Generate and Reconcile the Australia BAS Report

This guide walks a NexWave user (typically a bookkeeper or accountant) through running the Australia BAS Report at the end of each filing period, understanding what the numbers mean, and reconciling them against the General Ledger before lodging the Business Activity Statement with the ATO.

It assumes the underlying tax templates, accounts, and Item Tax Templates have already been set up. For one-time configuration, see the Australia BAS Report module page.

Important: accrual basis only. The Australia BAS Report works on an accrual basis (sales and purchases are recognised when the invoice is dated, not when payment is received). If your business has elected to report GST on a cash basis with the ATO (available for businesses with aggregated turnover under AUD 10 million), the figures in this report will not match what the ATO expects, and you will need to reconcile to your bank-receipts and bank-payments figures separately. NexWave does not currently produce a cash-basis BAS.

Scope. This report covers the GST portion of the BAS only. PAYG withholding (W1, W2), PAYG income tax instalments (T1 through T9), FBT instalments, wine equalisation tax, luxury car tax, and fuel tax credits are not produced by this report. You enter those directly in the ATO portal alongside the GST figures from NexWave.

Simpler BAS vs Full BAS

Most Australian small businesses (GST turnover under AUD 10 million) lodge Simpler BAS, where only G1, 1A, and 1B are required on the form. NexWave still calculates G2, G3, G10, and G11 internally so you have a full breakdown for your own workpapers and audit trail, but you do not need to enter them in the portal under Simpler BAS.

Businesses with GST turnover at or above AUD 10 million lodge the Full BAS and must report every label.

How NexWave classifies a transaction for GST

Every submitted Sales Invoice and Purchase Invoice in the period is read by the report and routed into one or more buckets that line up with the ATO BAS labels. Routing happens at two levels:

Invoice level: the AU BAS Tax Code set on the Sales Taxes and Charges Template (or Purchase Taxes and Charges Template) attached to the invoice header.
Line level: the AU BAS Sales Tax Code (or AU BAS Purchase Tax Code) set on the Item Tax Template attached to a specific row on the invoice.

Sales Taxes and Charges Template showing the AU BAS Tax Code dropdown

Amounts in the summary boxes are GST-inclusive (gross), per ATO convention.

AU BAS tax codes

Code	Where used	What it means	Typical Australian examples
GST	Sales and Purchase	Standard taxable supply at 10%. The default for most domestic activity.	A cafe selling coffee; a builder buying materials at Bunnings.
EXP	Sales only	Goods physically exported, or services consumed overseas (0%).	An Australian manufacturer shipping product to New Zealand; a consultant billing an offshore client.
FRE	Sales and Purchase	GST-free supply (0%).	Basic food (plain milk, fresh fruit and vegetables); medical and health services; education; sale of a going concern.
INP	Purchase only	Input-taxed: GST is included in the price but the customer cannot claim a credit.	Financial supplies (bank fees); residential rent paid to a landlord.
IMP-CUSTOMS	Purchase only	Customs GST passthrough. The line value is the GST paid at the border, so it is excluded from G10 and G11.	A customs broker bill with a separate customs GST line.

How precedence actually works

This is the question that catches most people out. NexWave does not apply a strict "line wins, header is the fallback" rule. Instead, the report runs separate queries per bucket and combines the results.

For each bucket the same anti-double-count logic applies: if an invoice's header template carries that code, the report uses the full invoice and excludes the individual line items with the same code from a second pass. This avoids counting the same money twice.

The practical implication: an invoice with GST at header level and a FRE Item Tax Template on one line ends up in both the Total Sales bucket (via the header, full invoice amount) and the GST-Free Sales bucket (via the line item, just that one line). That is by design and matches what the ATO wants for G1 versus G3.

Worked example: a mixed invoice

Sales Invoice ACC-SINV-2026-00820 issued by Foodco-style wholesaler "Australian Traders Pty Ltd":

Header Tax Charges Template = Australia GST (AU BAS Tax Code = GST)
Line 1: Coffee Beans 5kg, $200, no Item Tax Template
Line 2: Plain Milk 50L, $100, Item Tax Template = Australia GST-Free Sales (FRE override)
Line 3: Tea Loose Leaf 10kg, $150, no Item Tax Template

What lands in the report:

Total Sales (G1): the full invoice grand total appears once. The FRE Item Tax Template overrides the rate on Line 2, so the invoice posts $35 of GST ($350 of taxable lines × 10%) and the gross total is $485.
Other GST-Free Sales (G3): Line 2 only ($100) appears as a separate row, marked Consideration Type = Line Item.
GST on Sales (1A): $35, derived from the invoice's tax rows.

