WK Blog
News, practical advice and new business law in language you understand.
Stay informed with the latest news including practical tips, technology, tax law, and what our staff and clients are up to. Get the latest updates from our team of well-informed advisors and accountants..
WK Christmas Hours
The Team at WK takes this opportunity to wish our clients and families a very Merry Christmas and safe and Happy New Year.
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WK Advisor Gains Chartered Accountancy While Raising Twin Boys
A WK senior advisor has recently gained her chartered accountancy qualification while raising twin babies.
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WK Director Becomes Qualified Mountain Biking Coach
WK director Neil Sinclair has taken his passion for mountain biking to the next level by gaining his qualification as a registered mountain biking coach.
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The All New Xero Expenses
WK has had some enquiries into Xero's new Expenses Feature under their standard and premium plans. This latest blog looks into what it all means.
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Making the Most of Advisory Professionals
The way business people work with their accountant, lawyer and bank manager to make business decisions is changing. Aaron Cassidy talks about the advantages of getting all three professionals together to collaborate and come up with the best solution.
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WK partner with Jentree to form the WK Wonder Trail
WK has a long history and supporting the development of great community-based facilities that make Marlborough a great place to live, with Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000 and the ASB Theatre being examples. The latest community asset that WK is…
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Native Garden on Display
WK director Peter Forrest and his wife Andrea will once again put their garden on display at the Rapaura Springs Garden Marlborough event for 2018.
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WK Shares Business Advisory Journey at Xero Summit
As Xero has continued to revolutionise accounting processes throughout the past decade, it has been crucial for WK to establish business advisory services to be able to add value for clients.
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IRD Enforcing Brightline Test
IRD have started sending out letters to persons who have sold land within 2 years of purchase, implying that unless the property was used as the taxpayers main home, any profit may be taxable and that the tax return should have been filed by 7 July.
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WK Christchurch Embracing Shared Office Spaces
Shared office spaces are becoming increasingly popular throughout New Zealand, offering likeminded businesses the opportunity to collaborate. WK Christchurch has begun working in a collaborative office space, making the most of the networking opportunities it provides.
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Young WK Client Turning Business Dreams into Reality
At just 21, this WK client has reached international status with his business, delivering high quality fashion watches to customers in more than 40 different countries from right here in New Zealand.
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Marlborough Agri-Women gain Business Insight with WK
A team of WK senior advisors have given the Marlborough Agri-Women Development Group an insight into the world of accounting and business advisory.
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WK Expands into Christchurch
WK has set up office in Christchurch, expanding the reach of it’s innovative accounting and business advisory services.
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Another CA on WK Team
WK Advisory has another Chartered Accountant on the team, after another staff member ticked off his chartered accountancy study.
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WK Advisor puts Training to the Test
WK Advisor Louise Blackbourne will compete in the 2018 Christchurch Grand Prix Bodybuilding competition this weekend.
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WK Women Working to Empower Women
Two of WK's staff members have been working with the Marlborough Zonta Club to empower women across the globe.
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Senior Advisor Steps into New Voluntary Role
WK senior advisor Sabine Lieflander recently took on a voluntary role as treasurer of the Postnatal Depression Marlborough Charitable Trust. Many of the hours Sabine donates will be sponsored by WK, under our sponsorship programme.
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WK Advisors Armed with Knowledge from Mindshop
The team at WK is always working on expanding their knowledge in order to be more than just accountants to clients.
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WK Gala Feast coming to Marlborough in May
When Liz first asked for our interest in supporting the gala, WK were 100% supportive in getting behind Liz’s vision.
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Using the Accounting Income Method to Pay Provisional Tax – Should you do it?
The Inland Revenue Department are carrying out an extensive campaign to get taxpayers to adopt the Accounting Income Method - AIM. The idea behind AIM is that your provisional tax payments are based on the profit as per your monthly accounts. However, WK advises against using the method to avoid higher accounting costs.
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Red Meat Profit Partnership – Another Opportunity to Grow the Farming Business
At WK, we believe that the sharing of knowledge and experience is essential to business growth and profitability. The Red Meat Profit Partnership offers another opportunity to improve and build on performance.
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2017 Wrap Up
Taking a moment to look back on the year that was at WK, it doesn’t take too long to see that 2017 has been another year of highs and outstanding achievements for the team.
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WK Philosophy a Case Study for Aspiring Business Advisors
WK’s commitment to taking risks with business has been recognised in a recent book by certified public accountant, entrepreneur, and leadership expert, Amy Vetter. The book, Integrative Advisory Services, focuses on getting accountants to take a step back from their businesses to remember why they became an accountant in the first place. It aims to encourage them to be more than just accountants, but business advisors as well.
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Staff Admitted to Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand
Five WK staff members recently had their skills recognised by Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand (CAANZ) at a Marlborough Presidential Gala Lunch.
