Troubleshooting – General – VAT/Tax Returns

Symptom: Generating a VAT/Tax Return in the new software doesn’t produce the same figures as it does in the source software.

Cause: There could be a number of causes for this but a common cause is that the source software included changes that were made to transactions that had already been submitted in a previous VAT/Tax Return. Please also refer to the VAT/Tax section of the Limitations pages (Xero / QuickBooks Online / Sage Accounting).

Explanation: During the conversion process there’s no way to indicate to Quickbooks Online or Xero that changes have been made to transactions previously submitted in VAT/Tax returns. Since the transaction will be dated in a previous VAT/Tax period, Quickbooks Online and Xero expect it have been included in the VAT/Tax Return for that period.

Fix: For a VAT/Tax Return yet to be submitted, we suggest referring to the source software to determine the correct values or generating a partial VAT/Tax Return. You may need to adjust the VAT/Tax Return figures in QuickBooks Online or Sage Business Cloud Accounting or send amended figures direct to HMRC instead of filing through Xero (the incorrect VAT/Tax Return would still need to be published in Xero). Going forward Quickbooks online and Xero should automatically bring amendments or new postings to previous VAT/Tax periods into the current VAT/Tax return.