HST Payable - Negative

by Lynn
(Ontario)

Reconciling GST/HST Payable

Reconciling GST/HST Payable

I am doing my HST quarterly and my starting balance for HST account is -545.13 in "transactions by account". I think it should be zero.


My debit column is 1075.19
My credit column is 356.46 which includes a previous refund of 352.56.
My ending balance is -1263.86

I am not sure how to fix my error which has happened a while ago. How do I get rid of the -545.13 so that it is zero.



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Hi Lynn,

If you are tracking your sales tax in one account (as QuickBooks does), it is very unlikely you will ever have a zero balance at the end of a quarter.

I chat a bit about manual GST/HST tracking to help you to see how GST/HST works.

You should run your GST/HST report for the quarter using Reports> Sales Tax. Choose the summary report to see your numbers for the quarter. If you want the detail behind the numbers, run the detail report ... which I always recommend to keep to backup your submission in the event of an audit.

While "transactions by account" is great to customize many queries, Sales Tax has a special module in QuickBooks. It's better to use those reports.

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Apr 23, 2013
 HST
by: Lynn

I don't use Quickbook tax reports, I do it manually.

My previous account told me not to. I did look at that account and it shows numbers that don't match. I don't use it to pay HST, it is all done manually. I was taught to print transaction by account and figure it out.


Lynn,

I disagree with the advice you received from your accountant. QuickBooks knows the "rules" better than you do. It makes filing your returns easy with all the information you need for supporting reports during an audit.

That said, as you are doing it manually, I hope you followed my link on the best way to track HST when doing it manually.

Also, as you are following your accountant's recommendations, you should go back to him/her and ask them how to fix your prior period error.

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