In a muddle - please advise

I seem to have done something silly and dont know how to correct it.

On 18/03/2019 I made a mistake when issuing an invoice and in the process of correcting it I created a credit note. This is now causing a number of anomalies including an outstanding unpaid invoice showing for the customer although their payments are up to date. Also it is still showing up in my VAT calculation.

Unfortunately I can’t correct this as it is locked due to a VAT submission.

How can I correct this issue? I am not an accountant.

Peter Harris

Can you remember exactly how you created the credit note - was it by doing “more options -> credit note” from the original invoice or did you just create a new invoice with a negative value? I’m guessing the latter since if you’d done a credit note derived from an unpaid invoice then it should no longer be showing as unpaid.

If this is the case, then you must have had to choose a bank account for the refund (ad hoc credit notes can’t be held on account in QuickFile) and you’ll have a “missing” amount of money somewhere in one of your bank accounts that matches the “outstanding” amount for this customer - so the simplest fix will be to find that account and then mark the original invoice as “paid” into the same account to balance things back out again.

(usual disclaimer - I’m not an accountant, ask yours if you want to be sure)

I really am in a terrible muddle with this. I have an appointment to see my accountant on Friday but I want to understand what has gone wrong before I see him.

Our accounts are really simple

  • Every 3 months we raise a rental invoice .
  • There is VAT to pay every 3 months. Because we use cash accounting this sometimes ends up in the “wrong” quarter but always balances out in time
  • There are a very small number of miscellaneous expenses and loan repayments

That is basically it but somehow there is an extra unpaid bill on our tenants account

I want to go back to the start of the year and re-tag everything but I can’t because it is locked due to a VAT submission having been made

Can I (or you) unlock everything from the start of the year so I can do this?

I am worried that one of the VAT submissions may be wrong. Also for some reason my VAT bill report this quarter is about £1000 more than it should be and has included VAT from 18/4/19 that I am sure has already been paid

Peter

I have managed to sort out my mess.

I found out that I could roll back VAT returns. I’m sure I shouldn’t have done it but it allowed me to sort out the problem. A payment had been wrongly tagged and a new invoice had been created by the system. The added complication is that the problem spread across two years.

Anyway, everything now balances and the VAT returns look right.

I will still go to see my accountant to check whether I have done it right

Peter