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accountants/smallbusinesspersons
I'm told that despite having perfectly good records and a simple enough business model that calculating vat is simple each quarter that we will now have to use an 'accounting package' to calculate and submit VAT returns.
I would therefore like your recommendations please for a robust, cheap 'package' that will replace the current process (we are Office 365 subscribers, so happy with a subscription model if needs be). Alternatively, we might be OK with something that simply sends the answer to HMRC - we can do the sums ourselves.
I'm assuming here that we need to get ready now - our year end is September, not April.
I have a mini spreadsheet for my ins/outs each month which have vat and non-vat columns.
its only ever 1 page and doesn’t have loads of individual entries.
i actually write my vat return working out on a sheet of A4 in biro!
But then I usually only have a handful of invoices paid in and just have the monthly outgoings as a single expense. My accountant hates it and wants me to use one of the small business software packages.
if you are doing the sums yourself and filing online then you don’t need a software package to do that?
I thought so too, but my accountant says that MTD changes all that.
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/hmrc-policy/mtd-vat-regulations-have-been-passed
If you are mandatory registered due to turnover over limit then yes this applies from 1/4/19. Unless you are able to write an api for Excel (i know one person who said they thought they can) then you are looking at software that has that built in from next year. Most that we deal with are going to Quickbooks, Xero or Sage. Best you ask the accountant what they recommend as they will need to take your information from it too.
Looks now like this gem will apply to the rest of businesses from 2022.
And of those 3 which is the best for a small business only generating 6-12 invoices a month and just wants to import data from online banking and a handful of cash receipts for small items? Plus the numbers for a vat return (obviously)
thread hijack but it’s on topic 🙂
Our accountant has recommended VT transaction.
We have had to buy a laptop, excel , vt and 2 days learning how to use it.
£800 we didn't need to spend.
**** business indeed.
MrSmith: not a hijack - pretty much the essence of my question! Happy to discuss circumstances if its of use, but I don't have an answer yet.
Yes, mandatory registered. I've no interest in sending invoices from mobile. 6 invoices would be a busy month, not really sure I want to reconcile with the bank, but my head of finance might like it.
There is software called Blinkbid which is designed for creatives/photographers which looks ideal for me but it’s US based so the VAT part is unlikely to be a priority update.
quickbooks looks like it might be a contender but I would have to do a trial and have a play with it (I have better things to do!)
im Mac only, no way am I buying excel and pc laptop and starting an exercise in frustration.
I'm wondering if the flat rate scheme might be a good bet
My 2p is for Quickbooks. We slightly prefer that over Xero and a bit better cost wise. There are other ones out there but make sure they are ready for MTD.
@ Zippykona - afaik VT+ have pulled out of the market due to MTD you'll need a 3rd party app add on now.
@twicewithchips - still have to file the return from software so you are then looking for software that does that - QB does.
All assumes you are t/o over £85k so mandatory registered
Thanks - my accountant now suggesting that there may be a spreadsheet upload option in the offing so might hang fire a little while yet. Googling (and the accountant) suggests QB probably does what we need and might encourage a little automation elsewhere too.
zippy - my thoughts exactly: thanks an effing lot HMRC.
I used quickfile a while back which worked really well, best bit bit is it's free ( up to certain limits)
It seems to be compliant with MTD
My wife's an accountant and she has her smaller clients using quickbooks (which can be had from a few quid a month) and medium clients using xero as it has much more functionality but is more expensive.
I just checked and she points out that there are a lot of benefits to going to cloud based beyond MTD.