I want to use Quickfile for my small company accounts but it’s very confusing!
I’m a service company, not a trading company. I’m a contractor and started my company in 2016. My company has a contract with an agency and the agency has a contract with a bank.
I use the agency’s own timesheet and invoicing system. I don’t normally invoice the agency myself. I say normally because once I created and submitted ONE invoice a few months after starting my business which was in relation to VAT due. When I started my company I applied to be VAT registered but registration didn’t get signed off until a few months later, so my first invoices using the agency’s timesheet system did not include VAT. I had to create an invoice to charge the agency for the VAT a few months later and then pay it over to HMRC.
I also want to record ALL transactions from day 1 of starting the company because the number of transactions are, on average, only 10-15 per month. I want to enter both sales and purchases. Sales have VAT and some purchases have VAT.
Do I have to create an invoice for each invoice I’ve created through the agency’s timesheet system? I won’t be sending out physical invoices like other businesses. How do I record all past sales and VAT? How do I account for the fact that some VAT quarters/returns have been submitted? I don’t want the system to create a VAT return for me because they’re all in the past.
Can I just enter journal entries rather than creating invoices and pretending to send them out for payment? It would be much easier.
I hope someone can guide me in the right direction to get things started. I’m just stuck at the moment.
All you need is opening balance sheet for your company and start recording transactions from beginning of year that has not been filed with authorities yet. You can mark vat quarter submitted instead of actually submitting it and same with invoices , flag as sent instead of actually sending it.
Watch out for IR35, its heading to private sector too just like public sector since last year
I’m sorry to hear you’re having a bit of trouble getting started.
Importing a trial balance as @FaradayKeynes mentions would be the easiest way to get started. Although, you may wish to check out the below link which will ask a few questions and make some suggestions for you: https://quickfile.co.uk/home/startup
Importing a trial balance would be the way to go if my company had been operating for several years and there were hundreds or thousands of transactions…but I really want to start at day zero and log ALL transactions because I’ve only been going since November/December 2016. That way I’ve got a full history.
I’ve used Microsoft Money and it’s far easier to enter transactions. I don’t need to set up suppliers for purchases, I just enter the purchase into the bank account and allocate to the relevant expense account. Likewise, “sales” or income…I just enter the receipt in the bank account and allocate to the relevant income account.
I think I’m going to have real problems if I have to create a dummy invoice for each “sale” or bank receipt for consulting fees.
This can still be done with QuickFile - you would just create one client and one supplier. This is a common scenario with things like shop income (online or bricks and mortar) and fuel expenses etc. You can still attach the receipts and invoices too. As an example, these two guides may be of interest:
The important thing would be to ensure you have the documents to evidence the income and expenditure should HMRC query it.
Regarding entering historic data, this is obviously a personal choice, but it’s worth noting that the subscription for QuickFile is based on entries created within a rolling 12 month period. What this may mean is the historic data may push you into the L or XL sizing categories, meaning you’d require a subscription.