Planning the VAT round without separate lists

The VAT round is the most predictable work in a bookkeeping practice. The same clients, the same handling, with a date that has been fixed for years. And still, at many firms that round starts with the same action: building a list of who files this period.

Which is remarkable, because that list already existed last period.

Why the list keeps being rebuilt

A list in a spreadsheet or an email is a snapshot. As soon as the round is finished it loses its value: the ticks are still there, but they refer to the previous period. So the next quarter starts with copying, clearing columns and checking whether the client list is still correct.

Four problems follow from that.

• Duplicate work. New clients, departed clients and changed filing periods have to be checked by hand every period.
• Exceptions disappear. The client who files monthly, the client with a different delivery arrangement: that lives in one employee's head, not in the list.
• Status cannot be read. A tick means "processed" to one person and "filed" to another. What is still open is not visible at a glance.
• Handover costs time. Anyone falling ill or going on holiday hands the list over verbally.

Configure once, a frequency per client

In Offsoo the VAT return is an activity in the monthly planning. When scheduling it, every client gets its own frequency: monthly, quarterly — in which case the activity appears in January, April, July and October — four-weekly, half-yearly, or a self-chosen set of months.

That is the core of the difference. The quarterly filer and the monthly filer sit in the same activity with a different frequency, and July's overview automatically contains exactly the clients due in July. The list does not have to be made; it is the overview.

While scheduling, each client also carries its assignee and planned hours, with the column total underneath: how many hours the whole VAT round costs this year.

One thing stays the same: filing itself happens in tax software. Offsoo plans the round, distributes it and tracks its status; it does not submit returns.

What hangs off a single return

Clicking a cell opens that client's activity for that period. It holds:

• the status, with names and colours the firm sets itself — for example Not started, Records received, In progress, Ready for review, Awaiting client approval, Completed;
• the assignee, with the planned hours and, if wanted, the corresponding amount;
• the steps: the fixed stages of this round, ticked off per client — checking VAT bases, checking input tax, the ICP / EU supplies check, carrying over corrections from the previous period, filing the VAT return, checking the VAT payment;
• free fields for particulars, such as the client's bookkeeping system;
• a timeline with every status change and every remark, with name and timestamp.

That timeline is what a list can never do. "Review can start; bank and VAT reconciliations are done" sits with the file instead of in someone's mailbox.

How a round then runs

Before the period starts, everything is in place: which clients are due, who handles them and how many hours are planned. That is the moment to even out unbalanced work, not two days before the deadline.

During the round, the status shifts per client. The percentage at the top of the column moves along, and the overview shows how much has been completed in total.

In the final week, only what is open matters. Turning off "show completed" leaves exactly the clients that still need attention — the list that is worth the most at that moment, and the one separate lists make hardest to produce.

Afterwards, the hours remain. Per client it shows how much time the return took against what was planned. Over a few rounds that becomes a pricing and capacity argument instead of a feeling.

Adjustments and the following year

The VAT adjustment is not a monthly but an annual activity: it sits in the annual planning, per financial year, with its own assignee and status. That keeps the distinction visible between the current period and settling a closed year.

Reviewing the client list in December and updating the frequencies puts the entire VAT plan for the next year in place — including how it is spread across assignees.

What it delivers

The work does not get smaller. What disappears is the run-up: assembling, copying and checking lists that hold the same content four times a year. What is gained is a state of affairs that is correct at any moment, including when the person running the round is away.

For firms tracking the VAT round in Excel today, this is usually the first activity to move across: it is predictable, it touches nearly every client, and the effect shows within a single period. How that switch runs is described in Offsoo next to Excel.

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