Templates
Podiatry chart of accounts for Xero
A podiatry chart splits revenue by who pays: one account per funder, plus a separate account for the orthotic and footwear shelf. A consult delivered as appropriate treatment by a registered podiatrist is GST free, so the clinical service accounts carry GST Free Income. The shelf account carries GST on Income unless an item meets the Schedule 3 conditions. Settlement sits apart, one clearing account per rail.
Key facts
- Where podiatry sits
- Chiropody and podiatry are both named on the ATO's list of health services, so the profession passes the first of the three conditions on its own1
- Who has to deliver it
- A recognised health professional, meaning a person registered, permitted or approved under state or territory law to provide the listed service1
- What the service has to be
- Appropriate treatment: assessing the patient, working out a course of action and supplying what the profession accepts as appropriate, which includes routine check-ups2
- Revenue accounts in the starting template
- Eighteen, split by who pays rather than by practitioner or by site5
- Clearing accounts
- Ten, one per settlement rail that produces a bank line, each posted BAS Excluded5
- The shelf
- Account 422, Products and equipment sales, carries orthoses, insoles, padding and footwear at GST on Income until an item override says otherwise5
- When an aid is GST free instead
- The item has to be listed in Schedule 3 or the regulations, be specifically designed for people with an illness or disability, and not be widely used by people without one4
- Padding for corns and calluses
- The ATO's wound care example makes a patch that covers a blister, corn or callus taxable, because it is designed for anyone with one rather than for people with an illness or disability4
- Goods handed over in the room
- GST free where they are a necessary part of the service and supplied at the same time and place; the extra dressings the patient takes home are not3
- Tracking slots
- Practitioner and location take both of Xero's tracking categories, which is why the funder lives in the account code5
What a podiatry chart has to carry
A podiatry book is two businesses on one invoice. The clinical side is paid by patients, DVA, Medicare referrals, private health funds, NDIS plans and compensation schemes. The shelf is paid at the desk. The clinical side is mostly GST free. The shelf is mostly not. A chart with one income account called Sales cannot tell you which is which, and a BAS built on it is a guess.
The starting point here is the canonical allied health by funding source template, whose own list of practices it suits names podiatry. It carries 18 revenue accounts, 23 revenue rows and 10 modelled settlement rails, and the shape of it is one idea: revenue splits by who pays, and settlement is held apart from revenue so a deposit can be matched without opening the practice system.
Podiatry is on the list, which settles one condition of three
The ATO's list of health services names chiropody and podiatry as separate entries, so a podiatry practice does not have to argue that its work is similar to something on the list. The test is strict: a service has to be one of the listed services and cannot just be similar to one.
Being on the list settles one condition of three. The service also has to be performed by a recognised health professional in that listed service, and it has to be generally accepted in the profession as necessary for appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply. A recognised health professional is a person registered, permitted or approved under state or territory law to provide the service.
A health professional is supplying appropriate treatment when they use their professional skills to assess a patient's health, work out a course of action to preserve, restore or improve the patient's physical or psychological wellbeing, as far as the practitioner's training allows, and supply a treatment that is generally accepted by their profession as being appropriate for the patient.2
Preventative medicine and routine check-ups count, which covers a lot of routine podiatry. The condition that bites in a podiatry practice sits on a different supply: the shelf.
The revenue accounts, by who pays
Each funder gets its own revenue account, and the tax rate sits on the account rather than being chosen line by line. A practice billing three funders does not need all of these, but the codes are worth reserving so a later funder does not force a renumber.
