Prevent weekly reporting comparisons from mixing GST-inclusive and GST-exclusive figures without a clear reconciliation.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
Two accurate figures appear to disagree
Imagine the weekly review compares a sales report prepared excluding GST with bank receipts that include amounts customers paid for GST. The team sees a difference and assumes collection performance improved.
The figures may describe different things. Label their basis and reconcile the difference before drawing a conclusion about trading or collections. This is a reporting discipline, not advice about a particular tax treatment.
For the main reports, ask whether amounts include GST and whether the figure represents invoices, revenue, receipts or another measure. Record the answer beside the number rather than relying on staff to remember it.
Where treatment varies across transactions, ask the accountant how the report should be interpreted. Do not apply a simple adjustment to every item without checking whether that assumption is valid.
If the meeting is discussing available cash, use the relevant cash movements and obligations. If it is discussing job profitability, use the accounting basis appropriate to that analysis and explain any reconciliation.
Avoid forcing every report into the same format when the measures serve different purposes. The important point is that people understand the relationship between them.
business.gov.au's cash flow statement guidance asks businesses to make clear whether figures include or exclude GST. Apply that clarity consistently when maintaining the forecast and explain any separate tax-payment assumptions.
Have the accountant review the treatment so a tax amount is not accidentally omitted or counted twice. A label helps identify the issue but does not replace correct preparation.
If a meeting pack mixed bases, retain the original and issue a clear corrected comparison. Explain whether the apparent movement was a reporting difference or a real change in the business.
Revisit any decision materially affected by the error. Quietly changing a total leaves later reviewers unable to understand why the earlier discussion reached a different conclusion.
Choose the three figures most often compared in the weekly meeting and document what each contains. Ask the preparer to explain the reconciliation where the bases differ.
The result should be a clearer conversation about performance. Staff should be able to distinguish a genuine improvement from a difference created by comparing numbers prepared for different purposes.
