A VAT return you can defend, line by line
Built from the rate each bill actually carried, and closed off month by month with a sign-off that stays signed.
How does a law firm prepare its VAT return?
A firm reports the VAT charged on its bills for the period. Writford's VAT return software builds the return from the VAT figures stored on each invoice when it was raised, rather than recalculating them at reporting time, so reduced-rate and zero-rated lines survive intact.
- Why does it matter that VAT is stored rather than recalculated?
- Because a report that assumes twenty percent will overstate a reduced-rate line by four times. A hundred pound line billed at five percent carries five pounds of VAT, and a return that re-derives it would declare twenty. Writford reads what was actually charged.
- Does Writford work for a firm that is not VAT registered?
- Yes. A firm below the registration threshold is not forced to charge VAT on its own supplies. The rate is a setting rather than a hardcoded twenty percent.
- What does the month-end close cover?
- The period is derived from the previous close rather than chosen, and shown in full before anyone signs it off. Closing to the end of May after a March close means signing off April and May together, which is worth seeing in advance.
- Can a closed period be reopened?
- Yes, behind a confirmation and a required written reason. The reason is kept with the period, because that is what anyone reviewing it later will want to know.
- Are previous closes kept?
- Yes. Every close is retained with its figures as approved and who signed it off, so a question about the position at the end of a period two years ago has an answer rather than a reconstruction.
The rate each bill actually carried, not the rate today
VAT on a bill is worked out once, when the bill is raised, and stored on the invoice. The return reads those stored figures. It does not re-derive them, which is what goes wrong when a firm bills anything at a rate other than the standard one: a report that assumes twenty percent will quietly overstate a reduced-rate line by four times.
- Built from the figures stamped when each bill was raised
- Reduced-rate and zero-rated lines survive intact
- The rate is shown against each line, not only in the totals
- A firm that is not VAT registered is not forced to charge it
What the next close covers, before anyone commits to it
The period a close will cover is derived from the last one rather than chosen, and it is shown before you sign anything. Close to the end of May after a March close and you are signing off April and May together, which is worth seeing in advance rather than discovering afterwards.
- The span is derived from the previous close, never picked by hand
- Shown in full before sign-off, so nothing is signed blind
- Client account reconciliation sits inside the same workflow
- One screen instead of a checklist somebody keeps separately
Every previous close, kept as the artefact an inspection asks for
Closes are not just a state the system is in, they are a record of what a partner approved and when. The archive keeps each one, so when somebody asks what the position was at the end of a period two years ago there is an answer rather than a reconstruction.
- Every close retained with its figures as approved
- Who signed it off and when
- Answers the question directly instead of rebuilding it
A closed period can be reopened, but not casually
Sometimes a period has to be reopened. That is allowed, behind a confirmation and a written reason, because the reason is the thing anyone reviewing it later will want. A period that can be silently reopened is not really closed.
- Reopening needs a written reason, not just a click
- The reason is kept with the period
- Nothing reopens without leaving a trace