Sage are already looking into it, I am using Sage Business Cloud Accounting and the two main clients affected are with RBS and Nat West.
I phoned Sage in March when the new banking information was sent out, and was told my clients would not be affected. So I have carried on as normal. Only now have I discovered that they are off. There are no errors, just no downloads coming in.
If I have to now re-apply from scratch, it will take a while, and meantime, I am now going to have to take a longer time dealing with the bank reconciliations for these companies, so I do hope they can come back to me and tell me all is well.
I have phoned them back today, and thus far been told, at some point they were switched off, then switched back on again but to wait until I hear from the technical team to see if I need to re-apply with them no longer downloading.
If this is the case, I know from when I first received bank feeds from these two banks, they only provided feeds from the current date they were switched on, so a laborious job for me prior to this potential new date could be in the offing.
If the system does not use open banking, but does use screen scraping it may have been switched off by regulation.
Hi
Thanks for the info.
Do you know if this means I would
-have to get a letter signed for Sage to set it all up again,
or
-is it simply a case of clicking for an email to be sent with a code, as you do when you use the back up on another machine?
I have just corrected one of these set up, and to be honest, in order to avoid complications, it is better to phone them and ask for an ANNUAL scheme to be set up rather than online. In this way HMRC are not expecting nil returns on months that there are no submissions due, and potential penalties after the fact.
The client suffered CIS in 19-20 but no scheme was set up and at the time they had no accountant. In June, they set it up online and even spoke to someone whilst doing it, they ended up with a Contractor Scheme and PAYE, when all they wanted to use it for was claiming CIS suffered as a Sub Contractor.
The Saga Began......
In July they contacted us to take them on.
I telephoned the PAYE helpline and they said it could not now be converted to an annual scheme and they would have to submit all the nil returns they have missed, even though they have only suffered CIS. (Which would then potentially generate lots of late filing penalties we would have to appeal).
I telephoned the CIS helpline they said all sorts of contractor penalties had already been levied which they could remove straight away, in light of them not being a Contractor.
I telephoned a few days later to see if these had been removed, and was told the previous person only wrote an email and it hadn't been actioned, but that they could do this immediately (which they did).
Waited a few days to make sure these penalties had gone, and that Contractor status had been fully removed.
Phoned PAYE helpline back again and asked if it could be converted to an annual scheme and hey presto! On this occasion, they said they could, and it was changed. I don't know if this was because the Contractor Status had been removed.
But it took hours of work and patience having to hand hold HMRC yet again.
The decision has been made to stop trading at at the end of July (as they don't want to continue with the Ltd Company), and the stand-alone director is currently on furlough (with no employees).
The client is financially secure and does not need to work, but Covid-19 caused the companies customers to close and therefore could no longer supply them. Even when customers businesses re-open it would take many months to be able to make any supplies and there just won't be enough profit in it to continue. The decision has been made not to continue past the year end, to submit the accounts and pay over any taxes etc, then close it down.
I too wonder if furlough can be claimed right up to the end of July, before the company stops trading?
Many thanks LW64, I was thinking that 7 days of what has been claimed under furlough would be correct, as that is what has been done in essence, for those on weekly pay.
It was just one of those moments that made me stop and think, with it each side taking a different amount of days for the same period.
I am proficient in Xero and Sage, and I stand by my comments on this. I agree you can bulk import invoices, but the clients I have that I put on Xero for their sales invoices have limited computer knowledge and would struggle to import CSV files into Xero, havoc would ensue and I would repeatedly be phoned to help sort out errors of entry. So they have no choice but to manually enter every invoice which is much slower than Sage. And don't get me started on Xero still not letting the book keeper with reduced access to see the VAT return in MTD to check it through before submission, when before MTD they could clearly see it.
Can I ask, have you updated your knowledge in Sage recently, because the old system required you to go into file maintenance to make changes, now you can indeed just click edit and change the information whilst in other places of the programme (desk top version).
I would still say that I have to take on board the particulars of, every job and every clients requirements, before I decide which one to use. But as a professional and with the way the desk top works now, I would personally never do a clients work in Xero, my bill would have to increase, it is aimed at the layman not the professional by the way it has been written. It frustrates the heck out of me, just how many things it does not do, or how many things that require several clicks of the mouse to get to the same position I would be in, in Sage with one click.
I also think if you have say worked with sage for say many years, and Xero for a few or visa versa, you are going to feel more comfortable with the one you have worked on the longest as you know more about it.
I would agree with you Sage is much better. But for those clients who want to enter their own sales invoices etc, you can enter in bulk rather than individual entries in Xero (although more fiddly than sage), by way of using mapping headings in excel, type it in the same as you would in Sage, save it and import it into Xero, all the invoices are entered in one go. But this is an additional task, whereas in Sage it is more like a spreadsheet entry from the outset.
I use Sage for all my clients book keeping as I can data entry far quicker to keep my fees down. I find Xero really clunky and can't use the Alt key for a lot of moves there are still some functionalities it just doesn't do.
However, if the client needs a package to enter all their sales invoices and email them directly to their customers with statements, and also wants to enter the payments against them when received. I find Xero is more on their wavelength and they can cope with it, whereas clients I have tried to set up on Sage find it too complex.
So I use both, depending on the client. If I am doing all the work its Sage, if they are data entering some of it too its Xero.
Is the £4,000 their basic pay or is it made up of other things, does this person have any salary sacrifice which should not be included, I have attached a link to the guidance released Friday 17th) to see how its worked out, as not everything is included in the claim.
