Ange Jones 
The Fair Work Commission announced a 2.5% increase to minimum wages to apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2015.
This will apply to any employee paid according to the national minimum wage or as prescribed in a modern award.
From 1 July 2015 the national minimum wage will increase to $656.90 per week ($17.29 per hour).
The Fair Work Commission will issue draft determinations and orders for each award to clarify how this decision will affect wage rates.
Relevant pay details and online tools will be updated on the Fair Work Commission’s website http://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay.
To access, or to check which Modern Award applies to your business, go to the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Award Finder http://awardfinder.fwo.gov.au/.
Lauren Bromley 
Many of our clients have taken the opportunity to move their accounting software to an Online cloud Accounting package. Particularly over the past 12 months as these online products become more popular and efficient for all users.
We have found that clients that are using Online products are finding that they are saving a lot of time in their business and are getting a lot more efficiency from their information.
There are currently several Cloud based products on the market including;
QuickBooks Intuit Online
Reckon One Online
Xero
Prices of these products range from $5 - $70 per month depending on the particular software.
When using Cloud Accounting your data is securely stored and processed on servers—or “in the cloud”. This means you are able to access your business financials from anywhere and using any device, as long as you are connected to the internet.
In addition to the flexibility of accessing your data from anywhere, servers are actively monitored and maintained. They usually have a much higher level of security than many small business networks and staff laptops.
There are several benefits to moving your accounting software to an Online, Cloud Based product.
Simon Flowers 
On Tuesday 12 May 2015 the Federal Government released their 2nd federal budget. The treasurer stated the budget was "responsible and measured" and was all about "small business, fairness and families".
The Federal Government has revised its budget deficit projections and GDP growth over the next 4 years. The deficit will reduce from $35.1b to $6.9b in 2017/18. GDP will run at 2.5%, 2.75%, 3.25% and 3.5% over the next 4 years.
The budget was a bit surprising to most people with some of comments being "transformation from last year", "diametrically opposed to last year", "apology from last year", "all about salvation" and its an "election budget".
The opposition stated that they will support certain parts of the budget but don't think it helps Australia's short term future and building confidence. Note the below announcements may or may not be passed by the Government, as we saw last year.
As expected there were no major announcements in relation to tax reform which will become a major part of their tax policy for the next election.
The major parts of the budget include:
1) Small business tax cuts from 1 July 2015 from 30% to 28.5% for companies. If the small business doesn't trade through a company there will be a 5% discount up to $1000 for unincorporated businesses. Small businesses will also get an immediate tax deduction up to $20,000 for 2 years for asset purchases.
