VAT registration threshold for a car service in Georgia: watching your turnover

Watch the 12-month period, not just the calendar year

You need a moving view of the previous 12 months, rather than relying only on your calendar-year sales total. A busy spring can follow a strong autumn even when January itself looked quiet. If you look only at revenue since the start of the year, you lose sight of work completed earlier in the relevant period. Arrange a regular review with your accountant and use clearly labelled start and end dates whenever you prepare the records. Keep previous exports available so you can explain changes between reviews.

For example, your workshop might have steady maintenance bookings alongside occasional larger repair jobs. Several substantial jobs close together can change the picture faster than your appointment count suggests. Keep a month-by-month record so you can see what changed and discuss it early. Ask your accountant which dates and records should determine the period they assess; do not choose a date simply because it makes your workshop dashboard easier to read. Make the period explicit in your handover rather than expecting the accountant to infer it.

Keep workshop revenue separate from assumptions about turnover

Your workshop’s revenue reports are a starting point for an accountant’s review, not a substitute for their assessment of turnover. A work order, an invoice and a payment describe different parts of the same customer job. Without a consistent recording process, someone compiling a spreadsheet could accidentally count that job more than once. Ask your accountant how they want the underlying records organised, then apply that approach consistently instead of making a new judgement each time. Keep enough detail to trace a figure back to its source.

Make no other tax claims (rates, deadlines, penalties, exemptions); advise consulting an accountant. That is the boundary for this guide: it helps you organise workshop information, not decide tax treatment. If a customer pays before work is finished, an invoice is corrected, or a job spans reporting periods, flag the situation for your accountant. Include the supporting documents and a short explanation so they can assess it without reconstructing the entire repair from memory. Avoid making your own tax assumptions just to finish the spreadsheet.

Use everyday shop activity to spot changes early

You can spot changes earlier by connecting monthly revenue movements to the actual work entering your shop. A workshop handling imported used cars may receive several larger initial repair jobs together. Another might see more work related to LPG/CNG conversions or preparation for mountain driving. These are reasons to review your records, not reasons to assume a particular tax outcome. Note the business explanation behind a rise so your accountant can understand the figures in context. A brief note made at the time is more useful than a guess months later.

Look beyond how busy the bays feel during the day. A full calendar of smaller jobs and a quieter calendar containing substantial parts-and-labour jobs can produce different revenue patterns. Tbilisi traffic may also affect arrival times and scheduling without telling you much about turnover. If you operate several branches, bring their records to the same review and ask your accountant how they should be assessed. Do not rely on separate branch managers noticing the overall picture independently. Give someone responsibility for gathering the information into a consistent handover.

Use reports to prepare a clear accountant handover

You can use Junto reports to prepare a clearer record for your accountant. Junto reports show revenue by month and for any custom period and can be exported. Monthly views help you notice movements, while a custom-period report lets you prepare the date range requested for a review. Label each export with its period and keep the original file, so a later discussion refers to the same information rather than a dashboard that has since changed. Include a separate note explaining any questions you want the accountant to investigate.

RS.ge integration (tax invoices, waybills) is not part of Junto yet. Treat the exported reports as supporting information for your accountant, not as evidence that a separate tax process has been completed. Junto also brings work orders with labour and part lines, invoices and payments into one app. Those records can make it easier to explain workshop activity, but you should still agree with your accountant which documents they need and how they want to receive them.

Avoid mistakes that make turnover harder to review

The most useful mistakes to prevent are incomplete records, inconsistent periods and totals nobody can explain. A manager might export one period while the bookkeeper compares it with a different set of dates. Someone else might add payments to invoice totals without checking whether they represent the same jobs. Set a shared reporting method with your accountant, document it briefly and make sure the people preparing the review understand what each figure represents. When the method changes, explain the change to everyone involved.

Avoid treating the bank balance as your only view of workshop activity. Your shop may accept cash, card and bank transfer, so a single account view may not explain every recorded payment. Equally, a draft work order is not a dependable shortcut for understanding the final customer transaction. When something does not match, record the question instead of quietly changing a total. A visible unresolved difference is easier to investigate than an adjustment whose purpose has been forgotten.

Follow a short turnover review checklist

A short, repeatable review helps you keep turnover questions visible before they become a surprise. Give one person responsibility for preparing the records and another responsibility for discussing them with the accountant, even if you hold both roles yourself. Choose a regular review point that fits your operation and revisit it when activity changes noticeably. The purpose is to maintain a reliable conversation about the figures, not to turn the workshop manager into a tax adviser.

Keep the checklist alongside your reporting notes so another staff member can follow the same process when you are away. If your accountant requests a correction or a different export, record the reason and retain the revised version clearly. After the review, write down any unanswered questions and who will resolve them. That small handover habit helps prevent the same uncertainty returning next time, especially when reception staff, managers and an external accountant all contribute information.

• Confirm the 12-month period to review with your accountant.
• Prepare monthly figures and the requested custom-period export.
• Gather supporting invoices, payment records and relevant job details.
• Flag corrections, unexplained differences and unusual transactions.
• Ask your accountant to assess turnover and advise on registration.
• Record the review outcome and any follow-up tasks.

Questions and answers