Reports and VAT

Every report in Financials is worked out live from the ledger, so it's up to date the moment a line is approved or a journal is posted. Reports follow the financial year chosen in the header. Anyone with a Financials role can read them, Auditors included.

Reports

Open Reports. Display as switches the list between Cards and Table.

Report	What it shows
Income statement	Income, expenses and net profit for the year, with the prior year alongside when there is one
Balance sheet	Assets, liabilities and equity at the year end. Profit not yet closed into retained earnings shows as Current earnings, so it balances before year end
Changes in equity	Opening equity, profit for the year, contributions and distributions, and closing equity
Cash flow	Operating, investing and financing movements, by the indirect method: profit adjusted for non-cash items and working capital
Trial balance	Every account's debit and credit totals, as at a date you choose
Aged receivables	What clients owe on Looped invoices, by how long it's been outstanding

Accounts with a zero balance are left off the statements but stay on the trial balance. Every report has the same export group: Preview shows the PDF as on screen, to print or download, and Export CSV and Export PDF download it.

Trial balance as at a date

The trial balance shows the year's income and expenses, with earlier open years' profit in retained earnings. Choose As at to see it on any date in the year: it starts at today for the current year and the year end for a past one. When entries later in the year aren't included, a hint says how many. Sub-accounts are listed under their account; Collapse sub-accounts shows one line per account instead.

The cash flow statement places each account under operating, investing or financing on its own. If an account lands in the wrong place, open it in Chart of accounts and set its Cash-flow section to Operating, Investing or Financing.

The Dashboard shows the same figures in short: income, expenses and net profit for the year, whether the ledger balances, and where the money went.

Exports for your accountant

Under Exports on the Reports page:

Export	What it holds
Trial balance	Every account's net balance as at the year end
General ledger	Every posted line by account, with a running balance
Journal	Every entry in date order, one row per line
Accountant pack	One workbook: company details, the chart of accounts with where each account is presented, the trial balance and the year's journal with VAT

The first three come as CSV or XLSX. The accountant pack is an XLSX and needs a financial year picked in the header. Amounts are in the ledger currency with two decimals.

VAT

When your company is VAT registered, amounts on bank lines, supplier invoices and journals are captured including VAT, and Financials splits out the VAT for you. Output VAT and input VAT post to their own control accounts. If you're not registered, everything posts without VAT.

Set Registered for VAT from on the Company page to the date on your registration notice. Bank lines and journals dated before it post without VAT, because you couldn't charge or claim VAT then. If you pick a VAT treatment for one of those lines yourself, Financials uses the one you picked. Without a date, every line takes its account's VAT.

VAT201 returns (South Africa)

Open VAT. The VAT registration card shows whether you're registered, your VAT number (change it on the Company page) and the Filing cycle:

Monthly (Category C)
Bi-monthly ending even months (Category A)
Bi-monthly ending odd months (Category B)

Below it is one row per VAT period in the selected financial year, showing what you'll pay or get back. Open a period to see the return:

Field
1	Standard-rated supplies (incl. VAT)
2	Zero-rated supplies
3	Exempt supplies
4	Output VAT
14	Input VAT — capital goods
15	Input VAT — other goods & services
19	Net VAT payable / (refundable)

Input VAT counts as capital goods when the line it belongs to was posted to an asset account.

The return is worked out from the VAT lines on your transactions. If a manual journal posts straight to a VAT control account, the return shows it as a control-account variance rather than folding it in, so you can find and fix it.

Finalising a return

When the figures are right, click Finalise VAT201. This saves the return as it stands and posts the settlement: the period's output and input VAT move to VAT Control (SARS) as the amount payable or the refund due. You file the return with SARS yourself.

Once a period is finalised, the review screen won't approve bank lines in it to accounts that carry VAT. If something posted since changes the figures, the return shows how much the live figure has moved. If you haven't submitted it yet, click Reopen, which reverses the settlement entry, and finalise it again.

Finalising and reopening returns needs Financials Admin or an Owner.

Outside South Africa

For countries with VAT, Financials still records VAT on each transaction and keeps the input and output control accounts, but doesn't prepare the return. Agree the balances on the trial balance to the returns you file. The United States has no VAT, so nothing is captured.

Tax and deadlines (South Africa)

Tax holds the income tax computation for the year: add-backs, allowances such as wear and tear from the fixed asset register, and your own Manual adjustments. Tick Small business corporation (SBC) rates if they apply. IRP6 provisional tax estimates the first and second provisional payments.
Deadlines lists the SARS and CIPC filings worked out from your company's dates, as Overdue, Coming up or Filed. Overdue and upcoming ones also appear on the dashboard.
Settings → Reminders chooses which deadlines you track and how early the first reminder goes out: a morning reminder ahead of each deadline, and again on the day if it hasn't been filed. Who is reminded, including an outside accountant's email address, is chosen in Manage under Settings → Notifications.

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