Having been in business for more than 20 years, Paul McGrath’s Construction has developed a strong reputation in Darwin for innovative and high-quality construction. Although the company started with a niche of home renovations and new home builds, their reputation has led them to successfully expand into larger capital works projects, and the company has won awards from both the Housing Industry and Master Builders associations.
Paul McGrath is the sole company director, while Vicky-Lee McGrath works in the company and also works as a midwife and registered nurse. With Paul McGrath’s Construction, Vicky-Lee does day-to-day activities such as paying the bills.
“I was managing the bookkeeping before we found Precision Advantage, but not very well,” Vicky-Lee says. “Bookkeeping isn’t my forte, delivering babies is my forte. We were so small then, but we had a retired bookkeeper helping us with data entry and other tasks, which turned disastrous. He was very out-of-date, things weren’t done well or were set up improperly. For example, our Superannuation was set up wrong for our staff so we were paying way more than we should have been.”
Vicky-Lee did a Google search for an MYOB bookkeeper in her area, which led her to Felicity Mathews of Precision Advantage. She called Felicity and told her that the company’s books needed help.
“Felicity told me she’d come across lots of messes. We met and I liked her right away. We had a lot in common, she wasn’t judgy, and she’d also previously been a nurse.”
Although it was tricky letting their previous bookkeeper go, Felicity came into Paul McGrath’s offices once a week to get the company’s books properly set up. She moved the company onto Xero so their books can be done remotely, although she still goes to the office when needed.
Paul McGrath’s Construction now uses Xero and Dext for their accounting and invoicing. Felicity deals with the company’s invoices and ensures Paul can see them and approve them. She also balances statements, sends bank files at the end of the month, and does business activity statements (BAS) and instalment activity statements (IAS).
“Felicity is amazing! She is my life saver. She makes my life much easier because I’m not a bookkeeper or an accountant, she does everything that I can’t do. She really cares about our business. She wants our business to do well, and she wants to help us grow and thrive and succeed. I can solidly rely on her to get me out of tricky situations that I may be struggling with.”
Although Precision Advantage does Paul McGrath’s payroll on Tuesdays, Vicky-Lee says she knows if she needs help, she can email Felicity any day and get a quick response. She also says Felicity managed to convince her and Paul to move onto a computer system that reduced manual quoting for projects, making the quoting process more efficient as well.
“When you’re running a business, you need someone running your office who knows what they’re doing. They know the whole tax system and are business savvy. There are so many little things that you don’t know, and I’d make a lot of tax mistakes if I didn’t have her to do it. She’s very honest and keeps me very honest.”