Cash basis bookkeeping

Cash accounting, kept consistently

Many smaller Australian businesses choose to account for GST on a cash basis, recognising income when it is received and expenses when they are paid, rather than when an invoice is raised or a bill lands. Finbryn keeps your bookkeeping on that same basis, so the profit and loss you read matches the GST figures your registered agent lodges, instead of the two telling slightly different stories.

Each month we record income as it hits the bank, record expenses as they are paid, and reconcile every account to its statement. The result is a set of books that tracks your actual cash position closely, which is often exactly what a sole trader, a small services business or a sole director wants: a number that matches what is sitting in the account, not a number adjusted for invoices nobody has been paid on yet.

Eligibility for cash-basis GST accounting depends on your GST turnover and the nature of the business; some structures and higher-turnover businesses are required to account on an accrual basis instead. We check that during onboarding and flag it plainly if cash accounting is not available to you, rather than setting it up and finding out later.

When accrual makes more sense

As a business grows, adds inventory, or starts dealing with a bank, an investor or a franchisor that wants figures matched to the period the work was done, cash-basis reporting starts to understate or overstate the real picture. We will tell you directly when that point has arrived rather than leaving you on cash basis by default, and we can convert existing cash-basis history into accrual books without losing the year-on-year comparisons you already have.

Software

Kept inside Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online, under your own subscription, with the cash or accrual setting matched to how the business actually reports.