Free download · no email required
Excel workbook (.xlsx) with formulas that total themselves. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
Download the Australian expense report (Excel)In Australia an expense report has a simpler job than in the UK, because GST is a single flat rate, but the discipline is the same: separate the GST so the business claims its input tax credits and posts only the net cost. This template is built for that, with a 10% GST column, a net and gross split, and worked examples, so what you hand the bookkeeper reconciles straight into the Business Activity Statement.
The download has a header block for the employee, period, and approver, a line per cost with the date, description, category, merchant, net, GST, and gross, and a totals row.
One flat rate, with one exception
Australian GST is 10% on most goods and services, which is why the template uses a single 10% column. The main thing to watch is GST-free supplies: most basic food, and some health and education, carry no GST. Those lines go in at zero in the GST column. There is no equivalent of the UK’s reduced rate, so the report is genuinely simpler, but a GST-free cost still has to be recorded as GST-free rather than assumed to carry 10%. Imported goods and services follow their own rules and may not carry GST at the point of purchase, so treat those lines with care rather than defaulting them to the flat rate.
The $82.50 tax-invoice threshold
The rule that catches people is the tax invoice. To claim a GST input tax credit on a purchase over $82.50 including GST, you need a valid tax invoice showing the supplier’s ABN and the GST. Below that threshold a receipt is enough. So the larger the cost, the more important it is that a proper tax invoice sits behind the line, not just a card slip. The template’s gross column records what was paid; the GST column should only carry a credit where the evidence supports it.
Net, GST, and gross
The three columns split the cost cleanly. Gross is what was paid. Net is the cost excluding GST, which posts to the profit and loss. GST is the input tax credit the business claims rather than expenses. Keeping the three separate means the bookkeeper posts the net to the right account and the GST to the GST account, and the BAS reconciles back to the receipts.
How to use the template
- Fill in the employee, period, and approver in the header.
- Record each cost with its net, the GST charged, and the gross.
- Enter 0.00 in the GST column for GST-free costs.
- Make sure a valid tax invoice backs every line over $82.50 that you claim GST on.
- Total the report, submit for approval, and pass it to the bookkeeper to post and feed into the BAS.
Common mistakes
- Assuming 10% on GST-free food or health items. Those lines carry no GST.
- Claiming GST over $82.50 without a tax invoice. A bare receipt does not support the credit.
- Recording only the gross. Without the split, the GST has to be re-derived for the BAS.
- Treating overseas purchases as carrying GST. Imports follow their own rules, not a simple 10%.
When the report should fill itself
A spreadsheet is a fine start, but reading GST off every receipt is automatable. Tools that help:
- Dext extracts the GST and ABN from a photographed tax invoice.
- ExpenseFlow reads each receipt, splits out the 10% GST, checks the tax invoice requirements, codes the net to the right account, and posts it into Xero or QuickBooks Online with the image attached, so the BAS figures build themselves.
- Hubdoc pulls recurring supplier tax invoices in with the GST already itemised.
Use the template to start, keep the GST split clean, and move to automatic capture as the volume grows.