Vat Changes To The Prices On Your Site

[leehack]

For those who can get their including vat prices into excel, the formula you want will be:

=ROUND(SUM(A1/1.175)*1.15,0)

A1 is the cell reference in which the price currently sits.

REMEMBER: The figures in blue need to match the vat rates you charge for those of you with differing rates.
MAKE SURE you change them correctly:

1.175 = 17.5%
1.15 = 15%
1.10 = 10%
1.08 = 8%
etc.

If your prices are net of vat, then all you need to do is change the vat rate in actinic on the tax tab in business settings.

If you have 2 PC's, then setup a copy site and test it all, so you can just go live on Monday with no panic.

You could even put the change live a little earlier and use it as a marketing plan, so people are not waiting for it!

If any of you manually added the tax messages into actinic, remember to change them manually.

And finally, IF anyone has added the "component prices to include VAT" fix out of the AUG, then you will also need to adjust that fix manually.

[Darren B]

Hope you dont mind Lee

This is how i would change the prices if you have VAT included prices and need to change them all manually

1) Use actinic to export the catalog.
2) Open this in excel
3) Remove everything apart from the product reference and the price. Including all the section information so you have two columns.
4) Use Lees formula to generate the new prices.
5) copy these values and paste special over the old prices, when using paste special select to past values only.
6) Then delete the formula column
7) Then format the new price column to no decimal places
8) save this file.
9) Then do a flat file import into actinic.
10) Make sure you save the errors into a text file so you can change any that do not work

There might be other ways to do this, but it would be the easiest way for me. Remember take a snapshot 1st so if it all go's wrong you can go back

[pinbrook]

You could even put the change live a little earlier and use it as a marketing plan, so people are not waiting for it!

although if you do this you will need to readjust prices in your accounts package as customs and excise will still want their 17.5% for sales until next monday regardless of whether you charged 17.5 or 15%. i would imagine peeps who show inc vat prices could take advantage of this, whereas it will be more difficult for ex vat sites to account for this. however with high street shops offering 25% discounts i can't really see how 2.5% change in VATwill make a big difference to the average shopper

am i correct in thinking we need to apply this at midnight sunday night/monday morning?

[leehack]

Not at all Taddy, a flat file import is definitely good advice, you have no need to round the decimals though as there won't be any due to actinic working in pence and he formula gets rid of them (i forgot about this too), that's all i could see from what you say.

[Darren B]

am i correct in thinking we need to apply this at midnight sunday night/monday morning?

Well i was wondering the same thing, im guessing it would be from 12midnight sunday

[leehack]

although if you do this you will need to readjust prices in your accounts package as customs and excise will still want their 17.5% for sales until next monday regardless of whether you charged 17.5 or 15%. i would imagine peeps who show inc vat prices could take advantage of this, whereas it will be more difficult for ex vat sites to account for this. however with high street shops offering 25% discounts i can't really see how 2.5% change in VATwill make a big difference to the average shopper

am i correct in thinking we need to apply this at midnight sunday night/monday morning?

Was just a possible angle to look at Croccy, especially for people who process and take payment later on.

I'd say from midnight Sunday myself strictly speaking, depends how your accounts are logged I guess. If your sales from Friday this week, don't show in your accounts until Monday, there may be a possibility to have it live quicker.

2.5% reduction isn't a lot I agree, however if you are spending £1,000, then £25 is not to be sniffed at. Especially if you have 2 sites with the same product at the same price, just the timescale of the vat change differing them.

[Mike Hughes]

2.5% reduction isn't a lot I agree, however if you are spending £1,000, then £25 is not to be sniffed at.

Common mistake. The discount works out at only about 2.1%. So nearer £21 than £25.

Mike

[leehack]

Common mistake. The discount works out at only about 2.1%. So nearer £21 than £25.

Mike

Its a nominal figure Mike to display a point simplistically, no mistake.
You can see me highlighting your fact half an hour ago to Chris.

[Mike Hughes]

Deliberate misuse of figures. Someone put that man in the stalls 'til morning!

Mike

[leehack]

LOL, i knew you'd be on one about this budget, i wasn't disappointed .

0.9787234042553190 should do it.

[Mike Hughes]

I remember from many years ago when an accountant told me that the quick way to calculate the amount of VAT on the inclusive price was x7/47. Now I can't use that anymore. hmph.

Mike

[Darren B]

I remember from many years ago when an accountant told me that the quick way to calculate the amount of VAT on the inclusive price was x7/47. Now I can't use that anymore. hmph.

Mike

try x6/46

[brian.mc]

try x6/46

Or x3/23

[Darren B]

I was keeping it simple

[Mike Hughes]

For obvious reasons I prefer Darren's version. Thanks Darren.

Mike

PS. Who sits down and works these out? or am I missing some elemental bit of arithmetic?