Adjustments to GST

Question

Hi again, 
 Last year when the accountants gave me the YE Adjustments Entries they had an entry that was Credit Accounts Receivable and Debit Bad Debts . Which we did but since they forgot to take in consideration the GST that we had paid already in that year they told us to make an entry this year to recuperate that GST. Since i am new at this I didnt know how to do that. The girl that helped me do the year end adjustments told me that in my next GST report (wihich was a few months ago...) to do this: 
 2310 GST Collected: 225.45 just (does she mean ADJUST)?? 
 When i do my GST remittance I usually do a Purchase Invoice as follow: 
 2310 GST Charged on Sales (positive amount) 
 2315 GST Paid on Purchases (negative amount) 
 2325 GST Adjustments (positive or negative amount depending on the entry) 
 
 So my question is: to recuperate the GST that we already paid since we are not going to see that money (its in BAD DEBT), do i negative 2310 or do i make the entry in the Adjustment account (2325) and if so would it be negative or positive?? 
 Thanks in advance

AmyGurl · Accepted Answer

Make a general journal entry "to record GST portion of bad debt re invoice #...." debit 2310 GST charged on sales and credit Bad Debt expense. 
 Then do your next GST reporting as usual. The adjustment will be reflected in the GL accounts and if you use the GL accounts to calculate the amounts for your purchase invoice you'll capture the adjustment.

AmyGurl · Answer

I agree; the GST on the bad debt has already been posted - do not post again. 
 Your second question: when you make a backdated entry in a period that the HST has already been filed for, that entry will change the ending balance of the account. You should always be reconciling the ending balance of the GL for the period being filed to the amounts being reported. I never use the Tax reports in Sage50 as they are confusing and not reliable. Eg. if a general journal entry is made to the GST account (as in my example above), if the tax coding isn't done correctly, it won't show up on the report. The reports also show only the information for the period requested, not any backdated or adjusted transactions. 
 The solution: print the GL for 2310 and 2315 for the period of the return. The opening balance should be zero OR you should see the entry for the prior period reporting posted in the list of transactions which hopefully is the same amount as the opening balance. Use the ending balance of the accounts as the amounts to report for the filing. 
 Make a pay later purchase invoice dated for the last day of the reporting period DR #2310 and CR #2315. Post. The new ending balance of both 2310 and 2315 will be zero. Then Pay Purchase invoice when you either pay it, or get a refund.

Smith and Co · Answer

When you first made the sale of that bad debt customer you would have entered as below: 
 Cr 4000 Revenue Account 4509.50 
 Cr 2310 GST Charged on Sales 225.48 
 Dr Acct Rec 4734.98 
 Now that it is a bad debt you would then pull up the same customer and enter as per below: 
 Dr 5620 Bad Debt 4509.50 (enter in sales module as a negative nbr) 
 Dr 2310 GST Charged on Sales 225.48 
 Cr Acct Rec 4734.98 
 AmyGurl is right to say 'never use the Tax Report in Sage 50'. 
 If your remittance period is Dec1/14 to Feb28/15 then when you do the GST remittance you would print off the balance sheet as of Feb28/15. Also print off the 2 G/L accts (GST Paid and GST charged) for the period of Dec1/14 to Feb28/15 (you will notice the balance forward on the GST Charge in sales acct is no longer zero becus of the bad debt entry you made). And print off the Income stmt for the period of Dec1/14 to Feb28/15. 
 Now you can clear out the 2 GST accts in your Acct Pay module using the numbers showing on the balance sheet and date the pay later purchase invoice as Feb28/15. This will in effect refund the 225.48 that you originally paid. Now you can pay this invoice the following month on the due date it is for which in this example would be Mar31/15. Even if you have previously done this before using pay now purchase invoice dated the following month you will still follow the procedure above as it will not throw your numbers out since you always use the numbers showing on your balance sheet. Printing off the 2 G/L accounts is used as a backup document in case one needs to find out what the detailed transactions are that makes up the balance sheet amounts. 
 I hope this helps.

Smith and Co · Answer

Yes, it will roll over. As long as you are using the balance sheet for the amounts to remit you will be fine. 
 I don't know why the girt would tell you to adjust it. Even if done in previous year it will still roll over just like your bank account balance will roll over into the new year.

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