My financial year end is the 31st Dec 2015, so I’ve just been reading the interesting article Simplified year-end tool
However, my next VAT Return report date range is from 01/11/2015 to 31/01/2016. I assume completing the steps in the Simplified year-end tool, will not affect the running of reports namely the VAT Returns report and submission.
I just want to ensure I am doing steps the right way round, as I read “On completion the previous financial period will be locked from editing”, so by that fact the accounts need to be in order before hand.
When you run the VAT return it doesn’t pick up data from journals, but from invoices and purchase records. So running the year end tool won’t affect the VAT calculation. Also the year-end tool moves P&L activity to the Balance Sheet, whereas VAT related activity is confined to a few balance sheet codes.
You have some time following your year-end to prepare and submit accounts, so to be sure you can leave it a few months. There’s not much to be gained by locking everything down early.