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9 Simple Steps To Prepare Your Bas Using Xero

April 13, 2021
Bill Kimball

xero bas lodgement

Under the BAS Excluded header, you will find transactions like wages and salaries, superannuation and PAYG withholding, GST, loans, drawings etc. These are correct as GST is not included in these types of transactions. Review the report to ensure all aged receivables are accurate and outstanding. Review the report to ensure that the aged payables listed are accurate and outstanding. If they do not match, there may be missing or duplicate transactions.

  • For the purposes of this blog, we will examine the process using Xero Online Accounting, however the general principles apply to other accounting systems and manual records.
  • Most businesses that lodge their own BAS choose an online option.
  • Go to the second tab “Transactions by Tax rate” which lists all the transactions entered for the reporting period grouped by their tax rates.
  • If there’s any other activity, like interest or penalties, on this account, then these should be included on this bill as well.
  • If you have payroll ensure the Gross Wages and Tax withheld amounts are prefilled.

First you need to reconcile your accounts to ensure that all your information is accurate and up-to-date. This means taking a close look at your financial records and making sure that your bank statements match your accounting information. You also need to make sure that purchases and cash expenses are recorded, information concerning creditors is correct, and all outstanding funds are justified. Xero calculates GST as you go and prefills BAS, so preparing accurate business activity statements is easy. Xero calculates GST and speeds up preparing business activity statements. With Xero, you’re now able to lodge activity statements directly to the Australian Tax Office in your practice organisation and any client subscriptions that you’re invited in to. How to complete, lodge and pay your business activity statement or GST/PAYG instalment notice.

I publish the Activity Statement, and then do a manual journal dated the last day of the Activity Statement period to clear the GST and PAYG Liability accounts to the BAS Clearing account. I then process the ATO payment or refund to this account.

Tax gives us good follow up and lodgment control ‘in one place’ each quarter for all BAS clients. I see a whole lot of businesses going ahead pressing buttons and lodging BAS returns with GST on everything from Insurance to Interest in our future. Help will explain how to use the GST Reconciliation Report. What I would do is wait until the end of the financial year and complete the accounts for 2016 before making any adjustment. Once you have the accounts completed you can make one adjustment to correct your GST rather than multiple. Upon reviewing our BAS’s, I realised that the BAS has been reported in Accrual basis instead of Cash. You’ll need a record of how much GST you collected on sales, and how much was paid on purchases.

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Check that the Xero statement balance reflects the balance of that account in your internet banking. The method you use to lodge your BAS will determine how you receive statements in future. For example, if you lodge through the Business Portal, your next statement will be available in the Business Portal. You can only use this service if you have nothing to report for the period and need to lodge your BAS as ‘nil’. you can still access your activity statement through the Business Portal or myGov even if your agent is managing them on your behalf.

xero bas lodgement

So then when the BAS report is ran, the sales figure was reported even though physical cash payment has not yet been applied. I started in the business nearly a year ago and our BAS has always been lodged by an external accountant.

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As you record your income and expenses in Xero, the GST portion of the transaction gets allocated to your GST ledger account. At the end of each BAS period you need to record an entry to clear out the GST that has accumulated in that account. It’s important to do this because it allows you or your accountant to confirm that all of your GST has been reported to the ATO correctly. I have a BAS return for our businesses first quarter and no idea which account to record it under. We do not yet pay ourselves a wage so no PAYG activity. Personally, I like to set up another Current Liability account called BAS Clearing.

You won’t need to submit tax invoices when you lodge your GST return, but you will need to have them on hand. BAS is another admin job but it doesn’t have to be a big one. You just need to go through your accounts and pick out a few key pieces of information for the ATO. It mostly comes down to whether or not your accounts are up to date.

Once you are set up, you can lodge your Activity Statement with the ATO from within Xero. Users who are approved to lodge the BAS for an organisation must have this User Permission ticked. If your turnover is less than $10 million, you may be able to lodge annually – but you’re still required to pay a quarterly instalment of the GST you owe. How often you complete a BAS – and when you must submit it – depends on how much business you’re doing. A BAS can also be used to record other taxes and credits, such as fringe benefits tax, luxury car tax, wine equalisation tax, and fuel tax credits.

You would have to take into account any PAYG included in the return and still allocate a payment of PAYG and then refund into GST account. Hi all, GST collected and paid are posted in Xero to your GST Liability account, the net balance of this account at the end of a BAS period is either payable to , or a refund from the ATO.

