BAS & GST reporting on cash (or payments) basis, not accrual

Owned by Julie Hanlon
Last updated: Dec 16, 2020
4 min read

Question

 Jiwa assumes I report GST on my BAS on an Accrual basis.  What if I report on a Cash basis?

 

Answer

It's still possible to complete you BAS using Jiwa.  Just follow these steps to convert accrual to cash for quarterly BAS purposes.

Download and open the attached spreadsheet at the end of this document.  This spreadsheet works out the GST entered for the period and adjusts for the GST component in debtors and creditors.  The amount contained in the debtors and creditors balances is what has not been received, and not been paid, and therefore needs to be adjusted for.

The three key fields that are required by the ATO are:

  1. G1 Total Sales for the period (can be inc or ex GST)

  2. 1A GST on Sales

  3. 1B GST on Purchases.

The following steps assume we are reporting on Quarter 1 2021. I.e. July to September 2020.

Run the report ‘Business Activity Statement – Worksheet 3’, found in System Settings > Tax > Tax Reports 1.  Run for Acquisitions first.

 

Scroll through to find the postings against your GST Acquisitions account (aka GST Paid), coded G11 or G18.

 

Insert the values for GST Acquisitions into the Debit column at C3 and the value for GST Acquisitions Adjustment into the Credit column at D3 (note, the negative value indicates credit, so you don’t need to enter it as negative in the credit column).

 

Now run the same report ‘Business Activity Statement – Worksheet 3’, for Supplies.

 

Scroll through to find the postings against your GST Supplies account (aka GST on Sales), coded G1 or G7.

 

 

Insert the values for GST Supplies into the Credit column at D4 and the value for GST Supplies Adjustment into the Debit column at C4 (note, in this case the negative value indicates credit, so you do need to enter it as negative in the debit column).

 

If you are unclear about negative values and whether they represent debits or credits, open the GST ledger accounts in General Ledger Maintenance.  On the Transactions tab, filter your transactions for the quarter under review, then check the totals in the bottom right of the form.

 

Now run your ‘Debtors Aged Balance with Tax – Detailed’ (see DEV-8533 for v7.2.1 and earlier) to adjust for the GST still in debtors.

First, find out your opening debtors balance – this is the balance as at the last day of the previous quarter.  So run the report As At 30 June 2020

 

Scroll to the final page to find out your Tax Grand Total in your debtors balance.  Insert Tax Grand Total in Opening Tax at C11.

Now run the same report for the end of the quarter, 30 September 2020 and insert the Tax Grand Total in Closing Tax at C12.

 

The spreadsheet has calculated the change in tax in debtors between the open and close of the quarter.  If the debtors balance has gone down, you’ve received more; if the balance has gone up you’ve received less.  

The GST increase or decrease in debtors is automatically transposed to the Accrual Adj column at F4.

Now repeat for creditors with the ‘Creditors Aged Balances with Tax – Detailed’ (DEV-8533).

 

The GST increase or decrease in creditors is automatically transposed to the Accrual Adj column at F3.

Now you are ready to complete your BAS.  The blue values on the spreadsheet are the values you are required to report for GST reporting on a Cash Basis.

 

Spreadsheet:

 

Assumptions:

Receipts from customers are not partially allocated and payments to suppliers are not partially allocated.  Ie. The remaining balance on the transaction includes the full GST amount of the transaction.