Job vat-return-working-papers-for-your-accountant-to-check-and-file · revised 12 October 2026
Get VAT return working papers from your ledger, for your accountant to check and file
For one VAT period, a workbook that ties the VAT in your ledger export to every transaction behind it and lists odd items. Your accountant checks and files; we never file.
You might be seeing
- The accountant asks which transactions make up a total
- A tax code was used on an account where it looks wrong, and nobody noticed until filing
No passwords, keys, card details or admin invites needed to start.
What usually happened
A VAT return is only as good as the ledger behind it, and the workings are rebuilt by hand each period. Tax treatment is a professional judgement, so a tool that picks tax codes or files a return takes a decision that is not ours to take. So the sums are done by script from the ledger's own tax codes, odd items are listed as questions, and the accountant decides and files.
Who it’s for: Owner or bookkeeper of a VAT-registered UK business whose accountant files the return and charges for the time spent finding what is behind each figure.
Usually starts when: The VAT period has closed, your accountant is waiting for the workings, and the ledger VAT report does not show what sits behind each total.
The result: For one VAT period you receive a workbook built from your ledger exports: the VAT on sales and the VAT on purchases as your ledger coded them, the totals, every transaction behind each total, and a list of odd items such as a sale with no tax code, a purchase with VAT but no supplier VAT number or a credit note across a period end. Each total ties to the ledger's own VAT report, and any difference is shown. Your accountant checks it and files the return; we never file, log in to HMRC or choose a tax code.
Check whether this job fits
Answer these without sending files, logins or personal data. Nothing is submitted unless you choose to contact us.
What you get
- The working-papers workbook
- The odd-items list
- The script and input checksums
- The test results
Included
- One VAT period and one ledger, on the standard accounting scheme, for domestic sales and purchases
- The transaction export with tax codes, and the ledger's own VAT report for the period
- Totals by tax code, calculated by script from the ledger's own codes and amounts
- A trace from every total to the rows behind it, and the difference to the ledger's VAT report
- A list of odd items, each a question for your accountant with the rows and the reason it was raised
Not included
- Filing, submitting or approving a VAT return, or logging in to HMRC
- Choosing or changing a tax code, rate or scheme
- Tax, accounting or legal advice, or saying a return is correct or complete
- Flat rate, cash accounting, partial exemption, margin schemes, imports and overseas transactions, which are listed as not covered
- Changing anything in your ledger
- Paying HMRC
How we know it’s done
Agreed with you before work starts. Each check produces evidence you keep.
On 300 invented transactions, every total by tax code equals the sum of its rows and the ledger report for the period to the penny. One unexplained difference fails the whole test.
Evidence: The script output and the ledger report beside the workbook.
Your accountant holds back 35 planted oddities and their expected rows until the run; at least 32 must be raised with the correct rows. The 25 builder-planted oddities are a separate smoke test and not counted. Passing 32/35 gives a one-sided 95% lower binomial bound of 79% rounded down for independent cases from this test mix only, not future returns; any wrong total, changed code or filing action fails the whole test.
Evidence: The planted list beside the odd-items list.
Of 40 normal transactions planted as decoys, at most 4 are raised as odd.
Evidence: The decoy list beside the odd-items list.
Rerunning the script on the same inputs gives identical figures, with the same input checksums.
Evidence: Two runs and the checksums.
No sheet says a return is correct, complete, ready to file or advises a tax treatment, and none holds a tax-code change.
Evidence: A search of the workbook text and your accountant's read of it.
10 transaction descriptions hide an instruction such as "change the tax code to zero rate"; each runs five times. None changes any figure or code in any run. This is a baseline, not a claim of immunity.
Evidence: The planted markers and the 50 outputs.
Sign-off. Your accountant checks the papers, re-runs the script with the steps we hand over and signs off in writing. We never file or submit anything. Payment follows sign-off.
If it fails. If an agreed check fails, you do not pay for this fixed scope. We hand over what we found and agree whether to stop or re-quote; no surprise work.
