ABS Services

Summary   of   Services

Credit Collections

Your outstanding accounts prevent you from running your business properly.  Outstanding funds that should be in YOUR bank account force you into situations that you shouldn’t be in.  Your overdraft is higher, creating interest payments you shouldn’t be paying. Your business needs to find funds to function, with purchasing supplies and stock, paying wages, tax bills, rental, and other leases, super, insurances and phone, electricity and everything you pay out on a regular basis.  YOU and your business are not in business to provide interest free loans to your customers while you pay interest on your missing funds.   Our services will get your money into YOUR bank account where it belongs, so that you can function better. If you have overdue accounts, they are using your business to fund theirs and you are allowing it.    Don’t let your business be a low priority to your customers when it comes to paying you.

There is a very serious and proper way to ask for money, and if you do it the wrong way, you may lose your customer from further trade, but even worse, did you know you can actually be sued?  Government legislation aimed at Debt Collections and The Privacy Act can be used by your customers at any time, and the penalties are high enough to even close your business down.  Don’t ask for money incorrectly. Let our professional collection staff fix your debtors impression of how you run your business, and once they are in the habit of paying you on time, your stress levels will be greatly reduced and you will actually operate your business better and even have money in the bank you didn’t have before.

Protecting your Debts

Do you sell items to your customers?  What happens to your stock if they haven’t paid their account, your stock is sitting on their premises, and they decide to close their doors?  The Government has implemented a National Registrar that you can join in to, which allows you to recover your stock, and have it brought back to your premises to return to your stock and reduce the Bad Debt that you would have otherwise had to recover from.  This is called the PPSR Register, and every account you have should be registered, to protect you.  This costs a fee to do, through ASIC and must be done correctly, otherwise it is invalid.  Once it’s done correctly, you will be issued with a Legal Certificate quoting the PPSR Registration number. Did you know that a business who owes you money cannot even sell that business while you have the PPSR Registration as a valid legal Document?  Solicitors will automatically check the PPSR register for any that need to be cancelled and that again, needs to be done correctly. Your PPSR Report will show you all the Businesses who are holders of Registrations.  You may be amazed at how many businesses are covered already.  It will come as a shock to you.  The sale of a business cannot take place while you or anyone else holds a PPSR Registration, therefore you can insist on your stock to be returned, or your account to be cleared before releasing your customer. The solicitor will provide them with the Certificate number, and you will receive a call from your customer asking you to cancel/remove the PPSR from their business.  Sometimes, this is the only way that you will find out that they are even selling their business.

If you are not covered by this process, your customer can easily sell their business, be paid for it, walk away with the proceeds, and then you will have a battle being paid the amount that is owed to you.  Protect your business.  You’ve worked hard to make it grow and survive.  Initially the set up cost will be great, to cover the customers you are already trading with, but once you are protected, it needs to be a regular instant requirement that you do, each time you allow a new customer to trade on credit terms with your business. Your PPSR Registrations are all Tax Deductable, too, and you shouldn’t trade with anyone who won’t allow you to create a Registration.  Do your New Account Applications make mention of this condition?  If not, you are unable to Register anyone, otherwise you could be sued by your customers for not obtaining their permission.

Legal Advice for uncollectable Debts

Once we’ve gone through the process of seeing your accounts, we will endeavour to collect all your overdue accounts that you just can’t seem to be able to collect.  If we too, are unable to collect any debt, we will need to find out from you whether you want to take it further, via VCAT or the legal Court system.  If you choose to take your Debtor through the legal process, we will refer you to Solicitors if you are unsure of who to use, and please be mindful that costs will be charged directly to your business if you commence along this avenue.  We will stand aside, and you will deal directly with the Solicitor who will provide you with the correct course of action, requirements and procedures for you to comply with.  We do not charge you for a referral fee, this is free of charge.

Company Verification checks for New Accounts

Does your New Account Application Form have a statement included which mentions that you will be doing searches on their details provided by them on the form, and you will base your decision whether to trade with them, after obtaining a Government Approved Credit Report?  Do you have a clause where they are signing the form, giving permission for you to be able to check their validity as a Business, and that they really are a registered business performing as per Australian Business Law?  If not, this must be done urgently, before you sign up any new customer and hand over your stock to them.  We will provide a Report for each of your potential new accounts, and this should be done for EVERY Credit Trading Application.  Allow us to obtain your reports for you.