Worked-example invoice items table

The Sales Taxes and Charges table at the bottom shows a single GST row of $35 (10% applied to the $350 of taxable lines; the FRE line is excluded from tax by its Item Tax Template):

Worked-example invoice tax row

Note: G1 and G3 are both gross of GST in their own right. The G3 line of an invoice that is otherwise GST-taxable also remains inside G1's total. That is the ATO design for BAS labels, not a NexWave artefact.

Inside the report: tabs and tables

The Australia BAS Report has four areas:

Summary (the ATO BAS labels)
Sales Records
Purchase Records
Unclassified

Summary tab: the ATO BAS labels

ATO label	Field on the report	What it contains
G1	Total Sales	Sum of GST-inclusive sales with the GST tax code at header or line level.
G2	Export Sales	Sales with the EXP tax code (header or line).
G3	Other GST-Free Sales	Sales with the FRE tax code (header or line).
1A	GST on Sales	Sum of GST collected on GST-coded sales rows, derived from each invoice's tax rows. Not read from the GL.
N/A	Adjustments on GST Collected	Editable. For over- or under-reported prior periods, bad debts written back, and similar adjustments.
N/A	Total GST on Sales	1A + Adjustments.
N/A	Total Purchases	Sum of all purchase invoices in the period (reference only, not lodged).
G10	Capital Purchases	Gross of GST-coded purchases where the line's Item has Is Fixed Asset ticked at calculation time.
G11	Non-Capital Purchases	Gross of all other GST-coded purchases.
N/A	Customs GST Passthrough	Purchase Invoice item lines tagged with IMP-CUSTOMS. Informational only. The line value is excluded from G10 and G11. If you are claiming the customs GST in this BAS, enter the amount in Adjustments on GST Credit.
N/A	GST-Free Purchases	Purchases with the FRE tax code.
N/A	Input Taxed Purchases	Purchases with the INP tax code (no GST credit).
1B	GST on Purchases	Sum of GST credit claimable across capital and non-capital purchase rows. Not read from the GL. INP purchases are deliberately excluded.
N/A	Adjustments on GST Credit	Editable. For deferred GST scheme claims, prior-period corrections, and import GST routed through Journal Entries.
N/A	Total GST on Purchases	1B + Adjustments.
N/A	GST Payable / Refundable	Total GST on Sales minus Total GST on Purchases. Positive means pay the ATO; negative means refund.

Summary tab populated

BAS summary showing Customs GST Passthrough excluded from G10 and G11

Sales Records tab

Three tables, each reading from the Australia BAS Report Record child doctype but populated from separate queries:

GST Sales Records: rows feeding G1 and 1A.
Export Sales: rows feeding G2.
GST-Free Sales: rows feeding G3.

Each row has a Consideration Type column. Full Invoice means the row was pulled in via the header template; Line Item means it was pulled in via an Item Tax Template on a single row of the invoice.

Sales Records tab with the three sub-tables populated

In the worked example, ACC-SINV-2026-00820 appears in GST Sales Records as a single row with Consideration Type = Full Invoice, and also in the GST-Free Sales section as a separate Line Item row for the $100 FRE line.

Purchase Records tab

Four tables:

Capital Purchases (G10): Purchase Invoice line items where the line's Item has Is Fixed Asset ticked.
Non-Capital Purchases (G11): all other GST-coded purchase line items.
GST-Free Purchases: purchases with the FRE tax code.
Input Taxed Purchases: purchases with the INP tax code (GST included in price, no credit).

Capital and Non-Capital are read at the line level rather than the invoice level, because Is Fixed Asset is a per-item flag. A single invoice can contribute lines to both G10 and G11 if it mixes capital and consumable items.

Customs GST passthrough lines are visible for review with Tax Code set to IMP-CUSTOMS. Their Amount and Gross Amount are zeroed in the G10 and G11 record tables, so the GST paid at the border does not inflate purchase values. To claim the customs GST in the BAS, enter the passthrough amount in Adjustments on GST Credit.

Capital Purchases (G10) table

Non-Capital Purchases (G11) table

Input Taxed Purchases table with $0 in GST Amount

Unclassified tab

Anything posted to a GST account during the period whose voucher type is not Sales Invoice or Purchase Invoice lands here. The most common source is a Journal Entry, typically used for corrections or for customs GST that was not recorded on a Purchase Invoice.

