VAT payment before I started using Quickfile

Hi,

We have been established for a while and have just started using your platform from May (due to us now having to file everything electronically).

Therefore the 1st entry I have is on 1st May 2019.

Last month, we paid out VAT to HMRC for the return that we submitted via their site.
How do I account for this? My concern is that the platform thinks I have advanced HMRC payment and will deduct it from the figure I owe them when this is calculated at the end of this month.

When you first started using QuickFile how did you bring in your opening balance sheet from whatever you were previously using to keep your records? There should already have been a liability somewhere on your previous balance sheet for the VAT you owed HMRC off your previous return, which the payment cancels out.

I don’t remember doing this.
I can only remember supplying the opening bank balance.
How can I check and how do I adjust the opening balance sheet?

I am not an accountant - I used to just do daily booking keeping and supply our accountant with the spreadsheets, VAT returns, P35 at the end of each financial year and he creates the balance sheet etc from that.

Anybody know how to do this?

Hi @dipens

The opening balances are just stored as a journal, so you can find this by going to Reports >> Journals. Providing it’s not locked, you can edit it there.

If you need to add them, they can either be done manually (Account Settings >> All Settings >> Setup your opening balance), or you can import a trial balance (Account Settings >> Import Data >> Import trial balance).

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Thank you.

Ok, so I create a journal entry which shows the VAT liability as a credit (which will subsequently be cancelled out with the VAT payment that went out last month)?
How do I balance this out? I have added a debit in the current account for the same money. Is this correct or should I tag it as something else?

Sorry, the last time I worked with balance sheets was over 20 years ago!

If you have the money in the bank account you should be able to tag this as a VAT payment:

image

this will put it to the correct nominal etc.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

Hi,

Sorry, that doesn’t help.

What I need to know is exactly what entries do I need to add to the journal.
For example, if on April 30th I owed £1k VAT (as per my VAT return done on this date),

I would have a credit of £1k - what do I allocate this to?
I would also have a debit of £1k - what do I allocate this to?

Is a VAT liability a credit or a debit?
I have tried to allocate the balance payment to the bank account - but it adjusts the bank account total (which is incorrect).

If all you really care about being accurate in QuickFile is the profit & loss and the bank account balances then stick it somewhere in the capital and reserves section, e.g. “retained profit”.

The accurate answer is complicated because it’s a figure that builds up gradually in the sales and purchase tax control accounts and transfers from those to “vat liability” when you do a vat return. I’d just leave it stashed under capital for now then when you have a reasonably recent year end balance sheet from your accountant you could try comparing that with your QuickFile balance sheet at the same date and work out a journal to transform one into the other.

Thanks - I will stick the balance in trained profit and will get the accountant to sort it out when he does the end of year. The key thing for me is that the bank balance and VAT owed in the current period is now correct!

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