cheeky44
10th December 2009, 16:38
Hi there,
We are a start up company and we applied for vat registration. In the meantime we sent out invoices including VAT however not listing as a separate amount (in line with HMRC). We got our VAT number quickly and are now in the process of crediting the original invoices and creating new invoices.
I've done accounts payable before but am not familiar with accounts receivable practices. My questions are related to credit and invoice numbers and I'll use an example to illustrate what I mean.
Example: original invoice was number 54, we've invoiced 60 invoices while waiting for vat number so the credit note will be number 115. the amended invoice will be 54A.
1. Is it ok to backdate the credit note and amended VAT invoice to the original date of the invoice? (the invoices are unpaid, we have 2 week payment terms and by changing the date this will double our collection time).
Does it matter that the invoice number and credit note are so far apart if the dates are the same?
If its not ok, what is the best way to deal with the re-issue of the VAT invoices?
2. I started invoicing with just numbers however now I'd like to put inv and cn before the invoices/credit notes. To do this, should i just make a note of the date i started? the numbers will still be sequential, they will just have a prefix from now on.
3. Is it better to have a different format for invoices and credits or is the sequential way the best? ie INV-251 CN-252 INV-253
Thank you in advance.
We are a start up company and we applied for vat registration. In the meantime we sent out invoices including VAT however not listing as a separate amount (in line with HMRC). We got our VAT number quickly and are now in the process of crediting the original invoices and creating new invoices.
I've done accounts payable before but am not familiar with accounts receivable practices. My questions are related to credit and invoice numbers and I'll use an example to illustrate what I mean.
Example: original invoice was number 54, we've invoiced 60 invoices while waiting for vat number so the credit note will be number 115. the amended invoice will be 54A.
1. Is it ok to backdate the credit note and amended VAT invoice to the original date of the invoice? (the invoices are unpaid, we have 2 week payment terms and by changing the date this will double our collection time).
Does it matter that the invoice number and credit note are so far apart if the dates are the same?
If its not ok, what is the best way to deal with the re-issue of the VAT invoices?
2. I started invoicing with just numbers however now I'd like to put inv and cn before the invoices/credit notes. To do this, should i just make a note of the date i started? the numbers will still be sequential, they will just have a prefix from now on.
3. Is it better to have a different format for invoices and credits or is the sequential way the best? ie INV-251 CN-252 INV-253
Thank you in advance.