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Behind the Numbers: Supporting Impact Lab’s Tech-Driven Growth

Bookkeeping for Tech Companies in NZ:

Tailored Support Through Growth and Change

Overview

Impact Lab is a New Zealand-based organisation that helps measure and improve the social impact of services and initiatives. Since March 2023, Red Office NZ has provided tailored bookkeeping and payroll services. As specialists in bookkeeping for tech companies in NZ, Red Office supported Impact Lab with tailored systems and financial reporting designed to evolve with their needs. Our main contact has been Kate – an external finance management contractor supporting Impact Lab and their COO, Hayden.

Recent growth has enabled Impact Lab to appoint a full-time Finance and Operations Manager. We’re currently undertaking an eight-week handover with their team to ensure a seamless transition.

Tailored Support When It Mattered

Red Office has delivered end-to-end bookkeeping, including daily processing, accounts payable, bank reconciliations, and End of Month reporting. We’ve also managed their fortnightly payroll for 17 staff, including wage accruals, salary allocations, and project-based timesheeting. Payroll is processed using iPayroll, while TeamWork is used for timesheet management.

As their requirements became more complex, we adapted our systems and reporting to suit. For example, we realigned payroll reporting to match salary periods more accurately and restructured workpapers to show project-level data. These changes provided clearer insights into project performance and supported better reporting to their stakeholders.

To streamline communication and approval processes, we also introduced internal systems, including a dedicated Slack finance channel. This helped both our team and the Impact Lab team respond to queries quickly and work more efficiently.

Tailored Support Through Growth

Since the start of our engagement, Impact Lab has grown and sharpened its focus on meaningful financial insights – a need we frequently see when providing bookkeeping for tech companies.

We’ve worked closely with Kate to customise reporting and workpapers that meet their evolving needs. This collaborative approach has helped support their internal processes, particularly in preparing for board meetings and high-level reporting.

Highlights

  • Adapted payroll and reporting processes to align with project-based data
  • Created tailored workpapers to meet internal reporting requirements
  • Set up efficient workflows and communication systems for faster turnaround
  • Built strong working relationships with key contacts in the business.

Working Together

“Working with Kate has been great — her insight combined with my day-to-day processing support made for a strong working relationship” – Amanda, Senior Bookkeeper – Red Office.

We’ve valued the opportunity to problem-solve and refine processes to deliver a service that worked well for both sides. Over time, we developed a clear understanding of what was needed and when, which helped streamline our work and improve outcomes for the client.

Impact Lab’s growth has created the opportunity for them to bring finance in-house.  As they ‘fly the nest’, our team is committed to delivering a detailed eight-week handover to ensure a smooth and confident transition. We look forward to seeing what they achieve next — and continuing to support them on their journey.

We've supported growing innovators like Impact Lab with expert bookkeeping for tech companies

Let’s talk about how we can do the same for you. 

Start the conversation.

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New Financial Year, New Business Budget: Take Control of Your Business Finances

Calculator on paper with piggy bank in background.

Time to Take Control

There’s nothing like a fresh financial year to hit reset your business finances. And top of the to-do list? A new financial year business budget. Not the dusty spreadsheet kind you create once and never revisit—but a living, breathing tool that helps you cut the fluff, keep track of what you earn, and make smart decisions.

Why Budget?

Because without one, you’re guessing. And let’s be honest – guessing’s not a business strategy. A budget gives you visibility: where your money’s coming from, where it’s going, and how you can steer your business in a better direction. It’s not about penny-pinching; it’s about powerful insight.

The Numbers that Matter

Before you start drawing up numbers, you need to get your hands on the right numbers. Your Profit & Loss report is your starting point—here’s what to dig into:

Income (Revenue)

Expenses

Payroll

Overheads

Debt repayments

Depreciation

Made a Profit? Nice. Now be smart with it

You’ve got options. Lots of them and your budget helps you see which ones are best:

Reinvest in growth – Marketing? New gear? Staff training?

Clear debt – Faster repayments = less interest.

Build a buffer – Especially handy if your income dips over winter or slows post-Christmas.

