I'm in no way a sage expert but a company recently had a VAT inspection and during the course of the inspection it was found to be a problem with the sage recurring entries.
It turns out that when the client switched to the 15% VAT rate last year, instead of creating a new T code (i.e not T1) they just went throught the options and changed T1 to represent 15%, which is fine. However when they went back to 17.5% at the end of the year it turns out that sage kept calculating the existing recurring entries at 15%.
I checked another client of mine and all seems fine, however if you have and clients that did this sort of thing it may be worth casting your eye over a couple of the figures.
Also HMRC and in a "cash grabbing" position at the moment. The above attracted a £250 fine aswell as interest.
Its a multi user sage line 50 package but unsure of the version or any other specifics.
Just though i'd mention it as it cropped up today and was new to me.
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Forgive the typo's I generally do not proof read. Just lazy I guess!
Its interesting to note that even if you have a glitch on a well know and respectable accounts package, its still your fault, although you should check the entries regularly. I wonder if it is a glitch or just the way Sage works ie notes the % when setting up an entry rather than looking at the T code and taking the current status.
Have you been on to Sage? Have they accepted responsibility? Interesting problem...
Not been on to sage and doubt it would do any good. I think the correct procedure is to use another T code and set that up at the new rate and not just change T1. I would dount sage would take any responsibility as I assume they will claim that all figure should be checked before lodgement.
Its not on one of my clients so I will not be follwing this up personally but if i hear any sort of outcome i will pass it on.
Your probably right when you mention its the sage prorgamme rather than the glitch and possible only relivant for transactions set up in the year of change. Prrobably worth checking a few of the entries to be on the safe side.
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Forgive the typo's I generally do not proof read. Just lazy I guess!
I think this probably happens when you save something in Sage, ie I have regualar monthly invoices I send to clients and in invoicing theer is an option to memorise the wording and amount. When we changed to 15%vat, I set this up as T3 and changed all my customers over to T3 and thought that would do the trick when I used the memorised invoices, however they still went to 17.5%. f course same thing happened when it all got changed backto 17.5% (and soon to be 20%!). I suppose this is similar to recurring entries in that the system memorises what the exact transaction was.
I too changed T3 to 15% as I knew it was only going to be temporary. But I think when standard rate goes up to 20% on 4th January I'll change T1 to 20% as Sage defaults to T1 and it would take ages to change transactions to another code for every entry. Then maybe change T6 to 17.5% during transition period when both 20% and 17.5% transactions are coming in/going out.
