DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software Questions And Answers

DIY Accounting Small Business Accounting Software Questions And Answers
Why is the monthly profit and loss account not updating
from the sales and purchases entered.

Updating the profit and loss account in the financial
accounts file is automated. If the financial accounts file
is not updating automatically the links from the sales
accounting spreadsheet and or the purchase accounting
spreadsheet are not working. This may be because the file
names have been changed which breaks the links between the
files.

The most common reason is the way the files were originally
saved when initially downloaded from the website by opening
the files first before saving them. When a file is opened
first before saving the computer stores that file in a
temporary internet folder and changes the links to
temporary links within that temporary folder.

When that file is then saved it is those temporary links
which are being saved and not the original links. Those
temporary links would not be recognised by the other files
which form the link structure. The solution is to delete
the files and save the files again direct to your accounts
folder without opening them first thereby preserving the
original links. Accounting entries on sales and purchases
appear on the profit and loss account but do not appear on
the list of expenses on the self employed tax return.

The self employed tax return required to be completed in
the UK is dependent upon the sales turnover. Small business
with total sales income exceeding 64,000 pounds for the
financial year ending 5 April 2008 are required to complete
the full self employed tax return while businesses with a
turnover under 64,000 pounds may complete the short version
of the self employed tax return.. Coincidentally the
threshold is the same as the vat threshold.

In addition if the sales income is less than 30,000 pounds
then it is not necessary to complete all the individual
expense classifications. The excel formulae within the
financial accounts file automatically fill in the short or
full tax return and only fill in the detailed expense
classifications if required to do so.

Does the package produce my quarterly vat returns when a
vat flat rate scheme is being operated.

The user guide contains notes on how to enter the value
added tax flat rate percentage on the sales bookkeeping
spreadsheet. The bookkeeping single entry of the flat rate
vat percentage on the sales sheet updates throughout the
package including the subsequent months on the sales sheet
and also each month on the purchases bookkeeping
spreadsheet automatically calculating value added tax at
the flat rate percentage and expenses value added tax paid
on purchases at the zero vat rate producing a quarterly vat
return. Does the self employed accounting software package
produce a balance sheet.

Producing a balance sheet is optional for self employed
small business and not an essential requirement of
completing the self employed tax return. The self employed
package is based upon single entry bookkeeping and does not
produce a balance sheet which requires double entry
bookkeeping while the limited company package does produce
a balance sheet as it is a legal requirement for a limited
liability company.

As the self employed accounting software includes sales and
purchase spreadsheets and also cash and bank spreadsheets
it is possible to manually produce a balance sheet if
required but the accounting software does not produce it
automatically. Do I purchase a new software package each
financial year or can the accounting software be updated
for more than one year accounts.

As the accounting software and payroll packages include the
current financial year tax rules that enable the financial
packages to automate the production of that years tax
returns then each year has new tax rules embedded and being
on excel rather than an accounting database then it is
necessary to purchase a new accounting or payroll package
each year.

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Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant designing
Accounting Software at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/
providing complete accounting solutions for small to medium
sized business in the UK with payroll software at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm

for up to 20
employees