Profit without a plan can vanish fast. A solid budget helps you make it count. We recommend seeking advice from your accountant or advisor around the best possible use of your profit. We all want to get the best bang for our buck!

What's your business really worth?

That’s where your balance sheet comes in. It gives you a snapshot of your financial health right now—not just income and expenses, but everything you own and owe.

Assets include:

Tools, vehicles, property

Cash in the bank

Outstanding invoices (money owed to you)

Liabilities include:

Unpaid bills

Tax you’ll need to pay soon

Now you’re seeing the full picture, you’re ready to build a forward-focused budget.

Build a budget that works for you

Once you’ve pulled together your real-time data, it’s time to map out your future. A smart business budget tells you how much you:

Spend to keep things running

Can invest to grow

Can pay yourself (and any shareholders)

It also tells you how flexible your business is.

Play the "What if" game

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Budgets aren’t set in stone—they’re a tool for exploring possibilities.

What if your revenue jumps 15%?

What if a key supplier increases costs?

What if you get a grant or funding boost?

What if you drop a slow product line?

Your accountant or advisor can help you build out plans A, B, and C so you’re prepared for multiple scenarios.

Budgets aren't boring - they're powerful

Forget the idea of budgets being restrictive. A good business budget gives you freedom. Freedom to grow. To adapt. To sleep at night knowing you’ve got a plan.

The best businesses don’t just track what’s happening—they predict it. They plan. They prepare. And it starts with a budget.

Need a hand?

If you’re stuck, second-guessing your numbers, or just want a sanity check—we’re here to help. Red Office can work alongside you to get the foundations right and build a budget that actually works for your business. No jargon. No judgement. Just the support you need to take control of the new financial year.

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IRD Compliance Update – October 2024 Summary

NZ Currency NZD Fifty Dollar Note and NZ Coins.

Louise supports the ICNZB by managing their IRD relationship. Each month there is a different topic and this month she had the privilege to meet with Andrew Stott Head of Community Compliance and hear about the IRD current workplan and compliance focus.

 

The summary of key points from Louise’s monthly meeting with the IRD is below.

 

Key Points from Andrew’s Presentation

 

The IRD’s financial year begins on July 1st, and this year, they are ahead of their compliance goals. Andrew emphasised the IRD’s three-part approach to compliance:

  1. Make it easy to comply.
  2. Make it hard to avoid compliance.
  3. Make it costly for those who deliberately evade obligations.

 

For 2024/25, the IRD plans to increase enforcement activity after a period of relative leniency and will make greater use of data and insights. Their primary focus is on collecting tax, particularly from those deliberately avoiding compliance.

 

General Tax Compliance

 

According to Andrew, most New Zealanders are generally compliant. After their focus on transforming systems and supporting businesses through COVID-19, the IRD is now shifting its attention to following up with those not meeting compliance. Year-to-date, audits are up by 50% compared to the previous year, supported by increased recruitment for audit teams.

 

Audit Focus Areas

 

The IRD divides its efforts equally between:

– Large company audits and the technical tax area, which together account for nearly 50% of their activity.

– Fraud, hidden economy (e.g., cash jobs), and property-related audits, which make up the remaining 50%.

 

Andrew confirmed that the hidden economy remains prevalent, despite the shift towards electronic payments. An example cited was a $26,000 “cash job” for a building project that went undeclared.

 

Personal Income and the 39% Tax Threshold

 

The IRD is scrutinising efforts to avoid the new 39% tax threshold, primarily through trusts or LAQC structures. Sectors like accounting, legal, medical, and architecture are under particular review. The IRD is looking for cases where personal income has been diverted, with data from previous income declarations being used to identify discrepancies.

 

Property and the Construction Industry

 

Property is a major focus for the IRD. They are investigating individuals who have ceased declaring rental income despite still owning property, and they are closely examining financial hardship claims, especially from those with equity in property assets.

 

The construction industry also faces scrutiny, particularly around PAYE/WHT compliance and contractor tax. Construction site visits are being used to check compliance in these areas.

