David Neiger compares and contrasts three software packages to assist you and your clients with BAS preparations.
Despite being over two years since the introduction of the GST, many small businesses are still finding it difficult to prepare their monthly or quarterly BAS statements. Unless the business has a good accountant or the business owners or financial controllers have a reasonable understanding of GST requirements, mistakes are easy to make and, particularly with the tax office's recent crackdowns, can be costly. Two of these packages are for clients or the business itself and the third is specifically for accountants and tax agents.
EzyBAS
For those clients who don't have their own accounting software, EzyBAS provides a simple solution for submitting their BAS since the software is provided online and accessed via a web browser (Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater). The only software that needs to be loaded onto the client's machine is the Flash plug-in which can be downloaded and installed automatically from the EzyBAS site.
EzyBAS is a combination of BAS preparation software and tax assistant. Clients complete their BAS one step at a time with the software prompting the user every step of the way. If the client is confused by a particular term, they merely click on the question mark symbol to obtain information about the specific field as well as tips on how to fill it in. EzyBAS claims that the assistance is so comprehensive that some clients have obtained several thousand dollars of additional entitlements because they finally understand how to complete their BAS properly.
For additional help, clients can click on the W button to open up a worksheet for the relevant field. This worksheet prompts the client in more detail as to how to calculate a field, by prompting the client for amounts on common expenses or income for that field.
When the client has finished completing the BAS, they can either submit it on-line (with a much simplified procedure for installing the ATO electronic commerce interface software), print it to send to their accountant or notify the accountant that the form is ready for review. Their accountant then receives an email advising them that there is a BAS to review and logs in with their own username and password to retrieve the form.
The site is secured with 128 bit encryption throughout and automatically checks the browser to ensure that the connection is secure.
Although at this stage EzyBAS does not link into client's accounting packages, an interface is being written to allow clients to connect to EzyBAS from within MYOB BAS link (and eventually from Quicken) for uploading the BAS information from MYOB. The only concern with an on-line package is that the data resides on a third- party server so it is important that both your client and you are satisfied with the reliability and security of the application service provider.
QuickBooks Pro 2002
QuickBooks Pro (QBP), like its rival MYOB, includes an inbuilt module to help users to prepare their BAS.
Provided that the client enters each transaction correctly, QBP retrieves the accounts data to complete a simplified BAS form. However, as with any computerised package, the old adage of garbage in garbage out applies, which means that if your client doesn't correctly code each transaction with the appropriate tax code, QBP will produce incorrect results.
This is where you, the accountant, play a vital role by helping your client correctly establish a valid chart of accounts with the necessary GST tax codes and training your client when to use each code (for example when to use the code for a capital purchase compared to an export or standard GST purchase).
Overall the QBP BAS module is very easy to use, particularly since the form on the screen looks similar to the ATO form. Unfortunately, though, the system does not automatically complete the form for the client, as the client is required to either key in the BAS figures directly into the form, or to specify the account code used to record the BAS for each item.
Since there are no wizards to assist the client, the accountant needs to tell his or her client which code corresponds to each field. Unfortunately, it's not possible to directly drill down to determine how a particular figure was calculated so if there is any doubt, your client needs to run a report and check each item, send the file to you for checking or submit the file to the ATO and hope for the best!
The reporting module produces all reports for the system including the GST reports, although these are hidden under the tax reports (rather than as a separate tab). The default detail report contains sufficient information for most clients and, as with any other reports within QBP, can be fully customised by you or your client. QBP reports are also live reports, which means that if a client finds an error, they can double click on the entry to review the transaction and make corrections.
Once the client has finished producing the BAS, they can automatically send it to the ATO via the ECI (electronic commerce interface), print the BAS for transcribing to the ATO form or email the accountant an exported BAS file (for opening within the accountant's copy of QBP) or an accountant's version of the file for correction and merging back into the client's copy of QBP.
MYOB Accountants Office
MYOB Accountants Office (MAO) is a multi-module package designed for the public accountant or tax agent to manage his or her practice.
Among the modules is the BAS/IAS module which is specifically for entering and submitting client BAS forms.
The BAS module allows the accountant to enter the client's BAS data, check the figures and electronically lodge the completed BAS via ELS (the ATO electronic lodgement service). Since MAO is designed for the professional, it is assumed that the accountant or tax agent knows how to complete a BAS and perform calculations, so as a result there is very little step-by-step guidance or online help to do with actually completing the BAS itself (although there is adequate help for using the program).
With the present version of MAO, the accountant generally needs to rekey the information either from the client's accounting package or calculate the information from the shoebox of invoices and receipts provided by the client. If the accountant operates the client's general ledger, data can be linked to the client's entries within the general ledger module. Future versions of MAO will streamline the uploading of information from MYOB and eventually other client accounting packages to minimise data rekeying.
A small caution
Software vendors sell their products on the promise of simplifying BAS returns. However, it is important to actually test the product yourself to ensure that the program is accurate, does what it's meant to do and actually helps the client (rather than merely presenting an electronic version of a BAS form).
Since some BAS products are still incomplete, it is important to evaluate the product on what you see rather than what the vendor promises because, as in life, promises sometimes never eventuate.
