Cotchy, Melbourne (2026)

25/06/2026

Many business owners choose a bookkeeper on price and personality. Both matter, but neither tells you how the work will actually run.

A pattern we see often: business owners come to Cotchy after working with another bookkeeper, and the same issues keep surfacing. Surprise invoices. Unclear scope. Confusion over who lodged what. No clean way out when it isn't working.

Almost all of it can be sorted in the first conversation, before anything gets signed.

Eight questions worth asking any bookkeeper before you commit:

- What is included in the monthly fee?
- Who prepares and lodges the BAS?
- Who communicates with the ATO on your behalf?
- Who owns the accounting software file?
- Is the annual tax return packaged in, or priced separately?
- What happens if something goes wrong?
- How often will we communicate, and through what channels?
- What is the process for ending the engagement?

These are the contractual clarity questions. The ones that prevent finger-pointing and surprise bills down the track.

Our full article walks through what good answers sound like and the red flags worth paying attention to.

https://cotchy.com.au/articles/bookkeeper-checklist-what-to-clarify-before-signing/

At Cotchy, accounting and bookkeeping sit under one roof, on a fixed monthly fee, with the same local team across reconciliation, BAS and tax. No offshore handoffs. No hourly meter running every time you pick up the phone.

Worth having that conversation before you commit, not after.

23/06/2026

😬 It is 9pm the night before BAS is due, and somewhere in Australia a business owner is sorting through six months of receipts with a glass of wine.

We see you.

The BAS scramble is not really a deadline problem. It is a visibility problem. When the numbers only get looked at once a quarter, the quarter-end becomes a panic.

The owners who never feel that knot in their stomach are not smarter or more organised. They just have their reconciliations, payroll and GST tracked monthly, so BAS becomes a five-minute review instead of a weekend lost to spreadsheets.

If quarterly BAS keeps stealing your evenings, the fix is not a better receipts app. It is moving from reactive to proactive.

Worth a read if the next BAS deadline is already on your mind:

https://cotchy.com.au/articles/bas-reporting-essentials-australian-businesses/

General information only. Not financial or accounting advice.

23/06/2026

What a fantastic evening at last week's Franchise Industry Awards 2026 in Brisbane, hosted by the Franchise Council of Australia. 🏆

Cotchy was proud to sponsor the Franchise Finance Manager of the Year Award, with Partner, Vishal Devle, and Business Development Manager, Cezar Rozmus, attending on behalf of Cotchy. Cezar had the honour of presenting the award to this year's winner, Oriana Mendoza, CPA from Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen.

A huge congratulations to Oriana, who was recognised as the Franchise Finance Manager of the Year for her outstanding contribution to franchise finance.

It was wonderful to celebrate the talented people and businesses helping shape Australia's franchise sector and recognise the achievements of those making a significant impact within the industry.

Congratulations again Oriana, on this well-deserved award! 👏

21/06/2026

What if every quick phone call to your accountant didn't come with a surprise invoice attached?

For ambitious business owners, the traditional hourly model can quietly create friction. You don't pick up the phone, because a five-minute call could mean a $200 line item on next month's invoice. You skip the advice, avoid the email, and keep the question to yourself. You stop looping the accountant in on the deal, the hire, or the structure decision until after you have made it. That hesitation is where good decisions get delayed, and where expensive mistakes get made.

A fixed monthly fee removes the billing uncertainty. You get direct contact with your team, predictable costs in your forecast, and proactive advice without second-guessing every call. Our incentives line up with yours, because we are paid to help you scale from $1 million to $5 million+, not to stretch out the hours.

That is what a real growth partnership looks like. Accounting and bookkeeping should support the business you are building, not create invoice anxiety every time you need clarity.

Lear about why removing hourly billing matters for ambitious businesses.

Read the full article via the link below.
https://cotchy.com.au/articles/online-bookkeeping-and-accounting/

General information only. Not tax or accounting advice.