These figures are not included in 1A or 1B by default. If you want them in your filing you must enter the equivalent total into Adjustments on GST Collected or Adjustments on GST Credit by hand.

This is the most common reason a customer's GST liability ledger does not match Total GST on Purchases at filing time.

Unclassified tab with Journal Entry for import GST credit

Note on shared GST accounts: if your chart of accounts uses a single GST account for both Sales and Purchase GST (common in small businesses), a Journal Entry to that account will appear in both Unclassified GST Collected and Unclassified GST Credit, with opposite signs. That is the expected accounting effect. To file a clean BAS in this scenario, decide which side of the BAS the Journal Entry belongs to and enter it as an adjustment on that side only.

Generating the report

Create a new report

Go to Accounting > Australia BAS Report > New.
Select the Company (only companies linked to Australian fiscal years and AU tax templates will return data).
Set Period Start Date and Period End Date:
- Quarterly lodgers (most small and mid businesses): pick the standard ATO BAS quarters (Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun).
- Monthly lodgers (GST turnover at or above AUD 20 million, or by election): pick a single month.
- Annual GST reporters (voluntarily registered, turnover under AUD 75K): pick the full financial year (1 Jul to 30 Jun).
Set AUD Conversion Rate:
- If the company currency is AUD, leave the rate at 1.0.
- If the company currency is not AUD, NexWave fetches the rate from Currency Exchange for the period end date. You can override it if you have a more reliable rate (e.g. the ATO published rate for that quarter).
Click Save.

Saving runs the full calculation. There is no separate "preview" step; saving is the calculation.

New BAS Report form with Company, Period dates, and AUD Exchange Rate

NexWave prevents you from saving two reports that cover overlapping periods for the same company (cancelled drafts do not block, but any active draft will). If you try, the save fails with an error pointing at the overlapping report.

Recalculate after late changes

If you post a late invoice, void an entry, or fix an Item Tax Template after saving the report, click Recalculate Report in the toolbar. The whole document recalculates. Anything you typed into Adjustments on GST Collected or Adjustments on GST Credit is preserved.

The button is hidden once the report is submitted.

Recalculate Report button on a saved draft

Submit and amend

Submit when the figures are final. A submitted report is locked.

If the ATO asks for a restated BAS after you have already lodged, amend the submitted report. Amending creates a new versioned document linked back to the original via the standard Amended From chain.

Submitted BAS Report showing the locked form and Amend button

GST inclusive vs exclusive

Both modes produce the same numbers in this report. The choice only affects how amounts were entered on the source documents, not how they are reported. All summary labels are gross of GST per ATO BAS convention. The per-line tables (Net Amount, GST Amount, AUD Amount) show the split for traceability.

One small wrinkle: when a Journal Entry is set to Tax Inclusive, the auto-generated GST companion rows are created at submit time, not save time. A draft JE will not contribute anything to the Unclassified tab until it is submitted.

Edge cases that change the numbers

Credit notes and returns. A submitted Sales Invoice or Purchase Invoice with Is Return ticked has a negative grand total. It reduces the relevant gross figure (G1, G10, G11, etc.) and the negative GST flows through 1A or 1B accordingly.
Foreign-currency invoices. The report uses each invoice's base-currency totals (AUD for AUD-based companies), converted from the invoice currency at the invoice's posting-date FX rate. For non-AUD companies the AUD Conversion Rate on the report header is applied to the base amounts at calculation time.
Journal Entries with manual GST. Any JE that touches a GST account during the period appears in the Unclassified tab. Use this for corrections, deferred GST scheme adjustments, or customs GST that cannot be recorded through a Purchase Invoice.
Drafts vs submitted. Only submitted invoices (not draft, not cancelled) appear in the report. Telling someone "I saved it" is the most common reason an invoice is missing from the report.
Partially paid invoices. Payment status is irrelevant. The report is accrual-based (see the warning at the top of this page).
Back-dated invoices. A late-posted invoice with a posting date inside an already-filed period will appear next time you recalculate that period's report. If the original report has been submitted, you must amend it (or use Adjustments on the next BAS).

Australia-specific edge cases

Is Fixed Asset flag flipped after the invoice is posted

G10 and G11 are computed at calculation time by joining Purchase Invoice items to the Item master and reading the current Is Fixed Asset value. If you toggle Item.Is Fixed Asset after the Purchase Invoice was posted, Recalculate will reclassify the historical line into the new bucket.

