Accountant wants a balance for HMRC liabilities at year end.
I have checked all payments made up until month 11 to the HMRC against what is showing on the HMRC website and they reconcile. I I have then apportioned month 12 as 3 weeks fall into the new financial year. However my end balance on Sage is 2k more.
Week 1 to 52 journals are correct as I have checked and made any necessary adjustments. So I am confident the problem isn't with the weekly postings.
The accountant asked be to post a journal at the beginning of the year 2015 and an o/b as previously everything was done manually. When I have had a look on the HMRC account for previous year/s nothing reconciles. Also showing on 2015/2016 history is a payment to HMRC for what was owed dating back to 2012/2013/2014
How am I supposed to provide the accountant with a balance for the year end when I have lots of discrepancies
Hi Nikole
Its a bit difficult to help you on this one. Best advice I can give is to start again from scratch tomorrow. I know thats probably the last thing you want to do, but sometimes we can become so entrenched in something that we completely miss the obvious. I had one exactly like that recently - not helped by only having access to a report (with loads on it!) in PDF format! It took me three goes to get to the bottom of it.
Only other thing I can suggest - with the o/bal journal from the Accountant - did this clear when you made a payment to HMRC? Or did part of this represent an adjustments such as you have done, which therefore just needed reversing (in part?). Perhaps you have not got all the information you need in this regard from the Accountant so I would suggest a call to him to include that and your findings about the overdue 2012-2014 situation as they may be able to shed more light on the matter.
HTH
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
My O/B when we first went computerised is fine and all journals are correct. Payroll was such a mess prior to me taking over. Im not quite sure how the accountant has arrived at the figures he asked me to post. They most certainly do not clear down with payments made. As payroll has been quite messy for the last 4 years the accountant has decided to draw a line and start afresh as of 1st April.
Im not quite sure how i would have gone about unpicking 4 years worth of payroll when no back ups were taking when using the old payroll software. I would of had to rely on the weekly reports and i could not guarantee that they were accurate.
Have you got a wall close by? Just handy for smacking you head against! Just send your report to the Accountant with a note to say it all balances, apart from his amendment!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
There have been many an occasion where I could easily bang my head against a wall. Strangely there is a part of me that would have enjoyed unraveling a few years worth of paye discrepancies. It doesn't outweigh the side that's says accept what the accountant has decided.
Strangely there is a part of me that would have enjoyed unraveling a few years worth of paye discrepancies. It doesn't outweigh the side that's says accept what the accountant has decided.
Totally agree with you on this one - I am of the balance to the penny old school. Having worked in Banking we had to - no matter how long it took, as it was always the case - is it really a penny, or much more due to a compensating error!!!!!!! Plus I hate being defeated by such things.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Totally agree with you on balancing. I did have to reconcile the paye/nic for 2012 onwards due to all of the discrepencies. I had to rely on the opening YTD. figures entered onto Sage payroll. I spent many hours speaking to HMRC to finally agree on a figure what was owed. I could check my reconciled figures against the accounts to see where the problem lies but it means going back to the accountant and asking for the cashbook spreadsheets for the last 4 years, which i doubt very much i will get. Im happy in the knowledge im getting it right.
