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Chris Mercer, How do your books look?


Chris Mercer

Bookkeepers are all the same - they make sure the numbers add up and the petty cash balances, right? Wrong.

Bookkeeping is a skill beyond being able to turn a calculator on - and real estate bookkeeping is more specialised again.

Live Business Services was started by Chartered Accountant Chris Mercer specifically to provide bookkeeping solutions for real estate business owners. Mr Mercer drew on his 20 years experience in accounting, with 11 of those concentrated on making real estate numbers work, to launch his business. “I have reviewed hundreds of businesses over that time, so I’ve become quite specialised. I know what the industry has under the bonnet,” he explained.

We’re not all natural-born bookkeepers

The average real estate business owner is more than likely a great salesperson, not an experienced bookkeeper. A common mistake is thinking more sales equals more money. Mr Mercer said if the business owner didn’t have a good grasp of their books, this might not be the case.

“They don’t look at their financial information as their primary source to answer ‘are we on track for our goals?’, especially the bottom line; they keep looking at how many sales they’ve done for the month as an indicator as to whether or not they are on track, which isn’t the case. It’s one of the first errors,” he said.

Mr Mercer often had to wait months for a business’ books to ascertain where the business was working well and where it could improve. And when he got the books they weren’t always in the format needed to extract the important information. So he decided to provide bookkeepers for these businesses himself. Live Business Services hires, trains, manages and pays bookkeeping staff and outsources them to real estate businesses along Australia’s eastern seaboard.

“Our business specialises in real estate bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is a trained, specialised, methodical skill, so it’s just not something you can train someone who can use a calculator to do. The advantage of my business is we can screen and employ people because we know more about bookkeeping than the bookkeepers know,” Mr Mercer said,

adding that as these bookkeepers are trained for the industry, they get the job done quicker.

Outsourcing is good for business

A bookkeeper working in a real estate business should handle the bank reconciliation and income/profit bookkeeping, however, “the business owner or a senior person should always be accountable for any money that leaves the bank account,” Mr Mercer said.

Outsourcing is a very powerful model to keep business costs down because the contractor comes into the office, does the job and leaves again. Live Business Services is able to work out with the business owner where they need help and how many days a week that service will be, (usually one or two, depending on the business), and organise a bookkeeper. The business owner knows they will have someone there each week without the need to worry about what would happen if the contractor needed sick leave, holidays or maternity leave. “The business owner can sit back, stop worrying and focus on the stuff that makes money come in,” Mr Mercer said

For more information about Live Business Services visit www.livebusinessservices.com or call (02) 9906 2578.


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Chris Mercer