Entering historic information - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

HeliMcG · Member

Entering historic information

CloudBasedSolution · Member

hey there, quick question.. are you using QuickBooks online or the , version?. regarding what to do, if you record these transactions for a prior period and include VAT in the transactions then it will impact your next return the vat element will be recorded in the exception report you have. if you vat is up to date, then your vat liability ac should be spot on right now... you could enter these trans and keep these trans as being out of scope, your p&l and bank ac will be correct then. only other option is to do a journal, from your sales/ exp ac in the p&l and a equity ac. this experience differs depending on if your on the cloud version or the desktop one. cheers, Bob

HeliMcG · Member

Hello Bob, thank you for posting. I am definitely not on cloud version of Quickbooks. I also wondered to put the transactions to Out of scope, but then the credit figure in the bank account (which I am ultimately trying to reconcile) will be an overstated sales figure, wont it? And same for purchases. Therefore the P&L wont have accurate figures. The VAT is correct as it stands right now - anything submitted manually I have kept in the past - I calculated and submitted VAT from the paperwork given to me from July 2012 onwards. I am having to go back to this Apr - Jun period purely for the annual P&L figures. Somewhere there will be a VAT submitted figure for this quarter so I presume I will need to journal that to VAT liability where it is subsequently paid. Does that help at all? Helen

CloudBasedSolution · Member

Hey Helen, so put simply.... 1) you don't want your bank ac fig in QuickBooks to change? 2) you don't want your vat liability ac to change. 3) the p&l should also not be impacted?. am I following this correctly?. cheers, Bob

HeliMcG · Member

Apologies, it seems so complicated. Basically I have to provide a P&L for 2012-13 and I only have onwards from July 12 info on my Quickbooks. I have missed a quarter's figures. So I need to provide the accountant with the whole year's figures not just the last 9 months that I have since taken on. I am unsure whether it should impact the bank. I entered the opening balance as at 1st July 2012 so I could reconcile the bank last year. I guess I would have to unreconcile all the bank transactions and enter a new opening balance as at 1st April? Just so the bank is correct? Then enter the transactions Mar - Jun 12 accounting for VAT but then journal the VAT to the liability? The VAT shouldn't be altered as it is correct today. Does this sound correct to you? I need to impact the P&L because currently it does not reflect the first quarter's figures. Many thanks Helen

CloudBasedSolution · Member

Hey Helen, yup that's a tricky one, a) unreconcile your previous RECs and create these trans but keep them out of scope. then re-reconcile. b) post a journal for your total sales and expenses in that period and post it against a equity account... 'opening equity' or equivalent. this will keep your bank ac the same... your p&l will be correct.,just remember to put a memo on that journal explaining what and why. c) export the p&l to excel add in the extra amount for sales and expenses and give that to your accountant..and keep a note for when you prep your final accounts which is done outside of QB to include the sales and exp to the TB before you submit. bit tricky, these options are the only alternative that I can think of doing , but scenario a) will be the cleanest and most time consuming. cheers,bob

HeliMcG · Member

Thanks Bob, I am definitely veering towards option A as I can retrace all my steps that way. However, if I am to post sales and purchase figures that match the bank statements that are out of scope the figure will be overstated. IE there is a credit of £3930 that is inclusive of VAT on the bank statement. So the sales figure in the P&L should be £3275, but if I enter the transaction of £3930 out of the scope (to reconcile the bank) the net sales figure will be overstated by the VAT amount. Unless I am over complicating things, I think I need to enter them with VAT and then journal out of the VAT account if that is possible. Or am I missing something?

Thanks

Helen

CloudBasedSolution · Member

Hi Helen, you are right , there will still be that VAT amount that you need to deal with... or create a sales receipt for the Â£39xx figure and keep that out of scope.. your p&l will be overstated but I suppose you can journal that excess income away with a memo to explain..?.least the bal sheet will be correct and the vat untouched?. if you did the sale with VAT, its rather tricky to journal out of the VAT control account, not that the journal may be problematic but the amount of VAT in that transaction may still appear when you look at your final VAT figure... if this was the cloud version you could've simply unfilled previous VAT periods :( check it out, create the trans and include vat.. then try to journal out from the vat control act does it still appear on the total amount you owe for the coming return?. remember don't file it, just try journal out... if that doesn't look right... delete the journo and the trans too. cheers, Bobby

HeliMcG · Member

I suppose I could journal the excess sales and purchase amounts to an opening balance. That would definitely make the VAT element easier to deal with.

I am totally ignorant of the cloud version but sounds brilliant!

I'm not sure about how a journal will affect the VAT control account so I guess I will put the transactions on with VAT and then journal out the VAT element to an opening balance. If this doesn't look right then I will alter all the transactions to reflect Outside of scope and journal the excess sales/purchase amounts to opening balances.

The alternative could be to journal on all net sales and net purchases for this quarter with opposite entry to opening equity balance so the bank rec is not affected at all. This would get sales and purchase values correct for that quarter, but I don't know if this is the route to go down either! It is very complicated, so if you or anyone else could advise if this journal would be the most straightforward route that would be appreciated. I really don't fancy undoing loads of bank recs and messing about with the VAT only to find it doesn't reconcile off.....

Thanks

Helen