It’s easier for clients to recall what a transaction was for when you’re reconciling them regularly, and closer to the date they occurred. It’s also easier to source evidence if clients need to find a receipt from last week, instead of one from last year. On the Xero partner programme, partners get access to Xero Practice Manager, a complete system for assigning, tracking, and delivering tasks.

• The transaction information is extracted from physical receipts, ready for you to reconcile in Xero – no manual data entry required.
• Free accounting tools and templates to help speed up and simplify workflows.
• With modern accounting software, the automation options don’t stop there.
• 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.
• You’ll need a record of how much GST you collected on sales, and how much was paid on purchases.

Tips for Streamlining BAS Preparation

Include prepayments toward your annual tax liability if required. Free accounting tools and templates to help speed up and simplify workflows. If your BAS says that you owe GST, then you are generally required to make that payment on the same day. Laugh off the Zoom fatigue while learning the real hits to your wallet – average three hours weekly wasted on unproductive meetings for Australian small businesses. Scale Suite delivers tailored solutions to enhance your business’s financial efficiency and support sustainable growth in 2025 and beyond. Accurate BAS preparation prevents penalties, which can reach $1,650 for late lodgments in 2025, and ensures compliance with ATO standards.

SERVICES

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. You would have to take into account any PAYG 9 simple steps to prepare your bas using xero included in the return and still allocate a payment of PAYG and then refund into GST account. 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.

Any business can register for GST, but you’ll have to do it once you pass a certain income level or want to claim fuel tax credits, or provide taxi services. Anyone who completes a BAS needs to report how much GST was collected from customers, and how much GST was paid to suppliers. If not, you’ll need to look back through your receipts and invoices or bank statements.

Reviewing your BAS summary

• Terms and conditions, features, support, pricing, and service options subject to change without notice.
• Communicate these deadlines regularly in multiple channels – on the phone, via email, and when your clients visit you in person.
• The online resources are available in SCORM format and can be embedded in your LMS.
• This also allows lecturers to access their students’ Xero organisations.
• For example, for income tax preparation, you should include expense receipts and interest statements.

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.

Make sure to calculate the GST you’ve collected on sales and the GST you’ve paid on purchases. If you do daily bank reconciliation and have good bookkeeping habits, it won’t be a problem. 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.

Step 10: Pay or Claim Refunds

A lot of Australian businesses have an accountant or bookkeeper who can take care of their BAS and tax obligations. Besides checking that the BAS is accurate, these professionals can give advice on improving business profitability. 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. Explore all features today and see how our software can make your business’ compliance run more smoothly.

You can see job status at a glance, assign jobs to your team, and check their capacity to take on more work. Though software tools can be a learning curve, with all your clients sharing evidence using the same system, you only have one process to manage. Plus, there’s no risk of a lost paper receipt, bill, or invoice derailing your progress. Let clients know early and speak to them about deadlines regularly so they’re front of mind. In the rush of running a business, your clients could overlook important deadlines or compliance requirements. Communicate these consistently, so deadlines aren’t forgotten and penalties and aren’t incurred.

How to Prepare and Lodge a BAS in Australia 2025: Step-by-Step Guide

Compare current tax years with previous ones to track performance, and share the reports securely from inside Xero with your clients. Start by letting clients know exactly what kind of information you need to gather for tax prep. You could create a checklist that outlines the documents and data required. For example, for income tax preparation, you should include expense receipts and interest statements. A Business Activity Statement (BAS) is a form submitted to the ATO to report and pay GST, PAYG instalments, PAYG withholding, and other taxes.

Bookkeeping for CPA’s

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. With accounting software, creating financial statements and reports is fast and simple. With Xero, if reconciliations are up to date for your clients, you can generate accurate reports in a couple of clicks using live accounting data.

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. How to complete, lodge and pay your business activity statement or GST/PAYG instalment notice.

We help you choose only the services that fit your business needs and you pay for exactly what you use. The first time you run your activity statement, you’ll be asked whether you want to connect your organisation to the ATO. If you have employees, ensure that your payroll records are accurate and up-to-date. This includes PAYG withholding amounts and superannuation contributions.