Preparing your VAT201 when your books are in Achekam
Achekam does not prepare or submit a VAT201. Which output and input VAT figures a South African business or its accountant can take from the books instead.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
The VAT period has closed and the return is due. The owner opens Achekam and looks for a button that says VAT201. There isn't one.
That is worth knowing before the deadline rather than on the day. Achekam keeps the books that a VAT201 is built from, but it does not produce the return. This article sets out what it does and does not do, where each VAT figure comes from in your ledger, and a routine that gets the right numbers to whoever completes the return.
What Achekam does not do
Achekam does not prepare, store or submit a South African VAT201 return, and nothing is submitted to SARS eFiling. The return is completed and filed by you or your accountant on eFiling. SARS's guide to completing the VAT201 return goes through it field by field, including where standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt supplies and input tax are declared.
The VAT screen also does not yet read a business's own VAT. So the figures for the return have to be taken from the ledger and the registers behind it, which is the job the rest of this article covers.
Output VAT from invoices and till sales
Output VAT is the VAT you charged your customers.
Invoices. When you issue a customer invoice, it takes the next number in its sequence and posts to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. A draft posts nothing. So the output VAT account in your ledger holds the VAT on every issued invoice, and on every credit note that reversed part of one.
Each invoice line carries 15% or 0%. Remember that the invoice screen does not tell zero-rated and exempt supplies apart, so your 0% sales need a separate note of which are which before they go onto the return.
Till sales. If you sell at a till in Achekam, posted till sales can be listed by VAT rate and tax code for any period. Run that list for the VAT period and keep it with your working papers. It shows your counter sales split by rate, which a single ledger balance cannot.
Input VAT from supplier bills
Input VAT is the VAT you paid on business purchases and may be entitled to claim.
A South African business's supplier bills and purchase orders take 15% or 0% VAT per line, and bills post input VAT to the ledger. It is the bill, not the purchase order, that posts input VAT.
Watch for bills that are waiting. A bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts. Until it is approved, its VAT is not in your ledger, so it will not be in a figure taken from the ledger either. Before you take the input VAT figure for a period, clear the approval queue, or at least list what is still waiting so your accountant can decide how to treat it.
The single VAT figure on the books overview
The books overview shows only one VAT figure: output VAT less input VAT, from the ledger. It is useful as a quick sense check of whether you are likely to pay SARS or claim a refund this period.
It is not a VAT201. It is one net figure: it does not separate zero-rated from exempt sales, and it reflects whatever has been posted, including anything posted to the wrong period. Use it to spot a surprise, then work from the detail.
What your accountant can download from your ledger
Many businesses have their accountant complete the VAT201. In Achekam you appoint your accounting firm by its Achekam address or firm code, as accountant, tax practitioner or another role, with an access level. The firm works directly in your own ledger, with no copy made.
An accounting firm can see a client's monthly output and input VAT from the client's ledger and download it as CSV. That is usually the most convenient starting point for the return.
What the firm can do depends on the access level you give it. Bookkeeping access covers the accounting; review access is read-only. Choose the level that matches the work you want the firm to do. The general ledger lists every posted line and the trial balance shows each account at a date, so the firm can trace any figure back to the invoice or bill behind it.
A monthly VAT checklist
Run through this at the end of each VAT period, before anyone opens eFiling:
- Issue or delete every draft invoice for the period, so nothing is half-done.
- Clear the supplier bill approval queue, or list what is still waiting.
- List your 0% sales lines and mark each one zero-rated or exempt.
- Run the till sales list by VAT rate and tax code for the period, if you have a till.
- Look at the books overview VAT figure and note anything unexpected.
- Give your accountant the period's output and input VAT, or let them download it from your ledger.
- When the return is filed, keep SARS's reference and the figures you filed with your records for the period.
For the line-by-line rules that feed output VAT, see South African VAT on invoice lines. The payroll side of your SARS obligations works differently, because Achekam does prepare those documents: read the monthly EMP201 and the Employment Tax Incentive and year-end IRP5, IT3(a) and the EMP501 reconciliation.
Before your next VAT period closes, agree with your accountant who runs each step of the checklist. The return then starts from a clean ledger instead of a scramble.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