 

Non-Compliance in the Liquor Store Industry

 

Non-compliance in the liquor store sector has emerged as a significant issue. While the number of liquor stores has doubled in the past 5-10 years, the number of employees has not kept pace, suggesting potential non-compliance with tax laws. The IRD will focus on ensuring stores comply with PAYE and other obligations, with a strong emphasis on enforcement.

 

Cryptocurrency and Offshore Income

 

Andrew also discussed the compliance challenges surrounding cryptocurrency. The IRD is aware of the growing use of crypto in investment portfolios and payment systems. Andrew advised that businesses should ensure clients with crypto holdings declare them properly in Year-End records.

 

In terms of offshore income, the global connected world is aiding the IRD’s efforts. Data-sharing agreements with 87 countries have helped close 219 cases involving offshore income, either through education or voluntary disclosures.

 

High-Risk Clients

 

The IRD has increased its focus on high-risk clients with outstanding returns or high levels of tax debt. They currently have 30 criminal investigations underway. Andrew advised reviewing client lists and disengaging from those who are not allowing accurate work to be done. The IRD has a specialist team collecting an average of $4 million per week from non-compliant taxpayers, utilizing site visits and legal actions when necessary.

 

Small Business Cashflow Loans

 

Another area of focus is the recovery of Small Business Cashflow loans issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IRD is targeting fraudulent activity, with legal action being taken against those who applied for loans without intending to repay them. Currently, 21 cases are before the courts, with three successful rulings in July and August.

 

Electronic Sales Suppression Tools

 

Andrew briefly touched on electronic sales suppression tools, a form of fraud where point-of-sale (POS) systems underreport actual sales. The IRD is focused on stopping this type of tax leakage and is investigating discrepancies between bank deposits and POS reports. There are currently 50 ongoing investigations.

 

Final Thoughts

 

This was an enlightening presentation that highlighted the IRD’s strategic goals and their enforcement efforts. The IRD will be hosting a webinar in the first week of November to discuss this update further with tax agents, so keep an eye out for their newsletter with registration details.

 

I hope you found these insights helpful. It was a great reminder of our role in supporting compliance and ensuring that taxes are filed and collected properly.

 

 

How a tech CEO won back her day

Introduction

In 2020 Lauren Peate was flying high. Multitudes, the performance analytics company she’d founded earlier, was showing solid growth in employee numbers and clients. With all the numbers heading in the right direction, it was time to take the business to the next level.

Lauren wanted to focus on:

  • Further developing her software
  • Building the team
  • Growing the business.

But there was a hitch: she was just too busy, managing all the functions of the business—from staffing to client work to admin— herself. The manual accounting and admin systems were slow and cumbersome. Processes hadn’t been fully set up.

Her company needed a CEO, but she was still functioning in start-up mode.

Then, thanks to a recommendation by her accountant, Lauren discovered Red Office.

How Multitudes used Red Office’s services

Lauren told us what she wanted to achieve, and we provided a scope of work that included:

  • Guidance on best practice and statutory requirements for payroll and accounting processing
  • Full setup of Xero and payroll software— from a manual to a cloud-based system with all IRD requirements met.
  • Internal process development and setup with customised templates, making it easier for employees to manage expense claims and leave requests.

Two of our team members worked on this account, managing the daily accounting functions—one processing and one reviewing—with Alanna, our Head of Specialist Accounting Services, overseeing.

All bills and payroll required Lauren’s approval before payment, meaning she had full oversight of her systems and accounts.

The Results

Lauren won back her day: Not having to spend huge amounts of time on admin meant she could concentrate on building her team and software.

Instant access to accounts and data: Lauren had full visibility of accounts, plus had metrics and financial data on hand to provide to investors at quick notice.

Always on the ball: We could inform Lauren of unexpected cost increases and any unusual items requiring her attention through weekly comms, reducing time spent reviewing and decreasing the number of queries.

“Jenny and Alanna at Red Office did an amazing job for us! They’re great communicators – and we appreciate that they work on our team’s tools, including Slack – and they’ve been proactive in catching potential issues, like a cost that was higher than it had been previously. I highly recommend the whole Red Office team!”

