Invoice date on invoices

[Julia_W]

Hi all

I'm am currently playing with a trial of V7.0.6 Business and I have just spent an hour reading old posts about the invoices generated by Actinic trying to find the answer to this one.

Why does the invoice not include an invoice/tax point date? This is a requirement for all VAT invoices. See Notice 700/21 - Keeping records and accounts.

.... you must show, on any VAT invoices that you issue:

time of supply
date of issue (if different to time of supply)

The only date shown on the invoice is the Date Ordered.

I realise that we could shell out £400+ for Crystal Reports or pay someone to amend the invoice but surely this form should be compliant?

Am I missing something blindingly obvious here? Any comments welcomed!

Julia

[acompton]

I've been wondering about this problem as well!

[Julia_W]

I'm glad it's not just me then

[Jan]

Actinic doesn't store a VAT invoice date - the closest you can get is the order completed date which is shown on the invoice. You can change it title if you wish using design / text.

Regards,

[Julia_W]

Thanks for the reply Jan.

The dummy invoices we have produced do not have a 'order completed date' shown - the only date shown is against 'Date Ordered'.

We often ship a day or so after the order is received so we can certainly not edit the text on that option.

[buspassjohn]

Surely if you take payment online the date ordered is the 'Tax Point' for VAT purposes?

[Jan]

I thought that the tax point date was the date that you got the money.

You are right the shipped date isn't shown on the invoice, it is shown on the packing list.

Regards,

[Julia_W]

The Invoice Date/Tax Point Date is the date that the invoice is issued and the date that must be used for VAT accounting purposes.

We have account customers and need to have invoices with the correct Tax Point Date on them - of course it may be some weeks before payment is actually received but we must account for VAT at the point of supply.

I'm somewhat surprised that I could not find anything on this in previous posts.

I'll see if anyone from Actinic appears with an answer otherwise I will get an email off to them.

[johking]

Did anything ever come of this? I was about to post the same query.

Jo

[saucysal]

Julia Absolutely Right About Need for Date

Hi! Julia is absolutely right in that all Invoices must include a date for the Invoice, which with account customers is not the same at all as the date of payment. This is required for both the Inland Revenue and VAT. I consider the correct date to be the date that we despatch the goods ie the date of supply.

If I were using Actinic to process my orders and produce the Invoice and it didn't put an invoice date on the invoice I would be somewhat cross, to put it politely. This is a pretty basic requirement.

Luckily I do not have Julia's problem, as I export my orders using Actinic Link into Sage, where I print the invoice using my own invoice format, which includes the correct date. I don't know why more people don't use the Actinic Link for Sage, as it means that your book-keeping, stock control, etc are all done in one go, with the orders and customer details automatically coming into Sage. I update the stock on Actinic every time I enter a Purchase Order on Sage, by the click of a button.

Sarah

[Julia_W]

I'm now using the same solution as Sarah - exporting into Sage.

Still find it concerning that Actinic appears to be non-compliant with regard to correct VAT dates though.

[johking]

I'm wondering if someone from Actinic can reply to this one? It does seem to be a problem. What does anyone else do if you don't have access to Sage?

Jo

[Paul Bulpit]

Don't worry about it - it doesn't seem to be causing anybody a problem.

In practice, VAT Inspections are few and far between (in my experience) and I've certainly never had a DATE queried - they are usually looking for tax misdemeanours regardless of date caused.

[johking]

I suppose you could change "date shipped" to "invoice date". Would that work?

[Duncan Rounding]

The invoice Tax Date seems to crop up occasionally here but for 99% of people it seems to be fine.
Personally I would leave it as is unless you have been specfically told to change it.

If you do need to change the report then this can only be done with Crystal Reports V8.5. If you feel you really need this changing then contact me via my signature below.