I've taken over the book keeping for a small company. The owner is very disorganised and so the last book keeper was never able to do a VAT reconciliation, the first transactions were entered in February 2014. It turns out that the company was set up on the wrong VAT scheme, it was set up on flat rate invoice basis when it should have been flat rate cash basis.
How can I rectify this? The year end has been done for 2014 but no VAT reconciliation was ever done.
I can't seem to change the VAT scheme because it says there are unreconciled transactions.. too right; a year and a half's worth!!
Morning Deb! Happy Sunday! Sounds like you have got a right little mare on your hands!!
A couple of questions...
What is the year end?
What are the quarter ends?
What version (year) of Sage are you using? 2013? 2014?
Have the returns been filed using the Sage figures, or, has a spreadsheet/other form been created to show cash basis rather than standard basis?
Do you have the detailed reports from Sage, or if appropriate, do you have any manual analysis
Do the 2014 accounts show the correct VAT liability balance, or just what is in Sage? Has the accountant done any 2014 VAT control account to balance to what is showing in Sage?
If you want to send me a back up, I can see what you are seeing and have a better idea of whats been done, or I can try and walk you through it without
-- Edited by FoxAccountancyServices on Sunday 4th of October 2015 10:08:22 AM
Hi Michelle
The year end is January 2014. I sent the year end backup to the accountant but he hasn't come back with the adjustments yet as he's having trouble getting the owner to go over the Director's Loan Account.
I'm using the Sage Instant Accounts 2014.
I would assume the VAT liability is incorrect because of the VAT scheme being the wrong one so hopefully that will be part of the adjustments the accountant sends through. From what I can gather the last book keeper relied on the owner to pass anything on from the accountant and never got a VAT return to reconcile, which would explain while it was never discovered that Sage was on the wrong VAT scheme. It's all a bit of a pickle!
I was thinking of just resetting to the last back up to just after year end and starting from scratch for this year. Luckily, again because the owner is so disorganised, I haven't been able to put much on and as he's on flat rate VAT it's only the income that is required anyway.
What do you think?
Hi Michelle
I decided to send the problem direct to the accountant, I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place!
Thank you so much for your responses.