My client wishes to keep going with his Excel cashbook(that I designed). He is way behind in filing his VAT returns but thinks he registered for MTD at some point. Probably, he found he could no longer just enter the 9 boxes, so gave up and paid the estimated VAT bills that have arrived for about two years.
Can anyone recommend a good bridging software application, that I can provide to the client, since he is reluctant to give up and send me bank csvs on a quarterly basis.
Incidentally, he was a victim of Xero, he tried it and found it far too difficult to navigate. He should have bossed it with Sage :)
Replies (23)
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A really simple bridging and realtively cheap software is EasyMTDVAT - it's on HMRCs list of approved 'bridgers'.
Used it previously and found it very straightforward.
If it's just for this one client he'll need to pay £4.99 per return unless he buys bulk submissions which I assume they likely wont.
If client cannot cope then he will need learning time for the bridging software
One client is using 123 sheets
No idea how it works or cost
They have used it from day 1 of MTD VAT and very happy with it
We started using a Bridge that was £1 per submission. It is now £24 per submission so I would not want to even mention their name
For clients still using spreadsheets we now use IRIS
MTD is not about accuracy. Only HMRC believe that rubbish.
Yes to your comment about (full version) VT, although I note you didnt raise it as a question.
Agreed, with MTD HMRC are quite content receiving rubbish as long as it is digital rubbish.
Another vote here for Vitaltax and VT. Some of our clients use those two and others (Larger ones) Quickbooks. Two use Xero but none use Sage.
I would suggest you show the client VT Cashbook. Really simple and free. Much more useful outputs than Excel.
Bokio is the solution - does MTD, very easy to navigate, has automated bank feeds, and is FREE to use. What's not to like?
Bokio will also be adding Director salary RTI payments from its platform as well in the very near future. A one-stop shop. Been using it for 2 years, never had a problem.
Absolute VatFiler - I've been using it for a couple of years and have 9 clients using our MTD SS
We use 123 sheets too as do many of our clients.
I imagine they will have an ITSA MTD offering out shortly for Excel users: they were asking for volunteer users to join the ITSA private beta about a month ago, using their software. They were looking for sole traders and property rental tax payers that use Excel for their bookkeeping.
100pcVAT FreeBridge
Free (you can donate to charity as a fee if you want to), and as the author is a one-man band is worthy of support
Another vote for Absolute VAT filer. I added their data page to a client‘s quarterly excel template. VAT information from the numerous tabs already fed to a VAT summary page so I linked those boxes to the Absolute data page. Each quarter she opens the Absolute master, clicks a button to select that quarter’s spreadsheet. It automatically links to the data page and the figures feed through to the master. Click another button, enter the password and submission completed. So simple to set up and use
We use Absolute VAT Filer for the hundreds of VATs we do, and some clients have bought Absolute VAT Filer and use it themselves. Absolute can be linked to any spreadsheet one VAT return box at a time, or you can use Absolute's import sheet which does it all in one hit. We've build our own spreadsheet fronted by Absolute's import sheet, and we give this free of charge to our clients. Some file it themselves but most email it to use and we file it.
Jo, Absolute doesn't remember where the info comes from because the next VAT period you're likely to be linking to a different spreadsheet. Instead, Absolute has an optional import sheet that it can bridge call the cells to in one navigation instead of linking each cell individually.