NZ GST - New GST return layout
New GST return layout and a few thoughts around it :-
1) when you export the PDF, the file name only shows as eg, GST return 01022024 for a GST return for period ending 31 March 2024. Why can't it show the client's company name, GST return followed by Period end date?
2) when you try to export the PDF with accounting firm logo - it doesn't seem to work and who has "minutes" to wait for it to download?
3? The body of the report is now in landscape which if the client were to print would take way more paper.
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Lisa Duggan commented
Why is the description in the PDF now removing returns and running the words together? For example, instead of getting:
Exterior Window Clean
Carried out an exterior window clean removing dirt (as per the bill description)I get:
Exterior Window CleanCarried out an exterior window clean removing dirt.If you are going to remove the returns, please at least substitute them with a space so the description is readable.
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Catherine Scelly commented
It is so annoying not being able to resize columns. There is detail in the reference column which is lost as it is so small. Shouldnt have to export it to view this information.
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Lesley Voorwinde commented
Hi.
Thanks for putting the report into Portrait.
Can you please make it more compact? Only 10 transactions per page - old report = 35 transactions
Can you fix up the "Details" column. It is repeating everything e.g. Joe Bloggs - Payment Joe Bloggs.
Before the details were Payment Joe Bloggs.thanks
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Lesley Voorwinde commented
I find the new report repetitive. I don't need the GST breakdown Box 8 when it already shows the GST breakdown Box 5.
Same with Box 11 and Box 12
Waste of paper and useless in Landscape onlyIs anyone reading our feedback and taking it on board??
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Anna Harrison commented
I have also noticed the new report does not have the payment due date on it anywhere!
Please bring back the old reporting. -
Bill Mancer commented
I don't know who you were consulting with, but this report is a shambles. For starters, it has to be reduced in size. The pdf file is simply too large. I would strongly recommend that until this report is fixed, it should be withdrawn and the original report put back in place.
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Sarah Hartley commented
The new report file is also significantly larger than previously. We use FYI docs to email documents to our clients. The new GST report file size is now too large a file to be sent from within FYI. Essentially rendering our existing systems unusuable. The file size of the report needs to be compressed.
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Claire Crump commented
Agree with comments - this should be a portrait report., Please rectify, as we used to have it as portrait.
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Lesley Voorwinde commented
Please get this sorted. Landscape option only - come on you can do better than that - get back to portrait and remove all the spacing.
Why change something that wasn't broken? -
Gerard Eastwood commented
Xero why on earth do you make these changes. They are NOT improvements. 100% agree with all comments posted here.
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Clay Jordan commented
Can we please revert to the old layout. I don't even bother looking at a PDF of the audit trail anymore, its gone from a few pages to now being 20-30 pages long and less information. Why fix something that wasn't broken in the first place. Not impressed with this "improvement"
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Baker Tilly commented
Agreed that the new report is a shambles. There was nothing wrong with the old report. The ability to hide columns works on the display, but does not work on the pdf export. This should have been found during testing and is a bug.
Also the columns are not wide enough on the transaction report and the values do not fit. they split over two lines with say .00 on the line below.
In my opinion, these are bugs and should be fixed immediately We should not have to "vote" to fix bugs. -
Freya Pieroz commented
I'm in AU not NZ, but I have similar problems with the format of our GST returns (Business Activity Statements, or BAS) - I exported the same return in new and in old and put them side by side so that my formatting problems are visible.
Note that the old return (on the left) takes up fewer pages even though the font is a taller type AND a bigger size. You'll also note that there is no discernible difference between upper case i and lower case L in the new font and that the serif on the 1 is almost invisible due to the choice of font size, whereas all three alphanumerics are easily distinguishable in the old report.
There's fields missing in the new report that are there in the old (even if they're zero (which not all of them are - see G11 non-capital purchases), the lack of them looks like I'm hiding something, and means that there's reduced ability to compare two reports with different values). And in the new report, you have to scroll down into the transactions list to get the non-truncated values, which is dumb.
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Karen Prichard commented
I do not think the new GST reports are an improvement.
Especially since the 'Transaction' report now prints landscape and doesn't even print a GL code like 171/05 on one line.
Much prefer the old reports so I hope they bring them back.
Also don't like how the late claims now print transactions that don't have any GST on them even before or after any changes. -
Annie Thorne commented
I see the new report has been implemented, whether we like it or not. Sigh.
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McElroy Dutt commented
Plizzz don't retire classic GST Return
1)Why cant late claims be displayed separately for easier review as was on classic
2)please bring back the portrait formatting of the transactions - have gone from 59 pages to 166 in the new format
3) The calculations disappear when you export into excel!!!! please bring back the calculations!!!! -
Jo Archer commented
66 pages for the new format report to print while in the Classic Report was 30. I have not found anywhere on the tool to change it to portrait.
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Stu Dawson commented
Yes also need the payment due date displayed again, not sure why taken out.
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Karen Managh commented
I would like the due date on the filed GST report.
As once filed I then pay and the due date had disappeared. -
Michelle Stimpson commented
We also can't PDF the GST reports with our logo on it, and the new GST return itself looks awful. It is much harder to read than the current one and reminds me of the way the paper returns looked 20+ years ago.
I also hate the way the transaction report prints in landscape view and I can't seem to get the GST on income transactions come up first, followed by the GST on expenses transactions, with the No GST ones last unless I change the view to box number.
Also, when viewing the transactions there is so many columns ticked by default that the screen is really crowded and messy to look at. And even when you untick the columns you don't want on the screen they still all show on the report when you print to PDF.
I'd love to be able to untick the columns I don't use and save that format as custom so I don't have to do it for every client every time I go in to a return. And have the unticked columns not show on the PDF version of the transactions report.I'm not thrilled that the help pages for GST haven't been updated to the new experience yet either, and that the box when you go in to the new GST return summary screen refers to "sales tax returns" and not goods and services tax returns.