We, girls, went to the Chicks at the Flicks tonight at Manukau.  I don’t drink much, but I had a couple of sparkling pinot gris’s, very yummy!  Well we were all pretty chirpy (to put it mildly) heading into the movie, having some good laughs, then the movie started…  ”Never let me go”…  What a nightmare of a movie after a couple of wines, I had one of the girls in tears at the end.

As they handed out cake afterwards, they asked how we found the movie, everyone was horrified.  Great movie, but not in that situation, they should have been serving Gin, at least you would have been ready for a cry…

Check out the Xero blog about the recent conference, there is some cool things coming…

http://blog.xero.com/2011/02/best-accounting-conference-ever/#comments

I rang HP on Friday to go through the warranty process for my blown up PC and they said “we will have to ring you back, our computers are down…”  what do you do?  Call an office manager, oh, sorry my calculator is broken…

Already 2011 is proving great for us at KOM – I am happy to report that the office is finally up and running and fully functional – with phones and internet working – all the girls should be back, based in the office this week.

If you would like to send us some art work to test the fax – send your self portrait or other drawing to 09 269 5465 – there might be a prize for the best one! 

Marilyn is turning her hand to renovating; waterblasting and painting the office to bring it into the present – painting out the lovely mint green that the previous owner liked – traces can still be seen of the beautiful pink used in the kitchen ;-P.  I think we took 3 archways out when we renovated the inside.

Our hours should return to normal from Monday next week – please feel free to come and visit us!  For those with a GPS: 41 Alfriston Road, Manurewa, for those without: get off the motorway at Hill Road and turn right.  Take the left called Claud Road, then we are across the road to the right (hiding behind the bus stop).  We would love to show off our new office.

Best Wishes for a profitable New Year!

Glennis Stuckey
Katalyst Office Management

The custom invoice, statement and credit note templates were included in the major Xero upgrade this morning.  It looks awesome!  For those who don’t want to read about, there is also a video on the link below:

http://help.xero.com/#Settings_InvoiceSettings$BK_Docx

Please remember you can brand your invoices if there are difference faces to your business.  For example, Katalyst Payroll, Katalyst Debtors Managers etc.  This suits where you might have other logos for the various functions of your business.

Let us know in the New Year if you would like some work done on your invoices.

Amanda with Basic Shapes

I spent most of Saturday making Cake Pops with Amanda from 82 Ltd – www.82.co.nz – she is one talented cookie, also, very organised.  It is easy to see how she excels at invention and creation.

Check out 82′s new website, the cat in a box video is hard case, the whole site is well worth a look.  I failed dismally trying to steal one of their 82 ideas for my wall.

These are ones we decided to make first, for my Dads 57th birthday.  His nick name is Hoppy, so Hoppy Birthday cake pops was the result.

This week, I have had the previlege of attending a business womens group in Pukekohe – The Women of Power and Influence – you have to love the name!  The business owners are from Waiukau, Pukekohe and South Auckland mostly.

On Wednesday I was at a BNI function, I ran into one of the ladies again.  We were discussing WoPI with some men, one told us of another group called Professionelle.  This looks quite interesting for women buiness owners for all of New Zealand.   Please follow the link below if you are interested.

http://www.professionelle.co.nz/

I attended a WHK seminar last night about the coming changes to the LAQC structure.  It is partly of being replaced by an LTC – Look Through Company.  These changes are still in draft format.

From what I understood, the main changes will be around attributing losses, it will be limited to the financial risk held by each shareholder.  For example, if you got married, one person had $100k to invest, and the other didn’t, the losses would only be attributable to the shareholder who introduced the funds, with the losses being carried forward for the other shareholder.  However, if the other shareholder had signed a personal guarantee with the bank, then they would have a financial risk, so could receive losses.

There are other limits and things to consider with this that I recommend you talk to your accountants about the structure that would best suit your company and shareholders.  A decision will need to be made about the structure that will suit you.

Depending on the structure, you may need to revalue properties and you may also need to refinance, so if you are on fixed rates, you may need to pay break fees.  There are some options here – Sole Trader, QC, regular Company, LTC, Limited Partnerships etc.  They all have benefits and flaws.

So again, please contact your accountant, if you would like a referral to a suitable accountant, please call me.

Disclaimer:  I am not a financial advisor, so please don’t assume what I have said is fact, it is based on my memory and my notes.  If you have anything to add, please email me or add a comment.

Glennis Stuckey 24/11/10

WHK – www.whk.co.nz