I dont know which section this belongs in as it might be as much about sage as it is VAT but here goes.
I started doing the books for a small interior decorating firm, turnover around 90k. When I started doing the books the business had already been trading for around a year and needed to get all the accounts sorted in prep of the tax return deadline (quite a big pile of invoices!) The business had already submitted 3 quarterly VAT returns with the help of an accountant and not using any accounts software, just calculated using the invoices and takings that he was given.
As I myself have entered all the invopices and takings, reconciled suppleir acccounts, located invoices previously ommited from VAT returns etc. my VAT calculations as per sage for the three VAT quarters from 1-8-09 to 31-04-2010 give different VAT figures than were submitted by the accountant previously.
My problem is reconciling the two, will I have to put the difference on the next upcoming VAT return. to ensure that the accounts that I have done mirror what has been submitted to HMRC. Sage wont let me pick out the transactions for a particular period so that what I VAT reconcile for a particular VAT period matches what was returned by the accountant when he made the original return. I am finding this quite confusing?
Run a VAT return in SAGE for the entire period and print out the detailed report. In the current period put an adjustment in for the difference from the previous returns. You can do this if it is under £10,000 different. If the VATman choses to call you can justify the figures using the detailed report which should reconcile with the paperwork you have.
Yes I agree, I think I would run one vat return for the entire period (a whole year?) then deduct from all the boxes the totals that have already been submitted so that you end up with a return for the outstanding items only. Then reconcile it. Or alternatively run the return for the previous three months and identify the differences that need to be added to the quarter 4 return. If you are goig to submit via the online submission routine within sage you may need to post the adjustments, but t is probably earsier to file online manually for this one, then you will be straight for next time.
