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Supplier invoices: the three-way match that stops duplicate payments

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Duplicate supplier payments rarely come from fraud. They come from ordinary invoices arriving twice, once by email and once through a portal, or from a credit note that never reached the person approving the payment run. A three-way match is the simplest control that catches both problems before money leaves the bank, and it costs nothing except a few minutes of discipline at the point of entry. The match has three documents: the purchase order, the goods or services receipt, and the supplier invoice. When all three agree on supplier, quantity, price, and description, the invoice is safe to pay. When any one of them disagrees, the invoice waits. That waiting is the point. Most payment errors are not discovered by a year-end audit, they are discovered by a supplier chasing a short payment or by a bank statement that does not reconcile, long after the money has gone. Start with the purchase order A purchase order is only useful if it is raised before the goods arrive, not reconstructed a...
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November payroll: the Christmas pay-date, RTI and auto-enrolment checks to run now

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November is the month when payroll stops being routine and starts being a calendar puzzle. Christmas falls in the middle of the pay cycle for many employers, banks close, staff take leave, and the January payroll year-end work starts to loom. The employers who sail through December are the ones who settle the dates and the data in November, while there is still time to fix a mistake. This checklist covers the checks worth running now, whether you process payroll in house or hand it to a provider. It is written for UK employers on a monthly cycle, but the same logic applies to weekly and fortnightly payrolls, with the dates moved to fit. Agree the December pay date first The single most common December payroll problem is not a calculation error, it is a date nobody agreed. If your normal pay date falls on a bank holiday, or on a day when your payroll team is on leave, decide the replacement date now and tell staff in writing. Employees plan Christmas spending around pay day, so a surp...
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Your October VAT quarter ended yesterday: the 7 December filing checklist

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For VAT-registered businesses on a standard quarterly cycle, the quarter that ended on 31 October is now closed. The return for that quarter is due by 7 December if you file and pay online, and the work that makes that deadline painless is best done in November, while the quarter is still fresh in your records and your suppliers and customers can still answer a query. This checklist is for a standard quarter, August to October, filed online under Making Tax Digital for VAT. If you are on annual accounting, monthly returns, or a special scheme, your dates will differ, so check your VAT online account first and work from the date it shows. Start with the return period, not the figures Open your VAT online account and confirm the period you are filing for, the submission deadline, and the payment deadline. The standard rule is one month and seven days after the end of the quarter, which is why an October quarter ends with a 7 December deadline. A business that files late, or pays late,...
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After 31 October: the online Self Assessment checklist for the 31 January deadline

The 31 October paper deadline has passed, and for anyone who missed it, the practical question is what happens next. The answer is straightforward: online filing is still open, and the online deadline is 31 January. Missing the paper date does not mean you have missed Self Assessment altogether, but it does mean the clock is now running on the online return, and late filing penalties apply after 31 January, not after 31 October. If you were planning to file on paper and the date slipped past, switch to online now rather than posting a late paper return. A paper return sent after 31 October can still be processed, but HMRC may treat it as late, and the online route gives you an immediate submission receipt, which paper never does. Start with your Government Gateway account The first check is access, not figures. Make sure you can sign in to your Government Gateway account and that it is linked to Self Assessment. If you have never filed online, you need to register for Self Assessment o...
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Directors loan account: the year-end check that saves a tax surprise

  For a director of a limited company, the directors loan account is one of those quiet ledgers that only makes noise at year end. During the year it records every payment between the company and the director that is not salary or a properly declared dividend: personal bills paid from the company account, cash taken for private use, money the director lent to the company, and expenses the director paid personally and later reclaimed. At year end, the balance on that account decides whether there is a tax charge, and the timing of repayment decides how large it is. The rule that catches most people is simple to state and easy to miss in practice. If the directors loan account is overdrawn at the corporation tax payment date, which is normally nine months and one day after the year end, the company faces a charge under section 455. The rate is currently 33.75 percent of the overdrawn amount. That charge is repayable once the loan is repaid, but it is still cash out of the company for...
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Year-end accounts for limited companies: what to prepare before your accountant asks

Year-end accounts always feel urgent at the end, but most of the work is gathering, not calculating. For a limited company, the accounts, the corporation tax return, and the Companies House filing all draw on the same records. When those records are incomplete, the filing gets delayed, estimates creep in, and questions from your accountant arrive in a rush. A short preparation routine, started a few weeks before the year end, avoids almost all of it. This guide covers what to prepare, in what order, and the five checks that catch the commonest problems before they become filing delays. Start with the bank and the balance sheet The first step is reconciliation. Every bank account, credit card, and loan account should be reconciled to the year-end date, with no unexplained items left sitting in the reconciliation. Unexplained items are the single biggest cause of year-end delay, because each one has to be investigated before the accounts can be finalised. Work through the balance sheet i...
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Self Assessment paper deadline 31 October: what to file, and what to do if you have missed it

The 31 October paper deadline for Self Assessment is one of the easiest UK tax dates to miss, because most of the attention goes to the online deadline in January. If you file on paper, your return for the 2025-26 tax year must reach HMRC by 31 October 2026. If it arrives late, penalties start running even if the tax itself is paid on time, and the paper option is no longer open once the date passes. This guide covers who still files on paper, what the return needs, what happens if you miss the date, and the practical steps to take this week. Who files a paper return Most people now file online, but paper returns still matter. Some taxpayers prefer paper, some have no reliable online access, and some are required to file on paper because their circumstances do not fit the online service. If HMRC has sent you a notice to file, file, even if you think your income was small. Not filing because the amount looks small is one of the commonest causes of an avoidable penalty. What the paper re...
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