A GST/HST payment or refund recorded twice

When TALISK_HQ records a GST/HST or QST payment or refund for a filing period, from a bank line or from the GST/HST tab, it moves your net tax account: GST/HST Payable (net) (2110) or its QST twin (2140). If a journal entry also moves that account the same way, the same money may be in your books twice. Both entries balance, so nothing else notices. The Books Health panel shows a card for each such pair, for example Your Mar–May 2026 GST/HST refund may be recorded twice.

It comes up most after a move from QuickBooks or Xero, where a refund was often cleared by hand: the deposit coded to a suspense account, then a journal entry moving it from the suspense account to 2110. TALISK_HQ asks before it records a payment or refund. The New Journal Entry form also asks before it posts an entry that would record one TALISK_HQ already has, and Move balance warns in its preview; either way you can go ahead. An imported entry, an entry posted from anywhere else, and a bank line coded after the fact are not checked when they are saved. This card is where those show.

The same card also covers doubles that never touch 2110:

• A bank deposit or withdrawal of the same amount, coded to another account (for example to a suspense account or Other income), whether it was coded before or after TALISK_HQ recorded the refund or payment. The money is then in your books twice.
• A journal entry that records it through the collected or input tax account instead of 2110, such as debit the suspense account $1,827.01 and credit GST/HST Input Tax Credits (1110) $1,827.01.
• A journal entry that clears a Can settle account to somewhere else by the same amount: an account marked Can settle on the Chart of accounts (for example Receiver General Suspense) or a prepaid account's own ledger account. Say the deposit was coded to Receiver General Suspense and an entry moved it on: debit Receiver General Suspense $1,827.01, credit Other income $1,827.01. Once TALISK_HQ records the refund, from that deposit or on the GST/HST tab, that entry is left on its own: the suspense account carries a stray $1,827.01 and Other income a refund that is not income. While a bank line is still coded to that account for at least the amount, the entry is not carded on its own, because the two still offset each other.

Is it the same money?

Open the card and choose View both entries. The Journal entries screen opens on the two of them.

The card says the same amount when the journal entry's movement on the tax account, one of its lines, or its total matches TALISK_HQ's figure to the cent, and it names which. A clearing entry that writes off a small difference still counts: debit the suspense account $1,827.01, credit 2110 $1,822.48 and credit Cash Over/Short $4.53 records a $1,827.01 refund. The card then says the entry moves 2110 by $1,822.48 and is $1,827.01 in total.

It is a separate thing if it records another period's payment, an instalment, the refund of an overpayment, or an adjustment your accountant posted. Then dismiss the card. TALISK_HQ asks you to confirm first, because dismissing is permanent for that pair. If you already confirmed this when you recorded the payment or refund, dismiss it too.

A card that says may also be in a journal entry found an entry of a different amount. That is a question rather than a finding: check, or ask your accountant, whether the entry records any of this money before you change anything.

If it is the same money, one of the two comes out

Which one depends on where TALISK_HQ's record came from and on what the journal entry is. The card tells you which case you are in.

TALISK_HQ recorded it from a bank line

• The journal entry records only this money: delete it. Go to Ledger › Accounting › Journal, open the entry and choose Delete. The payment or refund stays recorded once, from its bank line. If the entry cleared a suspense account the deposit had been coded to, deleting it clears that too, because marking the line already replaced its category.
• The journal entry also records other things: edit it so it no longer records this money. Deleting it would remove the rest with it.
• It is not an entry you can delete, such as an opening balance or a year-end entry: undo TALISK_HQ's record instead. On Ledger › Banking, open the line and choose Undo tax refund (or Undo tax payment), then set the line's category again to the account it had before you marked it. Undo does not put the category back by itself. The period then reads as not paid, because the entry you kept is the record now.

TALISK_HQ recorded it on the GST/HST tab

A payment or refund recorded with the GST/HST tab's Record payment / refund sits in your Cash account, not in a bank account. If the money really went through a bank account TALISK_HQ has:

1. Mark that bank line first. On Ledger › Banking, open the line, choose Tax refund (or Tax payment) and pick this period. TALISK_HQ moves its record onto that bank account and replaces the line's category. The card stays, and now reads as the bank-line case.
2. Then deal with the journal entry as in the bank-line case above.

Do it in that order. Deleting the journal entry first leaves the money counted twice in cash, once in Cash from the GST/HST tab and once in the bank account from the line's category, and the card disappears while your books are still wrong.

If no bank line holds the money, ask your accountant which record to keep. The same goes when TALISK_HQ will not mark the line: the bank line's amount has to match the figure recorded on the GST/HST tab (a deposit that includes CRA interest will not), and a period another bank line was already marked for, even a line deleted since, cannot take a second one. TALISK_HQ also will not mark a deposit dated before the period's last day, or any line dated before your conversion date, and it asks before marking a withdrawal dated before the period starts. If the period is not marked filed, nothing can be marked against it either.

