I would like some help trying to get accurate figures for the gst remittance.  I pull up the gst charged on sales and the gst paid on purchases but when i use the report for gst tax, the figures are not the same.

could someone give me a step my step procedure to get accurate figures to submit.

 thank you

I was warned once not to use the GST report function, so I never have.  Instead, I print the G/L for the GST account and work with it either manually or by exporting it to Excel and manipulating the data there.

Hi there:    I too have never used the GST report function.  I'm not sure how anything gets into this report but it is not necessary anyway.  Go to your General Ledger report and pick the 3 month reporting period that you are working with for both GST Charged on Sales and GST Paid on Purchases.  Print these out so you can work with them and visually assess that everything that has been put into these 2 accounts looks correct.   If any mistakes are noticed, make the corrections before proceeding.  The next part of figuring out what the correct amount is in each account depends largely on how you post your payments when you make them and your refunds if you get refunds.  They must be posted to each of the accounts to clear the amounts used on your previous GST return.  If this is not done on a timely basis then the end numbers in each account will not be the correct ones for your next GST return.  Could you post a reply and give a little more information on how the returns have been done in the past or if you are doing a new company and just doing your first return.  Thanks.

I have a follow up question regarding this. When i recieve a cheque for the gst refund, would I go into the GST owing (refund) account and credit that account?

Because as it sits, the account has this year's total, and the cheque was for last fiscal year's total. And it doesn't make sense to adjust this year's amount amount. (By the way, we weren't using simply accounting last year, we started this year so I had never entered amonts from last year anyway)

If you have just started using Simply where did you get your opening balance sheet entries? It sounds as though you did not enter any balances carried forward from the previous year.

You should have taken all the balance sheet figures from your financial statements at the end of your previous fiscal year and entered them as opening balances to start this fiscal year.

It is not to late to do this now, although you will need to do it in a couple of steps and it is a little more complicated now.

First enter all balances in accounts that are not either A/R or A/P through one general journal entry. You will probably have an offsetting amount that will be posted either as a dr or a cr to Retained Earnings. Date this entry on the first day of your fiscal year.

Next enter all A/R accounts (setting up your customers as you go along) through individual entries through the Sales Journal. Again you will need to offset these entries to Retained Earnings. Again these entries will all be dated as of the first day of your fiscal year.

Next do the same of all A/P accounts, this time through the Purchases Journal. You will again be offestting these entries to Retained Earnings and dating them the first day of your fiscal year.

This should give you an opening balance sheet which matches your balance sheet from your previous year. If it does not, it is probably because you have made current year entries on the first day of your current fiscal year. Run a G/L report for the first day of your fiscal year and check.

Once you are confident that your opening balances are correct you should be able to post an entry to record the receipt of a GST refund for the previous year. Your entry will be a dr to the bank, a dr to GST charged on sales and a cr to GST paid on purchases. Your GST owing (refund) account should be a sub-total account so you cannot post to that account. You can only post to actually accounts, not total or sub-total accounts.

In future when you prepare your GST returns - take a GL report for the appropriate period which includes all GST accounts from your balance sheet and all revenue accounts from your income statement. This is the only accurate way to get the right numbers. I recommend that everybody set up the CRA as both a customer and a vendor. That way when you prepare your GST return you can easily record either a receivable or a payable as appropriate.