I hope someone can help, as I’m just going round in circles at the moment trying to deal with an annual fuel expenses repayment!!
I have read QuickFile posts relating to the DLA, and understand that it should be as simple as entering Money In from the main bank account screen and tagging it to DLA. When the money is paid back to the director it would be Money Out and tagged to DLA.
That sounds easy enough, but I’m starting with my current account balance being correct, but my savings account showing £10k too much (which corresponds to the figure I’m trying to deal with).
So, I go to the main screen of my savings account and enter £10k Money Out and tag to DLA which now makes my savings account show the correct balance.
However, my DLA is now showing a positive balance so I thought I needed to enter a corresponding entry showing the £10k as Money In to the DLA, as the business does still owe me money, but when I do this my savings account is wrong again.
Is there an easy explanation as to where I’m going wrong? Am I wrong in thinking I need to enter the £10k as Money In to the DLA?
Forget how it looks in QuickFile for a moment, what money has actually moved where, and why? My reading of your message is that you’ve calculated how much the business owes you for business mileage driven in your own privately owned vehicle, and withdrawn that amount from the “savings” account to pay yourself, is that correct?
If so, and the amount you’ve calculated is no more than the HMRC approved rate (45p/mile for the first 10,000 miles, 25p/mile thereafter) then it should just be a matter of raising a purchase invoice on a dummy supplier for the relevant amount against the “travelling” nominal code. You can then tag the money out transaction on your savings account as payment for this purchase, with no need to involve the DLA at all.
(Usual disclaimer - I am not an accountant, seek professional advice if you want to be sure)
Thank you Ian, that’s cleared that up for me. And yes, your reading of my message was correct concerning business mileage. Once I hear from my accountant what the total is for that year, I pay it back to myself, only I couldn’t remember how I handled it last year in QuickFile, so thanks again for your very quick reply.
If you’ve seen other descriptions of the process that refer to the DLA, that’s for when you’re working out the mileage claim yourself gradually over the course of the year. You could raise a separate “travelling” purchase for each journey, or one per week/month with the totals for that period, and mark them all as paid from the DLA as you go along. When you actually pay yourself back you’d then tag that payment as a transfer to the DLA to clear the negative balance you’ve built up by paying the “purchases”.