Bookkeeping and BAS lodgement
Stop wondering whether the numbers are actually right
You should be able to open Xero on any day of the month and believe what it tells you. That is the whole job: a file that reconciles, an activity statement that agrees with your accounts, and an afternoon a week back. That is what our bookkeeping services do: the books kept in Xero, the BAS prepared and lodged on time, and someone who already knows your file when a question comes up.
What goes wrong without it
A reconciled file and a correct file are not the same thing
None of the three below shows up as an error message. They show up as a quarter that does not agree with what you lodged, and an evening spent hunting for the difference.
Green ticks that do not mean reconciled
Every line marked off, and last financial year's transactions still sitting in this one. If your bank reconciliation is out, everything is out.
GST Free and BAS Excluded used as if they were one code
They are not. Almost every line in your profit and loss belongs in GST or GST Free, and reaching for BAS Excluded there quietly changes what you report.
An activity statement nobody reconciled first
The form goes out without the accounts behind it being checked, so the correction surfaces a quarter later, when it is harder to unpick.
What you get
The books kept properly, and the BAS to match
Bank reconciliation done to the cent, verified on the bank reconciliation report rather than on the green ticks
Supplier bills and receipts captured through Hubdoc, so nothing is typed in twice
GST coding reviewed rather than assumed, because GST Free and BAS Excluded are not interchangeable
Activity statements prepared with the underlying accounts reconciled first, so the form agrees with the file
Comparative reports showing the same period last year beside this one, with each variance as a percentage
Payroll and superannuation kept alongside the books if you want them handled together
How it works
Four steps, in this order
1
A free 30-minute call
You tell us what the file is doing and where the month goes. We tell you whether this is ongoing bookkeeping, a repair job first, or something you could run yourself after one session of training.
2
We look at the file before we quote
Four reports in order: bank reconciliation, wages payable, GST, then the balance sheet. That is usually enough to say what state the file is in and what it will take to keep it.
3
We agree what we take on
Which parts we keep, which parts stay with you, and what happens on which day of the month. Written down, so nobody is waiting on anybody.
4
A monthly rhythm, and a quarterly one
Reconciliations and reports monthly, the activity statement quarterly, and nothing lodged until the accounts behind it reconcile.
Who it suits
Who this is for
Medical and allied health
Practitioner payments and billings that reconcile without a monthly rebuild.
NDIS and disability care
Claims and participant records kept in a state that stands up to an audit.
Not-for-profits
Fund and grant tracking, and a committee report you can simply run.
Employers
Pay runs, superannuation and STP, kept alongside the reconciliations.
Gold Coast businesses
Books kept by a team you can sit down with, not a call centre.
Questions we answer every week
Questions we are asked most
Do you keep the books, or teach us to keep them?
Either, and often both. Some clients hand the whole month over. Others keep the reconciliations in house and have only the quarterly work done for them, which usually starts with one training session so the person doing it does it the same way every month.
Can we lodge our own BAS?
Yes, and plenty of our clients do. We strongly advise a review before you lodge. The test we teach is simple: the activity statement, the profit and loss and the balance sheet all have to reconcile. If your bank reconciliation is out, everything is out, and a screen full of green ticks is not proof that it is in.
What is the difference between GST Free and BAS Excluded?
GST Free is a business supply that carries no GST. BAS Excluded is for items that are not business supplies at all, and for balance sheet items that are not fixed assets. Almost everything in your profit and loss should therefore be GST or GST Free, and the usual exceptions are wages, superannuation, bank revaluation and foreign exchange gains and losses. Ask us about a specific transaction rather than guessing, because the same wrong code repeated for a year is what makes a quarter hard to fix.
Our file is already behind. Where does that leave us?
In more ordinary company than you would think. Files get behind for ordinary reasons. Sometimes we fix everything. Sometimes the practical answer is to draw a line at the last lodged return and get this year right, because months spent correcting old periods can leave you worse off than a clean start from a fixed date. We will tell you which one we think it is, and why.
Do we need to be on the Gold Coast?
No. We work with clients across Australia in Xero, and you are welcome at our Gold Coast office by appointment if you are local.
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