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I have really messed up. I need help. Will pay for your time.

  • Fellow
  • 86 posts
  • # 114536

Hey

I really need some help, this whole thing has made me realise that I am not fit to bookkeep, so I want to sort this absolute mess i've made out, have everything ready to send to the accountant for his year end then allow another bookkeeper to take over (So potential new client if someone is interested?!). I'm honestly embarrassed that i'm even posting this. 

I'm going to phone the ICB tomorrow to see if they can help/ advise but I have really really messed up with my client's VAT on his software and I can not for the life of me fix it. 

I'd been keeping all of my clients sales and purchases recorded on spreadsheets and calculating the VAT from there. After looking online for advise for something unrelated I realised I had been missing out purchases that should be on his returns, so had a massive massive comb through of my spread sheets, calculated exactly what should have been included on the VAT return for what periods, and for the VAT return that then needed submitting, it was basically the Aug/Sep/Oct period +/- any adjustments needed from any other periods.

 

I then realised that i've entered plenty of journals wrong relating to this, but as some are bank reconciled I couldn't delete them, so need to reverse. It also occured to me that I haven't been selecting 'include in vat return' when adding journal expenses to Sage either.

 

So, I decided to run the VAT returns and make the adjustments through there as they're automatically posted, and going forward, enter everything properly and calculate the VAT returns through Sage.

 

The VAT returns and adjustments all go through as they should. Apart from the last one where I accidently enter the figures for the actual Aug-Oct period rather than the adjusted figures. You can not delete saved VAT returns in Sage, so it needs reversing. Which I try to do through a journal and run a return on that too.

 

I enter via journals alll the payments that have been made for vat through the bank account. 

 

Now, when i'm looking on the trial balance, the figures are just all over the place, going onto the balance sheet makes no sence as the figures are for eg showing:

 

VAT on sales: £59,642.72

VAT on purchases: £47,874.42

VAT liability: £24546.44

 

Then in the figure that's shown as the actual VAT owed: £12,778.14 (which if you subtract from the above 'VAT liability' figure, comes to what the actual difference between sales and purchases is).

 

I know it's likely just a case of a mammoth journal to sort it out, but I can't figure it out. 

 

I've got a 2 month old baby asleep upstairs, as well as a toddler and an older child. I've been up all evening trying to sort this and it's honestly made me realise that I don't want to do this with this client anymore. The stress of dealing with my baby/ toddler/ sleep deprivation and this is just not a good mix, it's effecting my entire life negatively. 

 

I do around 4 hours per week and charge him £18 per hour, but I just can not do it and it's getting me down.

 

Please help :( 

 

My number is 07833462853 if anyone can. I'm going to email this to the ICB too to see what they say. 

  • Member
  • Practice Licence
  • 46 posts
  • # 114537

Hi Kara,

Firstly I would just like to say that you are fit to be a bookkeeper otherwise you would not have reached Member status!

It sound to me that you are just exhausted which is not surprising considering that you have a small baby and 2 other children, you probably haven't slept properly in a long while... I am not surprised that you are struggling at 1am in the morning with a complex problem such as this without any sleep.

I'm probably stating the obvious but why not just roll back to your last restore point and start again? It will make sense when you're feeling a little more focused?

Don't give up, you've worked hard to achieve your qualification - we all make mistakes from time to time - it's how we learn, grow and get better in our role.

Take care,

  • 43 posts
  • # 114538

Hi Kara, 

We have receieved your email this morning and ICB are currently looking into your query. One of my colleagues will be in touch very soon.

 

  • Companion Fellow PM.Dip
  • Practice Licence
  • 1137 posts
  • # 114558

Hi Kara

I hope your feeling better about things, and I am sure Amy has put you in the right direction. She is brilliant.   Janet is right about the how to deal with the Vat concerning sage.  I totally agree with her about everything else and the advice she has given. 

You have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about.  I admire you for coming on the forum and being so honest.  I am fellow and have been on the go nearly 20 years.  When you have young children, you become very isolated.   In fact, I have highlighted this issue on an ongoing basis that bookkeeping can be a very lonely place, some clients can even pile on the pressure because they believe you are small and do not have someone to turn to and ask for help

I know we are all in competition, but we are a good bunch of people.

When I started out my early days, I stupidly thought I would only reveal so much to my other ICB bookkeepers as they were my competition.   I had an appalling client one year after my operations when I was overtired. They were extremely nasty.  They had me doubting whether I should be a bookkeeper even after me running for years as a successful practice. 

In the last few years on meeting some of the bookkeepers at a Glasgow Chamber of Commerce summer event. We all had a few glasses of wine which may have led us to been very open about our good, bad and rough points.  The first response from all of us was why did you not come to one of us we would have all supported you, to which quite a few answered,  I was embarrassed.   

 In Glasgow and Edinburgh, many of us have become very good friends and hope more will join us.   I honestly can say I which I had not been so stupid about keeping things to myself.   The skills and help I have learnt from my fellow bookkeepers in Glasgow and Scotland are enormous.    I realise now that if I had that friendship, I would not have gone through all that upset years back.   We regularly email each other to ask for ask or an opinion how to do something or deal with a client.     

We all have our ups and downs so if I have one recommendation, please try to go to your branch to meet and make friends.   I think I say it for most ICB bookkeepers that they would not betray someone's trust as this is not what ICB is about.  I love my job more now than I ever did and that is down to my fellow ICB members. 

I hope you feel better and the ICB were able to help you. 





Edited at 30 Jan 2017 03:46 PM GMT

  • Companion Fellow PM.Dip
  • Practice Licence
  • 1137 posts
  • # 114559


posted twice 

 



Edited at 30 Jan 2017 03:42 PM GMT

  • Member PM.Dip
  • Practice Licence
  • 742 posts
  • # 114562

Hi Kara

 

Don't give up i'm sure you will be fine. We all have our good and bad days, and I second Sarah the branch meetings are great for meeting fellow bookkeepers and making friends. I can't help you will Sage as even though I learned on it, I don't use it now, but you say they have an accountant and the accounts is for the year end. Why not give the accountnat a ring and have a chat to them? I work with an accountant for one of my clients and she has helped me enomiously with several holes. It's in the accountants interest for you to get it correct so you may find that they are far more helpful than you think. 

 

Anyway sort the problem out first then decide if this is your ideal client or not. If not then im sure someone else will love it and you can concentrate on getting ideal customers that you love. Best of luck

  • Fellow
  • 86 posts
  • # 114565

Thank you so much to everyone who responded and reached out to me via emails, texts and phone calls. I appreciate the support so much. 

A lovely fellow ICB bookkeeper is helping me sort the issue out and the support I have received over the last few days has make me feel so much better.

I don't know any other bookkepeers in real life and I agree it can be very lonely and I do struggle not havinf someone that I know to reach out to when I need advice. 

Im going to be making lots of changes and one of them will be to become much more involved with the ICB, attend branch meetings and try to get to know others on the forums. I just got so busy, so quickly and with such limited time that I neglected to nurture this side of the profession and it really bit me in the bum! 

 

Thank you all again xx

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