GST payable by your business to the ATO, or refundable to you by the ATO, can significantly impact your business's cashflow, particularly if it is not calculated correctly.

1. GST is Calculated Automatically

GST is enabled for all Agrimaster 10 budgets and cannot be turned off.

GST calculation depends on your code setup and whether each code is subject to GST or not.

When entering budget data:

• Enter all amounts excluding GST
• Agrimaster automatically calculates the GST component
• GST is then reflected throughout your budget and Cashflow forecasts

Please note: Accurate GST calculations rely on your budget codes being configured correctly.

2. GST in the Budget Grid

GST sections are automatically displayed within the budget, and you'll notice the GST calculator is already automatically calculating GST based on whether the code selected is subject to GST or not.

Receipts

For income transactions (Receipts), Agrimaster automatically calculates GST and records it in the GST-IN section.

Here you’ll see:

• GST Collected
• GST Refunded

As income values are entered into the budget, the corresponding GST amounts are calculated automatically.

Payments

For expense transactions (Payments), Agrimaster calculates GST in the GST-OUT section.

This includes:

• GST Paid
• GST Remitted

These values are also calculated automatically based on the budgeted transactions entered.

3. BAS Frequency

GST remittances and refunds are linked to your BAS frequency.

Within the budget, you can see the BAS frequency that has been applied. This determines when GST payments or refunds are forecast within your budget cash flow.

You can customise the BAS payment or refund frequency through the GST Settings from the Budget Home Page, by selecting GST Setup from your Active Budget Details.

Agrimaster provides a standard BAS Frequency, which can be adjusted to suit your reporting requirements.

For example, if the ATO permits additional time to pay your GST or you are late with payment, you can change the payment month. Instead of forecasting a BAS payment in July, you could move it to August and immediately see the impact on your cash flow budget.

4. Tax Summary

At the bottom of the Budget Grid is the Tax Summary, which contains the GST Summary.

The month-by-month GST amount shown in the GST Summary section of the grid is the cumulative net effect of all GST movements. This figure is calculated by taking into account the following:

1. GST Opening Balance (if any)
2. Plus or minus the previous budget periods' GST returns owed or payable
3. plus GST Collected
4. minus GST Paid

This GST calculation will reflect in the monthly or quarterly GST Refunded or GST Remitted cell of the budget.

The summary displays:

• Opening GST Balance
• GST Owed or Payable
• GST Return Owed or Payable

By default, the GST Opening Balance and GST Return Owed or Payable values are set to zero for each new budget.

5. GST Settings

You can adjust all GST Settings from the Budget Home Page, by selecting GST Setup from your Active Budget Details.

GST Opening Balance

The GST Opening Balance required for your budget will depend on the budget start month.

For example:

• If your budget starts in January, the GST Opening Balance will typically be zero, as there is no accrued GST from a previous budget period.
• However, if your budget starts in a later month, such as February, you may need to enter a GST Opening Balance. This represents any GST that accrued in the final month of the previous budget period and has not yet been paid or refunded.

A GST Opening Balance can be entered when setting up each individual budget. You can find this accrued figure from the previous Budget period.

GST Return Owed or Payable

You can also enter a GST Return Owed or Payable amount from a previous Budget if that amount will be paid or refunded during the current budget period.

Please note: 

If you only create budgets for a 12-month period and do not use the extended budget periods, for example, 1 to 5 years, remember that your Closing GST Balance will need to be recorded as your Opening GST Balance in the next 12-month budget you create.

You will also need to include any GST liabilities or receipts owed by the Australian Taxation Office.

GST Bank Account

You must assign a GST bank account.

By default, your Primary Account is selected as the GST bank account.

This account is displayed in the Accounts section in the Budget Grid and can be changed at any time through GST Settings.

Once assigned, Agrimaster automatically applies GST remittance and refund transactions to the selected account.

You can also see the BAS frequency reflected in the account, ensuring GST payments and refunds are scheduled according to your reporting cycle.