New Zealand GST Report

The New Zealand GST Report helps businesses prepare their GST returns by automatically calculating GST collected and GST credit from sales and purchase invoices within a specified period. The report aligns with the IRD GST101A form structure.

Overview

The GST Report automatically:

Aggregates all submitted sales and purchase invoices for the selected period
Classifies transactions based on their tax codes (standard, zero-rated, exempt, export, import)
Calculates GST collected from sales and GST credit from purchases
Determines the net GST payable or refundable for the period
Provides detailed breakdowns of all transactions in separate tabs

Prerequisites

Before running the GST Report, ensure your tax templates and accounts are properly configured with the New Zealand tax codes.

Create standard tax records from the Company form

For a New Zealand company, the saved Company form provides Create NZ Tax Rules and Templates under Manage. Use this for the standard GST setup, then review or adjust individual templates below.

Check that Country is New Zealand and Default Cost Center is set on the Company. You must have permission to edit the Company.
Open the saved Company, select Manage > Create NZ Tax Rules and Templates, and wait for the result message.
Review the records created, existing records skipped, and any errors. The action sets up three tax categories, four sales tax templates, four purchase tax templates, six item tax templates, and six tax rules. It uses a suitable existing tax account or creates a GST account.
Check the tax codes, tax account, and tax rules for this company before you use the templates on transactions. If errors are reported, resolve them and run the action again. Matching existing records are skipped.

If the button is absent, confirm that the Company is saved, Country is New Zealand, and you have permission to edit it. The standard setup does not cover every specialised tax treatment. Review the templates below and add any extra treatment your business needs.

1. Setting Up Sales Taxes and Charges Templates

Each Sales Taxes and Charges Template must have the NZ Tax Code field configured to classify the tax treatment.

Navigate to Accounting > Taxes > Sales Taxes and Charges Template
Open or create a template
In the NZ Tax Code field, select the appropriate code:

Tax Code	Description	Use For
GST15	Standard rated (15%)	Regular GST-inclusive sales
ZR	Zero-rated	Sales at 0% GST (e.g., financial services exports)
EXE	Exempt	GST-exempt supplies
EXP	Export	Export sales to overseas customers

If the field is left blank, the template is treated as untracked: invoices using it will appear in Total Sales but will not contribute to any of the IRD-aligned buckets. Always set the code explicitly.

Save the template

2. Setting Up Purchase Taxes and Charges Templates

Similarly, configure Purchase Taxes and Charges Templates with the appropriate NZ Tax Code.

Navigate to Accounting > Taxes > Purchase Taxes and Charges Template
Open or create a template
In the NZ Tax Code field, select the appropriate code:

Tax Code	Description	Use For
GST15	Standard rated (15%)	Regular GST-inclusive purchases
ZR	Zero-rated	Purchases at 0% GST
EXE	Exempt	GST-exempt purchases
IMP	Import	Imported goods from overseas suppliers

Save the template

3. Setting Up Item Tax Templates (Optional)

For businesses that need line-item level tax classification (e.g., mixed invoices with different tax treatments), configure Item Tax Templates.

Navigate to Accounting > Taxes > Item Tax Template
Create templates for each tax classification needed
Set the NZ Sales Tax Code field for sales-related templates
Set the NZ Purchase Tax Code field for purchase-related templates

Note: Item Tax Templates apply tax codes at the line-item level. They do not strictly override the invoice-level template. The GST report uses both signals: the header template controls how the full invoice is classified, and an Item Tax Template lets a single line be reported under a different bucket. See Generate and Reconcile the New Zealand GST Report for the full precedence rules and a worked example.

4. Verifying GST Accounts

Ensure your Sales and Purchase Taxes and Charges Templates have the correct GST account heads configured:

Sales GST Account: Typically a liability account (e.g., "GST Payable")
Purchase GST Account: Typically an asset account (e.g., "GST Receivable" or "Input GST")

The report calculates GST amounts from each invoice's Sales / Purchase Taxes and Charges table, filtered to GST15-tagged tax accounts. It does not read the GL account balance directly, so manual journal entries posted to the same GST account appear in the Unclassified tab rather than in Box 8 / Box 12.

Running the GST Report

Creating a New Report

Navigate to Accounting > New Zealand GST Report
Click + Add New Zealand GST Report
Fill in the required fields:
- Company: Select your New Zealand company
- Period Start Date: First day of the GST period
- Period End Date: Last day of the GST period
Click Save

The system will automatically calculate all GST values based on submitted invoices within the period.

Recalculating the Report

If you need to refresh the calculations (e.g., after posting additional invoices):

Open the saved GST Report
Click the Recalculate Report button
The system will recalculate all values

Submitting the Report

Once you have verified all values:

Review the calculated figures
Enter any manual adjustments if required
Click Submit to finalise the report

Note: Submitted reports cannot be modified. Use the Amend function if corrections are needed.

Understanding the Report Sections

The GST Report is organised into sections that align with the IRD GST101A return form.

Sales and Income Section

This section summarises all sales-related GST information.

Field	Description	IRD Box
Total sales and income for the period	Sum of all submitted sales invoices (GST-inclusive). Multi-currency invoices are converted to company currency at each invoice's posting-date rate.	BOX 5
GST exempted sales and income	Sales with EXE tax code	-
Zero rated sales and income	Sales with ZR tax code	-
Export sales and income	Sales with EXP tax code	-
Total zero rated supplies	Zero-rated + Export sales combined	BOX 6
Taxable sales and income	Total minus zero-rated and exempt	BOX 7
GST Collected	Sum of GST amounts from each taxable invoice's Sales Taxes and Charges table, filtered to GST15-tagged tax accounts. Not read from the GL.	BOX 8
Adjustments on GST collected	Manual adjustment field (editable)	BOX 9
Total GST collected on sales and income	GST Collected + Adjustments	BOX 10

Purchases and Expenses Section

This section summarises all purchase-related GST information.

Field	Description	IRD Box
Total purchases and expenses for the period	Sum of all submitted purchase invoices	-
Total purchases and expenses on imports	Purchases with IMP tax code	-
Total purchases and expenses excluding imports	Domestic purchases only	BOX 11
GST exempted purchases and expenses	Purchases with EXE tax code	-
Zero rated purchases and expenses	Purchases with ZR tax code	-
Taxable purchases and expenses	Domestic minus exempt and zero-rated	-
GST Credit	Sum of GST amounts from each taxable purchase invoice's Purchase Taxes and Charges table, filtered to GST15-tagged tax accounts. Not read from the GL.	BOX 12
Adjustments on GST credit	Manual adjustment field (editable)	BOX 13
Total GST credit on purchases and expenses	GST Credit + Adjustments	BOX 14

Net GST Section

Field	Description
Net GST payable for the period	Total GST Collected (BOX 10) minus Total GST Credit (BOX 14)

Positive value: GST payable to IRD
Negative value: GST refund due from IRD

Detail Tabs

The report includes three tabs with detailed transaction breakdowns.

Sales Records Tab

Contains tables showing:

Sales Records for the Period: All sales invoices included in the report
Zero-rated Sales: Invoices/line items with ZR tax code
Export Sales: Invoices/line items with EXP tax code
Exempted Sales: Invoices/line items with EXE tax code

Each record shows:

Document type and reference
Customer name
Tax code applied
Amount
Consideration type (Full Invoice or Line Item)

Purchase Records Tab