You may feel like you’re drowning in paperwork when it comes to your business. By law you have to keep certain records but it doesn’t mean they have to be hard copies. With the use of cloud accounting you can store your records electronically, but what do you need to keep?



• Copies of all invoices you issue
• Invoices you receive
• Debit or credit notes
• Import and export records
• Expenses which you can’t claim VAT on ie business entertainment
• Records of goods which you donate
• Records of goods which you use for personal use
• Records of zero rated, reduced or VAT exempt items which you buy or sell
• A VAT account
• Self billing arrangements - this is where your customer prepares the invoice, 
• You need to keep a record of names, addresses and VAT numbers for any self billing suppliers

General business records

• Bank statements
• Cash books
• Cheque stubs
• Paying in slips
• Till rolls

Retail

If you’re in the retail industry you don’t have to issue VAT invoices to your customers unless they specifically request one.

MTD

From April 2022 all VAT registered businesses, even those below the VAT threshold will need to keep records digitally under MTD rules.

All of the following records must be stored digitally:

• Business name
• Address
• VAT registration number
• VAT accounting schemes
• VAT on goods or services you supply
• VAT on goods and services you receive
• Any adjustments you make
• The tax point of transactions
• Value of sales
• The rate of VAT you charge
• Reverse charge transactions
• Daily gross takings
• Items you can reclaim VAT on (Flat rate scheme)
• Total sales and VAT

If you are unsure of any records you need to keep then discuss this with your bookkeeper or accountant. If you don’t currently have a bookkeeper to guide you then please book a discovery call.