The Home Office – is it as good as it sounds?

Anuraag Agarwal | October 08, 2018

Working from home!

In the eyes of many, the prospect of being able to work from home sounds heavenly.

Whether your home office is your principal place of work or a secondary office, you need to think about both the pros and cons of working from home.

And while working from home sounds like the perfect work/life balance – it’s not for everyone.

What are some of the pros and cons of working from home?

The pros

No commute

Greater flexibility

Reduced distractions  

Less stressful days  

Save money

Improved work/life balance

The Cons

Self-discipline is needed

Loneliness

It's harder to shut down

You may need to give up some living space

Co-worker relationships are harder to form

Less ad hoc learning

From our experience, here’s what’s worked for us when we set up our home office.

·         A dedicated office/room is a must – clients and suppliers will visit you and you need to demonstrate a level of professionalism.

·         Set a routine – morning breaks, lunch etc.  Resist the temptation to do adhoc house work just because you’re at home.

·         Your office needs to be an office – not an extension of your home.  In other words, the look and feel has to be somewhat different to the rest of the house.

·         When you’re finished for the day, do your best to finish and not get tempted to sneak back in to the office after dinner – family and personal time is important.

·         Ensure you do get out and network, meet other business owners, visit your client premises etc.  Visibility is still important.

One of the Pros of working from home could be the tax deductions.

Again, from our experience, you cannot claim for deductions without fully understanding the nature of the expense and how it relates to your office.

The tax implications of working from home are complex and detailed.

Please work with your accountant to not only see what can be claimed as a tax benefit, yet also, if a home office is the right solution for you.

At Aperture Accounting, this is what we do – we work with our clients to understand their financial needs and we work to figure how best to meet these needs and in the process, we help our clients to better understand their financial world.

At Aperture Accounting, we feel our job is to help shape and design a better financial future for our clients. 

To find out more, call 1300 APERTURE or 1300 273 788.