This is the first question every Australian CFO asks about an internationally-built finance platform, and it deserves a straight answer: GST and BAS are configuration, not magic. A global ledger will not know about Australian tax rules out of the box. It needs to be set up, and the setup needs to be checked by someone who understands both the system and the ATO's expectations.
Here is what that actually involves.
Australian GST is conceptually simple — 10% on taxable supplies — and operationally detailed. The system needs tax codes that distinguish:
For a software exporter, the GST-free treatment of exported services is the one to get right. Supplies to non-resident customers consumed outside Australia are generally GST-free, but the conditions are specific and the analysis depends on where the customer actually consumes the service. This is a question for your tax adviser, not a default setting.
The BAS labels map to specific data the system must be able to produce cleanly: G1 total sales, G3 other GST-free sales, G10 capital acquisitions, G11 non-capital acquisitions, 1A GST on sales, 1B GST on purchases, plus PAYG withholding and instalments where applicable.
What makes this straightforward or painful is whether every transaction carries a tax code and whether those codes roll up to the right labels without manual reclassification. If your BAS preparation currently involves exporting to Excel and recoding lines, that is a configuration gap rather than a system limitation.
1. Tax codes are mandatory on transaction entry. If a code can be left blank, it will be, and someone will find it at quarter end.
2. The GST control accounts reconcile monthly. Not quarterly. GST collected and GST paid should tie to the BAS position every month, even if you lodge quarterly. Finding a coding error one month in is a correction; finding it at year end is a revision.
3. Foreign currency purchases convert correctly for GST. A USD invoice with Australian GST has to convert at the right rate for the input tax credit. This is a common configuration miss in international platforms.
4. Tax invoices meet ATO requirements. If you issue invoices from the system, they need the required elements — ABN, the words "tax invoice", GST amount, and so on. Check the template rather than assuming.
If you have an Australian entity and offshore entities, only the Australian entity has GST obligations — but intercompany transactions between them need correct treatment.
A management fee charged by the Australian parent to a US subsidiary is likely a GST-free export of services, subject to the usual conditions. A recharge in the other direction may raise reverse charge considerations depending on the nature of the supply and your GST status. These are worth confirming with your adviser and then configuring deliberately, because they recur every month.
Related reading: intercompany eliminations for Australian groups.
Worth being direct about this. Australian payroll — award interpretation, superannuation guarantee, Single Touch Payroll reporting — is specialised, and international finance platforms are generally weak at it.
Most ANZ companies on a modern global ledger keep a dedicated Australian payroll system and integrate it, posting summarised journals into the ledger. That is not a compromise; it is the sensible architecture, and it is the same best-of-breed argument we make in rethinking the single platform play.
An internationally-built platform will not arrive knowing Australian tax. What it will do is give you a ledger where every transaction carries structured tax data, so the BAS is a report rather than a reconstruction — provided the configuration was done properly.
That configuration is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to get 90% right and expensive to discover the last 10% of at quarter end.
GST and BAS configuration is a standard part of our implementation scope for Australian entities, and one of the more concrete reasons to use a local partner rather than a self-service setup.
Nothing here is tax advice — your tax adviser owns the treatment decisions. We make sure the system implements them correctly. Get in touch.