Nagaris tracks each client's Business Activity Statements (BAS) as their own returns, separate from jobs, with a period, a reporting cycle and an approval workflow.
Open a client and click Start an Activity Statement. The dialog offers two controls above the period list:
Reports: the cycle the return will use (monthly, quarterly or annual). It defaults to the client's own reporting cycle, but you can override it for this one return. Overriding does not change the client's saved cycle, and the dialog tells you so.
Period: defaults to Most Recent, which shows the recent periods across the financial year boundary rather than just the current financial year. That matters early in a new financial year: in August, the period most people are chasing is the June quarter from the year that just ended, not anything in the new year. Pick a specific financial year from the dropdown to reach further back.
Each period in the list is one of:
Open and available: click it to select it.
Already started: greyed out, because a return already exists for it.
Not open yet: greyed out, a future period listed only so the year reads as a whole.
Covered by an existing return: still selectable, but labelled Covered by [name] (or Covered by N returns) because a live return on a different cycle already spans the same dates. This happens when a client changed reporting cycle mid-year, for example moving from annual to quarterly reporting: the quarters of the old annual period overlap the new quarterly periods without being the same return.
If you select a covered period, Nagaris shows a warning naming the overlapping return (with its cycle and status) and explains that starting it as well reports the same trading twice. Only proceed if you mean to, for example because the earlier return was cancelled in substance or the client's history genuinely needs both.
Once a return exists, its page shows a What Happens Next card explaining the remaining steps for whoever is reviewing it.
To approve or send a return back:
Open the return and choose to approve it or send it back.
If approving, you may be asked to Verify the Cash Figures first: put the period beside a period already lodged with the ATO for this client and enter what was lodged at labels 1A and 1B. A difference from the current figures is fine as long as you explain it.
Confirm your decision in the dialog.
If there are unreconciled bank transactions dated inside the period, the return isn't ready to approve, because those figures could still move. Approvers can override this readiness gate to proceed anyway. The override is written into the return's audit trail, so it stays visible later even though the figures weren't fully settled at the time.
