We want to make sure you don’t fall foul of HMRC. So that means we need to know what figures you are filing for your VAT returns. We then put a virtual tick next to all the included invoices to say “this was included on a VAT return”. We also make what’s called a Journal entry to your accounts to keep everything in shape.
So when you run a VAT return for 1st Oct to 31st December, the system will also look back to earlier in the year in case you’ve entered items after submitting the VAT return for the period the item falls into.
You don’t have to use our functionality to file your VAT returns with HMRC if you don’t want to. But if you don’t click the “Submit” button for your VAT returns then we can’t update your accounts to acknowledge the fact that you’ve filed your return. So the next time you run a return we’ll assume all your old items were never dealt with and automatically include the in the current VAT return. If this ever happens then we’ll show you a big warning on the screen to let you know.
If you want to check if any older items were brought forward or not, simply click the button to “Download Calculations”. This will show up all the items included in this return, along with the dates. You wont see any items dated prior to the start date of your VAT return if nothing has been brought forward.
VAT can be scary and/or complicated stuff and all of this is intended to make it as easy as possible for you.
Note: You can control how far back the system looks for un-reported items, or even disable this functionality altogether (not recommended!) in Settings – > Advanced Settings.
You may want to change this date if you have transaction in KashFlow that are prior to the start date of your VAT return but have already been included in an earlier VAT return that you submitted without using KashFlow. In this scenario you’d change the VAT Reconciliation date in Advanced Settings to be the same as the start date of your VAT return.