Access Accounting has released a suite of 25 reports within its SQL-based accounts software, designed to help businesses check their VAT data before submitting VAT returns. The reports complement Access Accounting's recently unveiled Standard Audit File – Tax (SAF-T) export facility, allowing users to easily extract their data for VAT inspection.
Pip Trowles, deputy product manager for Access Dimensions, commented, "We have developed these reports in discussion with HMRC's audit team, looking at the areas where a business might make an error. These will provide our users with the necessary tools and the additional assurance that their VAT returns are correct."
At the recent launch of the new BSI PAS 76 specification for accounting software, David Garlick, director of large business service for HMRC, stated the department's wish to move towards a culture of self-audit. Commenting on the inclusion of self-audit reports within PAS 76, Robert Stace of the HMRC Audit Service stated, "We estimate that for smaller businesses, self-audit reports can reduce errors by up to 25%."
Access Accounting believes that HMRC wants to encourage businesses to take a more pro-active role in auditing and correcting their own VAT figures. It also believes that HMRC will then be able to focus on businesses where there is greatest risk to tax.
The reports are provided as an integral part of the VAT features within Access Dimensions and Access Dimensions Lite solutions. They are designed to highlight areas where there are anomalous or unusual transactions in the data, and to look at areas that might attract the interest of HMRC. They will track transactions as diverse as invoices that are awaiting approval in a batch and therefore might be omitted from the correct return, through to highlighting credit notes that may have been processed incorrectly.
This suite of reports is available free of charge to both new and existing customers.
