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Forum Discussion
Hey there, trying out Solo after previously using MYOB desktop (on Mac) for my former IT consultancy.
Am a licensed strata manager in NSW, and starting a sole trader strata inspection/reports business, so thought Solo might be enough to be getting on with.
Happy to discuss strata (my goto geek subject professionally now) or Apple ][s (my goto geek subject personally).
Have a few product ideas I'll put elsewhere (after checking if they've already been suggested, I know some have), and just otherwise lurking here while I get my head around setting up the new biz and Solo (and prepping for EOFY).
Sean
G'day StrataGeek !
Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself! We are stoked to have you on board 🙌
I would love to hear more about how Solo can make life as a StrataGeek easier, so I can make sure to share all the best tips and tricks that work with the way you like to work 😃 What does a typical inspection/report job actually involve for you day to day? And what Solo feature are you most excited to start trying out?
I can see you've already jumped in and added some ideas and comments, what a legend! Keep the ideas coming, and if you have any questions about getting started, we're here to help!
We look forward to going on the Solo journey with you, Sean! 💜
Thanks Sigrid,
A lot of work will come from a service online which is especially used by real estate agents and property sellers (vendors) to get reports for marketing purposes. Some will come from “direct” sales.
The work is that I get a letter of authority from the current owner, send that to the strata management agency, get access to the books and records (mostly via remote access these days), copy the relevant records for inclusion, then type up the report with relevant facts extracted, or opinions expressed and send it and the relevant records as a PDF.
On the sales side, direct reports will be pre-paid by customers, the agency will send two payments each month.
On the supply side, most suppliers will be the various strata management companies (the search fee is prescribed by legislation to be $60 incl GST pre-paid for the first hour of access).
Some things from an accounting/bookkeeping perspective:
- I’m GST registered, but many of my income will be paid against Recipient Created Tax Invoices by the report service – I’m presuming I’ll just enter those as payment/income without a correlated invoice in Solo.
- Software is a key requirement, and I use some from overseas (and often GST-Free), some on a subscription basis (monthly or yearly, usually) – not sure yet if there’s a recurring transaction feature in Solo (haven’t specifically looked, but I think I saw the Copy feature being suggested for similar elsewhere here?).
- I’m on cash basis for GST and income tax purposes, which I found after a bit of searching is how Solo works – perhaps that could be mentioned in the features page so it’s a little easier to find for new users?
- I’m not sure if it’s possible to create a supply “item” as it is for sales?
- As per my feature requests, import of data and/or use of device contacts would be really handy, even if most work is through one agency. As I get forms filled on my website for directly-commissioned reports, it’d be great if the CSV file from the form on my website could be used to create a customer (and invoice?!) directly, rather than me copying/pasting or transcribing.
- More flexible date ranges for reports would be useful just generally.
- I’ll have various licenses, training, and conferences to include (I’m maintaining my strata management license, and may upgrade it to Class 1, which requires me completing a Diploma course). For conferences, I’ll look at claimable travel expenses.
- I’m considering consulting to strata management agencies in the future about data records best practice and compliance – if there’s a market for that – so may or may not need to move to a higher-level product at that stage.
- I’m offering advice/consulting to strata committees/owners corporation about data records best practice and compliance, but suspect many wouldn’t want to spend the money! 🤣
- I’m still trying to work out how to split expenses – either because of different tax treatment (e.g. no GST on stamp duty on insurance policies), or because of different line items needing to be in different categories. I’ll play with that and look around it the first time I come up against it (is the “Cash” account holding multiple expense transactions and then transferring from a bank account to that the best way? I’ve used such methods before.)
- I’ll be doing my own bookkeeping and tax prep (GST and income) after having done so for many years previously.
- Having the list of default categories available as a text list somewhere would have been a little easier for my category planning/amendments (I took iPhone screenshots, did text recognition, pasted into a text file and got rid of things like overlapping/duplicated categories and date and time from the top of the screen – likely a one off, but still).
- Some level of calendar integration would be nice – see mileage logbook is being discussed, and
Exploring more today.
I’m actually really pleased I found Solo – despite some of the speed bumps for setup compared to desktop or web apps (I’ve been using MYOB desktop on and off for over 30 years!), I think it will really suit the simple expenses vs income model I will have for this business.
Sean
Hey @StrataGeek
Oh, what a delight this comment is! 🤩 We absolutely love this level of detail; it really helps us help you!There’s a lot to cover, and it sounds like you’re still getting up to speed on a few things, but I’ll give some guidance on the points that stick out to me 😊
“I’m GST registered, but many of my income will be paid against Recipient Created Tax Invoices by the report service – I’m presuming I’ll just enter those as payment/income without a correlated invoice in Solo.”
It’s always worth checking with your accountant or bookkeeper, but if you receive income that does not need a corresponding invoice in Solo, you can manually record it and categorise it.
“Software is a key requirement, and I use some from overseas (and often GST-Free), some on a subscription basis”
Is this software that you have subscribed to, or that you sell subscriptions for? It sounds like you’re wanting a recurring expenses option, which we don’t have at the moment (but it’s something that we’d definitely love to see in our idea section 😉 ). How you tackle this will depend on the level of detail you’d need, for example, you can create unpaid expenses and attach invoices to them. Expenses don’t have the copy function so you would need to create them individually, but invoices can be copied.
Then, when it’s payment time and if you have a connected bank account or a Solo Money account, Solo should suggest matching the transaction to the existing expense record, marking it as paid. If you don’t need details like a supplier or a receipt, then you can also categorise these transactions as they come through, even adding custom categories if needed.
“I’m not sure if it’s possible to create a supply “item” as it is for sales?”
Are you checking for an inventory option here? If so, that’s not a part of Solo’s features as Solo is all about keeping it lean and tight, but I know that MYOB Business Lite does have an inventory feature.
“I’m still trying to work out how to split expenses – either because of different tax treatment (e.g. no GST on stamp duty on insurance policies), or because of different line items needing to be in different categories. I’ll play with that and look around it the first time I come up against it (is the “Cash” account holding multiple expense transactions and then transferring from a bank account to that the best way? I’ve used such methods before.)”
I can’t advise exactly what to split, or whether you need to use the “Cash” account to hold transactions (that’s best left with your accountant to advise on), but what I can tell you is that splitting expenses in Solo is pretty straightforward. You’ll need to create a manual expense, and in Expense Type select Split. This will allow you to enter each line item individually and adjust the tax code and category for each item.
Here are a couple of links to ideas that have already been shared on the forum, that I think might align with what you’ve shared here
Custom date ranges for reports
Add a date field to the invoice item section <-This idea is phrased in a way that’s geared towards NDIS workers, but we know that many industries can benefit from having a date field on the invoice, so definitely add your comment and vote.
Thanks again, Sean, for absolutely epic feedback and insight! Getting to know our Solmates and helping them get the most out of Solo is the best part of the job 💜
Keep the comments and ideas coming, we love it!