Lauren Peate
CEO – Multitudes

The brakes are off!

Multitudes is growing at a rapid pace, and we have recently completed a full handover to the new accounts team that Lauren has engaged. She realised she needed more high-level support and now has a full bookkeeping and CFO package.

Lauren remains one of our favourite clients and we are excited to see Multitudes’ developing future.

Set the CEO in you free…

So you can focus on the bigger picture for your business.

Book a no-obligation chat with Louise today. Call her on 027 473 5963.

 


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What you should have in place by 1st April

team meeting around desk looking at graphs financial information.

For most in New Zealand, a new financial year begins on April 1st and while most items have been checked off, and rolled over into the new year, a big item that many businesses won’t have in place is their budget for the new financial year.

Planning should be well underway, and all our clients should be looking at their interim results and consulting with their account managers to draft, review and finalise their 2024-25 budgets.

Your budget will help you keep track of your income and expenses and show you where your cash will be coming from.

 

Here are our top 3 tips to consider when making your next budget:

 

  1. Review the last year.

Last year’s budget will show you where you performed well as well as identifying areas of concern. Your accountant will also be able to help with this and may have further insights that can help your business move forward. Look at where you exceeded expectations and where there’s room for improvement. This will show you where to focus your efforts for the new year.

Other things to consider here is whether you can reassign any leftover funding from the last financial year, your value proposition – is there room to increase your pricing, and any upcoming legislative changes that may affect you.

 

  1. Processes are important.

If you have a bookkeeper to prioritise your accounts process most of the hard work is done. But it’s still important to record and manage your financials as efficiently as possible throughout the year. If you find yourself struggling to manage payroll, keep up with invoices or chasing overdue payments, then management of your business won’t be as effective and you may find good value in a bookkeeper.

 

  1. Make it happen.

Your figures will remain numbers on a page if you don’t put them into action. If you have new initiatives for your sales team or cost reductions in certain areas of the business, you’ll need someone to action them. Assign your initiatives to people outlining what needs to be done and by when and then review these regularly to help people stay on track.

 

Getting your planning and budgets in place prior to the start of the financial year means conversations with Managers can be positively focussed and provide a platform for your success. Don’t think of this as a laborious task. Our team are here to help. Taking the time to reflect on your business can be motivational allowing you a chance to think about what could be.

How outsourced bookkeeping helped this equipment supplier

Services utilised: Bookkeeping | Payroll | Consulting

Who they are

  • Inter-Fridge are a supplier of commercial refrigeration equipment to the supermarket and hospitality sector throughout New Zealand.
  • A hybrid working setup provided the Director with confidence that his business was professionally cared for, providing accuracy across accounts functions and support for his team
  • Our team became trusted members of this team, with the scope of work extending past traditional bookkeeping, to consulting and admin.

Introduction

Inter-Fridge are a locally owned and operated business supplying commercial refrigeration to various businesses around NZ. They import a range of equipment from Asia and Europe specifically designed for the supermarket and hospitality industry. Based in Auckland, they are able to service the whole of NZ and employ 3 staff that manage sales, service and deliveries. They have been with Red Office since 2015, initially for bookkeeping and payroll services, and then in 2019 started using our marketing support services.

The Challenge

Inter-Fridge was managing their bookkeeping and daily accounts functions in house for close to one year before they were referred to Red Office through their accountant. It was a time consuming chore for James, Director of Inter-Fridge to do on his own. It often meant late nights, or working weekends to catch up on admin, and he knew he wasn’t doing the best job having to manage it all on his own.

Having the right fit person was important to Inter-Fridge.  They didn’t feel they were big enough to employ someone but they knew they needed “more than just a bookkeeper” – they wanted a business driver, someone who understood and challenged them on their goals and were able to have discussions around where they wanted to be in 3-5 years and beyond. James also wanted to know and understand his figures better, to know which areas of the business required attention and which areas were working well.

Outsourcing work like this can be tough. It takes some getting used to the process, so it was also a preference to have someone on-site where there could be collaboration and discussion in person and reduce the emails or phone calls.

