When’s the best time to do your May-June BAS statement?

There are only 10 days left until the new financial year.

That means there are only 9 days left of this financial year.

If you are GST-registered, you’ll need to do your BAS in July.

In general, you should always keep your book-keeping is up to date because the longer you leave it, the larger the backlog of work to do when you finally get around to it.

If you are not GST-registered then you really need to keep on top of your book-keeping because you don’t have those three-month deadlines that we GST-registered business do.

If you are GST-registered, then usually it’s best to keep on top of your monthly accounts – that is, input your earnings and expenses and get your bank rec done – every month, so that at the end of the quarter you don’t have a great big mound of book-keeping work to catch up to just after the end of the quarter when your BAS is due. That is what I try to do and succeed in doing, most of the time.

However, for businesses such as mine where one of the busiest two periods of the year is the May/June period which is almost always followed by a short lull, I believe you’re better off delaying most of your book-keeping tasks for that fourth financial quarter until July.

In my business, every May and June everyone starts rushing to get their reports or policy documents or publications edited and proofread or their transcripts finished. They want to get everything done and paid for, or at least invoiced to their business, before the end of the financial year so that they can claim those expenses in the same year. I am absolutely flat out and work long hours throughout those two months. Although I always have a bit of a guilty conscience when I put off book-keeping tasks, when it comes to the crunch, customers and their deadlines are more important. So every year as the business rushes towards the end of June, every time I check my ‘To Do’ list and see that the quarterly book-keeping tasks have again been shunted to the end of the queue, I have to shrug my shoulders and say ‘C’est la vie’. The book-keeping will have to wait until July.

In July, in my line of business at least, there is enough time to catch up without losing opportunities or income or disappointing clients. And your BAS statement isn’t due until the end of the month so you’re not under a lot of pressure; you can get the job done at your own pace. But you have to make sure you get it done by the end of July because that’s when your BAS is due. Besides, in August, the work will start coming in thick and fast again as the new financial year kicks in.

Once your BAS is lodged, of course, you’ll have your tax return to do. It if your book-keeping has been done properly and your accountant doesn’t have to do too much work on your accounts, getting your tax return done should be a piece of cake. But that’s another story for another time.