Is Your Work-Time Completely Productive?

The Hard Truth for Every Tradie and Sole Trader

​You started your trade business to be your own boss, to work on projects you love, and to be rewarded for your skills. You did not start it to spend your days or evenings wrestling with accounts, scanning crumpled receipts, and catching up on emails.

​Yet, that's exactly where the profit often leaks away.

​Here’s the simple calculation that reveals the true cost of DIY bookkeeping.

The Opportunity Cost Calculation

This simple calculation reveals the true cost of spending your valuable time on low-value admin tasks:

1. Define Your Worth

• Your True Hourly Worth (Revenue): This is the average rate you charge clients, or the revenue you generate, when you are on the tools. (Example: $100 per hour)

• Bookkeeper's Rate (Cost): This is the rate you would pay a professional to handle that admin work. (Example: $50 per hour)

• Hours Spent: Estimated hours you spend on bookkeeping/admin per month. (Example: 10 hours)

  
  

2. The Profit Leak Formula

If you spend 10 hours a month doing bookkeeping, the calculation looks like this in plain text:

($100 True Hourly Worth - $50 Bookkeeper's Rate) x 10 Hours Spent = $500 in Lost Revenue per month

The Conclusion: Every hour you spend on admin is $50 you left on the table. That's $6,000 a year in lost potential profit.

Bookkeeping is not an expense; it is a profit-generating investment that unlocks your highest earning potential.

The Real Price of "Good Enough" Books

Beyond lost income, relying on "good enough" bookkeeping leads to sleepless nights and nasty surprises:

1. Late Payment Crisis: You can't track Accounts Receivable efficiently, leading to slow cash flow.

   
   

2. ATO Risk: Errors in GST, BAS, or STP mean you’re constantly one audit away from penalties.

   
   

3. Inaccurate Pricing: If you don't know your true costs, you undercharge for jobs and work for free.

The Solution: Take the Tradie Bookkeeping Health Check

Before you decide to delegate your books, you need a diagnosis. You need to know exactly where your cash is leaking, so you can stop it fast.

I've created a quick, 12-question quiz that hits the most common compliance and efficiency pain points for Australian trades and sole traders.

It will instantly give you a score and tell you if your books are running smoothly, or if they're costing you money and sleep for no reason.

Ready to see if your admin is robbing your profits?

(This is not tax advice. This tool is for educational purposes and provides a bookkeeping health status only.)