VAT Liability account in Sage - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

class71 · Member

VAT Liability account in Sage

PhilMcTankup · Senior Member

Hi Lisa,

You sound like a damsel in distress and as no one is rushing to your rescue, I'll try to help.
I recently completed Sage 50 Accounts Workbooks training but haven't worked with Sage in a real live environment yet. There are a few regular contributors to the forum who have a lot of expertise with Sage, maybe they will be online soon, see this and wade in..

The balance sheet could be different to the TB because the COA it is based on is incomplete. Either choose another COA or Edit the offending COA to open it then run "Check" and see what messages come up, then repair the COA, run the BS again and see if it looks ok.

Have you run "Check data" in Maintenance to see if there is any data corruption?

I don't think it matters if Year End is not run, as it can be run any time after year has ended even after new year's data has started being entered. If Year End routine has been run, hopefully data was archived before being cleared off so you can restore it if want to view it.

Sage VAT procedure is pretty involved and I don't want to suggest you do something that might screw it up, bearing in mind you don't know what has gone on up to now. However, things you can think about/have a look at that shouldn't do any harm:

Backups should have been taken before last VAT return, also VAT reports printed, where are they? Reconciled VAT transactions should have been archived after last return, if not they will appear on next VAT return and be double-counted! VAT control accounts should have been cleared too (using wizard), are the balances you cleared from previous return or just what has been posted since then?

You can use Verify System at any time to check for VAT anomalies (is in Company Tasks pane select "Prepare for Audit" to access four options to run).
Next VAT return will pick up any previously un-reconciled transactions.

Hope that helps a bit, at least might sort out BS issue. Now any Sage white knights around....?

Phil

class71 · Member

Hi Phil (Sage Knight!)

Thanks for your advice, I've checked the COA and run data check, but to no avail. All I know is that for the last year I have been posting and wizarding to my hearts content the correct way.

I also checked the opening balances from previous accountants file and the same issue was arising, different amount from TB to balance sheet. As the accounts go back to 2005, the errors could be anywhere. I guess it's something to do if I have a rainy day to try and fix. In the meantime I know that the figure I have posted on the VAT liabilty opening balance is correct !

This is also the same accountants who left prepayments and accruals balances on the accounts from 3 years ago, and not posting them to correct expense account in the new financial year, they are still sitting there GGGGRRRR !!

Thanks again

Lisa

PhilMcTankup · Senior Member

Hi Lisa,

Has me stumped I'll be interested to hear what the gurus come up with.

Just off to slay a few accountants now...

Phil

Stardoe · Guru

Hi there,

Are you on standard VAT accounting or cash accounting?

Pauline

class71 · Member

Hi Pauline,

Standard VAT accounting.
thanks
Lisa

attilabenko · Guru

hi,
is it quarterly or annual accounting? annual can cause problem with its estimates.

Stardoe · Guru

Hi there,

You have to bear in mind that the Trial Balance is a list of all the balances on the nominal accounts in your chart of accounts at a particular date, whereas the figure in the balance sheet is made up of a range of codes, i.e. 2200-2209. Also the Period figure on the BS is just the movement on the account during the period.

After you have done the VAT transfer wizard and then the bank payment to HMRC the VAT Liability account (2202) on your TB should be zero. There shouldn't be anything in this account unless you actually owe this amount to HMRC.

Don't know if this helps at all?

Pauline