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WK in Top 30 NZ Accounting Firms
Blenheim accounting business WK has been named one of the top 30 firms in New Zealand. The acknowledgement recognises a commitment to being business advisors, as well as accountants.
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Introducing Xero Projects
Xero is bringing Xero Projects, a simple way to capture, track and report on the time and money spent on individual jobs, allowing businesses to proactively invoice, make decisions and manage their work and business.
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New Xero Expense Claims Feature Released
Xero has released a new Expense Claims Feature. It allows users to speed up their reimbursement process. The latest Expense Claims feature is straight forward and easy to use.
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Xero – Proving to be a Winner
Choosing the right accounting software for your business. Why Xero is the best option to grow your net profit.
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XEROCON 2017
Xero's 2017 Xerocon in Melbourne perfect networking platform for Blenheim's WK Advisory.
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2018 Westpac Bayleys Marlborough Sheep & Beef Farmer of The Year
WK clients Richard and Victoria Gorman were awarded the top prize for the 2018 competition at an event held at Bayley’s on Thursday evening, in doing so they collected over $30,000 of prizes from sponsors.
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WK Wins 100% Cloud Award
WK Advisory awarded the Xero 100% Cloud Award for Asia Pacific at Xerocon 2017 in Melbourne.
Read blog postXero Phishing Scam
Xero are aware of a hoax email being sent to its users under the pretense that it is from them. These are scam emails, and are not from Xero. They should be deleted.
Read blog postDirectorships
Being a company director in New Zealand is a big responsibility; one which shouldn't be taken lightly. In this post we detail what being a company director involves, as well as who the task is best suited to.
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A Taste and Tour of Wither Hills Winery
On a crisp, wintry Marlborough afternoon a few of us got the pleasure to join in a tour of Wither Hills New Zealand Winery.
Read blog postFarmhouse Expense Deductibility Has Changed
As most farmers and vineyard owners have started their 2018 financial year, now is a good time to talk about the new rules around farmhouse expenses.
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Schedular Payments change in New Zealand
From 1 April 2017, the New Zealand IRD changed the way some contractors pay tax on schedular payments.
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Hoax Emails
These are often cyber criminals who want you to click on a link in the email or an attachment which will contain malicious software (virus).
Read blog postThe Power of Benchmarking
Benchmarking can be everything from comparing financial results to full strategy comparisons, and it allows you to assess your performance against those of your competitors. From here you can tweak strategies and operational plans to improve your performance.
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Welcome to our New Building
The team at WK are pleased to invite clients and partners to celebrate the opening of our brand new office. Please join us for some food, drinks and a tour of our new building.
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WK Recognised for Business Advisory Work
WK has been recognised for their business advisory work with an award from one of the world’s strongest business advisory firms.
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WK Make the Move into New Building
WK Advisors and Accountants will make the move into their new purpose built building next week.
Read blog postReceiving Payments Faster – Stripe Update
Like other payment services you must sign up and activate an account with Stripe which you can do by clicking here.
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Remembering the ANZACs
As we mark another ANZAC Day, 102 years since the New Zealand and Australian soldiers landed at Gallipoli Peninsula, it’s often a reminder of our own connections to the Great Wars.
Read blog postThe Importance of Business Web Presence
Have you searched google for your own business? If not, do it now! Check that what comes up is actually your business address and phone number or you will be losing customers.
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Fixing Incorrectly Reconciled Transactions with Xero
In Xero there are a number of ways to correct transactions that have been reconciled in error. So, what is the best way to correct different types of reconciliation errors?
Read blog postStrategic Planning Tips for Small Businesses
Many small business owners are so busy working in their businesses that they often don’t take the time to strategically plan for the future.
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Phishing scams
We are aware of a phishing scam where people are receiving an email frominvoice@xero.co.nz. Xero’s real invoice sending address is messaging-service@post.xero.com.
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Prepayments, Overpayments and Bad Debts in Xero
In an ideal world, all payments that come through your business would be in full and on time.
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If you are on Xero Business Edition, you have the ability to enter monthly purchase invoices into Xero.
Read blog postUpcoming 7 April 2017 Tax Due Reminders
Inland Revenue have advised us that they will be sending out reminder letters to clients who have already filed their 2016 tax return and have a tax liability to pay by 7 April 2017.
Read blog postXero Keyboard Shortcuts
Are you aware of the new and improved search functionality in Xero?
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Transfers Between Bank Accounts in Xero
If your Xero organisation has multiple bank accounts with live feeds, there is a simple way to correctly account for transfers between these accounts.
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30 years’ service to WK
Pat Bright who is a senior account manager has been at WK for 30 years today.
Read blog postXero User Access Options
A particularly useful feature in Xero is the ability to add and remove users and control their level of access, making collaboration with shareholders, staff and advisors easy and cheap.
