VAT only Invoices - Nil Sales

Hi,
I am unable to raise an invoice to a UK client for VAT only amount in sterling pound. The amount is auto zeroed if there is no amount in unit cost column. This is ok to auto compute, but it should be able to be overwritten, but it doesn’t seem to do so now right now.

I do this all the time for purchase invoices where VAT amount can be put even if the unit cost is zero. Generally this is done for two reasons in my case - when imports are made & courier company like FedEX pays VAT on our behalf therefore they invoice for VAT only amounts… I can reclaim this amount as VAT only purchases (nil for purchases - that is dealt with a separate purchase raised from supplier). Another case when this happens is when a UK supplier invoices in US dollar for purchases & invoices VAT amount separately on another invoice raised in Sterling. This works very well as two separate invoices in different currencies one without any VAT & second without any unit cost amounts. In VAT returns they figures also sit in correct columns & everything works well.

However I am now in a situation where we supply a product in US dollars to a UK company & need to do same thing - raise an invoice without VAT in USD - so far so good on QF. But when it comes to raising only VAT invoice, I am unable to do so.

Can someone at QF please look into this & possibly unlock this function. If on the purchase its possible then it should be possible to do on sales/invoice side too. Or if there is a work around the please let me know. Just for reference I do want to have two separate invoices in different currencies for a UK Vat registered client.

Regards,
Rahul.

The workaround i use for purchases is to put two lines on the invoice, one at the net amount with 20% VAT and one at minus the net amount with no VAT, leaving the total as VAT only. Presumably the same trick would work on the sales side but check with your accountant if you would need to adjust your box 6 on the return.

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your reply.

I very grateful for sharing the tip with me. I created two lines om the sales invoice to client - one with unit cost column to get correct VAT amount & in the second line with no VAT, just the unit cost was deducted as a minus figure. This resulted as net VAT charged & achieved the desired result.

Just to share how I have been doing for purchases, it is not even necessary to put a minus line without VAT, as you can simply put just the VAT amount at 20% (or whatever rate) with nothing filled in subtotal column (ie zero value). This works perfectly & mirrors what is happening & also the VAT is correctly accounted for in VAT return. You dont need to deduct the subtotal amount in next line. Obviously method you mentioned in your message also achieves the same result, but I just wanted to highlight this, in case you havent noticed.

Once again many thanks for you assistance.

Regards,
Rahul

PS : May in future be QF can look in to possibility to overwrite the VAT amount after it is auto computed & also break the link to the unit cost item, to give more flexibility to create vat only sales invoice, just like it’s there on purchases invoice side. Until then will be using above method to get around it, but it’s not the first preference.

Hello @galarahul

I’m glad to hear you’ve managed to account for this all OK.

I have referred your comments regarding the sales side to our development team, however, I can’t make any promises or give any timescales for this.

We will of course post on the forums should there be any updates.

Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your reply. Something I just wanted to point out only because sales invoices are accessed by clients. Its best if the invoices are straight & simple to understand than a workaround (which is ok to do on purchases as its internal).

But I am sure in the meanwhile I can explain the client what is happening - not a problem.
Thanks for looking in to this.

Regards,
Rahul

Its difficult to know the best answer here, under normal circumstances I’d say it’s a good thing that QuickFile won’t let you raise an invoice where the VAT on a line is more than 20% of the net as it’s a simple check against typos. But for cases where it is required maybe an account-level or client-level switch to disable this check would be the way forward. Keep the current behaviour by default but with the option to override if you know you need to (most people shouldn’t).

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