Australian Quarterly BAS statement - what reports do I need?

DaveyG

I've been using WAVE since Sept last year and love the ease of invoicing but am still have trouble getting things to balance as I still haven't nailed down all the sub accounts and where I should itemise each transaction etc.

Anyway I need to submit my latest quarterly figures (Jan-March 2019) for my Business Activity Statement but am a little confused by what reports I should be running and where best to get the info from. Can anyone advise the main reports I should be running in order to get the relevant info (Total Sales, Net Sales, Total GST paid, Total GST received, Total Expenses etc).

Thanks. Dave

JordanD

Hi @DaveyG! While I'm not an accountant (and would love if one could lend their expertise in here), it sounds like some of the information you are looking for would be able to be gathered from the Sales Tax report - found in the Reports section. If you have applied the sales tax to each transaction that you have entered into Wave, then the Sales tax received, paid, and total sales with sales tax would likely be calculated here for you. In saying that, I can't say that I'm familiar specifically with Australian tax filings but I'd encourage you to take a look at the report as a starting point.

I'd also love to hear from any other users who have had to file a BAS in Australia, as I'd love to hear insight on the best way that they have completed this in Wave

steve3140

Hey Dave,

I am in Australia too and am not an accountant either. But I work in IT and have written accounting software in the past, so I know a little about the subject. I have only just started using Wave in the past week. I've entered all my transactions for the past year and verified that all my P+L and Balance Sheet numbers are right. I have looked at the reports, but the details that I need in order to produce a BAS don't seem to be readily available. Easy enough to produce a report showing sales income, however the details needed for the expenses side are not easily available.

My BAS needs are very simple, as I don't have a Payroll component. What I need can be summed up as follows:

-- detailed transaction export for given period (e.g. for a Quarter, say 1 JAN to 31 MAR) showing:
---- transaction date, description, total amount
------ every split for the transaction, one line per split
------ split gross amount
------ split amount ex-tax (might be same as gross amount if no tax paid)
------ split amount of sales tax collected or paid

Something like that anyway. I could then Export this to Excel and produce some totals for the BAS.

For Jordan's benefit, the "gap" seems to be that in a BAS you need to report:
-- code G1 = total sales (can optionally be tax-incl or ex-tax number)
-- code G2 = export sales (for many, incl myself, this is always zero)
-- code G3 = tax free sales (for many, incl myself, this is always zero)
-- code G10 = capital purchases (purchases of assets, includes both tax-incl and ex-tax amounts)
-- code G11 = non-capital purchases (expenses and similar, both tax-incl and ex-tax amounts)

Then in the summary on the back of the BAS you need to report:
-- code 1A = total tax collected from Sales (this is easy to work out in Wave)
-- code 1B = total tax paid from Purchases (this is easy to work out in Wave)

After subtracting 1B from 1A you arrive at 9 (God help me, these government forms are a mess!) and that is the amount you owe the government ... which SHOULD match to the Balance Sheet number for that quarter.

So having said all that, the bit I struggle to identify are the G10 and G11 components of the BAS.

steve3140

Now if I run the Sales Tax Report (STR) in Wave for a particular period, I can get nearly everything. Note that I run the Accrual version of the report.

BAS G1 = Wave STR Sales Subject To Tax (this is ex-GST amount)
BAS 1A = Wave STR Sales Subject To Tax x 10%
BAS 9 = Wave STR Net Tax Owing (should match to Balance Sheet)
therefore
BAS 1B = BAS 1A less BAS 9

To verify if BAS 1B as calculated is correct, you could run the an Account Transactions Report (ATR) in Wave for the period and only for the GST account you have specified (select Account from drop down list). Export to Excel. Then you have to get creative. Replace any currency markers in the amount fields (e.g. replace "A$" with null). You can add up the individual GST amounts. Make sure to exclude any payment of a previous GST debt from the sums.

It is a lot of mucking about, but I was able to verify my previous quarter BAS 1B number via this mechanism. Than God that I have a very simple little business with just a handful of transactions.

