Clear Books introduces a new VAT feature

Save time and automatically include late invoices

Today we’re introducing a feature many of you have been asking for – the ability to pick up late invoices on a VAT return.

When you create a new VAT return, just tick the “Include late invoices” box and it will pick up any invoices in prior periods that were not included on a previous return. Super easy to use :)

About the Author - Alex Evans

I've been interested in web development since the late 90s, when I first got internet access through my grandparents' PC around the age of 12, and learnt some basic HTML from online tutorials I found searching on Yahoo (in those dark days before anyone had heard of Google) - ever since then I've usually been tinkering with one website or another, and I've taught myself everything I needed along the way, from PHP to Photoshop.

In 2005 I embarked on a degree in Computer Science with Games Development, focused mostly on Windows development, but ultimately I realised the web was my true calling after all and after freelancing for a while I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to join the team here at Clear Books.

  • Simon

    ????? What? So before now it HASN’T been doing this automatically? You mean any invoice that has been paid late over the last few years while I’ve been using the system probably hasn’t had the VAT accounted for properly – so thaere could be hundreds of them – and I might be going to jail if I get audited??!! WTF!? How on earth can that have been allowed to happen? Why didn’t we know about this?

    Every other accounting system I have ever used calculates that automatically without the need to specify it or do anything at all, so I presumed yours would be the same…. :-(

    • Tim Fouracre

      Hi Simon, it’s always been possible to gather late invoices by changing the start date of the VAT return. We’ve always tried to make it clear that invoices are picked up between the start and end date input.

      There is also a VAT exceptions report that highlights the invoices and bills that are not included on a VAT return.

      But we appreciate the need to automate the picking up of really old invoices and now you can!

      • Kirsty Gascoigne

        I was told the start and end date picked up invoices PAID between those dates as we on cash accounting so whether an invoice is paid at 150 days it should be still be picked up when it is paid, is this not the case?

        • Tim Fouracre

          Hi Kirsty, that is the case for cash accounting. For cash accounting we check the date paid. For accruals accounting we check the date invoiced.

          • Kirsty Gascoigne

            Thanks Tim what a relief! I have some very old invoices coming up in a return from 2010 which I don’t want to come up when I tick the box for old invoices is there a way of resetting something so I can keep the box ticked but only get ones say in the last year, or do I not need to tick it because we are cash accounting?

  • Gordon

    would be a useful addition but not helpful where clients have needed a number of manual adjustments to correct previous errors/omissions. I will continue to use the start date feature to avoid getting a list of old transactions that have been manually dealt with in previous Vat returns – unless of course there can be a cut off as to how far back the feature can go?

    • Tim Fouracre

      Hi Gordon, we did think about introducing a cut off, perhaps just to look at the prior quarter, but decided that the start date could be adjusted manually if people want to be specific.

  • Shaya Grosskopf

    Hi all, just wanted to address a few issues

    Old transactions

    Several users have noticed that lots of very old transactions have never been included on a vat return on Clear Books.

    This could be for one of two reasons: -

    1) They should have been! OR

    2) They were included in a vat return prepared on another system.

    If you are sure your old transactions fall into category 2), edit the start date at Settings > periods to ensure that transactions before this start date are not included on your next vat return.

    If anyone has a substantial amount falling into category 1), check out the HMRC’s guidance here: -

    http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/problems/corrections/correct-mistakes.htm

    Cash accounting

    Even cash accounting users could fail to reconcile their banks in time for the VAT return, which could lead to backdated invoices.

    Year End accounts

    The new button will be helpful for accountants preparing statutory year end accounts who are attempting to reconcile vat recorded on the vat returns with that recorded on the balance sheet.

    • Nik Roberts

      Hi Shaya

      I don’t understand what you mean about the editing of Periods. I was processing manual VAT returns for 18 months before switching to Clearbooks VAT returns, so I have a lot of old transactions from 2009-2010 which are appearing and I don’t want them to. Can you confirm what I’d need to do to fix this?

      • Shaya Grosskopf

        Hi Nik,

        By editing period I meant changing the first accounting date on Clear Books to the date the first vat return is prepared on Clear Books. This of course has the disadvantage of preventing reports on these periods being prepared, so I guess it’s a piece of advice I am going to withdraw.

        As an elegant alternative, you can run a VAT return for the 18 month period and mark as “complete” but don’t submit to HMRC. This will prevent these transactions being included in subsequent vat returns.,

  • Debbie Roscoe

    Hi there,

    Please can I ask a related question on VAT submissions and adjustments.

    We have been manually submitting VAT returns and are looking to transfer our reporting over to Clearbooks VAT from the next return. To allow me to do this I have two problems:

    1. I have several old transactions that have been coded incorrectly as ‘Exclude from VAT return’ and I cannot seem to amend these to show in the VAT return. Is there an easy way of doing this without me voiding and copying each transaction?

    2. Is there a way of manually adjusting VAT returns before submission? I have several omissions from previous VAT returns that I need to declare and I cannot work out how to do this in Clearbooks.

    Thank you in advance for your help.

    Debbie.

  • Shaya Grosskopf

    Hi Debbie,

    To change the vat status of an invoice, delete it, then copy it from Reports > voided sales / purchases (you will need to delete any associated payments first). If the invoice has already been included in a vat return, you will need to be correct by a combination of invoices of credit notes and invoices, one of which would be excluded from the vat return.

    You can make adjustments to returns using tools > journals with a journal coded to VAT control – contact support with more details about the changes you need to make.