VAT - accrual to cash

[gallygaskins]

Hello everyone

I have a client that uses Sage Line 50 2007 v. 13.02.30.0144 on Windows XP. A little while ago now we had a chat and I suggested that they change from accrual accountig to cash accounting for VAT in order to help them with their cashflow.

Having read previous posts, and being aware of the nightmare that this could very well turn into I decided that for the first 3 months I'd run this on an excel cashbook basis for the first 3 months because I'd already posted some October 12 invoices before the decision to change had been made. Along I merrily went to end of Dec 12, posting only what I needed to, processing the VAT return with my calculations and reconciling the VAT on Sage. When I then went to change the parameters to Cash accounting under the VAT in the company preferences, I found I couldn't because it was greyed out. To my dismay I found a rogue transaction that had been input as Jan 13.

I have continued in the same vain this quarter and have made sure that I definitely haven't posted anything beyond 31st March 2013, I even changed the date on the system to end March as well before posting anything today (11 April 13). I've run, checked and reconciled the VAT return but I am still unable to change to cash accounting. Does anyone have an idea whats going on here? Obviously Sage won't be able to help much as they no longer supports this version and I know that my client doesn't pay Sage either for their software support. Any ideas

Thanks for any help, in advance.

[brucedenney]

It is going to be a transaction that has not gone on a vat return.
Check for any future dated transaction in the audit trail.
Check all transactions are reconciled

[gallygaskins]

It is going to be a transaction that has not gone on a vat return.
Check for any future dated transaction in the audit trail.
Check all transactions are reconciled

Thanks for the reply Bruce and apologies for being slow with a response - I'm only in at this clients once a week so couldn't look into this until I arrived this morning.

Ok - Have checked the audit trail for anything forward dated and there is nothing posted with a date beyond 31st March 2013, am assuming that the date the item is processed is immaterial although I did change the program date just to make sure that wasn't the issue also.

Now when you say 'check all transactions are reconciled' are we only taking about anything with a tax code other than a T9 (outside scope in my case) or anything that has been deleted or changed for whatever and appears in red in the listing? If you could just clarify this for me it would be appreciated.

* Further to the above, I found 4 transactions that were right at the beginning of the data file with T0 and unreconciled i.e. from 2007 when the software was first installed, so I changed them to T9 then ran a full VAT return and re-reconciled everything for VAT and I still can't tick the check box for VAT cash accounting. It is still greyed out. I've even closed the program and restarted bu the check box is still grey. Argh!

[bandonsage]

Do they use more than one currency ? If the have activated the foreign trader setup then this can cause an issue with transferring to cash accounting .

[gallygaskins]

Yes they do, several currency's in fact and there is an issue with that which I'm hoping resolves itself at the end of their financial year.

Am therefore assuming that this will continue to be a problem so will have to continue with my spreadsheets.

Thanks everyone