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How to split an expense with mixed or rounded GST

  • Updated

Split a mixed-rate receipt or a rounding-capped GST figure into line items that match your receipt, each with its own tax rate; see the related overview for why rounding happens.

Card transactions and reimbursements (web or mobile)

  1. Open the transaction or reimbursement.
  2. Check which situation applies to your receipt:
    • Mixed-rate receipt: It covers items that should be taxed differently in the same purchase, for example a supermarket shop where groceries are GST-free but household items aren't. One tax rate for the whole purchase throws off your GST reporting even though the total you paid is correct.
    • Rounding cap: The receipt is for a single tax rate, but its printed GST is a cent or two more than Weel's default calculation, because some point-of-sale terminals round GST up per item before totalling, while Weel checks each line item's GST against that line's own total.
      • If the gap is more than a cent or two, it isn't rounding: Check that the recorded amount matches what you actually paid and that you haven't missed a surcharge or a GST-free portion, then correct the amount or category instead of splitting.
  3. Click Add line item (older accounts may show Add New Split Item instead; both work the same way).
  4. Set each new line item's own tax rate, category, description, and custom fields to match your receipt's groupings.
  5. Save your changes.

Bills (Accounts Payable)

  1. Open the bill itself from Accounts Payable on the web app. Opening it from the Transactions list only shows a read-only view of its tax rate.
  2. Click Add line item.
  3. Set each new line item's own tax rate, category, description, and custom fields.
  4. Save your changes.

What happens next

Each split line exports to your connected accounting software (Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Business Central, or NetSuite) separately, with its own account and tax treatment.

  • If your business has Smart Tax Rates turned on (Settings > AI and automations > Weel AI), Weel reads an uploaded receipt and automatically splits a mixed card transaction or reimbursement into taxable and GST-free line items for you to review before you submit the expense; Accounts Payable bills aren't covered and always need the manual steps above.

For a rounding gap specifically, splitting works because Weel checks each line item's GST against a ceiling based on that line's own amount; several line items rounded up individually and then totalled can land a cent above the ceiling calculated on the whole transaction, so splitting into your receipt's own groupings re-checks each line against its own correctly sized ceiling and recovers that cent.

  • If you don't need the exact receipt figure, the capped GST Weel calculates is a defensible figure for a fully taxable supply, so you can leave it as is or correct it in your accounting software after export.

The mobile app can edit an existing bill line item's tax rate, category, description, and custom fields, but can't add or remove lines, so use the web app to split a bill into new lines.

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