As the resident Bookkeeper at Aspire Consulting, I’m often pulled in by the Accounting Team to tidy up a client’s Xero file and get it “BAS ready”.

This addtional step of bookkeeping adds both fees and time to the work, potentially leading to late lodgements.

Below is my list of 5 tips (including short instructional videos) to get your Xero file “BAS ready” and avoid bookkeeper intervention!

1. Bank Statement Balance vs Xero Statement Balance

Check the Bank Statement Balance agrees to the Xero statement Balance for all accounts. Run the Bank Reconciliation Report for each bank account in Xero to ensure balance agree and identify any anomoalies that need to be cleared.

2. Transfers Between Xero Bank Accounts

Ensure bank transfers between Xero bank accounts are processed to/from the correct account. A systematic approach of processing transfers from the “sending” account and having the receiving account open in another window, will ensure there are no errors when processing transfers between Xero accounts.

3. Source Documents Attached to Transactions

Ensure source documents are attached to the Xero transactions, especially for larger expense items or complex transactions such as registrations and insurances.

4. Accounts Payable & Accounts Receivable
   

   Review the Accounts Payable (Bills) and Accounts Receivable (Sales Invoices) lists to ensure the lists are accurate. Are all the bills listed as payable actually payable and are all the sales invoices listed as receivable still payable by your clients as at the date you run the report? If not, you may have incorrectly coded expenses as Spend Money transactions rather than Matching to Bills in Xero, or you may have coded income as Receive Money transactions rather than Matching to Sales Invoices in Xero.

5. GST Coding Review

At the end of the period after all transactions have been reconciled you can review the GST allocations by running the Activity Statement Report in Xero and reviewing all transactions by tax rate.

If you’re interested in receiving an end of month or end of quarter bookkeeping checklist customised for your business, please reach out!

Sarah Haerewa

sarah@aspire-ca.com.au

1 https://www.loom.com/share/d659e2cff4574ecdbd0128776657f0d5

2 https://www.loom.com/share/f99f70c26f1c412ebbee746f9c32ac58

3 https://www.loom.com/share/1a02dc20f46d4e57b4191af43b4dda89

4 https://www.loom.com/share/09917afaad844b07a2fb7cbb490da1b5