Speed
0.75×
1×
1.25×
1.5×
2×
12 min 18 sec
0:00
Opening
0:35
Where the year starts
1:19
How a check reads
2:10
Preparer and reviewer
3:20
Materiality
4:02
Section 1: Set-up and last year
4:54
Section 2: Bank and cash
5:35
Section 3: BAS locks, tax codes and supplier invoices
6:45
Section 3: GST against the statements
7:57
Section 4: Payroll and super
9:51
Section 5: Debtors and creditors
11:01
Example: Saltbush's first look
11:58
Close
The Company Tax Return, Explained
·
Step 1: the year-end review
·
Episode 2
Step 1: reviewing the books, set-up to debtors
Before the return, the year-end review. How a check reads, preparer and reviewer sign-off, materiality, then sections 1 to 5: set-up, bank, GST and BAS, payroll and super, debtors and creditors.
year-end review
bank reconciliation
GST
superannuation
debtors
Do it in Beeswax
Year End and Tax Return Process
↗
Transcript
0:00
A company return is only as good as the books behind it. In Beeswax, the year end has two steps. Step 1 reviews the books. Step 2 is the tax return, built from them.
0:12
This film and the next work through Step 1, the year-end review: what each check tests, what it can't, and where its answer lands on the return. This film covers the first five sections: set-up and last year, bank and cash, Goods and Services Tax, payroll and super, and debtors and creditors.
0:31
It's general information, not tax advice. The Accounting menu has a panel called Year end. It lists the last two completed financial years. Each one opens Step 1, the review, not the return.
0:46
The badge beside the year is the return's status. The same two-step header sits above the review and the return. Step 1's badge counts what's left: "to fix" in red, "to look at" in amber, or "Ready".
1:01
Once a draft return exists, and while Step 1 has anything red and unaccepted, Step 2 reads "Waiting on step 1". The review is for Australian accounts. Owners, Super Admins and accountants can open it, the same people who can open the return.
1:18
Every check is worked out live from the ledger, so a fix shows on the next page load. Each one ends in one of four statuses: Ready, green, a solid tick; Look at, amber, an exclamation; Fix, red, a cross; Not applicable, grey, a minus.
1:38
The shapes differ, so a status reads without colour. Opening a check shows its figure, the reason in a sentence, the lines behind it, and a link to fix it. Where the check feeds the return, the card says where: for example, "Lands on the tax return: Item 7, Non-deductible expenses (W)".
1:59
The rule that matters: red blocks finalising the return; amber never does. Amber means a person should look. It doesn't stop the return. Unless the business lodges its own return, each check has two sign-offs.
2:15
First the preparer, usually the bookkeeper or owner, then the reviewer, usually the accountant. One person can do both, and the badge then says "Self-reviewed". A business that lodges its own return signs each check once, Checked, which counts as both.
2:32
Saltbush uses a tax agent, so it keeps both. A red check can be accepted as it stands, by the reviewer, or with that one "Checked". Beeswax asks for a note first, saying why.
2:45
Only then does the red stop blocking the return. A sign-off records the figures it vouched for. If they move later, the badge reads "changed" and the sign-off stops counting.
2:56
An accepted red check blocks again until someone looks at what moved. Sign-offs, decisions and locking are made by a person, in the browser. Claude, the application programming interface (API) and the desktop agent can read the review and add notes.
3:13
Notes from Claude's connector carry an "assistant" badge. None of them can sign anything. Several checks need a sense of scale. That's set once per review, under Materiality: an account moves by more than 10 per cent and more than 1,000 dollars; a large expense or journal is 5,000 dollars, or 5 per cent of revenue if that's lower; a bill line of 1,000 dollars or more is possibly an asset; long overdue is more than 90 days past due; sensitive words include entertainment, fines, penalties, donations, gifts, legal and private.
3:51
These are Beeswax's starting points, not rules from the tax law. An accountant may set tighter ones. A new year copies last year's settings. Section 1 checks the year's foundations.
4:04
Business details complete: structure, Australian Business Number (ABN), tax file number, accounting method and year end. A gap is amber, never red, so it never stops the return.
4:18
Last year's tax return lodged: green when it's marked lodged in Beeswax, or recorded as "Lodged outside Beeswax". Last year's closing balances carried forward unchanged.
4:30
Beeswax never closes a year, so this year's opening balances are always last year's closing ones. The risk is that last year was edited after its return went in.
4:41
Any ledger line dated last year and written after that is red. If last year isn't locked, it's amber, and the check has a Lock FY2025 button that locks it. Section 2 has one check per bank, credit card and loan account, and one for the bank feed.
4:59
Reconciled at 30 June: red if no reconciliation reaches year end, or if the ledger's 30 June balance differs from the statement's closing balance. Amber if it agrees at year end but a month in between wasn't reconciled.
5:14
Quarterly statements count. Bank lines allocated: red while any bank feed line in the year is unmatched or unconfirmed. A suggestion that hasn't been confirmed still counts as unallocated.
