Filing a return in SeroBooks records it in your books: the period's tax collected and input tax credits are cleared into one amount owing to the agency, and the return's figures are kept exactly as filed. You then file the same figures with the agency yourself — SeroBooks does not send anything to the CRA, Revenu Québec or a province — and record the payment when you make it.
File a return, step by step
- Open Vendors ▸ Sales Tax ▸ Manage Sales Tax.
- If you file to more than one agency, choose the agency in the drop-down at the top (GST/HST, QST, PST).
- Check the period. The screen opens on the next return due for that agency. To file another period, choose the period button and pick the dates.
- Read 1 · The return. Compare it with the GST/HST Return report (Reports ▸ Sales Tax ▸ Tax Agency Report (GST/HST Return)) and its detail if you want to see the transactions behind each line. See Sales Tax reports.
- Deal with any red or amber notes under the return (see below).
- Choose File this period.
- The window File … for … to …? says whether the return owes an amount or claims a refund, repeats any warnings, and explains what filing does. Type a Note (optional) — for example the confirmation number the agency gave you.
- Choose File it, or Cancel.
- File the same figures with the agency, if you have not already.
The return appears under 2 · Filed returns with the status Filed and the full amount Outstanding. Its lines are kept exactly as filed: View opens and prints it (see Manage Sales Tax). When you pay, see Pay sales tax.
What filing does in the books
Filing posts one general journal entry, dated the last day of the period:
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Tax collected account (for example GST/HST payable) | Tax collected for the period | |
| Input tax credits account (GST/HST or QST) | Credits for the period | |
| Sales tax filed and owing | Net tax owing |
For a refund return the net amount is a debit instead: the agency owes you. A return with no tax at all (a nil return) is recorded without any journal entry.
Filing clears the tax for the period's own dates — including general journal entries to the tax accounts dated in the period (see below) — plus any tax from before the period that was entered after its own return was filed. Other tax sitting on the account from earlier dates, from a period that was never filed, is left where it is and reported separately.
Journal entries to the tax accounts
A general journal entry posted to the tax collected account (for example GST/HST Payable or PST Payable) or to the input tax credits account, dated in the period, goes on the return as an adjustment, as in QuickBooks Desktop — for example a PST self-assessment, a correction to an input tax credit, or a reclassification between tax accounts:
- to the tax collected account: line 104, Adjustments from journal entries, added into line 105;
- to the input tax credits account: line 107, Adjustments from journal entries, added into line 108.
On a QST or PST return it is a line of its own (QST adjustments from journal entries, ITR adjustments from journal entries, Adjustments from journal entries). Filing clears it off the account with the rest of the period's tax.
Not counted as adjustments: the entries SeroBooks makes itself when you file, reverse or pay a return, opening balances, and history imported from another system (its returns were filed there). A journal entry dated in a period already filed, made after it was filed, goes on the next return like late tax (see below).
Filing does not close the books
The period stays open, as in QuickBooks Desktop. To lock a filed period so nobody can change it, set a closing date with Company ▸ Set Closing Date. See Set Closing Date and Year-End.
If a sale, purchase or journal entry dated inside a filed period is entered or changed later, its tax goes on the next return, as in QuickBooks Desktop. The next return shows it on a line of its own, Adjustments: tax from before this period, entered after its return was filed (lines 104 and 107 on a GST/HST return, with 103 and 106 showing the period's own tax), and includes it in the totals it files. The return already filed keeps its figures exactly as filed. To file the correction against the original period instead, reverse that return before it is paid, file the period again, and file the correction with the agency. See Reverse a filed return.
What stops a return being filed
File this period stays greyed out while any of these shows under the return:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| … to … has already been filed for … (filing #…). Reverse that filing before filing these dates again — two filings over the same days would clear the same tax twice. | The dates overlap a return already filed for this agency. Pick the next period, or reverse the earlier filing first. |
| The books are closed through …, which is on or after this period end (…). The filing journal is dated … and cannot be written into a closed period. Move the closing date back before filing. | Your closing date is on or after the period's last day. Move it back in Company ▸ Set Closing Date, file, then set it again. |
| Nothing is recorded for … before …, so there is no return to file for … to …. The first return is the period holding …. | The period is before your books have any tax. File from the first period with tax. |
| No account is mapped to "Sales tax filed and owing (GST/HST returns payable)". The net owing has to land somewhere; map it in Accounting ▸ Setup… | Open Company ▸ Accounting Setup and map that row to a liability account, or use Create missing accounts there. |
Other messages you may see:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| … has no account of its own mapped in Accounting ▸ Setup, so there is nothing to file. | The agency has no tax account. Map one in Accounting Setup. |
| The period ends before it starts. Check the dates. | Pick the period again. |
Warnings that do not stop filing
- The ledger and the documents disagree by $… — the tax in the ledger for the period is not the same as the tax on the invoices and credit memos. Filing uses the ledger figure. Only the period's own document tax is compared, so a journal entry adjustment is never the cause. A common cause is a tax rate not mapped to any tax account (see Which tax each rate is). Find it first if you can.
- $… of tax from BEFORE this period is still sitting on the account — an earlier period that was never filed. — file that earlier period too; this filing does not touch it. (Tax entered late in a period that was filed is not in this figure: the return carries it as an adjustment.)
Permissions
Filing needs File a Return.
Tips
- File in order, oldest period first. The screen always opens on the oldest return not yet filed.
- Put the agency's confirmation number in the note. It is kept with the filing.
- Set the closing date to the period end straight after filing.