Accountants & advisors · Collingwood, MelbourneFol. 01

We know where the money is.

Marlowe & Frost keeps the books for owner-operated businesses: trades, hospitality and professional services. Returns lodged on time, payroll that lands on the right day, and numbers explained in sentences, not jargon.

FeesFixed, quoted in writing before work starts.
StandingRegistered tax practitioners.
LedgersXero and similar cloud systems, set up properly.

A private ledger bound in deep green moiré cloth with an oxblood leather spine and a ruled paper label reading Ledger. — **No. 01** · Private ledger, green moiréMelbourne, c.1935

Fol. 02 · ServicesEntries 01 to 05

The work, itemised

Five lines. Each one earns its place.

Tax & compliance

Returns, BAS and the ATO correspondence you would rather not read. Prepared, checked twice, lodged on schedule, filed where you can find it.

Quarterly + annual

Bookkeeping rescue

Behind by a quarter or by three years, it makes no difference to us. We rebuild the file, chase the gaps and hand back a ledger that reconciles.

Once, properly

Payroll

Wages, super and leave that land on the right day every cycle, including the weeks you are on the tools or two staff down.

Weekly to monthly

Quarterly advisory

Ninety minutes with your actual numbers: margin, cash, what to stop doing. Held after each BAS, while the quarter is still warm. No slideware.

Four sittings a year

Cloud accounting setup

Xero or similar, arranged around how the business actually runs: invoicing, receipts, payroll and a report you can read over breakfast.

Once, then it runs

Carried forward: one accountable set of books. Entries 05 · column tot 15E.&O.E.

We have seen worse.

Shoeboxes of receipts. Three ledgers for one business, none of them agreeing. Payroll run from memory since autumn. A BAS drafted, never lodged, quietly compounding.

Last winter a carpenter brought us four years of receipts in a tomato box, a wages book kept in biro on the back pages of a site diary, and one envelope marked urgent that had never been opened.

It balanced.

Bring the mess in as it stands. Untangling it is our favourite kind of work, and it is nearly always cheaper to fix than to keep.

A battered accounts payable ledger, its marbled cover torn back to the ruled pages beneath. — **No. 02** · Accounts payable, as receivedAbbotsford, 1919

Key dates, every year

The calendar runs the year. We run the calendar.

28Oct

BAS · Quarter one

July to September activity, lodged and paid.

28Feb

BAS · Quarter two

October to December, with the summer extension.

28Apr

BAS · Quarter three

January to March activity, lodged and paid.

28Jul

BAS · Quarter four

April to June, closing the cycle.

30Jun

End of financial year

The line everything above rolls up to.

31Oct

Individual returns

The self-lodgement deadline; agent programs differ.

Standard due dates for most quarterly lodgers. Registration, turnover and agent programs can shift them, so we confirm your dates in writing at engagement.

None of these dates will surprise you again.

Fol. 03 · ApproachMethod, not heroics

Quiet books. Loud only when it matters.

First month: we read everything.
The file, the lodgement history, the bank feeds, the shoebox if there is one. You get a written list of what is broken, what it costs to fix, and in which order.
Every quarter: a sitting.
BAS lodged first, then a short conversation about what the numbers did, not what they might do. You leave knowing your position to the dollar.
All year: a phone that gets answered.
Quick questions are not billable events here. The expensive questions are the ones that go unasked until May.

A tall wall of shelved books and bound volumes in warm light. — **No. 03** · The reference wallKept current

A pale meeting room with two deep green armchairs and a black floor lamp. — **No. 04** · The front roomTwo chairs, no lectures

Fol. 04 · FeesQuoted, then kept

The fee philosophy

Fixed fees, put in writing before work starts.

In writing
Every engagement opens with a written quote. The invoice that follows matches it. That is the whole trick.
No meter
We do not bill by the six-minute unit, so a phone call to us costs what a phone call should: nothing.
Scope, re-quoted
If the job grows past the quote, you get a new number before we continue. Not a taller invoice after.

We would rather turn down work than guess at it, which is why the quote arrives after we have actually looked at your file.

A fountain pen nib at rest on a handwritten page, in low raking light. — **No. 05** · In writingBefore, not after

Contact · Collingwood

Talk to someone who has read your file.

Office	Collingwood VIC, by appointment
Telephone	03 5550 0112
Email	office@marlowefrost.com.au
Hours	Monday to Friday, 8.30 to 5.00
The dog	Friendly. Not deductible; we checked.

First conversations are unbilled. We answer in plain sentences, usually the same day.

Two deep green armchairs in a pale, calm meeting room. — **No. 04** · The front room, againThe kettle works