This is usually what you want when you are correcting a misclassification, but it means G10 and G11 can drift between two recalcs of the same BAS if Item master data changes in between. Lock down the Item master before amending a submitted BAS so the audit trail stays clean.

Imported goods GST

When you import goods, the foreign supplier does not charge GST. Import GST is paid to Australian Customs, usually through the customs broker, when the goods enter Australia.

For ordinary customs broker bills, use the Purchase Invoice workflow in Create a Customs GST Passthrough Purchase Invoice. In short, raise the Purchase Invoice against the customs broker, add a separate line for the customs GST paid at the border, set that line's Expense Head to a dedicated customs GST clearing account, and set Item Tax Template to Customs Import GST. The Item Tax Template should have AU BAS Purchase Tax Code set to IMP-CUSTOMS.

With this setup, NexWave shows the customs GST line in Customs GST Passthrough and excludes the line value from Capital Purchases (G10) and Non-Capital Purchases (G11). If you are claiming the customs GST on this BAS, enter the passthrough amount in Adjustments on GST Credit.

Do not code the customs GST passthrough line as a normal GST purchase. That makes Non-Capital Purchases (G11) too high because the GST paid at the border is not itself a purchase value.

If the customs GST was posted by Journal Entry instead, the amount will appear in Unclassified GST Credit. To claim it on this BAS, add the amount to Adjustments on GST Credit and document the source Journal Entries in your workpaper. Use the Purchase Invoice workflow for future customs broker bills.

Under the ATO Deferred GST Scheme, the deferred amount goes to both 7A and 1B (net zero cash effect). NexWave does not produce a 7A figure; record the deferred amount as Adjustments on GST Credit on this report and enter 7A directly in the portal.

Input Taxed (INP) purchases never flow to 1B

INP purchases (financial supplies, residential rent) include GST internally, but the customer cannot claim a credit. NexWave correctly records these with GST Amount of 0 in the Input Taxed Purchases table and excludes them from 1B. If you see GST on an INP-tagged purchase, your Purchase Tax Template AU BAS Tax Code is set to GST instead of INP, or an Item Tax Template on a line is GST-coded when it should be INP-coded.

Margin scheme, WET, LCT, fuel tax credits

Not produced by this report. If you operate under the margin scheme for second-hand goods or real property, compute the margin GST manually and book it via Adjustments. Wine equalisation tax, luxury car tax, and fuel tax credits also need to be entered directly in the ATO portal alongside the GST figures from NexWave.

GST grouping (multiple companies under one ABN)

NexWave runs the BAS Report per Company. If your Australian GST group spans multiple Company records under one ABN, run the report separately for each company, sum the figures in a workpaper, net out inter-company sales and purchases, and lodge the consolidated totals. Inter-group sales between member companies are disregarded for GST.

Reconciling against the General Ledger

After saving the report and before submitting, reconcile against the GST control accounts:

Open General Ledger (Accounting > Financial Statements > General Ledger).
Filter to your Sales GST account, the same date range, and the same company.
Compare the GL period movement to the report's figures.

The relationships to expect:

GL period movement on Sales GST account
  = 1A (GST on Sales)
  + Total Unclassified GST Collected for the period

GL period movement on Purchase GST account
  = 1B (GST on Purchases)
  + Total Unclassified GST Credit for the period

Quick sanity check: 1A should be approximately G1 / 11 if your sales are mostly straight 10% GST. Significant departures usually mean mixed invoices with FRE lines, INP-coded lines that should not be there, credit notes, or non-10% rates somewhere.

Common reasons the totals do not match:

Unclassified entries are in the GL but not in 1A or 1B by default. Either enter them into Adjustments, or accept that your lodged BAS will differ from the GL until you do.
Cancelled invoices can leave residual GL entries flagged as cancelled. These are excluded from the report. If your GL filter does not exclude them, you will see a delta.
Reversing Journal Entries that net to zero in the GL still show up as two non-zero rows in Unclassified.
Tax templates pointing at the wrong account head. If a template's AU BAS Tax Code is GST but its tax row uses a non-GST account, the report's bucket query will include it but your GL filter will not.

Filing with the ATO

NexWave does not lodge BAS electronically. The report produces the figures; you copy them into the ATO portal yourself or hand them to your BAS or tax agent.

