Xero - tips and tricks

[Dairyfarmerswife]

Thanks they are no vat so you are saying they should have been entered as zero vat to appear on the vat return figure of sales?

Yes they need to be zero rated to appear on the vat return. You should be able to amend the vat rate on the invoice - just go to edit invoice. No need to delete invoice but you will need to remove any payments applied to the invoice - click on the payment amount at the bottom of the invoice. It will open the payment transaction and if you click on options you can remove and redo. Then go back to the invoice, and edit, to change the vat rate. Recreate the payment and reconcile it on the bank statement again. Then if you look on your current vat return it will appear as a zero rated vat on sales late claim.

 

[pgk]

Think I have got it, just tried a test invoice for cattle sales and put tax exclusive which shows o vat but appears to cut through to vat account as a zero rated sales. Ty for your help.

 

[Dairyfarmerswife]

Think I have got it, just tried a test invoice for cattle sales and put tax exclusive which shows o vat but appears to cut through to vat account as a zero rated sales. Ty for your help.

Tax exclusive just means whether or not the line item is net of vat - for example a petrol receipt usually shows the total including vat, so you can select tax inclusive. A merchant invoice on the other hand is usually net of vat, with vat shown at the bottom. In this case when you input the info you put the net amount and Xero calculates the vat and adds it on. The vat is shown at the bottom of the invoice in either case and it is important to check it matches with the paper invoice. This is the same for customer invoices or supplier bills (Xero calls supplier invoices bills which still catches me out after 5 years of using it!)
The important bit for your cattle sales is the zero rated bit and as there isn't any vat tax exclusive or inclusive will make no difference.

I'm not sure I have explained that very well!

 

[pgk]

Tax exclusive just means whether or not the line item is net of vat - for example a petrol receipt usually shows the total including vat, so you can select tax inclusive. A merchant invoice on the other hand is usually net of vat, with vat shown at the bottom. In this case when you input the info you put the net amount and Xero calculates the vat and adds it on. The vat is shown at the bottom of the invoice in either case and it is important to check it matches with the paper invoice. This is the same for customer invoices or supplier bills (Xero calls supplier invoices bills which still catches me out after 5 years of using it!)
The important bit for your cattle sales is the zero rated bit and as there isn't any vat tax exclusive or inclusive will make no difference.

I'm not sure I have explained that very well!

I now have been in and changed any invoices with no vat to zero rates and hope that sorts bil out for the future. This is his first qtr using zero and he is a little stressed, having been through it with your explanation it seems much clearer. Ty

 

[Headless chicken]

My son has bought a Milwalkee power tool from his private account and i want to claim the VAT back ,can i somehow do it i n xero even though i dont have a bank line to reconcile in the farm account?

I just add it in as a bill and then add payment from private account and note which one of us paid.

 

[marshbarn]

I just add it in as a bill and then add payment from private account and note which one of us paid.

Are you inputting that into xero or are you telling the accountant that?

 

[Headless chicken]

Are you inputting that into xero or are you telling the accountant that?

I put it into Xero like that.

 

[bitwrx]

Hi all,

Having had to reinstall farmplan twice this week (and for a number of other reasons), we've decided to get rid at the end of this FY, and are starting to weigh up options.

One feature that FP does have, is recording quantities as well as transaction values. So when we pay a pig feed invoice for example we know that the transaction contained X tonnes of ration Y, A tonnes of ration B, etc. Or when we sell 200 finishers we know how much they netted us.per pig, rather than just for that particular load of animals.

Does Xero do this? Or does the transaction/invoice record only have the financial info (gross value, VAT, date etc)?

I'm happy with tracking this kind of management info via other means (Excel mainly), but others in the business see this feature as one of FPs strengths... Not that they ever use this feature.

Thanks in anticipation for your help

 

[Jerry]

Hi all,

Having had to reinstall farmplan twice this week (and for a number of other reasons), we've decided to get rid at the end of this FY, and are starting to weigh up options.

One feature that FP does have, is recording quantities as well as transaction values. So when we pay a pig feed invoice for example we know that the transaction contained X tonnes of ration Y, A tonnes of ration B, etc. Or when we sell 200 finishers we know how much they netted us.per pig, rather than just for that particular load of animals.

Does Xero do this? Or does the transaction/invoice record only have the financial info (gross value, VAT, date etc)?

I'm happy with tracking this kind of management info via other means (Excel mainly), but others in the business see this feature as one of FPs strengths... Not that they ever use this feature.

Thanks in anticipation for your help

You can input quantities against sales and purchase invoices and a unit price easily.
Multiple lines in an invoice if required.

How you can track that in reporting I’m not so sure.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Hi all,

Having had to reinstall farmplan twice this week (and for a number of other reasons), we've decided to get rid at the end of this FY, and are starting to weigh up options.

One feature that FP does have, is recording quantities as well as transaction values. So when we pay a pig feed invoice for example we know that the transaction contained X tonnes of ration Y, A tonnes of ration B, etc. Or when we sell 200 finishers we know how much they netted us.per pig, rather than just for that particular load of animals.

Does Xero do this? Or does the transaction/invoice record only have the financial info (gross value, VAT, date etc)?

I'm happy with tracking this kind of management info via other means (Excel mainly), but others in the business see this feature as one of FPs strengths... Not that they ever use this feature.

Thanks in anticipation for your help

I'm quite new to Xero as well but I believe there are a number of 3rd party add-ons that can add various functionality, including what you are after.

 

[bitwrx]

I'm quite new to Xero as well but I believe there are a number of 3rd party add-ons that can add various functionality, including what you are after.

Nice. How do the add-ons work? Are they paid-for in addition to the monthly Xero fee, or included in the price?

 

[theboytheboy]

Nice. How do the add-ons work? Are they paid-for in addition to the monthly Xero fee, or included in the price?

Paid for in addition

 

[Will Blackburn]

I'm quite new to Xero as well but I believe there are a number of 3rd party add-ons that can add various functionality, including what you are after.

I'm using Figured, it has been recommended as an agricultural, and dairy in particular, as a useful add on. Though they appear to keep adding functionality to Xero so that you can produce monthly P and L reports, without further purchases. Its important to get industry standard CoA to add comparability to other farming businesses.

 

[marshbarn]

Having trouble conecting to new Bank direct feed aparantly the yodlee feed will no longer work after FEB 10,
Anyone else having trouble?

 

[upnortheast]

Coming to the end of 1st year on xero.
Keep a seperate record of cash purchases during the year. Fuel, postage stamps, other odds & ends about £200
The cash has come from bottled milk sales.
What is the best way of putting this on xero ?

 

[Dairyfarmerswife]

I think I would put through one transaction for all the bottled milk sales, and then 'pay it' into a petty cash account, which is set up like a bank account. Then I would put the purchases through either individually, if there aren't too many, or on one transaction if there are a lot, but with all the receipts attached to the transaction electronically, as pdf or jpeg, and 'pay out' from the petty cash.

Then next year I would do it as I go along rather than saving them up!

 

[Steevo]

Heads up to anyone using direct feeds - HSBC seems to be lagging a bit at the moment.

Xero Central

www.xero.com

 

[chickens and wheat]

I noticed that too, fixed now

 

[Steevo]

I noticed that too, fixed now

Still waiting on them here. Blog still shows it as being active too. Maybe it'll take a while to work its way through.

 

[Clive]

Anyone else started using Hubdoc now it’s free on Xero ? Just set it up and had a play and must say it looks very useful