My answers
Hello Paul
Sage are already looking into it, I am using Sage Business Cloud Accounting and the two main clients affected are with RBS and Nat West.
I phoned Sage in March when the new banking information was sent out, and was told my clients would not be affected. So I have carried on as normal. Only now have I discovered that they are off. There are no errors, just no downloads coming in.
If I have to now re-apply from scratch, it will take a while, and meantime, I am now going to have to take a longer time dealing with the bank reconciliations for these companies, so I do hope they can come back to me and tell me all is well.
I have phoned them back today, and thus far been told, at some point they were switched off, then switched back on again but to wait until I hear from the technical team to see if I need to re-apply with them no longer downloading.
If this is the case, I know from when I first received bank feeds from these two banks, they only provided feeds from the current date they were switched on, so a laborious job for me prior to this potential new date could be in the offing.
Hi
Thanks for the info.
Do you know if this means I would
-have to get a letter signed for Sage to set it all up again,
or
-is it simply a case of clicking for an email to be sent with a code, as you do when you use the back up on another machine?
Thank you Luke, I thought I was missing it there. Oh well, I can more work done than I thought today now.
I have just corrected one of these set up, and to be honest, in order to avoid complications, it is better to phone them and ask for an ANNUAL scheme to be set up rather than online. In this way HMRC are not expecting nil returns on months that there are no submissions due, and potential penalties after the fact.
The client suffered CIS in 19-20 but no scheme was set up and at the time they had no accountant. In June, they set it up online and even spoke to someone whilst doing it, they ended up with a Contractor Scheme and PAYE, when all they wanted to use it for was claiming CIS suffered as a Sub Contractor.
The Saga Began......
In July they contacted us to take them on.
I telephoned the PAYE helpline and they said it could not now be converted to an annual scheme and they would have to submit all the nil returns they have missed, even though they have only suffered CIS. (Which would then potentially generate lots of late filing penalties we would have to appeal).
I telephoned the CIS helpline they said all sorts of contractor penalties had already been levied which they could remove straight away, in light of them not being a Contractor.
I telephoned a few days later to see if these had been removed, and was told the previous person only wrote an email and it hadn't been actioned, but that they could do this immediately (which they did).
Waited a few days to make sure these penalties had gone, and that Contractor status had been fully removed.
Phoned PAYE helpline back again and asked if it could be converted to an annual scheme and hey presto! On this occasion, they said they could, and it was changed. I don't know if this was because the Contractor Status had been removed.
But it took hours of work and patience having to hand hold HMRC yet again.
I have a client such as this at the moment.
The decision has been made to stop trading at at the end of July (as they don't want to continue with the Ltd Company), and the stand-alone director is currently on furlough (with no employees).
The client is financially secure and does not need to work, but Covid-19 caused the companies customers to close and therefore could no longer supply them. Even when customers businesses re-open it would take many months to be able to make any supplies and there just won't be enough profit in it to continue. The decision has been made not to continue past the year end, to submit the accounts and pay over any taxes etc, then close it down.
I too wonder if furlough can be claimed right up to the end of July, before the company stops trading?
Many thanks LW64, I was thinking that 7 days of what has been claimed under furlough would be correct, as that is what has been done in essence, for those on weekly pay.
It was just one of those moments that made me stop and think, with it each side taking a different amount of days for the same period.
I am proficient in Xero and Sage, and I stand by my comments on this. I agree you can bulk import invoices, but the clients I have that I put on Xero for their sales invoices have limited computer knowledge and would struggle to import CSV files into Xero, havoc would ensue and I would repeatedly be phoned to help sort out errors of entry. So they have no choice but to manually enter every invoice which is much slower than Sage. And don't get me started on Xero still not letting the book keeper with reduced access to see the VAT return in MTD to check it through before submission, when before MTD they could clearly see it.
Can I ask, have you updated your knowledge in Sage recently, because the old system required you to go into file maintenance to make changes, now you can indeed just click edit and change the information whilst in other places of the programme (desk top version).
I would still say that I have to take on board the particulars of, every job and every clients requirements, before I decide which one to use. But as a professional and with the way the desk top works now, I would personally never do a clients work in Xero, my bill would have to increase, it is aimed at the layman not the professional by the way it has been written. It frustrates the heck out of me, just how many things it does not do, or how many things that require several clicks of the mouse to get to the same position I would be in, in Sage with one click.
I also think if you have say worked with sage for say many years, and Xero for a few or visa versa, you are going to feel more comfortable with the one you have worked on the longest as you know more about it.
I would agree with you Sage is much better. But for those clients who want to enter their own sales invoices etc, you can enter in bulk rather than individual entries in Xero (although more fiddly than sage), by way of using mapping headings in excel, type it in the same as you would in Sage, save it and import it into Xero, all the invoices are entered in one go. But this is an additional task, whereas in Sage it is more like a spreadsheet entry from the outset.
I use Sage for all my clients book keeping as I can data entry far quicker to keep my fees down. I find Xero really clunky and can't use the Alt key for a lot of moves there are still some functionalities it just doesn't do.
However, if the client needs a package to enter all their sales invoices and email them directly to their customers with statements, and also wants to enter the payments against them when received. I find Xero is more on their wavelength and they can cope with it, whereas clients I have tried to set up on Sage find it too complex.
So I use both, depending on the client. If I am doing all the work its Sage, if they are data entering some of it too its Xero.
Is the £4,000 their basic pay or is it made up of other things, does this person have any salary sacrifice which should not be included, I have attached a link to the guidance released Friday 17th) to see how its worked out, as not everything is included in the claim.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-to-claim...