Go to the second tab called “bank statement” and select the date range for the quarter. Go to Manage Account button and choose Reconciliation report. For this reason, there are many advantages to hiring a registered BAS Agent including enjoying a an extra 4 week extension for lodgement and payment. Some of the information on this website applies to a specific financial year. Make sure you have the information for the right year before making decisions based on that information.

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Once a BAS is lodged, lock the period to stop changes being made to transactions. Step 4 – Check your connection is authorised with the ATO – click Check connection and get activity statements. A BAS or tax agent and online accounting software like Xero can help keep you up to date, while minimising the workload. And if you’re making PAYG instalments on business income, then your BAS must also include an estimate of the tax you owe.

You can set up accounting software so that all these numbers flow automatically through to the BAS when you complete it online. If you pay employees, your BAS must report how much PAYG tax you’ve withheld from their pay during the period. Attend our Activity statement essentials webinar – which explains how to complete your activity statement. Store all your tax-related documents in Xero as finalised reports or in the file library. Or use Dropbox for secure, centralised online storage. Both options make it easy to share and collaborate with clients. Client information is stored in one place and shared between a business’s Xero accounts and Xero Tax.

This is time-consuming, as it requires double handling of data and the need for multiple systems. Lodging activity statements with Xero will make the process easier by eliminating the need to rekey data or submit paper forms; it will minimise errors and save time. Every quarter, six million business activity statements are lodged in Australia, with 50% lodged by tax or BAS agents, and 30% on paper forms. Your outstanding activity statements are listed underNeeds attention. For the reporting period you’re filing for, clickReview. Because your BAS may also be used for other tax reasons, you will probably need to provide extra information about your business, its income, and any employees.

When you run your next BAS return, you’ll be asked whether you’d like to use the new Simpler BAS, or the existing full version. Xero Tax is free for accounting and bookkeeping practices who are members of the Xero partner program and have reached bronze, silver, gold or platinum status.

Most accounting software will generate an audit report detailing all the transactions included in the BAS. Use this to ensure all your sales and expenses for the period have been entered. Double-check that data against your bank statements, too – this is called bank reconciliation.

xero bas lodgement

You won’t need to submit tax invoices when you lodge your BAS, but you will need to have them on hand. A BAS is a form that you fill out between one and twelve times a year, depending on your business size. The ATO uses the information on your BAS to work out your GST refund or bill. It’s also used for business income tax (if you’re in the pay-as-you-go system), employee income tax, fringe benefits tax, luxury car tax, wine equalisation tax, and fuel tax credits.

I have a ATO BAS refund deposited into bank account, this is due the re-lodgement of my BAS one quarter. Where you have PAYG withholding and/or instalments, you need to split the payment/receipt between the different accounts. If you don’t, you will find that the GST, PAYG Withholding Payable and Income Tax payable accounts will not reflect the true balance of the liabilities. Otherwise you can lodge via the Business Portal or myGov depending on your business type. If you need to make any changes, click on the transaction with an error to view and edit.

They simply sign their declarations online without the hassle of printing, signing by hand, and posting or emailing back to you. Create and lodge returns for all types of return from 2014 onwards. Xero Tax is the only software package your practice needs – you can use it for all of your clients.

The amount of instalment is $2,088 and the total refund claimed in 5B is $4,176. All amounts are correct but still getting this error I have tried twice but vain. When I lodge the BAS with ATO it return with an error “CMN.ATO.AS.EM005 G1 is a mandatory field”. The G1 value is positive and has been filled up on the lodgement form. I am trying to lodge the monthly BAS for our client but I am unable to lodge it even though Xero Practice validates it with no error. “Xero” and “Beautiful business” are trademarks of Xero Limited. Access all Xero features for 30 days, then decide which plan best suits your business.

Most businesses that lodge their own BAS choose an online option. Even if you can’t pay, lodge on time to avoid this extra cost. Default rates come with Xero for inventory items, contacts and accounts. There doesn’t seem to be any declaration from the client to authorise us as tax agents to lodge the statement.

You have several options for lodging your business activity statements and reporting your goods and services tax to us. There are several options for lodging your business activity statements . If you lodge online you may be eligible for an additional two weeks to lodge and pay. The Demo Company is a fictitious Xero organisation we provide to test out Xero features for yourself with sample data, or data you add. As such it can’t be used to connect to real life live ATO systems required for lodging a businesses activity statements from software.