Peace of Mind when away from the office

We all want peace of mind about our businesses, more so when we are away having some well earned Rest & Relaxation.   Here are a few timely reminders for business owners Check your computer backups before you go away. Your computer backups are only as good as when you last tested them to ensure you could read the data on your back up device. As a business owner you have a duty of care to your customers to keep their data safe, which means safe from cyber attacks, safe from hardware failure, safe from any form of disasters. Whilst we should check our backups at least every month, if this has slipped during the year, what better time to check than just before going on holidays.   With the increase in Christmas greetings, do not click on any link you are not 100% sure of its origin.  We know of many businesses have been hurt by "Cryptolocker" where they either have to pay a ransom to access their computers or restore from backup.  This happened recently to a business in the next street to us, who didn't have reliable backups.   ATO (Australian Taxation Office) scams are rife in the community.  If the ATO contacts you and you are not expecting it, ask for a reference number and then call them back on a publicly listed phone number OR contact us and we can clarify that the call is genuine.   The Australian Taxation Office will NOT phone up and ask for on the spot payment.   All businesses on quarterly lodgement have until 28 February 2017 to lodge their BAS to December 2016.   If you have any tax debts that you need more time to pay, please call us so we can arrange a payment plan before the festive season and give you peace of mind.