Know what you owe before the BAS is due, not after.
BAS for trade businesses across Albury Wodonga, monthly or quarterly, and the IAS with it. We reconcile the period, check it, and send you the number and the date ahead of time.
The bank feed is behind and the BAS is due Thursday.
You get it lodged, and then you find out what you owe.
Most owners we talk to are in one of three spots. They lodge and hope the numbers are right. Or the numbers are right and the money is not there, because the GST was spent months ago. Or they are a quarter or more behind, and it started as one busy month.
The twenty minutes in Xero was never the cost. What is inside the numbers you are lodging is the cost.
Whatever cycle you are on. Quarterly is the common one, but plenty of businesses report monthly, and some have an instalment activity statement to lodge as well for PAYG withholding or instalments. We work with whichever applies to you rather than assuming a quarter.
You get the number and the due date before it lands.
So the money can be put aside rather than found. That is the whole point of handing it over, and it applies to our invoice as much as to your BAS.
Two parts of BAS for trade businesses that catch people out.
Neither is obvious, and both cost real money.
There is no agent extension on the Christmas quarter.
Lodging through a registered agent usually buys about four extra weeks. Most quarters, that holds.
Quarter two is the exception. The October to December BAS is due 28 February for everyone, agent or not. That quarter covers Christmas, the shutdown and the slow start to the year, and it falls due at exactly the point a trade business is least likely to have the money sitting there.
A mistake on an old BAS can often be fixed on the next one.
Most people assume a GST error means amending the original activity statement, or that it is simply too late. Often neither is true. The ATO lets a lot of errors be corrected on a later BAS, and the rules differ depending on which way the error went.
| If you paid too much GST | If you paid too little |
|---|---|
| Called a credit error | Called a debit error |
| 4 years and one day from the date you lodged | 18 months from the due date of the BAS the error was in |
| No dollar limit | Net error must be under $12,500 |
| Clock runs from when you lodged | Clock runs from when the error happened, not when you found it |
If you are behind, or you think a past quarter was wrong, the useful question is not whether you got it wrong. It is which of those two columns you are in, and how much time is left.
Tell us how far back it goes.
More common than you would think, and fixable. We are not going to lecture you about it. Tell us how far back it goes and we will tell you what it takes to sort out, and what that costs, before anything starts.
If your bank feed is reconciled to the day, your BAS goes in on time every quarter, and the GST and PAYG is already sitting in a separate account when you press lodge, you do not need us. Plenty of owners are in that spot. Keep going.
If you press lodge and hope. If the BAS is right and the money is not there. If you are a quarter or more behind. Those are the three we can actually do something about.
Every firm on the border lodges BAS.
We sit on the border and we work both sides of it. If your business is in Albury and your crews work jobs in Wodonga, that is two states of payroll tax, workers compensation and licensing to think about. A bookkeeping service in Melbourne does not think about that. We have been here since 1988.
We work with trade businesses. Not as a claim. Ask us what a roofer gets wrong on a BAS and you will get a specific answer.
Leeann Cunningham manages the bookkeeping side. She holds a Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping, and it is her arrival that let the firm offer bookkeeping alongside the accounting. She is who your quarter goes to.
Lodged by a registered tax agent, number 20651000. We also handle bookkeeping and Xero and the wider picture for tradies and contractors.
Four steps, and you know the number before it is due.
A 15 minute call
What the business does, what software you are in, and how far back the tidy up goes if there is one.
The fee in writing
Agreed before any work starts. If catch up is needed beyond a normal quarter, that number comes separately and up front.
We reconcile, then check
In the file you already have. Reconciled before anything is lodged, rather than autofilled and hoped over.
You get the number early
The amount and the due date, ahead of time. Then a registered agent lodges it.
The things people actually ask.
I can do it myself in Xero in twenty minutes.
Then keep doing it. The twenty minutes was never the cost. What is inside the numbers you are lodging is the cost.
It is another bill I do not need.
You may already be paying for it, in the quarter that goes wrong or the payment plan you did not see coming. The fee is agreed in writing before any work starts.
I cannot pay the GST as it is.
Knowing the number early is how that stops being a surprise. We will not pretend a tax debt goes away, but there are usually more options before the due date than after it.
I lodge monthly, not quarterly. Or I have an IAS as well.
Both are fine. Monthly reporting and instalment activity statements are part of the same job, and some businesses have a mix. Tell us what you are on and we will work to that cycle.
Do I have to change software?
No. We work in the file you already have.
Do I have to come into the office?
Either. In person in Albury, or online.
Want your BAS off your desk?
Fifteen minutes, no obligation, no pitch at the end of it.