Academy / Lessons

Accounting, tax and bookkeeping lessons for Malaysian business owners

A free lesson series for Malaysian SME owners — bookkeeping, receipts and claims, receivables, stock and job costing, personal tax, year-end and compliance. Written out in full by LTT Outsourced CFO.

Latest lesson

EP86 Hire purchase and term loans: that "four per cent" is not actually four per cent

The salesman says "the interest is very low, only four per cent". The true rate on that loan is closer to eight. He did not lie to you — he was quoting a flat rate and you were thinking of a reducing balance. And this June, the rules changed.

·Getting the basics right

The four things to settle before the first ledger line: why you keep accounts at all, which business form you actually are, how to keep company money apart from your own, and how the chart of accounts is ordered.

• EP1

  Who are your accounts actually for? One set of books, three readers

• EP2

  Enterprise? Sdn Bhd? LLP? The five business forms, sorted out in one go

• EP3

  Company money is not your money: what mixing the two has cost Malaysian bosses

• EP4

  Statements you cannot read? Start with the table of contents: the chart of accounts

• EP34

  Accounting policies: one business, two profits, and neither of them wrong

• EP47

  How detailed do the accounts need to be? One machine, or every part?

• EP60

  What the accounts cannot measure: integrity, the times, and people

• EP65

  Accounting estimates: the numbers in the accounts with no document behind them

• EP73

  Opening a Sdn. Bhd.: what those documents actually are

·Day-to-day practice

The things you touch every week: receipts and claims, receivables and payables, payment vouchers, stock, job costing, and what an invoice must carry before anyone talks about e-Invoice.

• EP5

  Expenses and claims: stop keeping receipts in your pocket

• EP6

  Receivables, payables and contact records: making money is not the same as having money

• EP8

  Payment vouchers and document classification: when do you actually raise one?

• EP9

  Stock valuation: perpetual or periodic? Do you know what each item earns?

• EP10

  Job costing and cost allocation: did that job make money or lose it?

• EP19

  Before we talk about e-Invoice: does your invoice pass?

• EP26

  Incomplete records: the money really was spent, but there is no document. Now what?

• EP31

  Transaction sets: give every entry a complete evidence pack

• EP35

  Manufacturing accounts: the cost of one unit is not on any invoice

• EP41

  Rental accounts: which unit is feeding you, and which one are you feeding

• EP51

  A contractor's accounts: labour and materials, certified progress, and contracts that cross a year end

• EP62

  A money changer's books: the cash is not cash, it is stock

• EP75

  Kindergarten and childcare accounts: the fees collected in advance are not your money yet

• EP86

  Hire purchase and term loans: that "four per cent" is not actually four per cent

·About LTT

What LTT does, what it does not do, and how the fees are worked out.

• EP7

  What does LTT actually do? What we do and what we do not, said plainly

• EP29

  A finance function is not something you get by hiring a clerk

• EP33

  Getting to know LTT: our mission, our vision and our values

• EP76

  What outsourced monthly accounting actually covers: four tiers, and the real reason for "we only do bookkeeping"

• EP85

  The small jobs that should not bother your accountant: a set of free tools, open and use

·Systems and process

Making the books fast and steady: choosing the software, designing the flow, scanning and filing, cloud storage, reconciliation, and taking over a set of books someone else kept.

• EP11

  Two worlds, and the times have changed: business needs accounting, accounting needs business

• EP12

  The front of your business: logo, documents, a website and your own email

• EP13

  Why are accounting fees worked out this way? What makes a Sdn. Bhd. cost more, and what makes the cloud cost more

• EP14

  The LTT bookkeeping process, opened up: from understanding your business to AI cutting up your receipts

• EP15

  Managing digital files: how to name them, and how to set up your folders

• EP20

  What modern accounting makes possible: every "can I…" bosses have asked us, answered

• EP22

  Why Bukku? After we had tried a lot of systems for you

• EP23

  Reconciliation: why taking over a half-finished set of books is better redone than continued

• EP24

  The small matter of scanning: why the photos you take slow the whole process down

• EP25

  Choosing and using cloud storage: syncing is not backup

• EP27

  Is the bank statement where the year's accounts start?

• EP28

  Five warning signs it is time to change accountants: done is not the same as done right

• EP36

  Why does AI bookkeeping keep dumping everything into "other expenses"?

