Is anyone fairly expert in QUICKBOOKS? Specifically VAT?

[bookkeeper]

I have recently taken over doing the books for a company and have realised that the VAT has never been filed. The VAT payments have been wrongly posted to the VAT control account, so the following quarter's VAT is always wrong.

How on earth do I go about correcting it??

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i'm not an expert in quickbooks but am an accountant.

Not really sure what your question is though do you mean the VAT is always wrong? Is it just the control account that's not right or the acutal returns?

Yes, I am not sure I understand the question.
When you say it has been wrongly posted ?
Have you agreed the sales figures, the payments reconciled to the bank ?

Quickbooks is notorious for Vat, but any account should be able to reconciled quickly ?

ahh, I have this with a company we do the VAT for, I had a okay with it last time I was there but didn't get anywhere.

(you have to process the VAT return and it deos the entries, if you just post the VAT as a payment it then comes up as part of the input VAT, you don't seem to be able to journal it out).

Sorry I haven't answered the question, have you tried calling quickbooks?

i had a play not an okay

Oh thank you, was just watching the National.

The VAT has never been filed, so when the cheque is written, it's posted to the VAT control account. Then next quarter when the VAT 100 report is run, the VAT to pay (or not) is wrong because the calculation contains the previous quarter's payment etc etc.

What I want to get to is what's supposed to happen - you run the VAT 100, file the quarter and the write the cheque, then the VAT control account is (presumably) zero'd.

Does that make sense?

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makes perfect sense (to me) as I have exactly the same thing. i am back out there on thu - i will post if i get anywhere.

Oh great CS, I'd really appreciate that, thank you. The other thing that concerns me is that past transactions could have been changed because they hadn't been filed. Gawd, what a mess!

I take it you have an accountant who does the year end accounts? They should look at the VAT and reconcile it for you. I'd be suprised if they don't. Maybe call them about the past returns?

You can reconcile it Eddas - you just take the last payment out of the calculation. It's just bloody QUICKBOOKS is a pita.

I work in an accountants and qbooks is awful for this - so many clients have this problem!
You could create a new vat account -say called "vat payments" to post your vat payments to and therefore wont be included in the next return.
That should work ok

yes but bookkeeper said they were worried VAT returns were wrong. Was trying to point out that the accountant would've pointed it out if they were. so really does it matter if the reconciliation is wrong. If it's always wrong and you know why then you just take out the vat payment and get the right answer. Seems a bit of an odd quirk to an accounting system IMO. Have never used quickbooks though.

ah, see what you are saying - to an extent I agree - but it would be better if it was right - hence why i am trying to correct it on my client now I have realised what the problem is.
I think calling Q/books is the way to go.