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Customise Your Xero Dashboard
The dashboard is the first thing you see when you log into your Xero organisation. Its purpose is to provide an easy to understand snapshot of your business right now.
Read blog postXero to Xero Invoicing
The Xero network has grown at a rapid speed since it began in 2006 and now reaches over 862,000 subscribers worldwide.
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Xero Bank Rules
This blog revisits and expands on the key points made in an earlier blog about Bank Rules because we know that Bank Rules are a key feature in helping you streamline bank reconciliations in Xero.
Read blog postEarthquake Employer Subsidy
We have just been made aware that Kaikoura businesses who have been affected by the 14 November earthquake may be able to have an extension on the wage subsidy.
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WK 2016 Wrap
As 2016 comes to an end, we thought we'd reflect on some of the things we've had going on at WK.
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Arapawa Seafarms Visit
The Radon’s (Mike and Antonia) own and operate Arapawa Sea Farms Ltd with help from their children Jacob, Sarah and James.
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Do you feel tied to your office trying to keep up with all of your business administration?
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Value of Employer Provided Accommodation
The new approach is substantially different to the old approach and needless to say will mean that the amount by which an employee’s income is to be grossed up will most likely be considerably higher than under the old rules.
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Beef and Lamb New Zealand have provided some valuable advice in regard to Health and Safety, with emphasis for farm owners. We have included there commentary below as well as a link to their website.
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Contact Updates with Xero
Contacts are one of the foundations of your business, so it follows that keeping up to date contact information is very important.
Read blog postXero Payroll
Modern payroll systems can complete powerful, in-depth reporting of your wages to give you the information you need to grow your business.
Read blog postEarthquake response from Inland Revenue
Below is an update from Inland Revenue regarding any difficulty you may have in relation to filing your returns or making payments.
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The directors and staff at WK are thinking of everyone affected by the recent earthquakes.
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Email Settings in Xero
Although the default emails in your Xero system are efficient they can feel a bit cold and automated to your customers.
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Making Invoicing Easier in Xero – Inventory Codes
If you use inventory items in your invoices, you can select inventory codes (that you have already created in Xero) to save you typing out all the details in each invoice.
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Making Invoicing Easier in Xero – Part 1
Many people can be guilty of staring at that mounted pile of invoices on their desk that they’ve left to tackle until the 19th of the month.
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Using Xero Files
Did you know that you can attach documents to invoices, transactions, expense receipts, contacts and even manual journals in Xero?
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Receiving Payments Faster with Online Payments
When running a small business, it can sometimes be a never ending struggle chasing payments from customers.
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Are you Filing your own GST returns?
Xero has recently released a new update which enables Xero users who process and file their own GST returns, to electronically submit their returns from within Xero straight through to Inland Revenue via their IRD myIR login portal.
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Improved Customised Reporting
While data provides the building blocks for financial information, the ability to sort, compare and analyse that data in a way which aligns with your business is key to providing useful financial information.
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Makos v Counties-Manukau in Blenheim on Thursday night
For WK it’s all about making a positive commitment to our community and sponsoring the Makos fits well with our aim to foster success for our clients, staff and the community.
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Tasman Makos v Counties Manukau
WK are proud to support the Tasman Makos as they continue their ITM Cup campaign by hosting Counties Manukau at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim on Thursday 29 September.
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Xerocon South
Hamish and I had the privilege of taking a team across to the annual Xero accounting conference, XeroCon, in Brisbane two weeks ago.
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WK Scoop 2016 Tasman Xero Partner of the Year
WK Advisors and Accountants has once again been recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading accounting firms, after being named the 2016 top of the south Xero Accounting Partner of the Year.
Read blog postChange Success Tools
Change for organisations can often be a challenge. Typically only 30% of change projects succeed so imagine the savings in time, profit, growth and energy if you could boost that figure to 70%.
Read blog postOther Specialist Services
Running a business is extremely complex.
Read blog postBusiness Succession
Business succession is all about identifying the ways in which you can exit your business, when the time is right.
Read blog postForecasting and Budgeting
There is a direct correlation between businesses that have well defined and recorded strategic plans and increased profits.
Read blog postManagement, Reporting and KPIs
When assisting with management reporting, we help design appropriate management reporting by assessing some fundamental issues.
Read blog postBuying, Selling and Merging a Business
Buying a business? We've seen many proposals from clients over the years and know just what to look for when reviewing a prospective business on your behalf.
Read blog postVirtual CFO
A Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO) responsibility extends beyond accounting.
Read blog postProfit Improvement
Profit is the lifeblood of any organisation, does yours need a transfusion?
Read blog postGrowing Your Business
Achieving growth in a cluttered market is becoming increasingly difficult as the pace of change accelerates and day-to-day distractions delay essential planning activities.