Book-keeping and BAS data entry

Don’t wait until the month or quarter has finished before you think about updating your business details to submit to the Tax Office, or to find out how your business is actually performing.  We have Accounting, Book-keeping and Taxation Specialists who can support you along the way on a weekly basis, and highlight any areas of concern which you may not be aware of.  Don’t keep receipts in trays and boxes for months, they can easily be lost. Allow us to update your business information on a regular basis, and it will work out much cheaper for you, an hour at a time, rather than paying a fortune for someone to spend a week or fortnight sorting out your paperwork and entering it all.

On Site Tax Returns

If you have been getting your accounts updated for around an hour per week, it shouldn’t take too long at all to finalise and submit your tax return.  Our Tax specialist may even be able to do it on site for you, and it may only be a one or two hour visit at the most.

Software and Program lessons

If you have staff who work in the office, but you feel like you are being left out of your business, we have staff who can come in, even after hours, and sit with you to go through your installed programs and show you how to get in and around the system you have in place  Imagine how wonderful you would feel if you could just log in, during the day in front of your staff, and check something out, or send an email or quote, or look up accounts that are payable or due, or look at pricing structures or designs or stock lists for example.  Your staff will be surprised, and you may even discover things about your business that you weren’t aware of.

Data Entry and Secretarial Services

If you have staff going on to Maternity Leave, annual leave or need some help in the office for a few days or weeks, we can place one of our staff into that role for as long as you need them. Even if it’s only a few hours per day for a while, don’t allow your business to fall behind with things while your staff are absent for extended periods.  That’s when stress levels rise, and the workload becomes too much for your regular staff to catch up on when they return to work, and mistakes happen, or even worse, losses are created when there’s no one to keep an eye on things.

Reception or Staff Leave Replacement

If you are having meetings with Suppliers or potential new clients over certain times, and have no receptionist, why not hire someone for the day.  It will free you up from all interuptions and make your business look more efficient and professional.  See above for the advantages of employing casual staff, who can look after your business for you.

Accounts Payable Staff

Does your accounting method allow for everything you purchase?  Is your General Ledger set up correctly?  A professional Accounts Payable person will very quickly let you know if there is something not right in your accounting, because they are regularly working on accounts.  They can also suggest ways to improve your system and where you can delay payments, instead of paying everyone on time.  Don’t pay accounts just because you have invoices.  Our trained staff can give you assistance in loading all your invoices etc, into your system, even over an hour per week, and free you up from doing it in the evenings or on weekends.  The few dollars per week will be very well worth it.

Production/Labour/Warehouse staff

If you have deadlines to meet with a particular order, we can have someone on site to assist you to get the job out on time.  Whether you need someone to pack orders, count, label, box up and seal packages, do quality control, on the floor, or using a fork-lift, let us know, and we can have someone out there, for a few hours or a few days.

Delivery Staff

If you are doing deliveries which tie up your staff, why not allow us to do your delivery for you.  We can provide assistance per hour, per day or per week.  Talk to us about your requirements to see if we can help.  Weekly rates can work out cheaper, depending on what your needs are, so give us a call to discuss your options.

Industry Shows/Events Stand Sales Staff

Do you pay for stands at Exhibitions in your Industry, and can’t get to speak to everyone who visits your stand?  This is a huge NO NO… The ones you didn’t talk to may just be the ones who can be of great benefit to your business.  Why not spend a day training up one of our staff on all they need to know about your business, and attend the Show with you and act like one of your Sales Staff.  This will make your business seem more valuable, and if you wanted to take a break from the stand to see what is on Exhibition yourself, our staff will be there representing you until you return.  Maybe you don’t even attend Trade Shows because you just can’t do it by yourself.  This is an ideal opportunity to grow your business, so why not let us help you. We are even happy to help set up and pack up with you.

