17 quarter-end items every solo accountant forgets

A. Before you touch the numbers

• All bank & card statements imported — full quarter, no gaps; opening balance = last period’s close.
• Closing book balance = actual bank statement balance on the last day. If it drifts, fix before coding.
• Missing-statement chase done for the whole quarter, including mid-quarter accounts.
• Loan, credit-card and PayPal/Stripe/Square feeds reconciled — settlements are net of fees.

B. Coding & GST accuracy

• Every transaction coded — zero uncoded/suspense items remaining.
• GST-free & N-T payees checked: fees, interest, ATO, ASIC, super, wages, govt charges. (#1 BAS error.)
• Overseas / digital suppliers GST-verified — Netflix, AWS, Apple, Booking.com.
• Entertainment & meals apportioned (50% / FBT), not fully claimed.
• Capital purchases >$300 split to assets, not expensed.
• Mixed-supply baskets split — receipts with both GST and GST-free items.
• Wage & super figures agree with payroll/STP (W1, W2).

C. Reconciliation & worksheet

• Bank reconciliation signed off — book balance ties to statement for every account.
• GST control account reviewed — collected less paid ≈ the BAS worksheet figure.
• Prior-period adjustments captured — late invoices, credit notes, corrections.
• Rounding & cents checked on the worksheet vs the ledger.

D. Lodge & protect yourself

• Audit trail retained — a reason you could show the ATO for any non-obvious coding.
• Lodgement deadline confirmed; lodged BAS + working papers saved to the client file.

Exception triage — the 3 blockers that eat quarter-end

1. Bank balance won’t reconcile → find the date the drift starts; check for a duplicate import, a missing transaction, or a one-sided transfer.
2. GST control looks wrong → scan for GST wrongly claimed on N-T payees, and GST missed on income.
3. Missing client statements → send the chase on Day 1 of quarter-end, not Day 20. The wait is the bottleneck.

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