Automatically importing expenses into Airtax from your bank

Suitable for - BAS Customers

Tax Difficulty - Easy

Airtax Experience - All Bas Users

Time to read: 3-4 Minutes

In order to make your BAS lodgement even easier, Airtax has developed an innovative feature to enable you to input expenses straight from your Bank Account to your BAS form in a couple of easy steps. This will leave you with less work during the BAS period and at tax time while ensuring that your data is protected by the highest levels of encryption and security.  

Contents:

How does it work?

How do I get started?

Step 1 - Start a BAS

Step 2 - Open up the Automated Expenses Function and Connect your Bank Account

Data and privacy

Step 3 - Categorise and verify your imported information

Allocated transactions

Unallocated transactions

Manual transactions

Step 4 - Import these transactions into your BAS

How does it work?

Once you create a secure connection between your nominated bank account and Airtax, you can import the expenses that you have incurred throughout the relevant BAS period with just a click of a button. 

• Airtax makes an initial allocation of these expenses to the appropriate BAS categories through analysing each transaction. 
• You can re-categorise, remove, and also add transactions for the BAS period. 
• You can also apply a business use percentage in the BAS form as normal.

How do I get started?

Step 1 - Start a BAS

Start a BAS from your Airtax dashboard by clicking the plus sign on the BAS button, choosing the relevant service, and then selecting the appropriate frequency and period. If you are unsure of how to do this, you may find our "How to do a BAS" article useful.

STEP 2 - Open the Automated Expenses Function and Connect your Bank Account

Under the expenses section of the BAS form, you will see the Automated Expenses function. By clicking the “Import” button, you will be able to make a stable and secure connection to your bank account, and begin importing expenses for the relevant quarter.

Data and Privacy

Airtax uses industry grade security providers and multi-factor authentication to ensure that your data is protected. Secure connections between Airtax and your bank mean that all passwords and personal data are encrypted and safeguarded behind a firewall. This means that Airtax and any 3rd parties have no way of accessing your information, and cannot create transactions on your behalf. You may find our additional information about Automated Expenses’ security useful to answer any further questions.

Step 3 - Categorise and verify your imported information

Now that you have provided Airtax with a secure connection to your banking data, you should now see a summary of the transactions from your bank account for the chosen BAS period. 

Allocated transactions

Where possible, your transactions have been automatically allocated to a BAS category. 

In order to ensure your BAS lodgement is compliant, please review these categories and update them where required.

Unallocated transactions

At the top of the Automated Expenses function, you will see all unallocated transactions. Please take time to review these as they may be relevant to your business for that period. You can choose to either allocate a transaction to a particular category, or remove it entirely if you deem it to be irrelevant.

Manual transactions

The “Manual Transactions'' function allows you to input some transactions yourself. Simply input the expense description, date, amount, and choose the correct category, before adding it to your expenses ahead of importation.

You can click on the delete button or move a transaction to the “removed” category, if you believe they are not relevant for the BAS period (for example, if the expense was not of a business nature)

Step 4 - Import these transactions into your BAS

Once you have reviewed your transactions and categories, press “import into BAS form” and all your information will fill the expenses section of your BAS form. From here, just apply your relevant business use percentage, and fill out all other relevant information before lodging your BAS. 

Note: Once Automated Expenses has been activated for your BAS, you cannot then manually update the expenses within the form, you will need to update them from within the Automated Expenses function.

Anything we can help with?

We recognise these things can be complicated, so feel free to email us at help@airtax.com.au, or give us a call on 1300 247 051 from 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday to discuss any other questions with a member of our support team.