Promotional staff for Events/Shows

We have staff who would be delighted to assist you at shows, at a reduced rate, to hand out brochures and flyers to passing traffic, or obtain details for you, to free you up to speak to other people.  These are not Sales staff, merely there to assist you during the shows.  This can be a huge advantage, leaving you to speak to as many people as possible, while they do the tasks that you shouldn’t be doing.  Even handing out flyers is important and a positive thing to do, as your prospective clients/customers will read through these when they get home, or in a week or in a month, but if you are busy talking to someone, all those flyers will not be getting handed out.  Don’t miss out on future trade.

Sales Staff to Obtain new Customers

We have staff who can be trained in your business, and work under your direction to free you up from leaving your business to find new clients.  There is so much potential out there to grow, and your fee is so basic, you will only pay on their performance representing your business.  Once they have signed up a customer, you will pay for that account to become yours, so all the sales and servicing of that account is then your new customer, for you to work with.  We do not charge any ongoing commissions on any sales you make to that new customer, and our fee is very easily absorbed into their orders in the future, reducing the costs to zero, plus you can claim the charge we bill you as Promotional Charges through your Tax as well, giving you two streams to retrieve your fees we have charged you.  Obviously these Sales Staff will need to spend some time with you and your business to become fully trained, so that they can go out into the market and represent you and your business to their full potential.  We are here to help your business grow, and will be very polite, friendly and professional, with business growth as their main objective for you.

Desktop Publishing/Graphic Design

Product Photography for Brochures and Promotional Material

Brochures/advertising Campaigns

Website Design and support Services

You may the best designer of your business, however you need a professional to impress your customer. You may be missing out on customers because of your website.  Why not have one of our IT specialists come and have a look at your website, to see how to maximise your views. It may only take a few hours to have things fixed or included to increase traffic to your business.  We have professionals who can help design Brochures, flyers, etc, with an open mind, as external people who can offer advice that you may not have considered previously.  If you are spending money on promoting your business, make sure it is most effective for you.

Event/Function Co-Ordination

Have you thought about inviting all your customers to a night on your premises, to help grow your business and increase awareness of your trade with them?  We can help you with selecting a date, products or services you can offer for specials on the night, invitations, RSVP collecting, contacting your customers for confirmation of attendance, sending emails about your planned event, being there to greet everyone, catering, cleaning up, filling out enquiry forms which we can create with you, etc.

Trade nights are always a huge success and a fantastic way to increase your business.

Blanket emails and Text messaging Services

Have you thought about sending your customers “special offers”? These work really well, and can be an easy way to increase orders.  We can come on site for an hour or two, and help create an email or text message, which will then be sent to all your customers or only to those that you select. The few hours it will take will be well worth the time invested.

Stock Level Analysis

A very valuable service, for a few hours of your time, to go through your business and offer advice where you may not have considered previously to reduce your tied up funds. Sometimes old habits and routines that work can be modified or improved to create more profitability without too much disruption, but until you have an open mind to have an outsider look into how you manage your stock levels, things cannot improve into the future, and the results may even be very costly or create ease of theft. Your business should be forward thinking and cost effective and a single analysis could prove very beneficial.

Performance and Cost Cutting Analysis

Our specialists can be invited to spend a day with you to go through your business and advise you in a detailed summary of where your business is performing to maximum efficiency and offer suggestions on any area where improvements or changes can be made to reduce costs.  These changes do not need to be made, it is up to you to decide whether you think they would benefit the business or whether you are happy to leave things as they are, but we just might find things that you had not noticed previously, or were completely unaware that these things were happening, and you may decide to make immediate changes.  This is a fantastic way of obtaining external advice which is unbiased and not demanding, but it could save you thousands, if you simply have a look at the Analysis we provide you.

