BAS Preparation Checklist

Review the Statement Period

Check your records to see if any of the following actions occurred during the statement period – if present, they could affect your activity statement.

• Purchase of equipment or property
• Fuel tax credits (if applicable)
• Overseas purchases
• Purchase, sale and/or trade-in of vehicle(s)
• Payroll terminations
• Loans for directors/owners
• Government grants
• Insurance claims and refunds
• Customs invoices
• Hire purchase agreements and/or financial agreements

Review Data

Make sure all data has been correctly entered and properly reconciled.

• Bank transactions are reconciled
• Credit card transactions are reconciled
• Loans are reconciled
• All purchases are entered
• All expenses are entered
• Petty cash, cash drawer and POS clearing accounts are all reconciled
• Outstanding debtors and creditors are correct
• Subsidiary accounts are reconciled
• Clearing accounts have a $0 balance
• Suspense accounts have a $0 balance
• Undeposited funds accounts have a $0 balance
• PAYG withholding, superannuation, deduction liability and ATO accounts are reconciled
• Data file auditing is completed for bookkeeping software
• Different reports are compared
• Private usage journals are checked and entered as needed

Review Tax Codes

Make sure all tax codes have been allocated correctly in your bookkeeping software.

• Review previous BAS lodgement to ensure no changes have been made that could affect the outcome
• Check tax codes have been allocated correctly

Reconcile GST

Reconcile your GST for your applicable accounting method.

• Reconcile GST with profit and loss statement (applicable for cash)
• Reconcile GST with balance sheet accounts (applicable for accrual)

Prepare BAS

Put your business activity statement together by compiling and reconciling relevant reports.

• Create a GST audit report
• Print and save GST reports for cash and/or accrual
• Create a GST summary report
• Check that any deferred GST liability has been added (applicable for eligible importers)
• Fill in fringe benefits tax, wine equalisation tax, and/or fuel tax (if applicable)
• Reconcile all accounts
• Add a lock date to the reporting period in your bookkeeping software
• Create a payroll summary for the reporting period (applicable if registered for PAYG withholding)
• Create profit and loss accrual for the reporting period (applicable if entered for PAYG instalments and wanting to vary instalments)
• Prepare BAS and check against reports
• Print BAS transaction report (if applicable)
• Complete BAS
• Back up all relevant files in a correctly labelled, secure location

Enter BAS Payment

Pay your BAS correctly and check the final results.

• Enter the BAS payment by using the full values from the GST reports, and allocate rounding to the rounding account
• Ensure the remaining balances are $0 on the balance sheet (for accrual) or the tax amounts on the receivables and payables summary of the tax report (for cash)

For Accountants

Make sure your accountant has access to the required data when preparing your tax return.

• Give your accountant access to your BAS files