5:26
Example: Saltbush's cheque account agrees to its June statement, and every line is allocated. Both are green. Section 3 covers Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Business Activity Statements (BAS).
5:42
There are six checks. The first three are about the records. Every BAS period lodged and locked: red while any period in the year is open. Marking a period lodged now hard-locks it.
5:55
Any posted entry dated in that period that would move one of its BAS figures becomes read-only. Every line has a tax code: red for a GST-registered business, because an uncoded line may misreport GST.
6:10
Every bill has its supplier invoice: red where a bill claims GST, is over 82 dollars 50 including GST, and has no invoice a person attached. Above that amount, a tax invoice is needed to claim the GST credit.
6:25
Without one, the credit waits until the invoice is held. Beeswax's own generated PDFs don't count. Example: Saltbush starts with two reds here. The April to June BAS is still open, and a 440 dollar bill for printer consumables has no invoice attached.
6:45
The other three GST checks look at the figures as a whole. GST in the ledger agrees to the statements: BAS by BAS, the GST the tax codes report against the GST the documents posted to the GST accounts.
7:01
Both sides of those accounts count, so a refund is netted, not shown as a difference. A difference of a dollar or more over the year is amber, and the period that disagrees is named.
7:12
It usually means GST was posted straight to a GST account, or a document's tax code and its GST lines disagree. On a cash basis it's not applicable, because the statements count GST when it's paid and the ledger when it's invoiced.
7:27
It links to the return's GST summary. Sales on the statements agree to income: BAS sales, excluding GST, against profit and loss income, within the materiality amount.
7:39
Income with no tax code, or income posted by a journal, shows up here. GST on accounts that usually have none: bank fees, interest, wages, super, government fees, fines, entertainment and the like.
7:53
It's amber, to look at. Section 4 checks payroll against what was reported and paid. Pay runs agree to Single Touch Payroll, year finalised: red if gross pay or tax withheld differs from what Single Touch Payroll reported.
8:10
Amber until the finalisation declaration is recorded. For most employers it's due 14 July. Tax withheld owed at year end agrees to the last period: the closing withholding payable should equal what was withheld in the last BAS period, or, for a business that pays monthly, in the last month.
8:28
Either is green. Super paid, and when. Super is deductible in the year the fund receives it. Super owed at 30 June and paid by 28 July is amber, and it's added back at item 7 this year.
8:42
Paid after 28 July, it's red: the super guarantee charge applies, and for this quarter the charge isn't deductible. The late payment can't be offset against it, either: that option doesn't apply to the April to June 2026 quarter.
8:57
It's the last quarter before Payday Super: from 1 July 2026, super must reach the fund within seven business days of each payday. Payments to directors and associates: a person ticks who they are this year.
9:11
Their wages and super are totalled for item 8, payments to associated persons, label Q, and the return links back to the check. Example: Saltbush owed 6,800 dollars of June super at 30 June and paid it on 21 July.
9:27
That's amber, and the same 6,800 dollars added back at W in Film 5. It pays its withholding monthly, so at 30 June it owes only June's, and that check is green. Its director's 120,000 dollars of salary and 14,400 dollars of super give 134,400 dollars at Q.
9:51
Section 5 checks what customers owe, and what's owed to suppliers. What customers owe agrees to Trade Debtors: the unpaid invoices at 30 June, aged by their payment terms, should add up to the Trade Debtors balance.
10:06
A difference of a dollar or more is red. Long-overdue debts decided: invoices overdue by more than Beeswax's long-overdue setting, 90 days by default, are amber until someone records that they're still expected to be paid, or writes them off.
10:22
A bad debt is deductible only if it's written off as bad before the end of the income year, and was counted as income, this year or in an earlier one. What suppliers are owed agrees to Trade Creditors: the same test for bills.
10:37
Example: Saltbush's 58,000 dollars of debtors and 14,500 dollars of creditors agree, and they become item 8's trade debtors and trade creditors. One 2,750 dollar invoice is 104 days overdue.
10:54
The client has agreed to pay by September, so "Still expected to be paid" is recorded. When Saltbush's review first opens in August, the header reads 18 of 36 ready, and the Sections list shows two sections red.
11:10
Section 3: the April to June BAS is still open, and a 440 dollar bill has no supplier invoice. Section 7: 6,000 dollars of the director's drawings, which the next film deals with.
11:24
Six sections are amber. Section 4: the June super, the finalisation declaration and the associates question. Section 5: the overdue invoice. Section 6: a laptop posted as an expense, and no depreciation yet.
11:40
Section 8: the entertainment and fines. Section 9: income tax payable on the wrong side, until the year's income tax is posted. Section 10: the five year-end adjustments.
11:52
Until the three reds are fixed or accepted, Step 2 waits. To sum up: sections 1 to 5 check that the records are complete and agree to outside figures: bank statements, BAS, Single Touch Payroll, and what customers and suppliers say they owe.
12:10
The next film tests the accounts themselves: sections 6 to 10, the year-end accounts, and locking the year. See you there.