Anyone registered for VAT?

[roofman]

How much!

Ignore me, just asked my wife and she informs me that it includes a couple of insurances with them and a few add on facilities She takes care of the paper stuff and i do the grunt and shout at people

 

[Paulbarrett]

Was going to say mate, pulling your pants down. I’m with Barclays still for business and they are rubbish now going to switch to starling soon as I bank with them personally and can’t fault

 

[CornishPete]

Looked at NatWest and (it's not easy to find them!) but looks like fees could add up as they're per transaction. Starling looks like might be better. No fees and for £7 a month it links the account and does the mtd vat stuff. Probably 6 and two 3s for me! Maybe starling as I've found with personal accounts the online ones have better service! Closest NatWest is probably 15 miles and only open 10 while 2 Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway!!

 

[Kayos]

Your a plumber so you was past the threshold in the first quarter

First job you mean

 

[premmington]

Ignore me, just asked my wife and she informs me that it includes a couple of insurances with them and a few add on facilities She takes care of the paper stuff and i do the grunt and shout at people

That made me laugh <in bold>.

One thing about being self employed I do like - is doing the books/paperwork/accounting. Everybody else I know moans about it - but I enjoy it - maybe it appeals to my high level of OCD?

Everyday people pay me - once a week I pay everybody then account for it. If I get behind with it - I feel abit uncomfortable - when I am on top of it - I am pleased myself.

But with the move to Freeagent/Zero/Quickbooks type methods - most of this is gonna happen as you go along/trade daily. I can see some advantages of MTD - but it is change and I don't like change.

 

[mtt.tr]

That made me laugh <in bold>.

One thing about being self employed I do like - is doing the books/paperwork/accounting. Everybody else I know moans about it - but I enjoy it - maybe it appeals to my high level of OCD?

Everyday people pay me - once a week I pay everybody then account for it. If I get behind with it - I feel abit uncomfortable - when I am on top of it - I am pleased myself.

But with the move to Freeagent/Zero/Quickbooks type methods - most of this is gonna happen as you go along/trade daily. I can see some advantages of MTD - but it is change and I don't like change.

I always enjoyed the books side.

 

[GRW]

I'm not SE, but have used Quickbooks features a fair bit in work.
I set up to use "Estimates" as just that but also as Job Cards (gives uou a single easy Job no. to track.
Once a job is ordered - you revisit the Estimate & change its status from "Pending" to "Accepted".
If you add the Estimate/Job no to any Purchase Orders for the job - you can track your items & spend for each job, and have an audit trail.

Doing the above, you can run Reports towards the end of each month.
"Pending" are effectively quotes and values for work quoted but not ordered (& you can check to see you've not forgotten to process any orders).
"Accepted" is your "Work in Progress" value (I.e. work not completed and/or not Invoiced) so you can make sure you close out & bill your jobs.
Also you can Reports on Invoicing for a period to check Sales/Turnover, on Purchasing etc.

Used in conjunction with something like Google Calendar for Work Planning, and a simple supplier & customer Folder system on your PC, you can keep tabs on everything pretty well.

 

[8ob]

I'm a building contractor and I've finally gone over the VAT threshold after the last few years managing to keep just under it! I'm currently going through the process of registering and getting my number and I'll have to use some MTD software. Some are free some are relatively little each month but all sound like they do the same thing. My returns would be relatively simple so I'm wondering if the paid versions will offer features that I'll never use?
A bit of info on my situation might help answer my question: currently a self employed/sole trader building contractor with no employees. Turnover is approx £110k/year. I typically send 10-15 invoices a year to customers, and receive about 300 a year from mainly material suppliers plus fuel, phone etc so not masses of paperwork to contend with, and I don't have stock to keep track of. Lots seem to advertise they link everything to be more streamlined and efficient but I wonder if this is really for retailers? I currently do all my own book keeping and file my own tax return which is very straightforward doing the simplified return on a cash basis. I did once get persuaded to use an accountant on the "he'll save you more than it costs" line but found this wasn't the case, I did my own simultaneously and got virtually the same numbers.
The amount of info online is bewildering and very technical whilst also being very vague on each persons situation which I think will affect the best solution so I thought Id ask my "Go to" forum first! I did wonder about becoming limited but that's a whole other discussion!!

Not sure who you are ultimately working for, some developers are end users and don’t get charged the vat. They don’t always tell you this and some use it as an excuse to return the invoice for credit and reissue, this can kick an invoice down the road for the lions share of ninety days.

Bob

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Starling looks like might be better.

I use them for multi currency stuff...fees are low I think and exchange rates are excellent.

Having more than one business account is safer....I had a nightmare where my high street bank froze my business account! I realised I was totally dependent on 1 bank at that point!

Was frozen for a few days (access denied)...then they unfroze it and claimed it never happened!

 

[James1979]

Wasn’t starling one of those that isn’t part of the financial group that protects bank accounts? Can’t remember the name. So your money isn’t protected.

There was a few, it was the money program on radio 4 a while back that ran a feature on it. I am sure starling was mentioned. Might be wrong but worth checking.

Freeagent is free for NatWest customers but you can licence it for £25ish pm. So it sort of balances out the charges within a few quid it’s cheaper to pay the charges than go elsewhere and rent a package.

My friend has quickbooks. Seems happy. Pays a monthly fee. Only thing his does which I could use is that it tells him if customers have opened the invoice attachment. So when they ******** you and say they never got it, you know who lies

 

[CornishPete]

Cheers for the replies everyone. It looks as I suspected that most of the features are not ones I'd use. Really not interested in using it for anything other than the bare minimum to comply with the rules.

 

[Justme]

I took one business LTD & VAT last year & have just done the first VAT return.

I used Quickfile & I cant fault them.
Its free but I paid for the bank integration.
I use the app to photo the receipts as I get them & then tag them to the bank on my laptop.
You can add the receipts via the laptop but its longer to do it that way.

Its made keeping track & doing the accounts & return very easy.

I used to do it o n spread sheets ect.

I would not go back.

ps I bank with Tide online an it links to that seamlessly.

 

[Sputter]

I am another VAT registered sole trader who was once quite happy with a simple spreadsheet.

When MTD was announced I looked at a few online services and settled on one called "Pandle". I used the free version for a couple of years and found it did everything I wanted.

Recently I upgraded to their paid version ( £5 a month), not for new features, just a small thankyou to a company that seems to do it's best to keep things simple.

https://www.pandle.com/

 

[CornishPete]

Do I have to take a picture of receipts? I was hoping I could just fill in an excel spreadsheet and it somehow links with the mtd software?

 

[Aerohead]

Spreadsheet works for accounts if the number of payments out or in isn't real high.

For electronic filing VAT returns, this free software works perfectly, little bit of set-up for first use following the manual, and then easy to use in later quarters.

100PcVatFreeBridge-1.3.5

 

[Justme]

Do I have to take a picture of receipts? I was hoping I could just fill in an excel spreadsheet and it somehow links with the mtd software?

Taking a pic is easier than keeping a spreadsheet.
Take snap, tag price & what its for.
Then after bank feed has updated tag bank to that invoice.
To do Vat return, hit create, check & send job done.

 

[James1979]

Another thing I just thought of and it might be worth mentioning.

RBS allow me to have a ‘shadow’ account tied to the main business account. It allows me to set 21% of everything paid in to the main account to be automatically transferred to the second one.

Handy at VAT time. I set 21% as there’s always a bit extra then.

Other banks offer something similar I don’t doubt.