VAT amounts

[Inisfad]

Hello again. My company is in a bit of a dilemma - our last bookkeeper left in the middle of December and we are unable to contact him in order to get any info. Our current problem (one of many) deals with the VAT totals. He ran VAT returns up until the end of October, but never attached any tape or back-up to the return. Our new bookkeeper did November/December, and went to check the September/October tally, but running it again. The return shows the same number of transactions listed, and all amounts are the same with the exception of the T2 invoices, so, of course, the amount due is different than what the old bookkeeper paid. We are confused as to how this number changed, and assume that perhaps after the VAT return for September/October was done, a credit or some other transaction was added to that return, after the return was done and paid. She would like to ‘rectify’ this - or at least see where the discrepancy lies. Is there any function in Sage that shows when files or invoices were last accessed? In other words, if an invoice was dated in October, and entered with an October date, but actually entered in November (after the VAT return was done) is there any way that Sage would indicate this? Thanks for any info you might have for this......

[brucedenney]

The vat archive in sage will show what transactions went on them, the audit trail also shows the vat return date it was reconciled

[Inisfad]

Thank you. Sadly, our last bookkeeper never reconciled the VAT in Sage, from what I understand. He ran the program, got the amount for September/October and paid it. However, now when we go back and run those two months, the VAT amount that Sage is calculating, is different. There are the same number of invoices and total at the bottom. There is the same amount for the purchase invoices. The only difference is the total of sales invoices, where VAT was applied. It would appear that after he did the initial VAT run and paid it, he went back into these two months and added something(s) which now change the sales invoice amounts. As you can tell, we are not (yet) all that familiar with Sage. Are you advising that the VAT archive would show his original September/October run, plus the re-issue of that run that we have done, and we would be able to find and compare the invoices that were applied to both of those runs?? I have read on other threads here that you only get the summary page, after the VAT is run, unless you save the report as a PDF. I know that in Windows, in general, you can look at various files and see when they were last accessed. Is this possible with Sage, in the hopes that we could find what invoices were adjusted in some way, after the initial VAT return was run? Is there any way to figure out where the discrepancy between the two runs would be?? Thanks for any suggestions you may have, if, indeed, there are any at all with this.....

[brucedenney]

If the vat return has not been reconciled then there is the possibility that you have made false returns in the past. That transactions have been missed and you could be in serious trouble. It all depends on how careful you have been about backdating transactions.

My advice is to run a vat return for the entire period all the way back to the last reconciled return.

Take away from it all the values on all the previous returns and this will tell you the scale of the issue.

If it is small then I would adjust the next return to correct the overall amount.

If it is substantial then you will need to seek the advice of a qualified accountant you should do this quickly.

[brucedenney]

And of course going forward follow the vat return proceeded and reconcile the return.

[Inisfad]

Fortunately, all the other VAT returns result in the same amount that we are getting. It is only the September/October amount that shows any difference between what the past bookkeeper ran and what we are running. That’s why I was hoping we might be able to pinpoint some invoice that was put into this monthly group, after the VAT had been run - ie, for example, something that may have been dated October but received later and posted back into that month. Yes, I know this is not good bookkeeping practice, but the discrepancy must lie somewhere!
By the way, and possibly related - we have a back up thumb drive, where a back up of the program was done a few months ago. Is there any way of looking at the files on that back up, without restoring the information on it to Sage?

[brucedenney]

You can look in the audit trail at the last entered transactions in the vat period.

They may explain the difference.

[Inisfad]

Thank you. Will check that out at work tomorrow. Just sent you a PM by the way.
One last question, which was on the post above - is there any way to look at the files in the back up thumb drive, without actually restoring the information on that thumb drive to Sage??

[brucedenney]

It is not possible to read the data without restoring.