If the journal entry went through 2110 (or 2140), you can keep it as the only record by removing TALISK_HQ's instead: click Remove payment (or Remove refund) beside the paid pill on the GST/HST tab, or on the period's row in GST/HST returns. On a period that is not marked filed, the payment shows just above the Adjustments box, with the same button. The figures you filed do not change. If the entry went through any other account (the collected or input tax account, or a suspense account), it never touched the net tax account, and only TALISK_HQ's record clears it. Then keep TALISK_HQ's record and delete the entry, or change it if it records more than this money; the card says which.

Removing TALISK_HQ's record makes the period read unpaid, because TALISK_HQ no longer knows what settled it. To have it read paid on the journal entry's date, click Link a settlement on the GST/HST tab's banner and link that entry. Nothing is posted.

The card says when that is not possible, and the button does not appear: the payment is dated inside your period lock, or a bank line still claims it. A line deleted from Banking since, for example when a statement was deleted to import it again, still claims the payment, and there is no line left to undo it from. Ask your accountant which record to keep.

A bank line of the same amount is coded to another account

The card names the line's date, amount and the account it is coded to, and Open the bank line takes you to it on Ledger › Banking. If that line is a separate deposit or withdrawal (a customer paying the same amount, say), dismiss the card. If it is this payment or refund:

• TALISK_HQ recorded it on the GST/HST tab, and the period is marked filed: open the line, choose Tax refund (or Tax payment) and pick this period. TALISK_HQ moves its record onto that bank account and replaces the line's category, so the money is counted once and the card goes away.
• TALISK_HQ cannot move its record onto that line (the period is not marked filed, the line is on a credit card or in another currency, part of it is matched to an invoice, or another line already holds this payment or refund): ask your accountant which record to keep. Don't move the line to the tax account with a journal entry: that records the tax twice, and the cash stays doubled.
• TALISK_HQ recorded it from another bank line: the two lines may be the same money imported twice. Compare them. If they are, delete the categorized one. If the categorized one is really the line that paid this, undo the payment or refund on the other line, set that line's category again, and mark this one instead.

If a journal entry also cleared that line's category by hand, the card names it by date and amount, and View the journal entries opens it. Marking the line replaces its category, which leaves that journal entry on its own. If the entry went through a tax account it already has a card of its own; deal with it as a journal entry above. If it cleared a Can settle or prepaid account to somewhere else (Other income, say), it gets a card of its own once the line is marked, and that card says whether to delete the entry, change it, or ask about a reversal. If the line was coded to an ordinary account instead, no card will follow, so check the entry yourself before you move on.

The journal entry has an exact reversal

If another entry reverses the journal entry exactly (same accounts, same amounts, debits and credits swapped), the card says so and opens all three. Together the pair may record nothing. Don't delete one of them on its own: the other would then stay in your books by itself. Ask your accountant whether to remove both, or dismiss the card if they are separate.

The other entry is another bank line's category

Sometimes the second record is not a journal entry at all but another bank line coded straight to the tax account. Then one of the two bank lines is either a duplicate of the other or coded to the wrong account. Check both lines on Ledger › Banking and ask your accountant before you change either: undoing TALISK_HQ's record would leave that other line wrong.

Why not a reversing entry

A reversing entry is usually dated when you post it, so it lands in a different period from the money it corrects. The period you already reported keeps the double, and the new period carries a correction nobody can explain later. Delete, edit or undo instead.

Locked periods

TALISK_HQ will not delete or change an entry dated inside your period lock, and it will not undo a bank-line payment or refund, or remove one recorded on the GST/HST tab, dated inside it. The card says so when that applies. Moving the lock back is a decision about a period you may already have reported, so check with your accountant before you do.

What the check does not see

• An instalment recorded with its own reference.
• Anything older than the eight most recent payments and refunds in the book (the journal form's check has no such limit).
• A bank line whose amount differs from the payment or refund, for example a refund deposit that includes CRA interest, or one the CRA reduced to pay another debt.
• A withdrawal of the same amount dated outside the period's window, or more than 30 days after its return was due: a payment is looked for only where it could belong, because round amounts such as rent repeat every month.
• A hand entry that clears an ordinary account (not marked Can settle and not a prepaid account's) to somewhere other than a tax account, unless the bank line it came from is also listed.
• The same money cleared by several hand entries, each for part of it, or by one entry of a different amount.
• A clearing on an account that was marked Can settle when the line was coded and has been unmarked since.
• A clearing that is not an ordinary journal entry (an opening balance or a year-end entry, say), one dated before the period ends (for a refund) or starts (for a payment), or one that also has a line on a tax account.
• A clearing on an account a bank line is still coded to for at least the same amount, even if that line is a different deposit or withdrawal.