THE PROBLEM
Nothing reconciles and the date is fixed.
Accounts unreconciled, bills not entered, GST coding nobody has checked, and a quarter's worth of transactions to work through in the days before it is due.
BAS, IAS & GST
BAS coming up and the books are not ready?
The deadline does not move. If the bookkeeping behind the period is not finished, the figures are guesses — and guesses have a habit of needing amending later.
REGISTERED BAS AGENTTPB 26273787
BAS, IAS and GST support at a glance
WHAT WE DO
Finish the bookkeeping first.
- Bank and card accounts reconciled to statements
- Outstanding supplier bills and customer invoices entered
- GST treatment reviewed transaction by transaction where it matters
- PAYG withholding checked against the payroll records
- Unusual or uncertain items flagged before they are reported
- Supporting records organised and retained
WHAT BETTER LOOKS LIKE
The period is a formality.
Because the bookkeeping was already current, preparing the period becomes a review rather than a fortnight of catch-up work under deadline pressure.
GST
The coding is where the errors live.
Most GST problems are not complicated. They are the same handful of items, coded on autopilot, repeated every quarter until somebody actually looks.
Commonly miscoded
- Bank fees, interest and government charges treated as GST-inclusive
- Insurance premiums, where only part of the premium carries GST
- Purchases from suppliers who are not registered for GST
- Overseas subscriptions and software
- Motor vehicle and asset purchases
- Wages and superannuation coded through GST accounts
- Private-use portions never separated out
Why it matters more than it looks
A single wrongly coded recurring transaction repeats every month and quietly compounds across the year. It is rarely large in any one period, which is exactly why nobody notices it.
Fixing coding as part of the regular bookkeeping is cheap. Finding it during a review, or unwinding it across several periods, is not.
Where the correct treatment is genuinely uncertain, it gets flagged to you and dealt with properly rather than quietly assumed.
BAS AND IAS
What each period actually covers.
Business Activity Statement
Usually quarterly for small business, reporting GST collected and paid, PAYG withholding for employees, and PAYG instalments where they apply.
It only works if the underlying file is complete. A BAS prepared from an unreconciled file is a number that will need revisiting.
Instalment Activity Statement
Where GST is not reported in a period but PAYG withholding or instalments still are — commonly monthly withholding alongside a quarterly BAS.
The payroll records have to be right for it to be right, which is why payroll and activity statement work sit so closely together.
Xbook is a registered BAS agent (registration 26273787). That means we can prepare and lodge your activity statements on your behalf, not just hand you the figures. Lodging on a client's behalf is a regulated activity, so the arrangement for your business is confirmed in writing when the engagement is set up.