Month: June 2020
Digital Automation supporting Remote Work
Remote workers and the virtual workforce rely, by and large, on digital automation to deliver effective and efficient results for businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a higher than normal need for businesses to automate their processes to support their employees who are working from home.
Working away from an office environment, employees can be assisted by and their work augmented by digital automation, particularly for those tasks not requiring human cognition or soft skills. Mundane manual and repetitive tasks can be programmed with specific software to process automatically, freeing up employees to undertake higher-value tasks that require human emotion and human intellect.
Digital automation can be easily achieved using a few software technologies. By combining Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), a full Business Process Automation (BPA) can handle unstructured data and further reduce the need for human intervention.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
RPA is the use of software robots to process high volume, repeatable tasks by converting tasks in to automated steps, providing your business with advantageous propositions to:
- Improve accuracy – reduce human error;
- Save time – improve productivity;
- Standardise workflow;
- Provide consistent delivery of tasks;
- Improve compliance;
- Save money – reduce costs associated with manual processing.
Many industries, such as Banking, Finance, Insurance, Healthcare and Hospitality, use RPA to gain improved value from employees who are sooner freed to focus on building working relationships, developing strategies and performing customer service.
A common application of RPA is the automation of accounts payable. Where companies receive a high number of invoices from several to hundreds of suppliers, the invoices can be automatically scanned, reviewed, matched to purchase orders and approved for payment.
No longer are these tasks the job of human employees, enabling a business to consider fewer full-time employees and to reap the benefit of fewer errors. Within two to three months, RPA can automate large parts of the accounts department of a company enabling employees to focus on jobs that only human can do best.
Another example of successful implementation of RPA is in the hotel industry. Hotels typically run nightly audits – data consolidation of room occupancy, rates, customer credit checks, payments and surcharges – generating reports each morning. Increased customer satisfaction is gained from night-shift employees being able to focus on attending to the customer service of guests.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation, also known as Intelligent Automation (IA) is expanding the merit of RPA well beyond the limits of handling structured data, imitating human-computer interactions and performing data entry across multiple automated applications. Hyperautomation can now replace humans in tasks that require judgement and decision making.
Volumes of documents can be processed and approved, even analysed, automatically, eliminating the need for manual intervention including reading documentation, entering relevant data and copying information. Copying information is a chore, especially between different legacy systems, until such time as Hyperautomation and/or general Business Process Automation (BPA) is installed.
Spend your business’s money and your employees’ time on value-added resources, analyses and solutions to better service your customers. With your company’s insights, YML Innovation, one of Australia’s leaders in Business Process Automation (BPA), can successfully design and implement digital automation for your business. We have a team of qualified business analysts and solution architects to develop a bespoke software framework to interact with your internal computer system.
After deployment, regular monitoring and dedicated support is provided by YML Innovation, so that the benefits of digital automation can continue to be tangibly experienced by your business, your clients and your remote workforce.
How can YML help?
Talk to our YML Innovation Team today to see how YML Group can assist you with digital automation. For more for more information, view our website and contact us on (02) 8383 4400 or by using our Contact Us page on our website.
Funding to help small businesses re-open after COVID-19
If you own and run a small business, you might be eligible for a $3,000 grant to help you revive your business post the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new support funding is available from the existing $750 million Small Business Support Fund provided by the NSW Government.Where you have been in survival mode, the NSW Government is encouraging you to kick-start your business by offering an immediate opportunity for small businesses to get back on their feet under its Small Business Recovery Grant scheme.
To ease the pressure of re-opening or revitalising your business, you may use the $3,000 cash grant towards paying for post-1 July 2020 business costs, including:
- Marketing expenses
- Advertising costs
- Premises fit-out changes
- Staff training – safe work practices in COVID-19 conditions
A small business will potentially need to meet criteria. The criteria can be confirmed once the NSW Government has announced it. If you would like to know what it is, we will contact you as soon as it is available. Please click here if you are interested.
