Short answer
The VAT registration date and the first Balansix-managed VAT period are different pieces of information. Enter the client’s true historic registration date, then select the first period that Balansix will manage.
Steps
- Open the client VAT setup.
- Enter the actual VAT registration date, even where it is several years old.
- Confirm the VAT scheme and return frequency.
- Enter the first VAT period that Balansix will manage.
- Review any opening VAT control position before preparing the first return in Balansix.
What should happen
Balansix should accept the historic registration date while allowing the practice to choose the first current VAT period being handled in the system.
Common mistake
Do not change the historical registration date merely to make it fit the first Balansix return. The historical date describes the client; the first Balansix period describes where the software workflow begins.
Why the two dates are different
HMRC's VAT registration certificate shows the client's effective date of registration and the return periods (the stagger) HMRC has allocated. That date belongs to the client's history and can be many years before your practice took the client on.
Balansix separately needs to know where its own VAT workflow starts, which is normally the first open return period after the previous agent or software stopped. Keeping the two facts apart means the client record stays accurate and earlier periods filed elsewhere are never recreated or double-counted.
Frequently asked questions
Should the first Balansix VAT period match the client's HMRC stagger?
Yes. Choose a start date and period length that line up with the return periods HMRC has allocated to the client, so each Balansix return covers the same dates as the return HMRC expects.
What happens to VAT periods filed before the client joined Balansix?
They stay outside Balansix. Use the opening VAT control position to bring in any VAT still owed to or by HMRC at the start date, rather than rebuilding earlier returns.
Can I change the registration date later?
Only to correct a genuine error in the client's details. Do not change the historic registration date just to make the first Balansix return fit.