Why is my BAS income not the same as my profit and loss income figure?
Overview
When you generate a BAS (Business Activity Statements) for a period, it is possible that the reported income figure may not be the same as your profit and loss report for the same period. This is because the BAS and the profit and loss draw their data from different data.
Where the BAS gets its data from
The BAS draws its sales data from sales invoices, regardless of where in the chart of accounts those values are posted. For example, if you sell a widget for $1000 and post that income to a “deferred revenue” asset account because a project is still in progress, this will still be reported on the BAS as a taxable sale. However, the value will not appear on the profit and loss report under its income section.
Where the profit and loss report gets its data from
The profit and loss reports draw their data directly from the Chart of Accounts general ledger. It reads the account activity for the periods on which you are reporting regardless of the transactions that caused the account activity. Therefore, a manual journal entry to an income account will change the profit and loss for income, but it will not appear as a sale for the purposes of your BAS report.
How to find the differences between the BAS and the profit and loss income
Understanding the difference between the two sets of data will allow you to examine each set of data to identify values that should or should not be there when reconciling the BAS and the profit and loss.
To determine if there are any income values being posted to your profit and loss that will not appear on your BAS:
- Run a journal transaction report e.g. SA1628
- Filter down to the correct date range and select a ledger category of Income and refresh
- Any transaction that is not a “Sales invoice” transaction will not appear on your BAS
To determine if there are values being reported on your BAS that will not appear on your profit and loss report under the income section:
- Run any sales invoice lines report that shows the income account e.g. SA3996, grouped by "Income account"
- Any general ledger account that is not of type Income will appear on your BAS but will not appear on your profit and loss report as income
Did you find this article helpful?
If this article is missing information, ambiguous or didn’t give you clear instruction, let us know and we will make it better! Please email us and quote the KB# in the top left of this article to let us know why it didn’t help you out and we will point you in the direction of additional information.