Distilled Chartered Accountants

26/10/2026

GST for the period ended 30 September is due tomorrow, Wednesday 28 October.

The two things that catch people every cycle, worth repeating:

Filing and paying are separate obligations. Filing on time and paying late still attracts interest and late payment penalties.

If cashflow is tight, file anyway. An instalment arrangement set up with IRD before the due date is a materially different conversation to one set up after. Going quiet is the most expensive option available to you.

Questions before tomorrow? Ring me — 021 143 0343.

19/10/2026

Some of my clients get a set of management accounts every month, with a short note from me on top.

Not a 40-page pack. A page or two, and three or four sentences explaining what moved and what to do about it.

What changes isn't the reporting. It's the timeframe.

Instead of finding out in August that last year's margin slipped, you find out in the second week of the following month, while you can still do something — reprice the next job, chase the slow payer, pull back on a cost that's crept.

Most owners don't need more data. They need it sooner, and in English.

18/10/2026

Your business closes for three weeks over Christmas. Your obligations don't.

This is the one that quietly hurts trades businesses every year, and October is when there's still time to do something about it.

Here's the shape of it. You stop invoicing around the 20th of December. You don't really start again until mid-January, and the money from that work doesn't arrive until February.

Meanwhile:

• Holiday pay goes out in December
• GST for the period ended 30 November is due 15 January
• Provisional tax is also due 15 January for March balance dates
• Your fixed costs carry on regardless

So you've got roughly six weeks of outgoings against almost no incomings, and two significant IRD payments landing in the middle of it.

The fix is simple and it has to happen now: work out what January and February actually look like, and put money aside between now and December. It is a far easier conversation in October than in January.

If you want to map it out, give me a call.

General information only — not advice for your situation.

13/10/2026

"The business is me."

I hear this with a touch of pride, and I understand why. But it's the single biggest thing that caps what a business is worth.

If every quote, every key relationship and every decision runs through you, then what a buyer is being offered isn't a business. It's a job, with your name on it, and they'd rather not.

The fix isn't dramatic. It's slow:

Write down how you quote.
Let someone else own a customer relationship end to end.
Take two weeks off and see what breaks.

That last one is the real test — and it's worth doing whether or not you ever sell. A business that runs without you is a better business to own, too.

11/10/2026

What makes a business worth buying?

Not what most owners think.

Buyers aren't really paying for your gear, your van or your customer list. They're paying for how reliably the business makes money without the current owner in it.

Which is why the questions that come up in due diligence are almost never about last year's profit:

• Can it run for a month without you?
• Are the numbers clean enough to stand up to scrutiny?
• Is the revenue repeatable, or does it depend on three relationships you personally hold?
• Are contracts, leases and compliance actually tidy?

Every one of those takes time to fix. None of them can be fixed quickly.

New article on selling your business —

Most business owners decide to sell about six months before they want the money in the bank. That is usually the most expensive timing there is.

04/10/2026

Spring is well and truly here, I hope you are able to get out and enjoy the sun this school holidays.

01/10/2026

Most people decide to sell their business about three years too late.

Not because they left it too long to want out — but because the preparation that makes a business worth buying takes longer than anyone expects. Clean financials. Systems that don't live in the owner's head. A couple of years of numbers that tell a straight story.

You can't manufacture that in the three months before you list.

I've written something on this — what's actually involved in selling a business in New Zealand, and what to think about well before you're ready.

https://distilledca.co.nz/resources/preparing-your-business-for-sale

Most business owners decide to sell about six months before they want the money in the bank. That is usually the most expensive timing there is.

21/09/2026

GST returns and payment for the period ended 31 August are due Monday 28 September.

Two things that catch people out every single cycle:

Filing and paying are separate. Filing on time and paying late still attracts interest and late payment penalties. Do both.

If cashflow is tight, file anyway. An instalment arrangement organised with IRD before the due date is a completely different conversation to one organised after it. Don't go quiet — it's the single most expensive thing you can do.

Not sure where you stand? Ring me before Monday

17/09/2026

"I've been meaning to change accountants for two years."

I hear this constantly. And the thing holding people back is almost never loyalty. It's the assumption that moving will be a nightmare.

It isn't. Here's the entire process:

1. You tell me you'd like to move.
2. I write to your current accountant requesting your records. That's a standard professional courtesy letter — you don't have to have the awkward conversation.
3. They send through your prior year accounts, tax records and depreciation schedules.
4. We sit down, I get to know your business properly, and we agree what you're getting and what it costs before any work starts.

Your part in all of that is one email.

The tidiest time to move is just after your accounts have been finished, when nothing is mid-flight.

I've got capacity for a few more clients this year.

14/09/2026

I've done more kilometres in six months than I expected to.

Tauranga, the Mount, Papamoa, Te Puke, Rotorua. That's deliberate.

You learn things standing in someone's workshop that you'll never learn from a set of accounts. Which jobs are dragging. Which customer never pays on time. The piece of gear that's held together with hope and a hose clamp.

You can't see any of that on a screen.

So if we end up working together, expect me to turn up. And expect me to answer the phone.

Financial wisdom, distilled.