Problems
June invoice paid in July: which year is it
It sits in both years, on different reports. Accrual reports and an accruals basis activity statement read the invoice date, so the sale belongs to the June year. Cash reports, a cash basis activity statement and a payout on receipts read the payment date, so the same claim belongs to the July year. Keep both dates on the record.
Key facts
- What an accrual report reads
- The invoice date, so the sale is recorded when the invoice is sent4
- What a cash report reads
- The payment date, so the sale is recorded when the payer pays4
- Where the GST timing rule sits
- Division 29 of the GST Act, headed what is attributable to tax periods; section 29-5 attributes the GST on a taxable supply, so it reaches the taxable minority of a clinic's income rather than a GST free claim5
- The lag that carries a claim over the year end
- Two to three business days from submission for a compliant NDIS claim from an endorsed provider, and up to ten days where the claim needs review1
- The date the canonical pattern posts a receipt on
- The funder's paid date taken from the remittance, rather than the date the bank line appeared9
- What the remittance keys on
- The payment request number, with a system suffix appended to the practice's own reference2
- When the June quarter activity statement is due
- 28 July, which is four weeks after the quarter it reports on has closed8
- What the basis does not move
- The GST treatment of the service, which is decided by what the service is and the tests it meets, not by when the money moved3
Both years, and the report decides which
The question sounds like it has one answer and it has two. A practice invoices when the session happens. The funder pays later. An accrual report reads the invoice date and puts the sale in the June year. A cash report reads the payment date and puts it in the July year. Neither is a mistake. They answer different questions about the same claim.
Xero's own guide uses the same calendar this question does, a job finished in June and paid in July, so the split is not a clinic quirk. What is a clinic quirk is how far apart the two dates sit and how little control the practice has over the second one.
With cash accounting, you record a sale when the customer pays. With accrual accounting, you record it when you send the invoice.4
The three dates a funder claim carries
A retail sale has two dates. A funder claim has three, and mixing them up is what turns a timing question into an argument at the year end. The third one, the date the bank line appeared, is the one people reach for because it is the easiest to see, and it is the one that answers the fewest questions.
| Date | Where it comes from | What reads it |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice date | The practice system, set when the session is invoiced | Accrual profit and loss, an accruals basis activity statement, and the ageing on aged receivables |
| Funder paid date | The remittance or payment report, keyed by the funder's own payment reference | The receipt posted against the invoice, cash reports, a cash basis activity statement, and a payout on receipts |
| Bank date | The bank feed line for the payment run | The bank reconciliation, and the ageing of a clearing balance against the receipts already sitting in it |
A payment batched on one day, in the bank the next, and recorded in the billing system a day or two later again. Three dates, none of which agree.7
One claim, drawn across the year end
Take an NDIS agency managed claim lodged in the last week of June. A compliant claim from an endorsed provider is paid two to three business days from submission, and one under review can take up to ten days. Either way the invoice is dated in one year and the money lands in the next.
Read the timeline twice. On accruals the sale is finished at the first marker. On cash it has not happened until the fourth. The bank line at the end changes neither answer, which is what most versions of this question miss.
Which report reads which date
At the year end a practice runs several reports that describe the same claim and disagree with each other. They are meant to. This is which one reads which date.
| Report | Date it reads | Where the claim lands |
|---|---|---|
| Profit and loss on accruals | Invoice date | The June year |
| Profit and loss on cash | Payment date | The July year |
| Activity statement on an accruals basis | Invoice date | The June year |
| Activity statement on a cash basis | Payment date | The July year |
| Aged receivables | Invoice date and due date | Open at the year end on both views, because the funder had not paid |
| Practitioner payout on receipts | Payment date | The July year |
| Clearing account ageing | Funder paid date against the bank date | Neither year: it measures money approved and not yet banked |
A practitioner paid on receipts and an accountant reading an accrual profit and loss can quote different numbers for the same fortnight, with nobody wrong. The cash and accruals how to shows where to read the basis in Xero.
The June quarter BAS is lodged after the July money lands
A quarterly activity statement for April to June is due on 28 July, four weeks after the quarter it reports on has closed. By the time a practice prepares it the July remittances have arrived and the June claims are showing as paid. That is what makes this feel wrong on a cash basis. The money is visibly in the account, and it still does not belong on the statement being lodged.
On a cash basis the June quarter statement reports what was received up to the last day of June, so a claim paid in July is reported on the September quarter instead. On an accruals basis that claim is already on the June statement, because the invoice date falls inside the period. Lodging late does not stretch the period.
- A June claim rejected in July was not received, so on a cash basis nothing was reported for it and nothing needs correcting.
- On an accruals basis the June statement already reported that sale, so a rejection is handled with a credit note and the adjustment falls in the period the credit note is dated.
- Either way the funder's rejection line and the remittance are the evidence for the adjustment, so keep them with the claim rather than with the bank line.
The gap between the two views is countable
The difference between the accrual year and the cash year is not a mystery balance. It is the claims invoiced and not yet received at the year end, plus any receipt the bank has not delivered yet. Both are lists a practice can print.
- Print aged receivables at the year end. That is the revenue an accrual report has recognised and a cash report has not.
- Print the balance of each funder's clearing account at the year end. That is money the funder has settled and the bank has not delivered.
- Add the two and compare them against the difference between the accrual and cash profit figures for the year.
- Anything left over is a different problem, usually a receipt dated on the bank date rather than the funder's paid date, or an invoice edited after the year closed.
A clearing balance that will not come back to nil at the year end is its own symptom, and the clearing account that will not clear works through the causes.
The paid date you type can move the year
On a cash basis the year turns on the date on the receipt, and somebody chooses that date. For funder money there are two candidates: the paid date the remittance states, and the date the deposit turned up in the bank feed. Near a year end they can fall on either side of it.
