Business preparation guide · 29 October 2026
How can a business organise a VAT records review?
Use this guide to prepare a focused business enquiry and agree a useful professional engagement. It covers information gathering and project planning. Entity-specific tax, legal and accounting conclusions require qualified review of the facts and current requirements.
What should I do when invoice and ledger totals differ?
Preserve the source records and make a schedule of the differences by period and transaction. Avoid overwriting earlier working papers. Ask the adviser to help identify the cause and agree how any resulting compliance questions will be assessed.
How should credit notes be organised for review?
Link each credit note to the original transaction and retain the commercial explanation and relevant dates. Include the ledger entry and any related return working paper. This helps the reviewer follow the evidence without guessing the transaction history.
What information helps review import VAT records?
Gather customs declarations, supplier invoices, import statements and the corresponding accounting entries. Explain who acted as importer and identify missing documents. The adviser can then define the relevant review questions using current FTA guidance.
How should recurring VAT records issues be tracked?
Keep an issues log with the transaction type, evidence needed, responsible team and proposed process change. Separate bookkeeping corrections from technical tax decisions. Review the log with the adviser so recurring problems can be addressed at their source.
Turn the discussion into an agreed scope
Write down the objective, the entity and period involved, the information already available and the decisions still needed. Ask the proposed engagement team to identify the next information request and the person responsible for each response. Keep technical assumptions separate from verified facts.
Before work starts, confirm the deliverables, review process, fees and exclusions in writing. Ask how additional work will be approved and how confidential documents will be exchanged. This preparation supports an informed proposal; it does not determine the business’s legal or tax position.
Authoritative reference
Consult the relevant authority or reporting-standard source for current requirements. This guide provides preparation steps and does not reproduce the authority’s full rules.
Prepared by DSB Chartered Accountants LLC Technical positions, calculations, thresholds and filing decisions should be reviewed by the appointed professional for the relevant period.
Discuss the scope with our VAT consultancy team.