Indepth Staff Feedback Report

Unfortunately not too many businesses obtain staff feedback, and your staff can sometimes be the ones who know your business better than you do. They are the ones taking complaints, they are the ones in the warehouse, they are the ones out on the road seeing and talking to your customers.  We have a way of being able to discuss your business in detail with your staff, to obtain their opinion on where they believe things could be changed to improve the work they do, which in turn provides more efficiency in your business.  It can also give you valuable insight on how much your staff actually do for you which is time wasting, counter productive, double handling, dangerous to your business, costly internally or externally with your business image, negative in moral obligation by your staff to you, or lacking in opportunity to actually help your business growth. We only need a day on your site to spend half an hour or so with each staff member, to be able to provide you with a comprehensive analysis on where your staff see your business long term, and this can give you the opportunity to see your business through the eyes of your staff. They just may be too valuable to be thinking of leaving due to what they have noticed is happening there that you are unaware of.

Indepth Feeback on your Business from Customers

It is very awkward asking your customers for feedback on your business, but it’s a great way of finding out what your image out there is really like.  The only way to do this is ask them. Allow our specialists to spend some time compiling a Report for you, based on information received from them, as an external unbiased party. They may be willing to buy more if you did particular things, they may be willing to expand your business partnership if you knew what they needed from you that they aren’t receiving now, such as quicker deliveries, they may offer suggestions which can be implemented within your business that even your other customers will find beneficial to them.  You may even find out that they are not happy with certain aspects, such as query handling, complaint resolution methods, returns crediting to their accounts, packaging standards or labelling, or time between visits to their premises,  pricing or any other range of subjects they may tell us about which is then up to you to address.  We will select a range of your accounts, instead of only speaking to your favourites which will give you a broader view of your image in the marketplace.  This report can easily improve your growth with your current customers, as well as giving you the opportunity to improve internal routines, as well as gaining new customers. Learning constantly within your business is vital to growth and your image in the market is an ideal way to achieve growth.

Price List Analysis

Our specialist team can spend some time with you to go through your product range to see where cost saving can be implemented, to allow for a larger profit mark-up on certain parts of your overall price listings.  You may find through our report that if you did certain things and made certain changes that you could even expand your products or services that you couldn’t provide previously, or by eliminating a certain product, you could actually save thousands which could be better utilised in other products or services you provide.  Your range should not result in losses, and these will be identified with you while compiling our report to you.  It is then your decision as to whether our suggestions are valid and whether you implement them.

Computer Technical Support

We all have them….  Dreaded scams, viruses, and down time due to things that go wrong with your systems on your computer.  Our specialised team can be on site to help your system run to peak performance and speed, and correct, delete, remove anything that is preventing you from maximising your hard drive space, and down time. You may have the same messages or errors occurring constantly.  They all mean something, and can ultimately do serious damage to your stored data if not corrected.  We can also install security systems onto your computer at quoted prices depending on which one will serve you best.  We can also advise on data storage methods that you may not be aware of, or know how to use, which will enable you to safely know that you will not lose anything stored on your computer.  We can also come in on a quarterly basis and backup your data for you, just in case something happens on your system.  Imagine what trauma your business could face if you lost everything in your system.  This is easily avoided.

Staff Motivation and Evaluation

Do you actually know what your staff think about your business?  We can offer indepth feedback on how much they actually care about your business, and how to make little changes to promote motivation and harmony.  Your staff are your greatest asset, and their attitude to coming to work every day for your benefit should not be under-rated. We can give you simple suggestions on how to give your staff a boost on productivity and enthusiasm to help grow your business.  Happiness in the workplace is vital to keeping your staff at your business premises. Don’t lose your staff who know all about your business.

Telemarketing

We can provide you with staff, even for an hour a day, to spend time on the phone promoting your business for you while you keep doing your daily activities.  Phone contact to new customers can be a simple way to gain entry into new growth for your business without spending lots of time or funds doing other forms of promotional or advertising methods. It’s the cheapest form of business growth.  Once contact is established, and accepted, you or your sales team can make a follow up call to arrange for a personal visit to be made to discuss their requirements and how you can become trading partners.

Legal Do Not Call Register

Did you know that the Privacy Act stipulates many different legally bound ways that you can communicate with potential customers.  If you trade with the public instead of businesses, it is vital that you do not phone anyone who is registered on the “Do Not Call” Register monitored by the Government and ASIC.  We can provide a list by suburb, or area, depending on your requirements, to avoid legal action.  The fines are thousands, and easily avoided.

