HMRC VAT (BETA) [in-depth guide]
Guide contents: Today accounting page | Authorizing Workamajig to interact with the HMRC on your behalf | VAT obligations & returns | VAT liabilities | VAT payments | Resources
The HMRC VAT feature allows clients to submit VAT returns directly to HMRC through Workamajig as part of the Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative. Your team will need to contact your Workamajig account manager to set up a session, go over this setup, and turn on this feature. Before set up, you will need to have an established login for HRMC which will authorize Workamajig, via OAuth 2.0 (https://oauth.net/2/), to submit the report on your behalf. Your account manager can help with this process as well.
This guide assumes the completion of the above steps and that Workamajig has turned on this feature for your account and describes the first steps as well as the process to submit the report.
Today accounting page
From the Today accounting page click on More > HMRC VAT. The VAT screen opens up:
On first use, the Settings screen will open automatically for initial setup. After that, you can access it by clicking on the More button at the top of the VAT screen to select VAT MTD settings:
The VAT MTD settings will slide out:
You will enter your unique VRN identifier into the VRN box at the top of the page. Optionally, you may select the appropriate GL accounts that will contribute to the amounts allocated for each box of the report. You will see a drop-down to select all necessary GL accounts within each box field. Click Save to confirm your selections.
Currently, this is the only method of automatically populating the VAT return boxes. Each box will populate with the cash basis Trial balance of the selected GL accounts for the return period. The amount may be edited before submitting.
Authorizing Workamajig to interact with the HMRC on your behalf
Anytime Workamajig interacts with HMRC, such as getting a list of VAT obligations for a given period, it first determines if it is authorized.
If Workamajig is not currently authorized to perform the requested operation, you will be automatically redirected to the login page for hmrc.gov.uk to complete the authorization for Workamajig to interact with HMRC.
After you have read the notification, click Continue to proceed.
The next screen will ask for your account’s HMRC credentials. This guide assumes you have already acquired credentials and are ready to sign In.
After signing in, the HMRC website will provide the Grant Authority page to only allow Workamajig to view your VAT information. Click Grant Authority.
You will now be automatically returned to the main VAT screen in Workamajig.
If you do not explicitly log out of HRMC, Workamajig continues to be authorized to interact with HRMC. However, HMRC will eventually expire the authorization (currently every 18 months) and you will then need to repeat the same steps as referenced in the current section “Authorizing Workamajig to interact on your behalf”.
VAT obligations & returns
In the main VAT screen, under the Obligations tab, you can now click on Get VAT obligations and the screen will display any obligations for the selected date range & status.
Note that under the Status column, you will see an indicator for whether the obligation is F (fulfilled) or O (open). Once a 'return' has been submitted for a given 'obligation', it may not be edited or resubmitted. Fulfilled obligations will display the 'return' as it was previously submitted as read-only. When you are ready to submit a 'return' for an 'open obligation', click the jump button for the appropriate 'obligation'.
The system will automatically populate the box amounts based on your selected GL accounts in the VAT MTD settings. To change the amounts select Edit values at the top of the page to make the fields editable. Confirm the changes to return to the fixed boxes view.
Before submitting the 'return', you must check the box to declare the information to be true and complete.
Since the submission of the 'return' is final and cannot be edited after, you will be prompted to confirm after clicking Submit VAT return.
VAT Liabilities
Select the Liabilities tab on the left menu of the VAT screen and click Get VAT liabilities to request the liabilities for the selected date range. A Print button appears after running the report. You can export the report to PDF, Excel or CSV.
VAT payments
In the Payments tab, Get VAT payments gets a report of payments made to HMRC for the date range selected. You may print/export this information to PDF, Excel or CSV.
