Before 28 October, Sort The Money Into Three Piles: Money In, Money You Can Spend, And Money That Isn't Yours
Activity statement time has a way of arriving all at once.
The quarter ends. A few weeks go by. Then someone asks for the figures.
And the scramble starts.
A receipt nobody can find.
A month of transactions nobody has matched.
A best guess at what is owed.
It does not have to work like that.
Before 28 October, set aside an hour and sort the money into three piles.
Money in. Money you can spend. Money that isn't yours.
Sort the money before the deadline, and the lodgement becomes the easy part.
Why Sort Now, Not On The Day
If you report quarterly and lodge yourself, your July to September BAS is due (lodged and paid) by 28 October. If a registered agent lodges it electronically for you, you may have until 25 November.
If you report monthly, your September BAS is due (lodged and paid) by Wednesday 21 October.
Either way, the figures on the statement come from your books.
If the books are behind, the lodgement becomes a rush job.
And a rush job is where things get missed.
A sale coded without GST. A supplier bill entered twice. A pay run that never got matched to the bank.
None of these are dramatic on their own.
Together, they turn a routine lodgement into a stressful week, and sometimes a correction later.
Sorting first gives you time to fix things while there is still time to ask questions.
The Three Piles, Sorted For Lodgement
Each pile has a job to do before you lodge.
Here is what we look at in each one:
The pile | What to check before you lodge |
Money in | Every sale invoiced, coded with the right GST treatment, and matched to what was actually received |
Money you can spend/spent | Supplier bills entered once, matched to the bank, and coded to the right account |
Money that isn't yours | GST collected, tax held back from wages, and super for your team, totalled and set aside |
The first two piles tell you how the quarter went.
The third pile tells you what has to leave the business soon.
It was never yours to spend. You were holding it for someone else.
Money that isn't yours should be counted before it is spent, not after.
Sorting The Piles, Step By Step
This is not a big job when the books are current.
It is a few ordinary checks, done in order.
1. Match the bank to the end of the quarter
Every transaction in the bank should have a home in the books.
If something is unmatched, find out what it was now, not on the day you lodge.
2. Check the money in
Look at the sales for the period.
Are they all invoiced? Is the GST treatment right on each one? Are there credit notes that never got entered?
3. Check the money you can spend
Look at the supplier bills.
Is each one entered once? Is it coded to the right account? Is there a tax invoice behind the GST you plan to claim?
4. Total the money that isn't yours
Add up the GST collected, the tax held back from wages, and the super owed to your team.
That figure is the one to keep your eye on.
5. Set it aside before the next bill arrives
Some owners find it helps to move that money to a separate account as the period goes.
That way, lodgement day is a formality, not a hunt for cash.
If you want to check the GST in a figure, our GST calculator is free on our Free Tools page. It covers GST only, not other taxes. For a routine you can follow every month, the Monthly Reporting Checklist is there too.
Who Does The Sorting?
Most Australian businesses like yours already have someone in the office keeping things moving.
Invoices. Supplier bills. Pay runs. Chasing payments.
They are often very good at it. They just were not trained in accounting.
That is a good place to start.
→ We train your office person to keep the three piles sorted as the month goes.
→ We review the books, look after the lodgements, and walk you through what the numbers are saying.
→ You know what is yours, what is owed, and what the quarter really looked like, without doing the books yourself.
Because we are already in your numbers for the lodgement, the useful conversation happens as part of it.
What changed this quarter. What to watch next quarter. What to put aside.
It is not an extra project. It is part of getting the lodgement right.
A Quick Self-Check
Take a minute and answer these honestly.
Question | Yes / No |
Is your bank matched to the books up to the end of the quarter? | ☐ |
Do you know how much GST you collected this period? | ☐ |
Do you know what tax and super you are holding for your team? | ☐ |
Is that money set aside, separate from what you can spend? | ☐ |
Could you lodge this week without a last-minute scramble? | ☐ |
If a few answers are "No", it does not mean anything has gone wrong.
It means the sorting is happening too close to the deadline.
That is easy to change.
Final Thought
The deadline is not the hard part.
The hard part is not knowing which money is which when it arrives.
Sort the money into three piles, and lodgement stops being a scramble.
You know what came in.
You know what you can spend.
You know what was never yours.
You'll know what to do next.
Next Step
Want the three piles sorted before 28 October? We will look at where your books are today and what it would take to keep lodgements calm from here.
Book a call with our team.
This article is general information only. It does not take your circumstances into account and is not tax or financial advice.
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