Possible VAT return bug?

I have been successfully submitting VAT returns electronically to HMRC using the VAT returns report. However, when I submitted my last return, for the July/Aug/Sep 2018 period, I’ve just noticed that the calculation that Quickfile has carried out to compile this return is incorrect. Instead of just including transactions in the specified date range, it has brought in a lot of previous, older transactions and added them to the VAT reclaim total. As a result, the VAT refund that Quickfile calculated is more than twice what it should have been. (We are an early stage R&D-based company, with zero revenue, so we reclaim VAT from HMRC on our purchases every quarter)

QuickFile always pulls in all sales or purchases from your configured VAT start date up to the end date of the relevant quarter that have not already been accounted for by an earlier return. This is intentional as it means that you can still enter extra things dated in an earlier quarter after you submitted the return (e.g. if you received an invoice late) and they’ll be included as soon as possible without the need for manual adjustments.

Did you add any back-dated purchases since the last return was submitted?

We haven’t added any back-dated purchases since the last return was submitted. Very strange. Quickfile seems to have suddenly decided to pull in every VAT-rated purchase dating from 1st July 2017, when we first started using the system. None of the dates on any of these purchase records have been changed by us, they are still the original dates.

Quickfile seems to have forgotten that these items were accounted for on previous VAT returns (I checked all four of the previous returns, and verified that these older transactions were definitely listed in the relevant prior returns).

So it seems to be a genuine bug. I can reproduce the behaviour when creating a new VAT return again for this Jul/Aug/Sep 2018 period (I’ve revoked and removed the incorrect return).

Sounds like this will need someone on QuickFile staff (@QFMathew or @Glenn) to investigate from the back end.

Hi @steveives

I’m just wondering if you switched accounting methods? On accrual accounting locks are applied to invoices, on cash accounting they are applied to payment records. If you switch methods then when you run the next return it will pull all items from your VAT start date. There is a warning on the VAT settings page regarding this behaviour and normally you’d need to move the start date forward and/or apply some inline adjustments.

If you PM @QFMathew or myself and include your QuickFile account number we can take a look for you.

Glenn - I’ve just replied with a PM. My account number is 6131502469.

I’m pretty certain I haven’t switched accounting methods. However, it’s always possible that I mis-remembered this. If I did change it, it would have to have been a long time ago.

Glenn - just looking at my VAT settings, the VAT filing start date field is empty, which is strange. I’m pretty sure that I’d previously set this to July 1st 2017. Looking at the help text on this field, if the field is empty, that could cause the observed behaviour.

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