But I don't have a way of working out G10 or G11. I think in future I will just have to make them up. I don't think they're all that important to be honest, in the bigger scheme of things.

steve3140

OKAY, I think I have found a rough-n-ready method to produce my BAS, with some caveats:

• I haven't figured Fixed Asset purchases into my method (I haven't had any recently)
• I don't have any Payroll to consider

I've been able to use this to reproduce the numbers out of Wave reports which used to be produced for me by QuickBooks. The simplified method which works for me:

BAS G1 = Profit and Loss "Total Income" (n.b. this is ex-GST amount, so to report at GST-incl add 10%)
-- cross check against Sales Tax Report "Sales Subject To Tax" (n.b. this is ex-GST amount)

BAS G10 = yet to be worked out as I haven't bought fixed assets recently

BAS G11 = run Transaction Report for period, look at Bank Account(s), add together all expense-type transaction amounts, but be sure to EXCLUDE non-expense things like payment to ATO for previous BAS, profit distributions, etc ... and if you have any capital purchases at G10 ignore those also. This method gives a GST-incl number at G11.

BAS 1A = Profit and Loss "Total Income" (which is ex-GST) x 10%
-- assumes that all income has GST charged on it at 10%
-- cross-check against Sales Tax Report "Sales Subject To Tax" (ex-GST) x 10%

BAS 9 = Sales Tax Report "Net Tax Owing"
-- cross-check against Balance Sheet "GST" account

then calculate:

BAS 1B = BAS 1A less BAS 9

DaveyG

Thanks @steve3140 for your help. As a non-accountant I need my accounting software to be easy and do all the work for me, and I don't want to have to be cross referencing to excel or bank statements. I do like Wave but this seems to be an area where it falls down a little, I guess as it's not Australian specific. My issue is that, the various reports I produce don't seem to add up, (I also keep a seperate excel spreadsheet of all transactions). Anyway I'll take onboard your suggestions, appreciate it! Dave

Chris_SHCC1

Not sure it needs be that complicated - Just use the Sales Tax report set for cash if you're quarterly BAS'ing that way. Just categorize items for GST or GST Free etc in your daily accounting.

Do you do you BAS online Davey?

ClaireWryghtAccounts

You shouldn't need to report a lot of this information now with Simpler BAS.

https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Business-activity-statements-(BAS)/Goods-and-services-tax-(GST)/Simpler-BAS/
From 1 July 2017, Simpler BAS is the default reporting method for small businesses with a GST turnover of less than $10 million. They have less GST information to report on their BAS.

Small businesses only need to report:
G1 Total sales
1A GST on sales
1B GST on purchases

The following GST information is no longer required:
G2 Export sales
G3 GST-free sales
G10 Capital purchases
G11 Non-capital purchases

G1, 1A and 1B can all come from the Sales Tax Report

JordanD

Thanks for providing that link @ClaireWryghtAccounts ! As a non-Australian, the information that you shared is super helpful! @DaveyG, Would definitely recommend taking a look if you haven't already

For anyone else reading through, the full hyperlink is: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Business-activity-statements-(BAS)/Goods-and-services-tax-(GST)/Simpler-BAS/

ClaireWryghtAccounts

The brackets mess with the automatic hyperlink, but they are correct, copy and paste required

mp3damo

@ClaireWryghtAccounts said:
You shouldn't need to report a lot of this information now with Simpler BAS.

https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Business-activity-statements-(BAS)/Goods-and-services-tax-(GST)/Simpler-BAS/
From 1 July 2017, Simpler BAS is the default reporting method for small businesses with a GST turnover of less than $10 million. They have less GST information to report on their BAS.

Small businesses only need to report:
G1 Total sales
1A GST on sales
1B GST on purchases

The following GST information is no longer required:
G2 Export sales
G3 GST-free sales
G10 Capital purchases
G11 Non-capital purchases

G1, 1A and 1B can all come from the Sales Tax Report

Is G1 Total sales the "Sales subject to tax" + "Tax amount on Sales" on the Sales Tax Report?
And 1A GST on sales the "Tax amount on Sales" figure
And 1B GST on purchases the "Tax amount on Purchases" figure

ClaireWryghtAccounts

@mp3damo said:

Is G1 Total sales the "Sales subject to tax" + "Tax amount on Sales" on the Sales Tax Report?
And 1A GST on sales the "Tax amount on Sales" figure
And 1B GST on purchases the "Tax amount on Purchases" figure

G1 also needs to include any sales that are not subject to tax - and can be reported either inclusive or exclusive of GST (you select which when completing the BAS form). I find it easiest to manually total the first column 'Sales subject to tax' for all rows and report GST exclusive.

(You should allocate every income and expense item to a tax category - even if that's a No GST category).

1A and 1B - yes as you have them

mp3damo

Thanks for your help