Getting ready for BAS time: a simple checklist for small business

For a lot of small business owners, BAS time means a scramble of receipts and a quiet dread. It doesn't have to. Most of the stress comes from leaving things until the deadline — a little routine through the quarter makes lodgement almost boring, which is exactly what you want.

Keep it current, not perfect

The single biggest thing you can do is reconcile your bank regularly — weekly if you can, fortnightly at worst. When your accounts are up to date, your GST position is simply correct at any moment, and there's no month-end archaeology to do. If you've fallen behind, that's fixable too; catching up is one of the most common things we're asked to do.

Your quarterly BAS checklist

Before you lodge, make sure you've:

• Reconciled every bank and card account to the last day of the period.
• Captured and coded all supplier bills, including anything paid personally.
• Checked that GST has been applied correctly — not everything has GST (bank fees, most government charges and some food items don't).
• Confirmed wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation are recorded.
• Set aside the GST and PAYG you'll owe, so the payment isn't a shock.

Don't pay GST you don't owe — or miss GST you can claim

Miscoded transactions cut both ways. We regularly see businesses paying GST on income that was GST-free, and just as often missing credits they were entitled to on purchases. Over a year that adds up. A quick review of your tax codes before lodging is worth the ten minutes.

When in doubt, get it checked

As a registered BAS Agent, JBS can prepare and lodge your BAS for you, or simply sanity-check what you've done before it goes to the ATO. There's a handy bonus, too: lodging your quarterly BAS electronically through a Registered BAS Agent usually gives you an extra four weeks past the standard due date to lodge and pay (this applies to most quarters — the December quarter is the exception). Either way, the goal is the same: lodge on time, pay the right amount, and get back to running the business. If BAS time is a regular headache, have a chat with us.

Quarterly BAS due dates at a glance

The standard quarterly deadlines, alongside the concessional dates you get when you lodge electronically through a Registered BAS Agent like JBS:

Indicative dates — the December quarter has no agent concession, deadlines shift when they fall on a weekend or public holiday, and monthly lodgers and some other arrangements differ. We'll confirm the exact dates for your business.