Read blog postGovernance Support
Running your own business in today’s environment of constant change and complexity of legislation can be lonely!
Read blog postStrategic Planning
Today’s environment of constant change, volatility and competitive pressure demands a robust and ever-evolving strategic plan focused on delivering successful outcomes.
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Fins Up!
WK is proud to support the Tasman Makos as they kick off their 2016 campaign when they go up against Waikato at Lansdowne Park this Sunday.
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ACC Health and Safety Training for Employers with LESS than 10 employees
A Free and Practical Workshop on Health and Safety.
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Spinning Marlborough’s Wheels
For us mere mortals, it’s remarkable that someone who works full-time and bikes 450- kms a week can still find the time to volunteer at the local cycling club.
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Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer Of The Year 2016
The competition aim is to promote profitable sheep and beef farming by identifying innovative farms with sustainable systems in the Marlborough province.
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Ground Work Begins at WK’s New Office Site
After more than 35 years in our Scott St offices, WK is excited to be moving to a fresh new office building in April next year.
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What’s New At The Woody
The Woodbourne Tavern and Motel in Renwick is leading the way in providing a convenient online solution for its customers, by being the first pub in the South Island to launch its very own app.
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Residential Land Withholding Tax
The definition of an “offshore person” is far wider than what most people may consider to be an offshore person.
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Why Choose a Chartered Accountant as Your Business Advisor
Anyone can call themselves an accountant, but Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) provide confidence to the business community in regulating its members to ensure that those carrying the Chartered Accountant (CA) designation bring with it the highest standards of ethical, professional and technical expertise.
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Marlborough District Council Environment Plan
Marlborough District Council has notified the new Marlborough Environment Plan.
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NZ Employment Law Changes
If you’re an employer, you should be aware of the changes to the New Zealand Employment Law that took effect from April 2016.
Read blog postBeware of a Corporate Portal Invoicing Scam
We would like to make you aware of one that has sent mail recently to a few companies in Marlborough, so you are not misled into thinking this is a NZ Companies Office requirement.
Read blog postPayroll can be Complex
…”Do I need to get my employee to sign a contract?”
Read blog postOur Paul
Our Paul – We recently farewelled Paul Bush after 50 years of service to WK.
Read blog postXero Payroll
The wage bill is often a large part of a business’ expenses, with wide financial and legal obligations, so is an extremely important area to monitor and get right.
Read blog postNew Zealand Economic Update
While the NZ economy has started 2016 with moderate momentum, there are some clouds on the horizon and businesses will need to carefully manage the risks to successfully trade through a potential flattening or dip in growth, according to a recent report.
Read blog postAccounting in the Cloud – Off to the Show
With many of our clients coming from the area it is a good opportunity for WK to show our support for the community and showcase the tools we have in our arsenal that will be off great assistance to farmers and business owners.
Read blog postSupporting our Community
Whether it be by sponsoring our College’s senior year prize giving, contributing to local school fundraising ventures or getting behind the Makos to name just a few.
Read blog postResearch and Development Information
There are various Government websites that you can research and one of these is Callaghan Innovation.
Read blog postWK embraces the Changing Face of Accountancy
There are a number of major benefits for small businesses:
Read blog postBecoming A Chartered Accountant
If you are considering undertaking business studies or are motivated to build on your existing qualifications and skill, (not to mention that you would like that something extra on your CV to open more doors!), the Chartered Accountants (CA) program may be for you.
Read blog postImprove Cashflow in January
With Christmas and the summer holidays fast approaching, it’s easy for businesses to lose track of cash flow.
Read blog postHealth and Safety Changes Kick in on 1 April 2016
Every business should have a Health and Safety Plan.
Read blog postMixed Use Assets – Boats and Aircraft
The boat or aircraft is a mixed use asset if...
Read blog postRecent Key Xero Updates
Combine the automated email reminders with Payment Services, good terms of trade and efficient invoicing practices and you will have a complete debt collection process. And it’s so easy to set up!
Read blog post2015 Wine Race
A record 39 boats, each carrying a bottle of new vintage Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc took part in the race across the Cook Strait to Wellington, from just outside Tory Channel last week.
Read blog postAdvice On Inland Revenue Chasing Unpaid Provisional Tax
Inland Revenue are now randomly contacting clients who may have missed paying their first instalment of 2016 provisional tax due on 28 August 2015.
Read blog postRecent changes around the firm
You will see the key changes are in the use of WK as opposed to Winstanley Kerridge, and in our email addresses and website.
Read blog postXero releases new Billable Expenses feature
Billable expenses are costs you’re charged as part of a job, or purchases you make, that you want to recover from your customer.
Read blog postNew look, same great service + more
For over 40 years Winstanley Kerridge has worked hard to provide you, our valued clients, with the very best service possible.
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