Hi, I am helping someone retrospectively file tax returns, BAS statements and am therefore needing to do enter probably (up to) 8 years of data for them.
I started entering information into the oldest historic financial year they have to catch up on, but I also want to keep them up to date with the current financial year and have some sporadic data access to financial years in the between years data (ie I am being trickle fed the data)
1 - Do I just enter the entire 8 year period as my open period ? Or do I need to work on them sequentially or separately?
2 - Any other general tips or advice on this kind of situation would be appreciated
Enter the entire 8 year period as your open period. If the latest period is the year ended 30th June 2016 then add the previous 7 years as comparatives to each financial report. This will make it easier for you to spot errors or anything incomplete from previous years and attend to it without slowing down your workflow.
You can also create a Tax Audit report for the entire 8 year period to review the GST allocated to 8 years of transactions all at once.
Last year I also helped someone with eight years (2006 - 2013) of financial statements, income tax returns and Business Activity Statements.
You can let the accountant know that all financial reports can be prepared on Manager without them needing to enter the data onto another accounting system and keep the costs to a minimum. There is no reason why the accountant cannot use the reports showing eight years on one page to prepare the income tax returns.
