Manually Adding VAT Periods/Quarters

There may be occasions when you need to create additional VAT periods/quarters in IRIS Financials. VAT periods/quarters are set up monthly or quarterly as standard. Typically, a single VAT period/quarter would be created manually, whilst several VAT periods/quarters would be created using the Period Creation wizard. This topic describes how to manually create VAT Periods/Quarters. If you prefer to use the wizard, refer to Adding VAT Periods Using the Period Creation Wizard.

  1. Go to Maintenance, then select Accounts from the menu.
  2. Double-select to select the VAT ledger from the Select a ledger dialog.
  3. The Account Maintenance window displays, labelled according to the selected ledger. select ADD NEW, then select ACCOUNT.
  4. Enter a VAT period/quarter code in Account, together with a Title, ensuring that you adhere to any existing naming conventions.
  5. By default, the Currency defaults to the currency set for your database (usually GBP). Leave this field blank unless you want to choose a different currency. Select Drill (...), then double-select the required currency. The Fixed currency rate is typically greyed out.

    However, if you select a currency rate which differs from your system default, you can specify a fixed currency rate. This is the conversion rate used for this period. If applicable, enter the currency conversion rate in Fixed currency rate. The currency rate can be up to 4 decimal places.
  6. The Initial State defaults to Open. It is recommended that this is not changed.
  7. Any comments for the VAT period can be added in the Comments section.
  8. If you want to categorise how the VAT period is reported on, select the Indices tab, then select the required indices and value(s).
  9. Select the Tax tab. Select the Period start date and Period end date by selecting the drop-down arrow and selecting the required date from the calendar.

  10. Select the required VAT period/quarter Status from the drop-down list. The following options are available:

    • Automatic - the system automatically posts applicable documents to the VAT period/quarter which fall within the Period start date and Period end date.

    • Manual - documents can only be manually moved to this VAT period/quarter. Automatic posts are prevented.

    • Closed - restricts all postings to the applicable VAT period/quarter. All future VAT periods/quarters should be set to Closed. This ensures that no VAT is entered into future VAT periods/quarters.

  11. Security can be defined to control what access a user group has to a VAT period/quarter.

    Typically the security on VAT periods/quarters is defined on the VAT ledger, but you may want to restrict visibility of specific VAT periods/quarters users can view, for example, if you want to prevent users form seeing closed VAT periods/quarters. This is achieved by selecting the Security tab and amending the required details.
    When defining security roles for periods, the following options are available:

    • View - Users with the selected security role can view the VAT period.

    • Modify - Users with the selected security role can amend the VAT period, i.e. change the Status

    • Post - Users with the selected security role can post documents to the VAT period (providing they also have access to the applicable VAT input and output nominals). If individual periods do not have any security roles selected, the roles specified for the applicable ledger are used. If individual periods and the ledger have different roles specified, then the user group need to have both security roles applied.

    • Access Levels - Access levels range from 0-9 with three levels typically used:

      • Level 3 – for ‘standard’ users who need access to post to the period/quarter on a day-to-day basis.
      • Level 8 – for ‘power’ users who administer and report on financial data.
      • Level 9 – for System Administrators only.
      • Input Allowed
        Input Allowed is defaulted to Yes and should only be changed if you want to prevent documents from being posted to this period/quarter.
  12. Once the required information has been added, select SAVE.