Preparing your GST/HST return

Whether you file monthly, quarterly, or annually, this walks you from "return is due" to "numbers are ready" using nothing but the Sales Tax report.

Step 1: Confirm your reporting period

Check your CRA filing frequency (it's on your GST/HST account correspondence) and set the matching date range in GBooks Air's Sales Tax report.

Step 2: Make sure the period is fully categorized

Before you pull any numbers, clear the review queue for the period — every bank transaction categorized, every receipt matched up. An uncategorized $4,000 deposit is either revenue you haven't reported yet or a transfer you haven't excluded. Either way, sort it before the return, not after.

Step 3: Read the Sales Tax report

For your period, it shows:

• Tax collected on sales — total GST/HST charged across your invoices and taxable transactions.
• Input tax credits (ITCs) — GST/HST paid on business purchases that you can claim back.
• Net tax — collected minus ITCs. Positive means you remit that amount; negative means you're owed a refund.

Step 4: Sanity-check the ITCs

Two quick checks before you trust the total:

• Meals should sit at 50%. If the meals and entertainment ITCs look like a full claim instead of half, make sure those transactions are actually categorized to the dedicated meals account, which is what triggers the limitation.
• Every claimed purchase should have a receipt. Cross-check against the audit flags. A purchase claimed with no receipt on file is about the most common thing a GST/HST review pushes back on.

Step 5: File

File through CRA My Business Account, GST/HST NETFILE, or your accountant, using the collected, ITC, and net figures straight from the report. Keep the report PDF with your records.

Step 6: Record the remittance

When you pay (or receive) the net amount, record that transaction against the GST/HST liability account. That clears the balance so next period starts clean instead of carrying forward some stale leftover figure.