Financial Setup
Building strong financial foundations doesn’t mean you have to be good with numbers, but it does mean you need to have some understanding of what’s going on in your business financially so you can maintain clarity, control, and confidence.
Whether you’re just starting out, stabilising cash flow, or preparing for growth, it’s essential to understand how money flows through your business.
We’ve put together some guidance and resources, practical templates, and skills-based learning modules to support your business. Financial understanding is important because business financials are an aspect of every decision-making in your business, from setting prices, determining your salary, and evaluating the feasibility of taking on more work, so we encourage you to learn what you can now and make sure you have at least the basics before your business takes off.
We aim to help demystify financial concepts, so you can grasp what’s important, why it matters, and how to effectively manage your business finances.
Understanding the Language of Business Finance
Before these resources can be useful, it’s good to understand the terms accountants, bookkeepers, the ATO, banks, partners and funders will use when they’re discussing your business with you.
Business.gov.au provides a list of the Key Financial terms that you’ll often hear in the day-to-day running of your business. Things like Debits, and Credits. You can download a copy here and use it like a dictionary when something doesn’t make sense or come back when you need it.
Business Banking
When it comes to business banking, having a separate account for your business makes good business sense. In Business Banking, we explain Business bank accounts, the best providers to help you set one up, and good banking practices that will help you meet ATO obligations, reduce stress and confusion later, and make more informed business decisions.
Accounting and Bookkeeping Software
Accounting and bookkeeping are big parts of running a business, and it’s essential that you keep on top of them. We’ve provided information on the Accounting and Bookkeeping software that small businesses use to help them stay compliant and keep their business books in order.
Planning and Financial Setup Tools
When it comes to running a business, there are a few key things businesses like to keep track of, such as how much it costs to get started, their budget for operations, and their overall financial health. These templates help you establish your financial systems early, reducing errors and stress later.
You can use one, all or none of the provided templates depending on how you plan to set up and manage your business.
Cash Flow and Day-to-Day Management
Cash flow is the difference between a thriving business and one that faces challenges. It’s important to keep track of the money coming in and going out. There are many tools and resources available that can help you manage your cash flow better. By using these resources, you can stay on top of your finances and help your business thrive for years to come.
| Profit and Loss Statement Template | Cashflow Coaching Kit | |
| Keep track of the money that comes in and goes out of your accounts over a certain time. This template helps you understand your finances better by giving you a clear picture of your income and expenses. | Get a clear picture of how your business is doing financially by figuring out if it's making money or losing it. This important tool shows you how much money is coming in, how much is going out, and how your business is performing overall. With this information, you can make smart choices that help your business grow in a healthy way. | A complete toolkit provided by the ATO to help analyse cash flow issues and implement practical improvements. Filled with simple tools, checklists and resources, with an in-built coaching model. |
Free Short Courses:
These self-paced free courses provided by the Australian Taxation Office allow you to build skills at your own pace and deepen your understanding in specific areas without formal study or long-term commitments.
Cash Flow & Financial Control
| Cash flow for small business success | Strategies for improving your cash flow | Recording business income and expenses |
| A 30 Minute Short Course for managing cash flow in your small business. This course provides you with important cash flow management skills. | A 24 Minute Short Course that provides strategies to improve your cash flow. | A 26 Minute Short Course that shows you how to set up a system that helps you keep accurate income and expense records for your business, and how to correctly record them for tax purposes. |
Record Keeping & Systems
| Record keeping | |
| An 83 Minute Short Course that covers what it means to keep records, how to keep them and why keeping them is important. | A 23 Minute Short Course on making electronic invoices for collecting payment for a service or product. |
Tax, Deductions & Assets
| Goods and Services Tax (GST) | Claiming small business tax deductions | Claiming deductions for your home-based business |
| A 60 Minute Short Course on calculating GST and reporting to the ATO. | A 46 Minute Short Course on what business tax deduction is, and what expenses you can and can’t deduct and whether you can deduct it immediately or over time. | A 33 Minute Short Course for claiming deductions if you’re a business that is based at home. This includes what you can claim for electricity, furniture, cars, and more. |
| Fuel tax credits | Depreciation | Losses |
| A 53 Minute Short Course on Fuel Tax Credits and how to claim them. | An 87 Minute Course on how to claim and calculate depreciation for assets in your business. | A 46 Minute Short Course on how to claim losses in your business. |
| Personal services income |
| A 162 Minute Course on Personal services incomes. The income produced mainly from your skills and efforts as an individual. The course covers when PSI rules will apply to your income and what deductions you can claim. |
Each course is designed to be practical, scenario-based, and directly applicable to Australian small businesses.
Reminder
There is a lot of information available to you when you’re starting a business. It can be overwhelming at first, but you do not need to complete everything at once. Everything here is designed to help you on your journey; you can pick and choose what you want to do now or save for later. To help you keep track of what learning materials you’ve completed and what ones you want to learn about later, use our Learning Register. Save it somewhere you can easily access and add courses as you learn about them. When you have spare time, come back to them and pick up where you left off.
A suggest approach
To prevent overwhelm, we’ve added a guide of how you should approach the financial setup.
Start with the core knowledge
Review key financial terms and business banking fundamentals so you can understand the key language business professional use.
Set up your foundations
Complete start-up costs, budgeting, and basic financial templates as you need them, or download and save them for later.
Build cash flow awareness
Use cash flow and profit tools alongside the coaching kit to help you keep track of your cash flow, income and expenses.
Strengthen compliance knowledge
Work through tax, GST, deductions, and record-keeping courses when they become relevant to your business needs.
Revisit regularly
Financial management is ongoing. These resources are designed to be returned to as your business evolves. Every now and then, QIBN will add more resources and information to guide you on your journey, so remember to come back throughout the process.