Inter-Fridge wanted a trusted, full-service relationship where there was complete visibility of the processes and accounts, including support for the wider team as well as ensuring the day to day accounts functions such as invoicing, payments, and payroll didn’t fall behind.  

The Solution

With the referral from their accountant as our introduction, we were able to propose a solution to James, where he would receive weekly accounts support and management of all daily tasks, payroll management, accounts support for the sales team and monthly reports prepared for their accountant.

This was a cost effective way of ensuring the accounts were accurate and compliant, saving Inter-Fridge thousands in recruitment and salaries.

Having someone off-site was a slight concern for him, so we proposed a tailored solution where our senior bookkeeper would work in their office one day per week. This provided peace of mind, clarity, and a chance to go over any queries together without having to pick up the phone or send multiple emails.

Results & Benefits

We established a great working relationship between us and all members of the Inter-Fridge team. 

With access to not only a senior bookkeeper who managed the day to day functions of the business,  supporting the sales team with their purchase orders, invoicing as well as monthly stocktakes with the team, James was also able to engage consulting services from Louise to support the larger aspects of the business, liaising with his accountant, lawyers, banks and other stakeholders when required.

James has full confidence in his accounts and peace of mind that his figures are accurate. He was able to reclaim the time he used to spend navigating Xero and the various admin work to focus on his customers and sales.

Conclusion

With a fully managed service in place, across 2 functions of our business, the team at Red Office have become not just an outsourced service to Inter-Fridge, but a trusted advisor and partner to James and his team.

Our hybrid working setup alleviated his concerns with having work completed off-site, establishing our strong relationship that increased our service capabilities to other areas of his business.

We have attended sales pitches, provided support for a recent acquisition, and have been involved in other aspects of the business at the client’s request due to our team’s experience and service oriented outlook.

“ I am confident with our figures and the whole experience has improved our accounts, admin and marketing so much. We have a professional look thanks to the team at Red Office
James Holdich
Director

If you’re thinking you need help with managing your accounts, get in touch with our team to discuss how we can work together. 

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ENQUIRE HERE TO GET A CALL

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Helping our clients with Short-term Cashflow Reporting

male sitting at cafe table looking at laptop with hand over mouth concerned.

If you want to know your cash balances on a short-term basis – weekly, fortnightly, or monthly – then short-term cashflow reporting will help you.

This is the method that our bookkeepers have been using to provide precise cashflow forecasts to business owners, wanting to know how much cash their business is going to have in one week, or one month up to 3 months.

Fundamentally, it’s about having information to give you time and money to make the right business decisions.

You’ll get visibility of your future cash position which will highlight when things are going to be tight. This will allow you to take action to get through any tough times.

You’ll also be able to see a clear picture of how much money you’ll have in a given week and how much you can afford to pay out.

In Xero, the short-term cash flow projection dashboard forecasts the amount of cash your business will have in the next 7 or 30 days. You can choose which bank accounts to include in the projection.

 

How these forecasts can help you:

  • avoid financial trouble
  • plan for future cash shortcomings
  • meet your tax obligations
  • plan asset purchases
  • plan for growth or expansion
  • make an informed decision on whether borrowing is right for you
  • benchmark your performance
  • test different strategic scenarios
  • figure out the best time to invoice
  • build your case for investment
  • forecast the cost of taking on more employees.

 

If you’re going to do this, you’ll need to be upfront and honest. Some common mistakes include:

  • Being overly optimistic when you’re predicting future income — to have any real merit, your predictions need to be honest and backed up by data.
  • Not documenting your current financial activities — your past income and expenditures will help you accurately predict your future cash flow.

Remember, a cash flow forecast is only as valuable as the information and detail put into it. You can do this yourself, or our bookkeepers are happy to help.

A short-term cashflow forecast can give you a detailed view of how much money you have and therefore how much time you have to fix any liquidity problems that may arise.

If this is something you’d like for your business, speak to your Red Office Bookkeeper or Account Manager to discuss further.

Further Reading: 3 areas to help with cashflow from one of our senior bookkeeper’s.

 

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