The canonical allied health template posts the funder's paid date from the remittance, and holds the money in the rail's clearing account until the bank line arrives. That keeps the invoice closing on the date the funder settled it, and it keeps the bank date out of the revenue question entirely.
- Using the remittance date puts the receipt in the year the funder says it paid, and the clearing balance carries the short tail into the new year.
- Using the bank date moves that tail of receipts into the new year too, so a cash basis year end shifts by however many claims were in flight.
- Picking one and holding to it is what makes two years comparable.
- The remittance is the document that proves the date, so a receipt dated from it can be defended without opening the practice system.
The basis moves the period, not the treatment
A timing rule decides when a supply is reported. It does not decide what the supply is. Treatment that is GST free stays GST free in both years, and a report requested by a third party such as an insurer stays taxable in both. The year the money landed in does not change the tax rate on the line.
If Medicare, NDIS, Workers Compensation or private health insurance pays you, then it is as if the patient paid you and it is a Yes.6
The same logic runs one step further. If who paid does not decide the treatment, when they paid does not either. What the payment date does decide, on a cash basis, is the quarter the sale appears in at G1, and that follows from the GST accounting method the practice is registered on. Section 29-5 attributes the GST on a taxable supply, and the claim in this worked example is GST free, so there is no GST for it to attribute.
The movement through 102 NDIA clearing is posted BAS excluded in the canonical template, so it reports nothing on either side of the year end. The GST free treatment belongs to the revenue line the invoice carries, which was recognised when the invoice was raised.
After the year is closed
Once the accountant closes the year and sets a lock date, a late correction in the practice system stops being a data question and becomes a decision. A re-lodged claim, or an invoice amended after the fact, carries a date that Xero refuses.
Lock dates and sync covers the procedure and what each choice costs. The year end version is that the choice moves revenue between two years already reported on.
What Ledger Map does with it
Ledger Map keeps both dates on every claim. The invoice date stays on the invoice, and the receipt carries the funder's paid date read from the remittance, so an accrual report and a cash report each get the date they need without anybody retyping one.
For each funder deposit it posts one balanced document set, the paid claims receipted into the rail's clearing account with the fee leg where the rail takes one, and leaves one exact match against the bank line in the feed. Anything it cannot resolve comes back as a question with the options laid out. How it works shows the map and its approval step, and the canonical allied health template holds the accounts it posts to.
Questions
Which financial year does a June invoice paid in July belong to?
The June year on an accrual report, and the July year on a cash report. Both statements describe the same claim correctly. Which one your accountant works from depends on the basis the practice reports on, and which one a practitioner is paid from depends on whether their agreement is written on receipts or on billings.
Should the payment carry the remittance date or the bank date?
The canonical template uses the funder's paid date from the remittance, and holds the money in the rail's clearing account until the bank line arrives. That keeps the invoice closing on the date the funder settled it. Around a year end the choice moves the receipts in flight from one year to the other, so it is worth settling once with the accountant.
My accountant's revenue figure does not match what I was paid. Why?
Usually because one figure reads invoice dates and the other reads payment dates. The gap is the claims invoiced and not yet received at the year end, plus any settled money the bank had not delivered. Print aged receivables and the clearing balances at the year end and the two figures should reconcile.
Does this change the GST on the invoice?
No. The tax rate on a line follows what the service is and the tests it meets, not when the money arrived. On a cash basis the payment date decides which tax period the supply is attributed to, which moves the period rather than the treatment.
The June quarter BAS is not due until late July. Can I include a payment that arrived in July?
Not on a cash basis. The June quarter reports what was received up to the last day of June, so a payment dated in July is reported on the September quarter. On an accruals basis the claim is already on the June statement because it was invoiced in June, and the July payment adds nothing. Lodging late does not stretch the period.
Do I need to do anything different in June?
Lodge and reconcile as usual, then at the year end print the aged receivables and the clearing balances before anyone posts into July. Those two lists are what let the accrual and cash views of the year be reconciled later, and they take minutes to produce while the period is still open.
Read next
- Xero how toCash vs accrual GST for a clinic in Xero
- Xero how toXero lock dates and a practice software export that will not land
- FundersHow NDIA agency-managed payments land in Xero
- ProblemsClearing account will not clear in Xero
- Practice systemsSplose Xero integration and the NDIS lump sum
- FundersSelf-managed NDIS clients: payment and GST
- HubProblems
Sources
Open questions
- Xero Central's page on how GST works in Xero returned an empty document on 3 Sep 2026, and the ATO's page on choosing an accounting method refused the read, so the Xero specific behaviour on each basis rests on the vendor's general guide and the repository's own research note rather than on product help.
- The GST Act compilation could be read only as far as its table of contents, so section 29-5 is cited here for where the attribution rule sits and its wording is not quoted.
- Income tax derivation is a separate question from the GST accounting method. Health and Life points at ATO Taxation Ruling TR 98/1 for the receipts against earnings basis, and the ruling itself could not be read because ato.gov.au refuses automated fetches, so which year the income tax return puts the claim in stays a question for the practice's accountant.
- The activity statement due date is carried by a tax service's glossary page rather than by the ATO, whose own due dates page refused the read on 3 Sep 2026. It is a secondary citation for a date a reader can check against their own lodgement notice.
- No practice owner's own account of the year end version of this question could be read in this pass. The nearest voice on the page is an accountant writing for practice owners, so a practitioner quote is still worth adding before publication.
- A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, Division 29, what is attributable to tax periods
Federal Register of Legislation. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 1 Jan 2026.
primary
- Is my psychology or allied health service GST free?
Allied Health Accounting. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 18 Sep 2024.
secondary
- First principles: paying practitioners on receipts
Health and Life. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 23 Jul 2026.
secondary
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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