How Do I Reconcile the GST Return with the Cashbook (Cash Basis)?

My GST is Cash Basis. How should I reconcile this in Infusion?

• Print the GST Summary report for the required date range
• Print the Customers Transactions by Type report for the same date range - selecting Payments only
• Print the Cashbook Audit Trail for the same date range.  Note the total Receipts from Cashbook
• Print the Suppliers Transactions by Type report for the same date range - selecting Payments only
• Print the Cashbook Audit Trail for the same date range.  Note the total Cashbook Payments

GST on Income from the GST Summary report must equal the GST on the Customer Transaction report plus GST on the Cashbook Audit trail.

GST on Expenses from the GST Summary report must equal the GST on the Supplier Transaction report plus the GST on the Cashbook Audit trail

Or explained in more detail:

To check GST on Income:

From the Customers Transaction Report - Payments Only extract the GST (x3 /23) = X for this example

From the Cashbook Audit Trail - all bank accounts - take note of the total amount of GST only under Source: Cashbook = Y

                                                                                 - take note of the total amount of GST only under Source: Unknown = Z (these may exist on the report or not, since they relate to journals and they may contain GST depending on what the journal is for)

Verification: Add X + Y + Z and this should equal the figure on "Total GST Collected" of the GST Summary Report. 

If there is a discrepancy

If there is a discrepancy, then you will have to find which transaction is causing the difference.  Normally it is something easy to identify:

• an Inland Revenue payment recorded with GST on it
• a journal that should not have GST
• If using Job Deposits, it could be that these are received and allocated over different GST periods
• It may also be a transaction that was entered after the previous period was closed.  You may need to compare the Customer Transaction Report with the Customer Receipts on the Cashbook report to see if you can find anything different.

Job Deposits

To confirm this, export the GST Detail report to Excel and then sort the data in the Income section, so that the lines for Job … Receive Deposit and  Job … Allocate Deposit are together.

Then sum the value and gst columns for those entries.

Job xxxxxx - Receive Deposit

Job xyxyxy - Allocate Deposit (Inv ….

 The value of that GST will be part of any discrepancy noted 

To check the GST on Expenses:

From the Suppliers Transaction Report - Payments Only extract the GST (x3 /23) = A for this example (Remember to exclude any payments made to International / GST exclusive suppliers for that period)

From the Cashbook Audit Trail - all bank accounts - take note of the total amount of GST only under Source: Cashbook = B

                                                                                 - take note of the total amount of GST only under Source: Unknown = C (these may exist on the report or not, since they relate to journals and they may contain GST depending on what the journal is for)

Verification: Add A + B + C and this should equal the figure on "Total GST Credit" of the GST Summary Report. 

If there is a discrepancy, then you will have to find which transaction is causing the difference.  Normally it is something easy to identify, an Inland Revenue payment recorded with GST on it or a journal that should not have GST.  It may also be a transaction that was entered after the previous period was closed.  You may need to compare the Supplier Transaction Report with the Supplier Receipts on the Cashbook report to see if you can find anything different. 

• Also check that your last return is closed off.
• If the difference is less that $1.00 this may be rounding from the reports, you can close off the GST in this case.

Also see  Using Discount when Receipting a Payment

Also check where Supplier Invoices have mixed GST Codes but the balance is zero.