Preparing and filing a GST return in New Zealand is one of the most regular compliance jobs a firm handles, and one of the easiest to get wrong when the underlying records are not clean. Before the GST101A can be finalised, every transaction for the period needs to be coded with the correct GST treatment, the bank and supplier ledgers need to be reconciled, and the GST control accounts have to tie back to the activity the return reports. Get the coding wrong, miss a zero-rated supply, or claim GST on an exempt item, and the firm is the one explaining the variance to the client and to Inland Revenue (IRD).
Without a defined process, GST work tends to live in one person’s head. Different staff reconcile to different standards, draft returns go out without a second look, and filing dates slip past because nobody owns the deadline. A repeatable template fixes that by making every GST job run the same way: the same checks, the same client sign-off, the same workpapers saved every time. For more on the broader obligation, see tax compliance.
When to run it
Run this job on each client’s GST filing cycle. In New Zealand that is usually monthly, two-monthly, or six-monthly depending on turnover and the basis the client has registered for (invoice, payments, or hybrid). Set the job to start far enough ahead of the due date that there is room for client review and any queries before filing. A senior reviewer or the client manager should own the job and approve the draft return before it is submitted.
How to run it in Tidyflow
Set this up once as a reusable job template in workflow management. Each step becomes a subtask your team checks off in order, from confirming the filing frequency through to saving the filed return in the audit file. Put the job on a recurring schedule that matches each client’s GST cycle, so the next period’s job is created automatically and never depends on someone remembering.
The items the client needs to action become requests in the client portal: approving the draft return, clarifying flagged transactions, and confirming how the liability will be paid. Supporting documents for large or unusual transactions land directly against the job through document management, so the reconciliations and filed return stay together as one workpaper set.
Common pitfalls
- Filing before the bank and supplier ledgers are fully reconciled, so the return reports figures that later change.
- Misclassifying supplies: treating zero-rated or exempt items as standard-rated, or claiming GST where none applies.
- Missing period-specific adjustments such as second-hand goods claims, bad debts written off, change-of-use, or imports.
- Filing without documented client approval, leaving no record of who signed off the figures.
- Confirming the payment amount but not the due date or correct IRD payment code, so the client pays late or against the wrong period.