| Account | What lands there | Xero tax rate |
|---|---|---|
| 400 Clinical services, private patients | Consults the patient pays for, including the gap after a fund benefit | GST Free Income |
| 401 Clinical services, Medicare | Bulk bill and patient claim consults under a referral | GST Free Income |
| 402 Clinical services, DVA | Veteran treatment, paid by Services Australia | GST Free Income |
| 403 Clinical services, private health fund benefit | The benefit claimed at the terminal, gap on 400 | GST Free Income |
| 404 to 406 Clinical services, NDIS | One account per management type | GST Free Income |
| 407 and 408 WorkCover, CTP and TAC | Scheme funded treatment, GST free under s38-60 where the scheme has not opted out | GST Free Income |
| 420 Reports, assessments and medico-legal | A report an insurer or a scheme asked for | GST on Income |
| 422 Products and equipment sales | Orthoses, insoles, padding and footwear, with an item override for a Schedule 3 aid | GST on Income |
| 423 Cancellation and no-show fees | A fee taking the treatment of the supply it replaces, so a cancelled report, supervision session or training booking needs an item override | GST Free Income |
Splitting by funder keeps the tax rate attached to the payer rather than to whoever raised the invoice, and it answers the question a practice asks at the end of a quarter. Xero tax rates for health income covers the rate side.
The shelf gets its own account, and here is why
An orthosis sold beside a consult is a separate supply, and it does not inherit the consult's treatment. Goods are GST free where they are a necessary part of the GST free service and supplied at the same time and place, and the item has to be specific to treating that patient or essential to that consultation.
Dr Jones treats a patient's injury during a consultation by applying a bandage. If the consultation is GST-free, the bandage is also GST-free. However, extra bandages, dressings and antiseptics the patient takes home are not GST-free.3
The second door is Schedule 3. A medical aid is GST free where it is listed in Schedule 3 to the GST Act or in the regulations, is specifically designed for people with an illness or disability, and is not widely used by people without one. All three have to hold, and the same product carries the same treatment at wholesale or over the counter. Hiring an aid that qualifies is GST free too.
- Used in the room and specific to that patient's treatment: it follows the consult.
- Taken home and listed in Schedule 3 on all three conditions: GST free as a medical aid, whoever buys it.
- Taken home and not listed, or listed but widely used by people without an illness or disability: ordinary taxable stock. The ATO's own wound care example is a patch for a blister, corn or callus.
- Sorting a shelf into those three buckets is the work, and it is item by item.
So the shelf gets an account of its own rather than a rate typed onto a line. One account with a default rate and an item level override for the aids that qualify is checkable at the end of a quarter. A rate chosen per invoice is not.
The same product line posts three different ways
This is the part a generic account list cannot show. A product sold to a private patient resolves differently in each canonical template, and one of those differences catches a podiatry practice that picked its template for another reason.
Two templates give the shelf a taxable account of its own. The plan managed template holds no product row at all, so the resolver falls back to the private consult row and the same orthosis posts at the GST free rate. A podiatry practice that starts from an NDIS template because most of its work is NDIS, then sells insoles at the desk, ships a taxable line coded GST free until someone adds the row.
The fix is small and belongs before the first sync: add a product row to whichever template the practice starts from, point it at an account of its own, and set the item overrides. GST on products sold to patients works through the treatment question itself.
Clearing accounts follow the rail, not the funder
Revenue splits by who pays. Settlement splits by what produces a bank line, and those are not the same list. A HICAPS terminal claims against many funds and the template gives it one clearing account rather than one per fund, Services Australia pays DVA and Medicare in separate runs, and a card terminal settles on its own cycle. So the template holds one clearing account per rail, each a bank type account so a run can be matched as a transfer, and each posted BAS Excluded.
- 100 Medicare clearing, for approved bulk bill and patient claim runs.
- 101 DVA clearing, kept apart because DVA pays in its own runs with its own report type.
- 102 NDIA clearing and 103 Plan manager clearing, the two NDIS shapes.
- 104 HICAPS clearing, for the fund benefit settled after the terminal.
- 105 to 107 for Tyro Health, a non-Tyro terminal and Stripe.
- 108 WorkCover clearing and 109 Insurer clearing, for scheme and direct insurer payments.
An aged balance here is a question with an answer: a run approved and not yet banked, or a deposit banked and not yet receipted. How DVA allied health payments land in Xero walks one rail end to end.
Practitioner and location go in tracking, not in the chart
A practice with three podiatrists and two sites is tempted to build accounts for each. Xero allows two active tracking categories, and the template spends both: practitioner in one slot, location in the other. That leaves no slot for the funder, which is why the funder lives in the account code.
