VAT Registered Users - Transactions Missing from VAT Report

The Issue

One of our users raised a ticket via the helpdesk querying the result of their VAT Report. They provided us with a login to their organisation so we could do a bit of investigating and this is what we found:

15/09/2010
User completes and saves VAT Report for quarter 01/06/2010 - 31/08/2010. Results are submitted to the revenue service.

24/09/2010
User enters Sales Invoice INV9999 with a transaction date of 31/08/2010.

15/01/2011
User completes and saves VAT Report for quarter 01/09/2010 - 31/12/2010. User queries why INV9999 is not included in the VAT Report.

The key here is the transaction date that has been used. The invoice was only entered into AccountsPortal after the first VAT Report was created but the transaction date is not applicable to the date range of the second VAT Report. INV9999 was not included in the second VAT Report because the transaction date of 31/08/2010 is earlier than 01/09/2010.

The Solution

On the 15/01/2011 the VAT Report should be run for the period 01/06/2010 to 31/12/2010. This will pick up any transactions that were missed in the initial VAT Report run on 15/09/2010. There is no risk of duplication as transactions saved in a VAT Report will not appear in a second VAT Report even if the Start and End dates of the two reports overlap.

Entering transactions with earlier dates is a legitimate requirement but to help avoid this issue, we will look at adding a warning message if the transaction date falls into a period for which a VAT Report has already been saved.

Does this apply to VAT on the Accrual Basis and the Cash Basis?

Yes! The principle is exactly the same regardless of which VAT basis you use. If you are on the Cash Basis, be mindful if you enter advance payments and only subsequently apply them to invoices which are dated later than the advance. Make sure your VAT Report includes the transaction date of the original advance payment.

How do I know if I have missed any transactions in my saved VAT Reports?

It is quite likely that some of you will have backdated VAT relevant invoices or payments at some point. The easiest way to check if any of these have been missed out of saved VAT Reports is to go to the VAT Report screen, create a New VAT Report and set the range to include the start date of your first saved VAT Report and the end date of your last saved VAT Report. Click on the Refresh button. If you have any values in the result, these should be investigated and if applicable, included in your next VAT Report that you save.

If you have any questions regarding this item, please raise a ticket on the helpdesk.