BAS preparation checklist: reconcile July–September bank transactions

For a quarterly Australian BAS, first reconcile July–September bank transactions, then review the supporting tax invoices and the reporting basis in your accounting system. A bank statement shows money moving; it does not establish the GST treatment of each payment.

The standard due date for the July–September quarter is 28 October. Your BAS notice, eligible online concessions or an agent arrangement may give a different applicable date. Confirm yours with the ATO's BAS due-date guidance.

Download the BAS preparation checklist (.csv). It is a records-preparation checklist, not a BAS lodgement form or GST calculator.

Gather more than the trading account

Collect July, August and September statements for all relevant accounts, business cards and payment processors. Include invoices, supplier tax invoices, credit notes and any payroll or other records your BAS requires. Ask your bookkeeper which additional reports apply to your business.

Check that a downloaded September file covers through 30 September. Keep account and currency identifiers visible. For any missing bank-feed period, record the precise start and end dates before importing replacement transactions.

Convert only when you need to

A usable bank CSV is often the quickest route. When the records are PDFs, convert the statements, inspect the output and import the appropriate account-specific file into your bookkeeping software. The Xero import guide explains that destination's workflow.

Do not import a full month's rows on top of an existing feed without checking overlap. A duplicated payment can make both the bookkeeping and the BAS preparation wrong even when the converted file itself balances.

Reconcile the bank movement

Here is a fictional AUD account for one quarter:

The bank arithmetic is 5,000 + 11,000 − 4,400 − 2,000 = 9,600. That does not mean the GST payable is one-eleventh of the bank movement. The transfer is a movement between accounts, and the receipts/payments need their underlying GST evidence and classification checked.

The quarter-end reconciliation checklist covers matching to ledger entries and documenting outstanding items. Keep a signed-off reconciliation for each account.

Review the GST evidence

Check whether each item is a taxable transaction, GST-free, input-taxed, outside the relevant reporting scope or partly private. Follow the applicable rules and your software setup; do not infer the answer solely from the payee name.

The ATO's GST accounting guidance explains the role of tax invoices and accounting methods. Your cash or non-cash basis affects when amounts are reported. A statement-only spreadsheet cannot resolve invoices that have not yet been paid under a non-cash method.

Use a review list for missing invoices, mixed-use costs, refunds, unusual receipts and disputed entries. Assign an owner and next action rather than applying the same GST code to every row.

Check processor payouts separately

A net settlement from a marketplace or card processor may combine sales, fees, refunds and timing adjustments. Use the settlement report to explain the deposit. Do not record the net deposit as both gross sales and then deduct the fees again without reconciling the underlying figures.

The payout reconciliation article shows a clearing-account approach. Keep those reports with the bank evidence.

Hand over and retain the pack

Send your bookkeeper the reconciliations, source statements, converted files, supporting invoices and unresolved questions. Confirm who is responsible for lodging and paying; finishing a spreadsheet is not filing a BAS.

NoRekey supplies extracted transaction data. It does not assign GST codes or lodge BAS returns. Use it to remove statement retyping, then complete the reporting work in your accounting system. If you are also preparing the annual return, use the separate Australian tax-return records checklist.