Revenue by funder comes off the account codes, revenue by podiatrist and by site off the tracking categories, and the two cross without an extra account. The chart stays small and the reports stay sharp.
Building it in Xero
- Add revenue accounts for the funders the practice bills, with the tax rate set on the account rather than left to the invoice.
- Add the shelf account and set its default rate to GST on Income, then list the items that qualify as medical aids and give those an override.
- Add one clearing account per settlement rail in use, each a bank type account so transfers and fee lines work.
- Create the two tracking categories, practitioner and location, and check every practitioner name in the practice system matches Xero.
- Post a month of history against the new chart before the first live sync, so an unused account is retired before it becomes clutter.
What to confirm before the chart is approved
Nail care and gait assessment are treatment. Off the shelf insoles, a heel raise and a pair of shoes are three different answers, and the price list has to be worked through once rather than argued with each invoice.
What Ledger Map does with it
Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, approved before anything syncs. A podiatry line resolves to its account and its tax rate through that map, a settlement is posted as one balanced document set against the rail's clearing account, and one exact match is left in the bank feed for a person to accept.
Nothing here is a treatment Ledger Map chose. The accounts and rates come from the canonical template the practice starts from, and a line the map cannot resolve becomes a question with the options laid out rather than a silent posting. How it works shows the map and its approval step.
Questions
Is podiatry GST free in Australia?
A podiatry consult is GST free where three conditions hold: podiatry is on the ATO's list of health services, the service is performed by a recognised health professional in that service, and it is generally accepted in the profession as necessary for appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply. Reports for third parties and most products taken home are separate supplies with their own answers.
How many accounts does a podiatry practice need in Xero?
Fewer than most charts carry. One revenue account per funder the practice actually bills, one account for the shelf, one for reports, one for cancellation fees, and one clearing account per settlement rail. The starting template holds eighteen revenue accounts and ten clearing accounts, and a small practice will leave most of them unused rather than renumber later.
Are orthotics GST free?
It depends on the item, not on the profession. An aid is GST free where it is listed in Schedule 3 to the GST Act or in the regulations, is specifically designed for people with an illness or disability, and is not widely used by people without one. All three have to hold. Anything used in the room as a necessary and specific part of the consult follows the consult instead, and ordinary retail stock is taxable.
Should DVA podiatry income have its own revenue account?
In the canonical template it does, on account 402, at the same tax rate as private consults. The reason is reporting rather than tax: DVA is paid by Services Australia in its own payment runs, so a practice that wants to know what DVA is worth, or which run is still outstanding, needs the revenue and the settlement held apart from Medicare.
Can I put the shelf and the consults on one income account?
You can, and the BAS gets harder every quarter. One account carrying two tax treatments means the split is decided line by line at invoice time, and nobody can check it afterwards without reading every invoice. A separate account with a default rate and item level overrides makes the same decision once and leaves it auditable.
Read next
Sources
Open questions
- Which items on a particular podiatry shelf meet the Schedule 3 conditions is item by item. Custom orthoses, off the shelf insoles, padding and footwear are not one category, and this page does not sort them for a practice.
- No podiatry fee or funder volume figure appears here. DVA fee schedules refuse an automated read and the registered source for them is already tagged unverified, so no rate is stated.
- Whether a practice with a large retail shelf should split the shelf account further, custom aids apart from retail stock, is a decision for the practice and its BAS agent rather than a rule.
- No search result capture exists for this page's target query, so the claim that the page adds something the current top five lack is an expectation from the corpus rather than a checked finding. It should be re-checked before publication.
- No podiatry specific practitioner thread could be read for this page, so the wording quoted here is the ATO's own rather than a bookkeeper's.
- GST and health: other health services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
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- GST and health: appropriate treatment
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
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- GST and health: goods supplied as part of a GST-free health service
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
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- GST and health: medical aids and appliances
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 8 Oct 2025.
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Review
Last reviewed 3 Sep 2026 by Shane
General information for Australian allied health practices, not tax advice. Confirm a treatment with your BAS agent or accountant before you post it.
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