• EP38

  How do you set KPIs? The financial ones, and the ones that ring earlier

• EP40

  Accounting schedules: the other half of the books, beyond Dr and Cr

• EP42

  Several businesses, one truth: how to see it

• EP44

  Ask ten people in your trade what accounting software they use and you will hear ten names

• EP50

  One page, no connection needed: from bank feed to your daily briefing

• EP56

  Who exactly are you dealing with? Check the TIN, check SSM, then build the right contact in the system

• EP61

  A pile of receipts lands on the desk: how to do a claim so you can trace it back

• EP64

  Real-time accounting: the habit of chasing the books up to "now"

• EP67

  Why does everybody want to "export to CSV"? Is that step still needed today?

·Personal tax

Income tax for the salaried and for the boss: how to read a payslip, how to claim reliefs properly, and how to read five years of your own filings.

• EP16

  LTT Tahu Tax Pulse: take your personal income tax's pulse

• EP17

  RM19,000 a month — how much reaches your account? Form EA, CP58 and CP500

• EP18

  A full tour of personal tax reliefs: why does he earn more and pay less?

• EP77

  Medical tax relief: there are six things inside that one box

• EP79

  Personal reliefs (1): single, not yet married, and everyone living on commission

• EP80

  Personal reliefs (2): two incomes, and the years when the children are still small

• EP81

  Personal reliefs (3): one income, grown children, and parents above you

·Year-end and compliance

Why year-end always jams up, what to bring, what a year of compliance actually costs, and what happens to the books after they close.

• EP21

  Why is the year-end close always a last-minute job? Honest talk, and a checklist that keeps it smooth

• EP30

  Year-end panic: why catching up a whole year of books is slow and expensive

• EP32

  Opening a Sdn. Bhd.: what does a year of compliance actually cost, and how to budget for it

• EP37

  How many months of cash have you got left? Budgets, forecasts and the age of the cheque in the drawer

• EP39

  After the books close: late documents, re-run reports, and B/F versus C/F

• EP43

  You got a quote from a big firm and read it twice: what exactly does this price include?

• EP45

  Why does opening a company bank account feel like a job interview?

• EP54

  Audit exemption: has a private limited company's compliance cost really come down?

• EP55

  Money the director owes the company: is it actually allowed?

• EP57

  One company has money, the other has none: how to move funds inside a group

• EP66

  Accounting standards, company law, the tax system: how much really changed this decade, and how a boss catches it

• EP68

  The company has stopped trading: striking off, winding up, and "I just want out"

• EP69

  How to close a sole proprietorship, a partnership and an LLP — and retiring while the business carries on

• EP70

  Splitting up: the things that are not in the books are what people actually fight about

• EP72

  No accounts, no filings — what actually happens? Penalties, strike-off, and that bank account still in use

• EP74

  What a Sdn. Bhd. owes every year: the annual return, meetings, directors' resolutions, beneficial ownership

• EP78

  How to hold a board meeting that counts: notice, quorum, show of hands or by shares

• EP82

  Do you actually count as an SME? Three gates, and the shape of the last decade

• EP83

  Companies that have been around a while: the tax incentives you may never have claimed

• EP84

  Entertainment, petrol and the car: the three expenses most often struck out

·Tax and compliance

The e-Invoice threshold, who is exempt, and what a valid invoice must carry before e-Invoice comes into it.

• EP46

  The e-Invoice threshold moves to RM3 million: do you still have to issue?

• EP48

  The classification the tax return wants: why you cannot tip everything into "other expenses"

• EP63

  MyTax "roles": partnership, LLP, employer — and why does MyInvois show your name?

·Shares and shareholding

Reading the public numbers, issuing new shares against selling old ones, dividends and dilution, and the money that moves between shareholders.

• EP49

  Four numbers that let you read a share: market capitalisation, PE, price-to-book, asset turnover

• EP52

  After a listing, does the money go into the company or into the boss's pocket?

• EP53

  Dividends, the ex-date, pre-emptive rights, and passing shares to your children

• EP58

  Preference shares: if you want the money back, do not lend it

• EP59

  Majority, minority and approval: who may vote, and who must abstain

• EP71

  Giving shares to a staff member: free shares, share options, and what happens the day he leaves