OBT Feature Business Sipelectrical, Helidon

Sipelectrical's Jono and Annaka Sippel. — Sipelectrical’s Jono and Annaka Sippel.

You’d think managing a young family and rebuilding after the hardship of the 2011 floods would be a full-time job in itself.

But talk with Sipelectrical’s husband and wife team Jonathan ‘Jono’ and Annaka Sippel and you’re soon reminded of the resilience of youth.

They had the good sense to know that enthusiasm alone does not make a successful business. Servicing farm and industrial electrical customers in a highly-regulated environment, Annaka and Jono sought help from a professional firm of accountants to make sure they met their corporate and industry compliance responsibilities.

They turned to long-time associate Brett Garmeister.

“We started in 2006 and went straight to Brett at OBT because we had no idea where to begin,” says Annaka. “Operating an electrical business is high risk and we wanted to be compliant with public liability and regulation.”

Sipelectrical’s sparkies travel throughout the Lockyer and Brisbane Valleys and even to The Downs to make sure the electrics of farming and local businesses are in top shape. Because they have a strong following of loyal customers with regular work and a reliable after hours break down service, their word of mouth and reputation keeps them busy.

“Jono comes from a local farming family, so he knows it’s important to keep pumps and cold rooms working,” says Annaka. “We try to hit any frustrations with service in our industry head on.”

Typically Annaka processes payroll and BAS in the business, leaving Jono to be more hands on with invoicing, stock ordering and job scheduling. Whilst the separation of duties was working well, they were looking for ways to reduce the lag time between completing and invoicing jobs.

“We were already using MYOB, so OBT’s MYOB Specialist Pauline Banditt recommended we take a look at MYOB AccountRight for our payroll, invoicing and financial reporting. We find it nice and easy to use – it’s wonderful to be able to call on Pauline for any queries we have about using it.”

“Dealing with OBT and Brett is easy, and Pauline is our saviour on anything we need to know about using MYOB,” says Annaka. “We always look forward to working with Brett as part of our year-end planning to make sure we’re being smart about how we roll out our tax strategies for the next financial year.”