I just move to QB. How can I enter my last year GST/HST payments.

Hello again, sh2295,

I love how thorough you're being with getting your books set up in QuickBooks Online. That's a perfect way to make sure that you have the information you need in your books, including things like sales tax payments. I can help you with this part of your setup.

Handling prior sales tax payments is going to depend on a couple of things, starting with how you entered prior data and how much prior data you have. Like I mentioned to you last time, QuickBooks Online handles sales tax in the sales tax module, and that's where you can also take care of prior filings and payments. If you have transactions with sales tax in the account from last year, it would've calculated to the sales tax centre so you can take care of those filings.

The way QuickBooks Online handles the period is based on when you set up the file and the date you chose as the next filing period start date during that process. Don't worry, there's still a way to look at older entries, which you can do by following these steps.

1. Select Taxes from the left menu.
2. On the Sales Tax tab, select Prepare return for the current filing period.
3. Change the Start date and End date fields on the return to encompass the period you're looking for.
4. Change the Filing date to when you filed.
5. Ensure the numbers are correct, then select Mark as filed.

You can do this as many times as you need, and once you've marked it as filed, you can record the payments. Here's our article about that process again if you need it: File sales tax.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that QuickBooks works in chronological order with sales tax filing. This means if you've already filed for a period, the program won't give you the option to handle previous periods.

One way you could handle this is by having the sales tax filings you have filed undone. This will open up that option in the program again so you can take care of your sales tax. The QuickBooks Online support team can help with undoing a filed period or you can work with an accountant if you have one.

The My Accountant tab comes in use here since that's where you can invite someone as a user to your books if you're already working with an accountant, or you can use the Find a pro to help button to research professionals near you. I'm fairly certain I've provided you those details before, but I wanted to make sure you had them again, in particular if you'd like to use alternative methods to enter your prior sales tax payments.

An accountant will be able to advise you on the kinds of entries you can use to effectively account for the sales tax payments you did before joining QuickBooks Online if what I've described doesn't quite work for you for whatever reason. It could be as simple as entering an expense or they may advise you to enter a journal entry of some sort to handle it.

If you'd like the QuickBooks Online support team to undo a sales tax filing for you, here's how you can reach us.

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Support hours are from Monday to Friday between 9a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.

Our teams are here to help!