One grant per ABN is available and applications for the $3,000 cash grant will open on Wednesday 1 July 2020 until 15 August 2020.
Now is the time to turn your small business around, welcome customers back and attract new ones. Make sure you give your business the best chance to recover and apply NOW.
YML Group has been collaboratively assisting small businesses throughout the difficult economic times of the COVID-19 pandemic. We can help you prepare and lodge your Small Business Recovery Grant application.
How can YML help?
Talk to our team today to see how YML Group can assist you. Contact us on (02) 8383 4400 or by visiting the Contact Us page on our website.
COVID-19 – Workers Compensation and JobKeeper
Workers who have been fortunate enough to continue working in their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic face the risk of contracting COVID-19 during their employment. Should this occur to an employee of yours, you may be entitled to claim Workers Compensation for the affected employee under amended legislation.
Under a new section – section 19B – in the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW), it is presumed that an affected employee’s ‘prescribed employment’ is the main and substantial contributing factor of any contraction of COVID-19. Thus, there is an automatic entitlement to compensation.
The definition of ‘prescribed employment’ is broad and allows for several industries including hospitality, retail, construction, aged care and health. Take the step to check your business’s eligibility to simplify the Workers Compensation claim process should the time come that your business needs it.
Insurance and Care NSW (icare)
When the wages your business pays are reduced in the current economic climate, report actual wages paid – regardless of whether an employee receives JobKeeper – and icare may refund any unused portion of your premium. Only work undertaken and/or hours worked are used to calculate your business’s icare premium. See table under JOBKEEPER.
JOBKEEPER
Your business financial circumstances, during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be used to determine how to best help pay your employees’ wages. As a business owner, you may be eligible to access the JobKeeper Payment scheme, a temporary government subsidy, enabling businesses to pay their eligible employees $1,500 per fortnight.
Business Eligibility
Did you carry on a business in Australia and employ at least one person within the business on 1 March 2020? If yes, then your business is eligible if it meets the basic decline in turnover test.
Under the basic turnover test, a comparison is made between your business’s monthly or quarterly GST turnover compared with the same period 12 months prior.
A 30 per cent decline for businesses with a GST turnover of $1 billion or less is required to meet the test. Check your business’s eligibility using these five steps: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/In-detail/JobKeeper-tests/Applying-the-turnover-test/?page=2#Basic_test
Employee Eligibility
Your employee/s is eligible to receive a JobKeeper payment if they:
- Are a current full-time, fixed part-time or long-term casual employee of your business;
- Were an employee of your business for at least 12 months at 1 March 2020;
- Were aged 18 years or older at 1 March 2020;
- Were an Australian citizen or resident at 1 March 2020; and
- Who agree to be nominated by your business.
- They were employed by your business after 1 March 2020;
- They had ceased to be employed by your business at 1 March 2020; or
- They were nominated by another employer.
From June 2020, you are required to complete a business monthly declaration to keep claiming JobKeeper payments. For each reported month, confirming your eligible employees, your GST turnover and projected GST turnover for the following month will be necessary for you to continue to receive JobKeeper. This information is used only to ascertain the effect the JobKeeper Payment scheme has on your business.
Seek help from your professional financial adviser who can lodge your business monthly declaration on your behalf.
Important – Wages Declaration
Remember to declare actual wages, exclusive of any JobKeeper payments, accurately:
| Scenario | Worker “in hibernation” and receiving JobKeeper Allowance ($1,500) only | Worker working and earning more than just the JobKeeper Allowance | Worker working and earning only the JobKeeper Allowance | Worker at work and earning less than the JobKeeper Allowance (but their pay is increased to $1,500 under JobKeeper) |
| Example | Worker earns no wages | Workers earns $2,000 per fortnight (including JobKeeper subsidy) | Worker only earns JobKeeper Allowance | Worker earns $500 per fortnight but receives $1,500 in line with the JobKeeper Allowance |
| What do you declare? | Nil declarable as wages | $2,000 declarable as wages | $1,500 declarable as wages | $500 declarable as wages |
Source: We're here to support you during COVID19 and beyond.pdf
How can YML help?
