VAT Exception Report in R6

[pmlinc]

I am currently playing with the new more VAT friendly R6 for QB2003. This appears much more usable than previous. I'm still having problems with the VAT exception report showing a blank entry for every VAT quarter since my file was created several years ago. This isnt really a huge problem its more the worry about is whats causing it causing problems elsewhere. Any comments.

Also I have found some oddities with transactions involving zero amounts of VAT which seem to behave a little odd. It doesnt seem to be all of these but those that do also refuse to have their filed status changed. Again any comments or similar experience.

[pmlinc]

I've now located what I think is an oddity in that items with european VAT codes seem to be included in VAT reports regardless of whether the new 'filed' flag is set. Any ideas if this is a feature or a bug (sorry 'issue' in Intuitspeak).

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Vat exception report problem.

If my understanding is correct this report is designed to show any changes to the VAT liability since the last period.

So obviously all the recent transactions but the rest should be blank unless you have altered a transaction in an earlier period that changed your VAT liability for that period.

In which case the adjustment should be made to the next payment - plus all the usual complex VAT rules that then goes with this if it is above a certain amount - quite large - it has be dealt with seperately.

It is this which is what all the changes to the VAT part of QB is about.

On the EEC side I've not looked at the upgrade yet but wouldn't be at all surprised if it was a "feature". Intuit don't seem to always think through the issue of zeros very well - for example sometimes they show 0.00 and other times just blank.

Keep the posts going on what you find.

[pmlinc]

We actually got told by the VAT man that the problem of posting transactions into previous VAT periods + then not adjusting the VAT 100 was a problem they were starting to crack down as it was the source of a lot of errors which were blamed on "the computer". This is why the new vat features are quite important. The workaround we have used for 7 years is to always check the VAT control account balance at the end of the VAT period and adjust the VAT 100 form accordingly.

QB seem to have taken a fairly basic idea - ie when a transaction is filed it is flagged making it easy to see what has and hasnt gone to HMCE and implemented it in a very inflexible way. As far as I can see (and I've spent all day fidlling with it) its still very flaky in some areas.

eg

I set up a test company doing accrual VAT. I found if you make a vated transaction (code s) in lets call it May-Jul, ran the vat return everything was OK - the transaction was flagged filed and a vat exception report was blank. I then entered another transaction in the may-jul period to simulate a mispost which would have been hard to find in pre QB2003. The vat return for may-jul stayed as they were which is correct behaviour. The vat exception report showed the simulated error transaction - again as it is supposed to do. At this point I thought everything had been fixed.

I then tried euro vat codes. I repeated the above process but instead of using code S i used code ECS which is 17.5% with the EC box ticked and VAT codes entered for all customers.

The vat return should have shown no vat liability for the period but with a EC sales figure matching the full value of the transactions. The VAT liability is OK but the EC sales are not included on the html view of the vat return. If the vat return is then viewed as a QB report the EC sales is now magically included. On looking at the VAT exceptions report the euro transactions are listed as exceptions even though they have been flagged as filed (confirmed in VAT control acc register). If a transaction detail report is done filtered on the filed flag euro vat coded transactions dont appear to respond to the filter.

Conclusion : I have spent all day trying to work out how some of the odd behaviour could possibly be a feature - It just seems to make the results wrong. Granted the new R6 features make things more controllable but if the reports still show incorrect info this doesnt help.

The other problem which is more of an annoyance and an indicator Intuit hasnt fixed everything is that on the VAT exception report every period since the first transaction is listed as just a period title. Theres no way to get rid of this by filtering in any way. On the screen its not a problem other than looking daft. Its just if your file started in 1996 it wastes a lot of paper. Im sure Intuit would tell me to condense my file to get rid of older transactions - This isnt really the answer as surely its easier just to format the problem correctly.

Sorry if this is a bit long but Im hoping someone can verify/explain the above behaviour. Intuit as part of their new anti-customer strategy will not discuss this without paying them.

Hope to hear about any one elses VAT frolics with QB 2003 R6

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Thanks for your long report.

I saw a plead in another post for some more input from others I had set some time aside to have a look when the new update came out - not trusting Intuit anymore to have it sorted - but real work has swallowed that - as opposed to Intuit bug finding.

I'll try and give it a go over the weekend but I am not surprised that there are problems still with the EEC part on the VAT.

While checking it before - on R4 - I found that the date an entry was made had a difference on the report!!!

[RobJoy]

I'm finding that I sometimes have to force a report to Refresh in QB2003 to get things like dates and running balances right.

[pmlinc]

I encountered this too but there are still reporting "issues" having tried a number of tests eg refresh report,verify file,rebuild file, restart QB, reboot, set up basic test file to avoid distraction of real data, etc. to try and get rid of spurious circumstances. I am involved in software testing professionally(as well as VAT distractions!) so I've approached it in a fairly methodical manner. This doesnt however mean I've not missed something stupid - just that I've tried to avoid doing so. I've also tried to explain to myself how QBs reports could make legitimate accounting sense. Neither myself or my accountant can do so though. I'm hoping we can sort it out as I'm quite tied to QB and it be a major chore to move elsewhere. The current bugs + Intuits policy of forcing expensive updates every year + lack of free support in sorting out legitimate bugs are rapidly eroding my previously rock solid trust in QB though.

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SNAP

The current bugs + Intuits policy of forcing expensive updates every year + lack of free support in sorting out legitimate bugs are rapidly eroding my previously rock solid trust in QB though.

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Sorry pmlic

I meant to have a look at this for you but when it came to it I just couldn't face the thought of having to spend another chunk of time looking for QB bugs - when I had a back log of other stuff to do.

So having just submitted a VAT report and found a way to ensure the VAT office are getting the correct figures I've just left it until I can get the enthusiasm up again.

Your approach certainly seems to have been methodical enough so maybe trust your answers.

The bit I am not sure about is whether - if there is any VAT exception you do anything other than just add/subtract to/from the payment box but not to the other boxes.

Maybe some accountant out there knows the answer to this.