18/06/2026

Your bookkeeper blames the accountant. Your accountant blames the bookkeeper. You're stuck in the middle, chasing answers about your own business. 🤔

You're constantly translating between the two, passing information back and forth, and trying to connect the dots yourself.

When accounting and bookkeeping are split across two providers, neither side takes full responsibility for your overall financial performance. One handles the daily data. The other files the yearly returns. You're stuck in the middle.

That is why we built Cotchy on a one-roof model.

Our accounting and bookkeeping services sit under a single Australian team, so there is no back-and-forth, no miscommunication between platforms, and no missed deadlines. Just one proactive partner focused on your business performance and growth.

If you are ready to stop managing your financial partners and start focusing on your business, we can help.

Find out how we work via the link below. 👇
https://cotchy.com.au/

General information only. Not financial or accounting advice.

16/06/2026

Offshore accounting looks cheaper. Until you count the errors.

The lower hourly rate is real. So are the miscoded transactions, the delayed responses, and the compliance issues that land back on your desk at lodgement time.

Every handover between a local contact and an offshore processing team drops context. Australian tax rules, state-specific obligations and ATO correspondence are not a side note. They are the work.

We see it regularly. A steady stream of business owners come to us after the offshore model has quietly cost them more than it saved, in clean-up work, missed deductions and lost confidence in their numbers.

In this carousel, we break down where the savings actually go, why the handover model creates risk, and what a local team should look like as a baseline, not a premium.

Your financials stay in Australia. So does the accountability.

Swipe through, then read more on how we work:
https://www.cotchy.com.au

General information only. Not financial advice.

14/06/2026

One of these GST statements is completely false. It's also the one most business owners believe.

"Registration is optional once you pass $75,000."

It's not. For most businesses, once your annual turnover hits or exceeds $75,000, GST registration is mandatory under the ATO rules.

A few things worth knowing:

>> You have 21 days to register from the moment you cross the threshold
>> Taxi and rideshare drivers must register from day one, regardless of turnover
>> Non-profits have a higher $150,000 threshold, and some other entities sit under separate rules
>> You can register voluntarily below $75,000 if it suits your business
>> Miss the deadline and you may still owe GST on sales made after you crossed the line, even if you didn't charge it

Most owners don't get caught out because they're careless. They get caught out because they were told the wrong thing at a BBQ three years ago.

If you're a general commercial business getting close to $75,000 in turnover, that's the moment to have a quick chat with your accountant. Not after the next BAS lands.

💡 Quick check: do you know exactly where your turnover sits right now?

11/06/2026

EOFY shouldn't feel like panic mode for your business.
But for a lot of owners, that's exactly what it turns into.

June arrives and the late nights start. Pulling everything together at the last minute.

- Receipts.
- Transactions.
- Missing information.

Second-guessing whether the numbers in Xero actually stack up before sending it all across to the accountant.

Every bit of it done under pressure.

The reality is, that stress rarely starts in June.

It builds months earlier, when the accounting, bookkeeping, reporting and financial conversations aren't happening consistently throughout the year.

At Cotchy, we work alongside business owners year-round, so EOFY isn't a last-minute scramble.

Just cleaner numbers, proactive support, and a much sharper view of where the business actually sits well before June 30.

10/06/2026

Your accounting software is running. The numbers are still wrong 📊

Most Aussie small businesses already have Xero or QuickBooks. That's rarely the issue.

From time to time, when reviewing a new client's books, we come across charts of accounts that no longer suit the business, transactions that have been coded inconsistently, or reconciliations that have fallen behind.

Accounting software can only report on the information it's given. If the setup isn't right, the reports may not tell the full story.

That's why it's important to periodically review your file structure, transaction coding and reconciliations to ensure your reporting remains accurate and useful.

When the foundations are right, decision-making becomes easier and tax time is far less stressful.

09/06/2026

World Franchise Day is about recognising the entire franchising ecosystem.

We’re proud to support the brands and business owners that make this sector thrive.

Strong partnerships are what drive sustainable growth, and franchising is built on exactly that.

Cotchy

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