The QuickBooks Transformation: How Austral Accountants Helped LK Enterprises Save 10 Hours a Week

LK Enterprises had a massive problem on its hands.

This small, Brisbane-based sushi restaurant—run by first-generation Australians—was great at making sushi. However, it wasn’t so adept at doing the books of the business.

Since opening its doors, LK Enterprises handled all accounting and tax matters in-house. The team thought this would be cheaper and easier than hiring an accountant.

But they couldn’t have been more wrong.

The company wasted precious time, energy, and money with its DIY approach. Worse still, its constant accounting worries distracted the team from their main business. 

That all changed when LK Enterprises partnered with Austral Accountants, an award-winning firm noted for its excellent client service and tailor-made solutions for businesses owned by first-generation immigrants. 

Austral quickly implemented Quickbooks to help handle the restaurant’s accounting—and the rest is history. 

The Compliance Burden

When LK Enterprises first engaged Austral Accountants, its financial affairs were a tangled mess. Not only was the restaurant’s bookkeeping haphazard, but it was also paying more in taxes than it should have, thanks to incomplete and incorrect financial records. 

The lack of proper accounting practices meant the team spent an estimated 10 hours per week just trying to untangle the knots of its financial records. They were wasting valuable time that could have been invested in core business activities.

But it wasn't just about losing time and money. The situation was even graver considering the potential legal repercussions.

Had the ATO decided to investigate, LK Enterprises would likely have been slapped with penalties, interest charges, and perhaps even legal action due to its incorrect and incomplete records. 

The fear and stress around financial compliance were sapping energy and focus from where it needed to be: running a successful sushi restaurant. This was severely damaging the restaurant's ability to innovate, improve, and even properly serve its customers.

QuickBooks and Austral Accountants: An Instant Impact

LK Enterprises was fighting a losing battle—until they sought the help of Austral Accountants.

This guidance, alongside QuickBooks’ extensive library of small business support resources, helped the team quickly get to grips with the tool. 

It had an instant impact. Suddenly, LK Enterprises had a centralised system to track income and expenses, monitor how much GST it owed, and stay on top of upcoming BAS lodgements.

Gone were the days of haphazardly stuffing receipts in the nearest drawer. Instead, LK Enterprises began using QuickBooks’ Receipt Capture feature. The team would take a picture of the receipt and the data would instantly be uploaded to QuickBooks. 

Better still, this data would sync over to Austral Accountants in real-time, allowing the firm to constantly monitor LK Enterprises’ books. 

An Extra 10 Hours per Week To Focus on Growth

With the right processes in place, LK Enterprises’ compliance burden was lifted. The restaurant soon experienced a transformative shift. Gone were the days of sinking hours into bookkeeping or scrambling to understand complex tax codes. 

The result? An added 10 hours per week to focus on their core business. 

Austral Accountants had taken over these time-consuming responsibilities, with the help of QuickBooks Online. The impact was immediate. LK Enterprises could refocus on what they did best—serving quality sushi to their patrons.

Since partnering with Austral Accountants and implementing QuickBooks, LK Enterprises has not only avoided potential penalties but has also seen a huge increase in customer satisfaction and revenue. 

The restaurant has gone from strength to strength. It moved from being a business struggling to stay afloat in the complex sea of compliance to becoming a thriving enterprise with ambitious growth plans.