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

Hook

A boss rings his accountant: "I need to issue an invoice to a client, can you do one for me?" She says yes, and comes back two days later. It is not that she is slow. It is that this job queues behind her month end, her tax filings, and thirty other clients. And what you wanted was just one invoice. A job like that was never meant to take two days. So we turned these small jobs into a set of free tools, put them online, and you open them and use them. This episode is not an advertisement — it is a checklist. By the end of it you will know which of these things you never have to ask anybody about again.

The most important thing first: your numbers never leave your computer

Before the tools, one thing first, because this is what most people actually care about. These tools all run in your own browser. The numbers you type in — salaries, client names, amounts — are not uploaded anywhere. No sign-up, no email, no account. Open the page and use it; close it and it is gone. Why does that matter? Because the tools you will use most often are the ones holding the most sensitive material — your employees' pay, your clients' names, your tax. Those things should not have to be handed over just to use a small tool. And every tool prints to A4 or saves as a PDF.

Group one: selling and issuing documents

I have grouped these tools by the job you want done. Four groups. Group one: selling, and issuing documents. Three tools. First, sales documents. This one is a single form that produces five documents — an invoice, a quotation, a delivery order, a proforma invoice, or one you name yourself. The delivery order version prints no prices — the thing many people forget when they do it by hand. You can put your logo, your item codes and item details on it, and print it straight out. (We had an episode called "Before we talk about e-Invoicing, does your invoice even pass?" — this tool is built to that standard.) Second, the payment voucher. Fill in the payee and the amount, and the voucher comes out carrying the invoice number, the amount in words, and three signature lines. The amount in words is the line most people get wrong by hand. Third, the expense claim form. This one is built to the method from our episode on expense claims: a column per category, so one claim form totals by category and by person at the same time. And it does three more things: the date is lifted from the receipt itself; a trip can carry a destination and an exchange rate; and errand mileage can be counted per kilometre.

Group two: payroll and people

Group two: payroll and people. Five tools — the most used group of the lot. First, the payslip. You fill in one salary figure and it works out EPF, SOCSO, EIS, Lindung 24 Jam and the monthly tax deduction — and it does the employer side as well as the employee side. Plenty of bosses still do not know how much the employer side costs. This tool lays it out line by line. Second, the monthly tax deduction calculator. It follows LHDN's e-system method — pay from the start of the year to date, EPF already deducted, and the reliefs you actually have. And every step is laid out for you to check yourself. Third, the tax estimate. It works out whether you owe more this year or are due a refund. Every relief and every cap cites its source — so you see not only the answer but the basis for it. Fourth, Form EA. The one every employee has a right to by the end of February each year, laid out in the format LHDN asks for. Fifth, CP58. The incentive statement for agents, dealers and distributors — one per person per year, issued by the end of March the following year. Bosses in insurance, property and direct selling have to issue this every year.

Group three: tax and compliance

Group three: tax and compliance. Four tools. First, the TIN checker. You can paste in one tax identification number or a whole string of them, and it will tell you whether each one's format is right — and it will pad the leading and trailing zeros correctly for you. Why does this exist? Because in the e-Invoice era, one wrong zero and the invoice comes back rejected. We took this apart in the episode on looking up a TIN. Second, audit exemption. Does your private limited company still need an auditor this year? Enter the figures for three financial years and it picks the corresponding practice directive for you, then produces a printable certificate. Judging this yourself is easy to get wrong, because which directive applies turns on the start date of the period — a trap we covered in the audit exemption episode. Third, the withholding tax calculator. Advertising, software and royalty payments to foreign companies — how much to withhold and when to remit it, worked out for you. Meta, Google and TikTok advertising: plenty of bosses still do not know there is anything to withhold. Fourth, the self-billed e-Invoice. For payments to a foreign supplier, or to anyone who cannot issue to you — you issue that document yourself, with the fields laid out as LHDN's system requires.

Group four: money and the set-up

Group four: money and the set-up. Two tools — the group fewest people know about, and the most valuable. First, the hire purchase and term loan calculator. It works out what you repay each period, what the whole repayment schedule looks like, and — whether settling early actually saves you anything. And it computes all three methods: flat rate, the Rule of 78, and reducing balance. Why does this matter? Because most people have no idea which method the agreement they signed actually uses — and the difference is thousands of ringgit. (We have a separate episode on that question.) Second, the chart of accounts. The whole LTT standard chart of accounts, on proper eight-digit codes. You can take the whole set, or pick only what your business will use. And it does something most off-the-shelf charts do not — every bank account, every outlet, every vehicle, every phone line, every shareholder and director gets an account of its own. Why split it that finely? We covered it in the chart of accounts episode: your chart is the table of contents of your ledger. If the contents page does not separate them, you will never work out which vehicle or which shop is making money.

When free is not enough

That is the lot. One honest line to finish. What these tools handle is the small jobs. They will not do your books, they will not file your tax, and they will not speak for you when an audit arrives. All they do is take the things that should never have cost money off your to-do list. If what you want is a step further — to look at your own numbers with a professional tool, that is a different site; to hand the books over to somebody to do, that is our client system. But if all you want today is an invoice, a payslip or a voucher — open it, use it, and ask nobody.

To close

One set of tools, one address: free.lttcfo.ai. No sign-up, no email, and the numbers never leave your computer. Pick the small job you do most often today and try it once. This set will keep growing. If you think something is missing, or something computes wrongly — write and tell us, and we will add it. These tools exist because we listened to clients complain in the first place. Want to talk about that pile of things you should not be doing yourself? Grab a coffee first and talk about your business. For the accounting, come to LTT. I am LTT, helping SME bosses get their accounts straight. Follow us, and see you next time.