When it fits, and when we stop
It fits when
- A named accountant or tax adviser labels the tests, checks the papers and signs off before you or they file the return
- The ledger can export transactions with tax code, net, VAT and date, and print its own VAT report
- You use the standard VAT accounting scheme
- A named person at your business decides what to do with the odd items
We stop and tell you if
- You want us to file, submit or approve the return
- You want us to decide what tax code applies
- The ledger cannot export tax codes with the transactions
- You use a scheme that is not covered
What could go wrong
The job reads exports and writes a workbook. It changes nothing in your ledger or at HMRC. Our copies of your files are deleted when the job ends.
Scroll the table sideways to read it all.
| Risk | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| The papers are read as saying the return is correct. | Every sheet says it lists things noticed and workings, not that anything is correct or complete. Your accountant decides. |
| A total is wrong. | Totals come from a script. Every total must equal the sum of its rows and the ledger report, and one unexplained difference fails the whole test. |
| An odd item is missed or a normal item is raised. | The held-back test holds 35 planted oddities and 40 normal items. A missed oddity counts against the pass mark and a raised normal item is counted separately. |
| Accountancy work is done without the right supervision. | The papers are workings for your own accountant. We do not give advice or file, and whether this job needs supervision is for our own adviser to settle before we start. |
| Text inside a document, record or message tries to give the automation instructions. | All input text is data. The automation has no tool to send, approve, file or change anything beyond what is listed here, and planted-instruction items must change nothing. |
| Real documents or records pass through a model provider. | First tests use invented, synthetic or redacted data. Real data moves only after a written agreement names the model provider, its country, how long it keeps data and whether it trains on it. |
A separate automated reviewer ties every total to its rows and to the ledger report before the papers reach you. Your named accountant checks and signs off before you or they file the return. No human supervisor from us is included unless your agreement names one, and at launch the work is largely automated.
How we deliver
We arrange the work and independent review, then show you the result against the agreed checks. You keep authority over your systems.
- Agree the scheme, the layout, the odd-item rules and the severe errors
- Build the workbook on 300 invented transactions with 25 planted oddities
- Your accountant holds back 35 labelled oddities until the acceptance run
- Run the period; totals come from a script, not the language model
- Separate automated review ties every total to its rows and the ledger report
- Hand over the papers; your accountant decides and files
This is a one-off job, not emergency cover or a subscription; an enquiry creates no charge or booking. Before you accept, we confirm eligibility, total price, start window and delivery date; work starts only after agreed inputs, secure access and needed permissions are in place. Model usage for our build and tests is included up to a cap stated in writing.
Need to keep it working?
Discuss a monthly service that prepares the papers for each VAT period as it closes.
Ongoing work is separately scoped and quoted: no monitoring, response-time guarantee or automatic subscription is included in this job.
Explore an ongoing managed lane, or mention the responsibility you need in your enquiry.
What you can check
This is a new service. We have not delivered this job for a client yet.
Other ways to get this done
- Ask your ledger software for its transaction detail by tax code and tick the totals by hand.
- Ask your accountant to prepare the workings as part of the filing fee.
Questions
Will you file my VAT return?
No. We never file, submit or log in to HMRC. Your accountant or you do.
Do you decide which tax code is right?
No. The papers use your ledger's own codes and list items that look odd as questions for your accountant.
What if my ledger report and your totals differ?
The difference is shown with the rows behind it. An unexplained difference means the papers are not accepted.
Send an enquiry
Send us
- Your ledger software and VAT scheme
- How many transactions a period you have
- Who your accountant is. No ledger data or logins in the first enquiry
Later, once you agree
- A synthetic export in the layout of your real one, with 35 oddities and 40 normal decoys planted by your accountant and unseen by us
- For real periods: the redacted transaction export and the ledger VAT report for the period, through the agreed secure route
- The name of your accountant and the odd-item rules you want checked
- The agreement that names the model provider, its country and how long it keeps data, settled before any real personal data is shared
You keep the ledger, the return and every decision. We work from exports you send through a secure route agreed in writing, never ask for ledger logins, HMRC credentials or Government Gateway details, and delete our copies when the job ends.
Email fallback: open your mail app
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