Self-lodging: open ATO Online Services for Business, choose Lodge > Activity statements, select the relevant BAS, and copy each figure into the matching label. Under Simpler BAS only G1, 1A, and 1B are required.
Lodging via a BAS agent or tax agent: export the BAS Report (Print or PDF), email it to your agent, and they will lodge through Online Services for Agents.

Submit the report in NexWave so the figures are locked, then lodge with the ATO. The submitted record stays in the system as your audit trail; the ATO requires you to retain BAS records for five years. If the ATO ever queries the lodgement, amend the record to produce a restated version.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Probable cause	Fix
Capital Purchases (G10) is $0 even though I bought a vehicle this quarter	The Item used on the Purchase Invoice line did not have Is Fixed Asset ticked when the report was last calculated.	Open the Item, tick Is Fixed Asset, click Recalculate Report. The line reclassifies from G11 into G10. If the asset was purchased without an Item code (description-only line), G10 cannot pick it up: re-raise the line against a fixed-asset Item, or use Adjustments on GST Credit.
1A does not equal G1 divided by 11	The invoice has mixed lines (some GST, some FRE), or one or more lines are taxed at a non-10% rate, or there are credit notes in the period reducing 1A while G1 stays gross.	Drill into the Sales Records tab, sort by Document, and reconcile invoice-by-invoice. The Net Amount, GST Amount, and AUD Amount columns expose the rate per row.
Imported goods GST is missing from 1B	The customs GST line is tagged with IMP-CUSTOMS and shown as Customs GST Passthrough, but it is not automatically added to 1B.	If using a Purchase Invoice, check that the line uses Item Tax Template = Customs Import GST and add the passthrough amount to Adjustments on GST Credit if you are claiming it on this BAS. If using a Journal Entry, check Unclassified GST Credit and add the amount to Adjustments on GST Credit if you are claiming it on this BAS.
Non-Capital Purchases (G11) looks too high after entering a customs broker bill	The customs GST passthrough line was coded as a normal GST purchase instead of IMP-CUSTOMS.	Set the customs GST line's Item Tax Template to Customs Import GST, then click Recalculate Report. Broker fees, freight, duty, and landed-cost lines should stay separate with their normal tax treatment.
Input Taxed (INP) purchases are showing GST in 1B	The Purchase Tax Template AU BAS Tax Code is `GST` when it should be `INP`, or an Item Tax Template on a line is GST-coded when it should be INP-coded.	Open the relevant template (or Item Tax Template) and set the code to `INP`. Click Recalculate Report.
An invoice is missing from the Sales Records tab	Invoice is in Draft (not yet submitted), or its posting date is outside the period, or its tax template has no AU BAS Tax Code set.	Open the invoice, confirm it is Submitted, confirm the posting date, and check the tax template's AU BAS Tax Code is one of `GST`, `EXP`, or `FRE`.
1A is $0 but Total Sales (G1) looks correct	No Sales Tax Template has AU BAS Tax Code = `GST`, or templates exist but no invoices use them.	Set the code on the relevant template; recalculate.
GL movement on the Sales GST account does not match 1A + Unclassified GST Collected	Either a manual JE was posted directly to the GST account in the period (check Unclassified), or a Sales Tax Template's tax row points at a different account than the GL entries actually used.	Run a GL report on the Sales GST account for the period, exclude Sales Invoice and Purchase Invoice voucher types, and compare line-by-line against the Unclassified tab.
G10 + G11 changed between two recalcs and I did not amend any invoices	An Item's Is Fixed Asset flag was changed between the two recalcs. G10 and G11 are read live at recalc time.	Lock down the Item master before amending a submitted BAS. If reclassification is intentional, document the change in your workpaper.
I file BAS on cash basis and these numbers do not match what the ATO expects	The BAS Report is accrual-only and recognises GST on invoice dates, not payment dates.	Reconcile the report against your bank receipts and payments separately, or speak to your BAS agent about a cash-basis workpaper. NexWave does not produce a cash-basis BAS.
Recalculate button is greyed out	The report has already been submitted, or it has been cancelled.	Amend the submitted report to recalculate.
Two BAS Reports cannot be created for the same period	The doctype enforces non-overlapping periods per company.	Either amend the existing submitted report, or cancel the draft one. Only one non-cancelled report per overlapping period per company is allowed.
My GST group has three companies but the BAS Report only covers one	NexWave runs the BAS Report per Company.	Run the report for each company in the GST group, sum the figures in a workpaper, net out inter-company sales and purchases, and lodge the consolidated totals.