For a mining exploration entity with a 30 June year end, the September quarter is the first quarter of a new financial year. That has one plain consequence on the Appendix 5B: the year-to-date column covers exactly the same three months as the current quarter column. It is also the column a spreadsheet built for the other three quarters is most likely to get wrong.
Scope: this article covers a single Australian entity lodging an Appendix 5B under ASX Listing Rule 5.5, with figures in Australian dollars. All figures below are illustrative.
Two columns on the same page
The Appendix 5B is a form ASX makes available to listed entities on ASX Online. Its consolidated statement of cash flows has two figure columns. The first is headed "Current quarter". The second is headed "Year to date", with a blank for the number of months it covers. Both columns are shown in $A'000. The statement runs from Section 1 (operating activities) through Section 4 (the movement in cash), and every line in those four sections carries a figure in each column.
ASX Guidance Note 23 (section 4) sets out the quarters. For an entity whose financial year ends on 30 June, they are the three-month periods ending 30 September, 31 December, 31 March and 30 June. The September quarter is therefore quarter one, and its year to date runs from 1 July to 30 September. The blank in the header should read 3 months.
What that looks like, line by line
For a 30 June year-end entity, every line in Sections 1 to 4 of the September quarter 5B should show the same figure in both columns. The table below uses invented round numbers.
| Item | Current quarter $A'000 | Year to date (3 months) $A'000 |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 4.2 Net cash from / (used in) operating activities | (120) | (120) |
| 4.3 Net cash from / (used in) investing activities | (450) | (450) |
| 4.4 Net cash from / (used in) financing activities | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 4.5 Effect of movement in exchange rates on cash held | 0 | 0 |
| 4.6 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | 2,430 | 2,430 |
Item 4.1 deserves a closer look. In the current quarter column it is cash at the start of the quarter, 1 July. In the year-to-date column it is cash at the start of the year, which is also 1 July. Both should equal the cash and cash equivalents at end of period that the entity reported at item 4.6 of its June quarter Appendix 5B, because that figure was cash at 30 June.
Where the September year to date goes wrong
One way to fill the year-to-date column is to take last quarter's lodged year-to-date figures and add this quarter's figures to them. That works for the December, March and June quarters. In September it fails, because last quarter's year-to-date figures are the full twelve months of the previous financial year. Rolled forward without a reset, they turn a three-month column into a fifteen-month one.
Opening cash has the same trap. If a template holds "cash at the start of the year" in a typed cell, that cell still shows last year's 1 July balance until someone changes it. A note beside the cell saying "update each July" does not change it. The safer design takes the figure from a dated source: item 4.6 of the June quarter 5B as lodged.
We learned this building our own 5B process. Its first September quarter run showed that any figure computed in two places will disagree the first time the inputs differ, and the start of a new financial year is when they differ.
When the two columns should differ
Guidance Note 23 says an entity whose financial year ends on a different date determines its quarters by reference to its own year end. For an entity with a 31 December year end, the September quarter is quarter three. Its year to date runs from 1 January to 30 September, the header should read 9 months, and year-to-date item 4.1 is cash at 1 January. The two columns will then differ on most lines.
Even then, item 4.6 should be the same in both columns. Both periods end on 30 September, so both end with the same cash balance.
Three checks before the board signs
- The header. For a 30 June year end, the year-to-date column reads 3 months in the September quarter.
- The lines. For a 30 June year end, every line in Sections 1 to 4 matches between the two columns. Any difference is an error to trace before approval.
- The anchor. The form itself says item 5.5, cash and cash equivalents at end of quarter, should equal item 4.6. Tie item 5.1, bank balances, to the reconciled bank balances in Xero at 30 September.
The third check matters most. Two columns that agree with each other can both be wrong by the same amount, so comparing one column with the other proves little on its own. A comparison against the bank balance is what catches that kind of error. We covered Section 5 in more detail in Appendix 5B Section 5: Reconciling Cash and Cash Equivalents in Xero.
The September quarter Appendix 5B is due by Friday 30 October 2026. We set out how that date is worked out in Appendix 5B Lodgement Deadline: What Listing Rule 5.5 Requires. Ten minutes on the year-to-date column before the board meeting is cheaper than a correction after lodgement.
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Syed Samir Ahmad
Founder, Genius Accounting Solutions
CA ANZ | Xero Partner