Sales tax disappears when I merge transactions - why?

melbuy13

When reviewing my transactions I merge the 'invoice payment' (generated by Wave) with the payment record that comes through on my bank statement. I do this to avoid the double-up that otherwise results. However, I now see that when I merge the two transactions that the sales tax (GST) disappears (even though I have included GST in my original invoice AND separately noted it on the individual bank deposit). The GST then does not show in the Sales Tax report.

I have two questions - why does the GST disappear when I merge the transactions? Secondly, is there a non-manual way of including GST on all payments and deposits that go into my bank statement? Every purchase and every cent earned in NZ is subject to GST, so it is a slow process manually noting the GST on every bank transaction to make sure it is picked up in the Sales Tax Report.

JamieD

Hey @melbuy13. The GST should not appear when you merge the two transactions together (as the original transaction will always take precedent, aka the invoice payment with the GST included). My question for you, is this tax listed as a recoverable tax in Wave? If you could please include screenshots on your reply to show us what's happening here.. I'm more than happy to further investigate for you. As for the second part of your question, there isn't currently a way to include GST on all purchases/income automatically (it will need to be added manually, however, you can do this in bulk).

melbuy13

Thanks Jamie - how do I add GST in bulk?

Also, when I look at the wave 'transactions' it separately shows 'invoice payments' as well as the payment deposit, which causes a double-up of income (and my balances don't reconcile). To get around this I merge the two transactions. However, I have found that when I do this I lose the income category (for example, the income is categorised by Wave as sales instead of Design Services (which was what the invoice was for). So when I look at my profit and loss later on I don't get a clear picture of how much of my income is sales vs design income. So then I tried deleting the 'invoice payment' instead of merging, but then all my invoices showed up as being unpaid. Is there away to categorise my income without double-ups or creating unpaid invoices? I hope this makes sense!

JamieD

@melbuy13 Totally makes sense! When you get paid from a client on your invoice that gets sent out, two transactions are recorded - 1) For the invoice payment itself, and 2) For the deposit transaction that happens when you get paid. The funds for the invoice payment (if paid via Wave) get automatically put into a holding account called 'Payments by Wave.' Once the deposit transaction happens, you would then categorize that transaction as a 'Transfer from Payments by Wave' which should help you balance here. If you aren't actually accepting payments through Wave, you can simply delete the bank deposit transaction since it doesn't have a paper trail like the invoice, and also duplicates your income. This help centre article should provide more insight on this -- https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004964423-Bookkeeping-changes-to-Payments-by-Wave

In terms of bulk adding the sales tax, you would want to select the number of transactions that need GST and choose 'Edit' -- from here, you should be able to select the Tax option in the 'Change' drop down, then simply choose the tax that needs to be changed (see screenshot).

gabe1234

@JamieD , I am doing something wrong, pls help me out. When I mark an invoice (which has a recoverable sales tax, called "BTW" in the image attached) as paid, the sales tax BTW disappears. When I rename the category to "services" I can make the sales tax appear again (but the invoice status becomes unpaid again). Please have a look at the image attached, where now a double payment is showing for 16 Jan 2019. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Gabe

Barsin

Hey there @gabe1234

When you create an invoice, all of the necessary transactional information is on it, for example;

1. Your product.
2. The income account.
3. A sales tax can and should be applied to the invoice.

So when you mark the invoice as paid all of that information should be accounted for in your reports.

In your transactions page, find the income received by a client brought in by your bank connection, and select the drop down 'choose a category' option. This should allow you to scroll down and link that income to an invoice by selecting "payment made to an invoice". Categorize it to the appropriate invoice and it will in turn show up as paid, not creating a duplicate.

If you notice that it's been duplicated and there are two transactions, it's likely because you selected "mark invoice as paid", which creates a transaction, and then your bank import brings in the income transaction as well. Delete the bank imported one and moving forward I would recommend using the choose a category option. This will detect your invoice has been paid. In the drop down there is a 'more option' category, you might have to locate the invoice in there.