I am a director of a limited company. It has very little turnover (£119) and is practically dormant with its yearly expenses being met out of the directors' pockets. We used to have an accountant but decided that it wasn't worth the extra expense and have been successfully doing our own accounts for 20 years. We have continued to use the format and calculation basis originally drawn up by our accountant.
This is the first year we have to fill in the CT600 & accounts online, obviously using its own iXBRL software. I hear it's causing grief with lots of other people as well.
I would be most grateful if anyone out there who has successfully filled in the CT600 themselves could assist on a couple of points:
Firstly, in the Accounts section, in which box would I put the retained loss from last year ? There doesn't seem to be a box with this name. For the time being, I've put it under "Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year:" boxes AC64 and AC65. Creditors being the directors, as the expenses we foot can be considered as a sort of directors' loan to the company.
Secondly, the CT600 only initially accepts the basic accounts' figures in our Balance Sheet. I hope this doesn't look too long but the figures are very straightforward:
Turnover AC12 £ 119
Cost of Sales AC14 £802
Administrative expenses AC20 £334
Operating profit or (loss): AC26 £-1017
Fixed assets AC48 £336
Current assets AC56 £2
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year AC58 £-1017
Creditors: Amounts falling due after one year AC64 £-3165 (retained loss from last year)
Total net assets (liabilities) AC68 = £-3844 So far so good. This figure tallies with my accounts.
Called-up share capital AC70 £2
Profit and loss account AC74 £-3846 (Figure from this year's accounts P&L debit balance)
Total Shareholders' Funds AC80 £-3844 This figure nicely matches AC68.
However, later in the form under Profit and Loss Account, there's a problem as the CT600s self-calculated figure in AC187 of £-3738 does not tally with the figure in AC80. The CT600 help notes for AC80 state:
"Please enter the cumulative total for the profit and loss account for this accounting period. This will be the balance on the account at the beginning of the period plus or minus and profit or loss for the financial year from the profit and loss account."
The problem is that if I myself calculate the P&L debit balance from last year £-2721 and subtract operating losses £-1017 I get £-3738 which doen't quite tally with the P&L debit balance of £-3846 which was legitimately arrived at using the figures mentioned above. Why ? What's going wrong here and how do I correct it ?
Thank you for any help you could give me !
-- Edited by FelicityD on Friday 17th of February 2012 07:53:16 PM
Hello, everybody, I haven't yet had a reply but hope to soon ! I now realise that the tallying problem of £108 is caused by the difference in the value of fixed assets from last year. So, here's a simpler issue: Naturally, assets do change in value from year to year with purchases and depreciation. If the value of assets drops, then there are fewer fixed assets with which to offset loss.
How can one then possibly arrive at a P&L account total which, according to the online CT600, can only be the balance on the account as at the beginning of the year plus or minus and profit or loss for the financial year ? Inevitably it will be different when offset by a different amount of fixed assets. Where should one account for this variance in fixed assets ? Thanks !
-- Edited by FelicityD on Sunday 26th of February 2012 10:06:39 PM
The problem isn't in the fixed assets, it's in the figure you have inputted to AC74. From your description "Figure from this year's accounts P&L debit balance" I understand that you have inputted the P&L figure for the reported period. You should have however inputted the cumulative total of all profit and losses to date from when you incorporated. If you click on the green question mark on the right side of the box, it will tell you exactly that.
