A webinar on how to balance your GST accounts to the blalance sheet at year end

We have had some Treasurers requesting information on how to balance their GST accounts to the Balance Sheet at year end so we have worked with Xero to produce a webinar on best practise for reconciling your bank accounts in Xero, how to use Bank Rules to create efficiencies, how to correctly complete and file a GST return which mitigates the risk of human error and how to do a GST Reconciliation to check that your GST account agrees with your Balance Sheet. Doing a proper reconciliation between the two is an important ledger health check.

The webinar also shows Treasurers how to access Xero Central which is a support and learning site where you can search for support articles, access courses and webinars, start a discussion with other customers, or raise a case with Xero Support.

Click on the link below to access the webinar:

https://xero.zoom.us/recording/share/NNioFR7pMQHj-PwHa-Kp1kEdTM2DWHnYHKIUqr-xT8iwIumekTziMw

Below are a list of things to check when the GST account balance in your Balance Sheet does not match with the GST return when on a Payments basis:

  • Run the GST Reconciliation report from the GST period before your Conversion Date ie. if your Conversion Date is 1st April 2019 and you file 6 monthly returns, then run this report from 1 October 2018, and fill in the Filed column based off Box 10 (GST Collected) and Box 14 (GST Paid) of the corresponding GST returns. The “Unfiled GST” amount at the bottom of this report should match with your GST Return.
  • Check the GST opening balance saved in the Conversion balances screen (accrual basis) is correct – this should match the GST portion in the pre-conversion invoices and bills in Xero.
  • Check if any transactions have been coded directly to the GST account that are not related to GST payments to the IRD, or refunds from the IRD. For example, GST fees, fines and penalties should not be posted to the GST system account.
  • Check that the GST payments to IRD or refunds from IRD match the corresponding GST Returns
  • Check whether any ‘Late Claims’ were calculated but excluded from your GST Returns

If you need any assistance with this, please save a draft copy of the GST Reconciliation report with the ‘Filed’ column filled out, invite Xero support into the organisation and log a ticket through Xero Central for online support.

https://central.xero.com/s/