Staff and Apprentice hiring

Do you know where to find staff that would easily adapt to your business and be an asset, or do you just place a sign on your front window advising you have vacancies.  Do you know how to read a Resume properly and ask potential staff the correct questions to find out whether their Resume is valid and substantiated?  Allow our staff to assist in the employment of your future staff, to avoid the employment of people who are not really suited to your needs.  Apprentices are vital to the growth of not only your business, but to the country in general, and there are wonderful incentives from the Government to assist you to help in Australias growth and future for our young ones.

Advertising suggestions on the Internet

Do you have a website?  Do you monitor how often the public are visiting your site, and how long they are spending on it?  Did you know that search engines are vital to the success of your website. Certain words in searching will either lead to your site, or not. You may be appearing on page 27 or even worse, on page 327 when the public is searching. Allow our experts to go through your website, and create search words, which will open to many more visitors, creating enquiries to your business.  You would be surprised to discover that even spelling mistakes in your word search list can bring extra traffic to your site, as not everyone in the public knows how to spell properly.  This is very sad but true.  Put us to the test..

New Account Application Form Review

Allow our specialist team to go through your Application form to ensure you are covered for damages, legal action, the Privacy Act Legislation, and your debts. Your Application form is the first legal binding document that is completed to merge you and your new customer, and it needs to be legally correct to cover not only you, but the customer.  If you have found in the past that Application Forms are not returned completed once they’ve been handed out, your new client may have read it, and doesn’t approve of your Trading Terms. This could be costing you and your business growth.

Quarterly Networking Evenings

Becoming a member entitles you to attend our Quarterly Networking Evenings, where a presentation will be made by us, with informal introductions to our other members. This will provide a platform for your business to grow by meeting other businesses where you may be able to provide assistance, services or your product range.  Business owners usually face the world on their own, and these evenings are a fantastic way of gaining recognition, and motivation to keep focused on your business growth.  These evenings are only available to Members, who are already receiving discounted rates on all our services.

Discount Vouchers from other Members

Becoming a Member of our Business not only gives you access to all our services at discounted rates, but each of our members is required to offer other members a discount to share between us all.  Your voucher entitles you to a variety of products and services.  We will be asking you to provide something from your business that can be used by other members when you join, and this will assist in growing our little internal community.

Assistance setting Monthly and Quarterly Targets

Do you know where you want your business to be in 6 months, or in 12 months?  Do you know how well your business did last month? How did it compare to previous months. Setting monthly and quarterly targets is vital to the growth and success of your business. Allow our specialists to spend a couple of hours per month, going through your business strategy with you. Focus for the future is a critical aspect which needs to be maintained each month. Not only do your staff need to answer to you, but you need to answer to your business.

Staff Performance and wage reviews

Allow our specialists to sit with you when you are contemplating a wage review, to ensure your staff are rewarded for their efforts.  An informal interview should be conducted with each staff member to discuss their work ethics, results and direction, and feedback should be recorded to be used in the following year. Goals and job descriptions and achievement levels should form part of every staff employed, and wages awarded accordingly. This will ensure your staff are very well aware, in writing of all the things they are accountable for, and where their decision making ends.  Authority levels should be clear to all your staff, and incorrect staffing practices can be damaging to your business, and even create legal action against you if not addressed in the correct manner.

Delegation of duties

In most businesses, the delegation of duties performed can be shared and varied amongst staff. Did you ever consider allowing your staff to do things that they are very capable of doing, to free up your time to persue other business activities?  This could mean a variety of benefits, including staff motivation, free time for you, less workload at home if you take work home to do, a broader team of staff to rise to management levels, new ideas in performance and successful trading, new ways of doing things, cost cutting suggestions, future business growth, encouragement of team spirit, staff eager to be more responsible, enthusiasm within the workplace and most importantly trained staff who can manage the business areas while you or other staff are on leave for any reason.  Training, empowering and giving responsibility to your staff shows them that they are trusted, valued and respected in their areas of control.  This creates loyal staff who are more inclined to remain your staff and not venture elsewhere looking for advancement.  Allow our specialists to spend some time with you, going through your staff to see how we can help build your team that is already there with you.