There have been a few recent decisions in relation to Workers Compensation which have significant impacts upon employers. In a recent decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal a Telstra worker slipped down stairs twice in two months while working on marketing campaigns from her Brisbane townhouse. Telstra denied liability because the falls occurred outside the worker's designated work station. The Tribunal found that the injuries suffered by the employee were work related and that Telstra had to pay compensation for loss of income. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal held that the employer had an obligation to provide an employee with a safe working environment no matter where that work was being conducted.

This ruling could force employers to conduct Workplace Health & Safety Audits in the homes of any employee who regularly works from their private residence and could be a significant deterrent for any employer allowing an employee to work from home.

In another recent decision, a computer system sales representative frequently travelled for her employer. The employee and her supervisor were seeking business from Perisher Blue Ski Resort. It was expected that the employee would socialise and ski with resort executives and that this socialising was paid for by the employer. Whilst skiing the employee fell and injured her knee, the treatment of which was complicated by blood clots. At the time of the incident the employee was skiing with her partner and on this occasion had purchased her own ski lift pass, had paid for a ski lesson and was on her way back to the hotel to discuss business.

Notwithstanding these facts, the Court found that the employer was liable, and the injuries were held to be work related. Both of these decisions significantly affect an employer's obligation to employees.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of Workers Compensation please do not hesitate to contact Iain Mark of our litigation team on 4350 3333

A lot of marketing campaigns these days are focussed solely on the advertised product/company's features. But telling your customers that 'We're open 24 hours, seven days a week' is not going to cater to what they really want or, more so, need to hear.

Think about it... Imagine that you're walking through your local shopping centre and a scruffy-looking man hands you a flyer advertising a pair of big, black, shiny work boots. As you read through the flyer the boots are described as having a welded steel-cap toe, design-specific traction, specially- moulded ribbing and thick, waterproof seams. Many marketers make this simple and now clichéd mistake. This description is not going to help the customer to determine whether or not your product can aid their particular demands. Sure, it describes them to be almost invincible. But this language is not colloquial to the everyday consumer.

What the customer really wants to hear is how exactly that steel-cap toe is going to benefit them. What the customer really wants to hear is that because of these specific features, you are going to be less likely to get a nail through your foot next time you're on that certain carpentry job. It's as simple as that!

Such an example, is just one of the many advantages of marketing benefits rather than features. Another is, that if you advertise the benefits of your service it will differentiate your service from every other business in the same field. If you can describe how your service will help a customer specifically, then they are more likely to choose your business over the rest, because you are telling them EXACTLY how your product or service is going to make their life that much more manageable. So like your mother used to say, if you want respect, you have got to give it first.

Well, the same applies for your marketing plan... If you want the benefits; you've got to give them first!

Suzy Allport
LBH Promotions

With the introduction of benchmarking by the ATO, record-keeping has become the major focus when a taxpayer is audited. Businesses need to be able to prove that their figures are correct. The following is an excerpt from the ATO's stance on record-keeping.

The ATO would expect a retail business to:

• record each individual sales transaction through their cash register or point-of-sales system;
• conduct a daily sales reconciliation between the 'z' total (or end-of-day report if they use an electronic system) and cash in the register, taking into account cash taken from the register for business and personal expenses;
• transfer the daily sales total into a cash receipts book regularly;
• perform bank reconciliations between bank statements and the cash receipts book, at least monthly;
• retain for a period of five years:
  • the 'z' totals or point-of-sales system end-of-day reports;
  • daily reconciliations;
  • bank records and cash receipts book; and
  • till rolls or end-of-day reports that record details of each individual transaction (if 'z' totals have been reconciled with actual cash sales and banking, detailed till rolls may be discarded after one month); and
  • maintain a filing system to keep track of paid and unpaid accounts.

If your record keeping is not up to scratch and the ATO benchmarks your figures against other businesses in your industry, you will be asked to explain and show proof of how your figures were calculated. If you do not have sufficient records to provide this proof the ATO will apply the industry benchmark to your business which could result in a greater tax liability than you believe should apply.

Get your record-keeping and bookkeeping up to date NOW, because the longer you leave it the more difficult it is to find all those bits of paper.

Julie Blatch
Julie Blatch is a partner at MYC Partners,
Accountants and Business Consultants at Woy Woy