Standing service vat-working-papers-prepared-each-period-for-your-accountant · revised 12 October 2026
Standing service
Get VAT working papers prepared for your accountant for each return period
Each month the VAT in your ledger is kept tied to the rows behind it, and when a return period closes your accountant gets the working papers. We never file.
This starts a conversation by email. Nothing is charged, and nothing is run, until we have agreed scope, access and terms with you in writing.
The responsibility you hand over
Tax-code mistakes made in month one are found at filing in month three. The monthly job builds the running papers from each month's export so odd items are raised while they can still be fixed, and the papers for the full period are ready when it closes.
Who it’s for: Owner or bookkeeper of a VAT-registered UK business whose accountant files and who wants odd items found each month rather than on filing day.
Usually starts when: The first set of papers worked, and the next period is already filling up with transactions.
The result: Each month you receive the running VAT papers for the open period, tied to the ledger's VAT report, with new odd items listed first. When a return period closes you receive the full-period papers for your accountant. Your accountant files; we never do.
What stays true, and what we do about it
No response-time guarantee is published for this new service. A target for delivering each month's report is agreed in writing before it starts, set to what a service at this stage can keep.
Hours are agreed in writing before the service starts. At launch the service is not staffed round the clock and runs once each month. Papers for a closed period are sent by a date agreed in writing before the filing deadline.
What must remain true
- Every total by tax code equals the sum of its rows
- Every total is shown beside the ledger's own VAT report with any difference listed
- No output says a return is correct or complete, and no tax code is changed
What we watch
- The month's redacted transaction export with tax codes
- The ledger's own VAT report for the period to date
- The frozen test set
When something happens
Scroll the table sideways to read it all.
| When | What we do |
|---|---|
| A month closes and the export arrives. | We update the running papers and send new odd items first. |
| A return period closes. | We build the full-period papers for your accountant. Linked job: VAT return working papers |
| The ledger layout, tax codes or scheme change. | If the scheme is outside the stated scope we stop and report it; otherwise we re-run frozen and fresh held-back tests before the next papers |
We do on our own
- Run the totals and checks on the exports you send
- Prepare the papers and the report
- Offer the one-off job when your layout changes
We ask you first
- Any change to the odd-item rules or pass marks
- Any request about a tax treatment
- Any access to a ledger or to HMRC
We escalate to you when
- A total differs from the ledger report without an explanation
- The same odd item appears three months running
- An export stops arriving before a filing deadline
How you know it held. Each month the report states transactions read, totals tied, differences to the ledger report, odd items raised and cleared, and the frozen test result, with unknowns kept.
How we keep it true
This service is never finished. Each month's report shows whether the thing it watches stayed true, and it continues until you end it.
Get VAT return working papers from your ledger, for your accountant to check and file Job Optional
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.
Bought separately, each time it is needed; not part of the monthly fee
What is included, and what is not
- Monthly running papers
- New odd-items list
- Full-period papers at period end
- Monthly regression report and fresh-case report after layout or mapping changes
Included
- One ledger on the standard scheme and up to 2,000 transactions a month
- Running totals by tax code and a trace to the rows
- New odd items since last month, as questions
- Full-period papers when the period closes
- The frozen test re-run monthly, plus 20 fresh accountant-held cases whenever the layout or tax-code mapping changes; a scheme outside the stated scope stops the job
Not included
- Filing, submitting or approving a VAT return, or logging in to HMRC
- Choosing or changing a tax code
- Tax, accounting or legal advice
- Any response-time guarantee or out-of-hours cover
How we know it’s done
Agreed with you before work starts. Each check produces evidence you keep.
Every total equals the script sum of its rows to the penny; one internal arithmetic difference fails the month. Any difference from the ledger VAT report is listed with the rows and explanation, and an unexplained difference fails the month.
Evidence: The script output.
Each month the frozen planted-oddity test still raises at least 32 of the 35 planted oddities.
Evidence: The planted list and the odd-items list.
Each month the frozen test pack is re-run and every previously passing case still meets its agreed check. A regression fails this check even if reported, and the report lists it first with its cause.
Evidence: The monthly test report.
Nothing was written to any live system by us, and originals are unchanged (checksums match).
Evidence: Checksums before and after, and your own audit trail.
On 20 new transaction cases labelled by your accountant and held back until the acceptance run after a change, every expected sum and odd-item result matches. One wrong total, tax-code change or filing action fails this smoke test, and you receive the cases and rerun steps.
Evidence: Accountant-held expected values, results and rerun steps.
Sign-off. You read the report and test results and accept or send them back in writing. A month counts as delivered only when its agreed acceptance checks pass; receiving a report alone is not acceptance.
If it fails. If we cannot run a month because an input is missing or has changed shape, we say so, explain what we need and do not guess. If the service is not working for you, you can end it at the end of any month.
When it fits, and when we stop
It fits when
- The matching one-off job's conditions hold for your material
- Each month's export arrives through the agreed secure route in the same layout
- A named accountant who checks the full-period papers and files
We stop and tell you if
- You want us to file or decide a tax treatment
- Nobody on your side reads the monthly papers for two months running
- The export layout changes and cannot be mapped
What could go wrong
The service reads, tests and reports. Ending it leaves your systems and the way you work exactly as they are, and you keep every report we sent.
Scroll the table sideways to read it all.
| Risk | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| The papers are relied on as a clean bill of health on filing day. | Each paper says it lists workings and things noticed. Your accountant decides and files. |
| An export arrives late and the deadline is missed. | The agreement states the dates the export and papers are due. The filing deadline is yours and your accountant's, not ours. |
| 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 checks each month's report against the agreed test before it is sent, and your named person decides what to do with it. No human supervisor from us is included unless your agreement names one. At launch the work is largely automated, and we say so.
Stays with a person
- Your accountant checks the papers and files
- A named person at your business decides what to do with odd items
Access we would need
- Redacted exports sent through a secure route agreed in writing
- No ledger login, no HMRC credentials, no write access to any system
Questions
Do you submit the return?
No. Your accountant files, or you do.
Quarterly returns?
The papers run monthly and the full-period papers arrive when your quarter closes.
Also part of
Send an enquiry
Send us
- Your ledger and VAT scheme and your return period
- Who receives the papers. No ledger data in the first enquiry
Later, once you agree
- The first month's redacted export and ledger VAT report through a secure route agreed in writing
- The frozen regression set and pass marks, plus 20 new accountant-labelled cases held back until the run before changed workings are accepted
- A named accountant
You keep the ledger, the return and every decision. We work from exports sent through a secure route agreed in writing and never ask for ledger logins or HMRC credentials. Our copies are deleted, in writing, when the job ends.
Email fallback: open your mail app
If website submission is unavailable, review and send the fallback email yourself. An email fallback is not a website receipt. Or write to hello@syntheticindustry.ai with “vat-working-papers-prepared-each-period-for-your-accountant” as the subject.