to manage their own time and workload from home. Don’t micro manage your team. Instead, show respect that will boost their motivation and get good results.
Invest in the right technology and tools: Your team will need access to communication and collaboration tools like video conferencing, and messaging platforms like Teams and Slack. They’ll also need project management software to keep workflow organised and efficient.
Maintain strong, regular communication: Use scheduled check-ins and team-wide video calls to keep everyone aligned and engaged. This stops solo team members feeling isolated and helps to build and reinforce that feeling of being part of a wider team.
Promote a good work-life balance: Encourage all your employees to set boundaries between their work and home life. Respect their non-working hours and make sure everyone has time to rest and recharge, to prevent burnout and poor wellbeing issues.
Focus on outputs, not hours: Make sure you judge your employee’s performance on the quality and completion of their work, not on how many hours they’re visibly online. This really helps to reinforce trust and incentivise the whole team to be as productive as possible.

Whether you’re a fan or an opponent of hybrid working and WFH, the reality is that most employees will expect some kind of flexible working from their employer.

Book some time with our team to talk through more strategies for making WFH both a positive and a productive change for your business.