These are the BASIC ( wow! ) checklist for requirements when opening a new hospitality business in Brisbane, Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast
- Solicitor/Lawyer for lease negotiations and advice
- Accountant for financial entity setup and advice
- Architect for any venue design advice
- Shopfitter for any venue build and advice
- ABN application made via your bookkeeper/accountant
- Bank Account for business – Complete this the moment you have your entity details and ABN finalised
- Liquor licence consultant, if applicable
- Website Domain and Hosting – BOSSII can arrange this for you
- Email – BOSSII can arrange this for you
- Google business profile
- BOSSII Software account
- Internet service
Start this process the moment you have secured your lease as it can take some time. BOSSII can help you with this either by securing an NBN/Fibre connection or simply arrange a 5G SIM and/or backup. NB: make sure you make your own personal email address as accounts address as sometimes they send emails to “abc”@telstra.com which you may not be monitoring regularly enough
- EFTPOS for business
An EFTPOS application is required because more than 90% of your onsite payments will be made via your onsite EFT machines. This can be completed via Tyro/Till Payments/MX51/ANZ Worldline/Touch2Pay/Your banks Merchant Services. Start this process the moment you have secured your lease as it can take some time. BOSSII can help you with Tyro/Till Payments/MX51/Touch2Pay EFTPOS application process. With many of these companies you can achieve zero cost for all your major IT costs (including BOSSII software) depending on your turnover level
- American Express
Should you wish to accept American Express then you will require a AMEX Merchant number. The application is made herein https://www.americanexpress.com/en-au/business/merchant/prospects/accept-card?intlink=merchant-home-contact-enquiryform. You will need this for your EFTPOS application also. The merchant number needs to be passed on to the EFTPOS company so that they can activate your AMEX account on the onsite EFTPOS machines
- Square for backup eftpos
This is essential for redundancy purposes in case the EFTPOS application above isn’t approved in time for opening AND for when (not if!) your EFTPOS company has a downtime moment https://squareup.com/signup/au?lang_code=en-au
- Stripe for online payment accepting
This is an account for your online payment accepting purposes. You will need this at some point now or in the future https://dashboard.stripe.com/register
For all of the above applications you will require
- Electronic pictures of your Drivers Licence front and back ready for these applications
- Know your Registered Company Address for these applications
- Have your ABN number handy
- Have your Entity details handy including Trust Deed if applicable. If a Trust is somewhere involved then you will need all the details for the beneficiaries of the trust – this is a much more complicated and onerous process. For any applications the “KYC” (know your client) & “AML” (anti money laundering) background checks will find if there is a trust operating in the background therefore make sure you have this information ready and understood.
- Have an electronic copy of your Bank Statement showing ONLY the name of the account, BSB, Account Number. No need for any balances or transactions showing. This is purely to confirm the correct bank account details.
There are many others requirements depending on the type of hospitality venue required but these are the major ones that really need to be concentrated on
At any point in time you can contact BOSSII to discuss any of this as we have been in your shoes many times and can offer our advice (not including financial advice of course) or contacts that we have used in the past. Don’t forget we have partnered more than 100 restaurant, bars, cafes, nightclubs, hotels and clubs in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast so our local knowledge is to your benefit.