We hope that this guide helps you to access Workers Compensation and JobKeeper Payment scheme independently if that is your preference. Alternatively, please talk to our Accountants today if you would like to engage YML Chartered Accountants to manage the these processes on your behalf. Contact us on (02) 8383 4400 or by visiting the Contact Us page on our website.
COVID-19 – Travel Bans and Exemptions
In March 2020, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s international border was closed. A blanket travel ban was sanctioned and only those people – whether non-citizens, citizens or others – with permission to travel either in or out of Australia have been allowed to do so.
First, travel bans are in place. How do they affect you?
Entering Australia – Travel Ban – Australian Citizens and Residents
If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident (or a family member of either) or if you are a New Zealand citizen whose usual residence is in Australia, you may enter Australia from overseas.
Who is deemed to be a ‘family member’?
An immediate family member is a spouse, a de-facto partner, a dependent child or a legal guardian of a child.
Upon arrival in Australia, all travellers must spend 14 days in a designated place (such us a port-of-arrival hotel) under quarantine.
Entering Australia – Travel Ban – Non-citizens
If you are a non-citizen of Australia, over recent months you have been encouraged to leave Australia and return to your place of residence overseas.
Overseas travellers who wish to apply for an Australian visa to come to Australia are urged to reconsider at this time, but any online visa applications will be processed in due course, with consideration first being given to those persons requiring urgent travel. Currently, eligible persons with travel exemptions are being prioritised to receive visas.
Application Processing Delay
Generally, applications might require more time for lodgement and processing. Medical testing, English-language testing and paper lodgements are just some of the services disrupted by the pandemic. YML Migration can help you prepare your application.
Partner (subclasses 100, 309, 801, 820) and Child (subclasses 101, 102, 445) visa holders may enter Australia without requesting an exemption.
Currently, Prospective Marriage (subclass 300) visa holders are not permitted to enter Australia.
Leaving Australia – Travel Ban – Australian Citizens and Residents
If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident, you may not leave Australia unless you have an exemption.
Some of the reasons you may leave Australia include:
- To provide aid in response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
- To support critical industries and/or business;
- To receive urgent medical treatment available exclusively overseas;
- To undertake urgent and unavoidable personal business overseas;
- To visit overseas family on compassionate grounds.
These reasons are carefully scrutinised and assessed on an individual basis. A high number of requests for travel exemptions have been denied despite what might seem to be compelling and/or compassionate factors.
In support of your online application for an exemption, you must compile evidence that you have reasonable cause for you to travel outside of Australia during the pandemic.
YML Migration can assist you with your collation of the necessary evidence. All supporting documentation must be in English and you should apply at least one week prior to your need to leave Australia.
How can YML help?
Talk to our Migration Agents today to see how YML Migration can assist you with your travel visa requirements. Contact us on (02) 8383 4400 or by visiting the Contact Us page on our website.
Economic Stimulus Package – Small Business Grants
To be eligible, businesses will need to:- Have between 1-19 employees and a turnover of more than $75,000;
- A payroll below the NSW Government 2019-20 payroll tax threshold of $900,000;
- Have an Australian Business Number as at 1 March 2020, be based in NSW and employ staff as at 1 March 2020;
- Be highly impacted by the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020 issued on 30 March 2020;
- Use the funding for unavoidable business costs such as utilities, overheads, legal costs and financial advice;
- Provide appropriate documentation upon application.
- Click on the link below to engage us and provide us with your bank account details
If you require further information, please see the link below.
https://www.business.gov.au/Grants-and-Programs/Small-Business-COVID19-Support-Grant-NSW
How can YML help?
By completing the link provided above you are assured that YML will manage the process. If you have any questions please contact YML Group today on (02) 8383 4400, or by visiting the Contact Us page on our website.
