South Africa VAT Rate Changes

/in , , , , , , /by

What is happening?

On 1 April 2018 South Africa’s VAT rate will change from 14% to 15%. This will affect all VAT registered businesses based in South Africa.

What is the impact on ESP settings?

There are two things that need to happen:

  1. Change your global VAT rate in your system set up
  2. Update your price lists to reflect the new VAT calculations

There are some other implications about running certain reports in cases where you run across the old and new VAT ratings but we will release some more info on this shortly.

There is also the consideration of refunds for items purchased at the old rate but returned at the new rate. We will also comment on this further once we have considered the options available.

When do I need to change my ESP VAT settings?

The changes need to be made at the end of trading on 31 March 2018, before trading begins on 1 April 2018.

How do I change my ESP VAT settings?

To update your Global VAT percentage:

In ESP Business Manager navigate to Setup > Control Panel > Sales Settings > Sales Tax > Change the Amount to 15%.

To recalculate the cost and selling prices:

For Retail, Service, Package and Courses edit each item and update your Selling and Cost prices using the blue arrows to recalculate the including or excluding prices according to the new VAT settings.

 

 

Use ESP’s Price List manager to mass update prices

If you have the ESP Price List Manager then you have the option of mass updating including or excluding values based on the new VAT formula. If you have not purchased this module but would like to then please contact us on sales@esponline.co.za to make arrangements.

Anything else I need to know?

If any further information or implications become clear to us we will publish them on our web site.

In the meantime we strongly recommend that you start planning for the VAT increase now. Nominate a person who will be responsible for this in your business and make sure that they know what they need to do when they are going to do it well in advance.

We will not be in a position to do this on behalf of all our clients and so need everyone to prepare as best they can in advance.

A stitch in time …

/in , , /by

Have you ever had to do anything over again because you didn’t do it properly in the first place? Have you ever had to spend a lot of time cleaning up a mess that could have been avoided if you had just planned better?

Would you consider yourself a good manager? They say that the first function in management is planning. Planning is something I actually find very difficult – I don’t know what this says for my management skills …

Part of the reason I find it difficult is I always feel so busy with all the pressures of work that seem to almost be working against me to prevent me from planning (notice how I’m trying to make excuses). But I think there is some truth in this, life continually throws enough things our way to keep us busy for a number of lifetimes, we therefore have to be very deliberate about planning else it will never happen.

The flip side of why I find planning difficult is because if I do actually make any plans then I have to stick to them, which leads into the second, third and fourth functions of management namely activating your plan, coordinating your plan and finally maintaining your plan. If I don’t plan then I don’t have to do any of these other things and its more difficult to hold me accountable.

Im starting to wonder if this article is for your benefit or mine ..?

Read more

Get them to say Wow!

/in , , /by

Does it matter how great you say your salon is? Or does it matter more how great your clients say it is? It’s a little nauseating to others when we tend to blow our own horns.

CS Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia and many other well know books gives writing advice to a young American fan named Joan Lancaster in June of 1956.

“In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.””

The point is that you should not have to tell people how great you are, they should be telling you how great you are because of the great things that you do. The question therefore is how do you get your clients to say great things about your business?

Read more

ESP and GoBeauty bring you mobile appointment bookings!

/in , , /by

ESP and GoBeauty are very excited to announce that mobile client appointment bookings made through the GoBeauty App will integrate directly to your ESP Schedule Assistant.

 

Read more

Crossing Over

/in , , /by

There are two types of people in the world, those that buy hair care products from salons and those that don’t.

It’s interesting for me to speak to some people who by middle class standards are considered to be relatively wealthy and hear that they don’t buy professional hair care products. The idea of spending R250 on a bottle of shampoo or conditioner is quite outrageous (remember these are people with large amounts of disposable income who can afford to take regular overseas holidays with their entire family).

Read more

When the lights go out …

/in , , /by

What do you do when you have a power failure in the salon? The answer is simple really … follow all the steps in your policy and procedure manual on what to do in case of a power failure. Oh, you don’t have any procedures for a power failure? Well, in that case consider a few of the following points when putting together a power failure procedure.

Read more

To app or not to app?

/in , , /by

I recently counted over 130 apps installed on my iPhone. 130 different programs that I have installed in the past year, since I last upgraded my contract.

I have them grouped according to what they do, for example, there is a folder for apps that relate to reading like Kindle, and other apps for magazines or bibles. I have social apps like Facebook and Twitter in a folder. I have news apps like News 24, BBC, CNN, Aljazeera and EWN grouped together. Now, I’m not sharing this with you to indicate how anal I am about apps, Im sharing it with you to indicate that I have over 130 apps that actually serve a purpose installed on my phone and I tend to get rid of apps that I havent in a while.

Read more

What’s so gross about profit?

/in , , /by

Last year I did a couple of articles on Cost of Sales. The series was a little dry and theoretical and I wanted to follow it up with some practical points about how to monitor and manage your cost of sales so that you achieve as much gross profit as possible and this is something that all of us are interested in. Im not sure why its called Gross Profit, in my mind profit is awesome, not gross?

Read more

Be Grateful

/in , , /by

Be grateful for your job

How many jobs have you had in your life? Lets re-phrase that question, how often do you change jobs? Are you a serial job hunter or are you a faithful hound, still working in the same job you have been for the past 25 years?

I was listening to Cape Talk / 702 this morning and the topic of unemployment was being discussed. On one hand you had employers calling in to say that they could not find young people with the right qualifications, experience or attitude and on the other hand you had job seekers of all ages calling in to say that either they were very qualified and willing to work but did not have the required experience (if they were young) or that if they were a little older they had years of experience but their age was perhaps working against them.

Read more

Green Spa Rating

/in /by

ESP is proud to introduce the Green Spa Rating tool, which has been developed by combining our expertise in Spa Management Software with the innovative leadership of Green Spa Company in the area of green spa business, to assist the wellness industry to save resources and operate sustainably.

Read more