VAT & CIS Submissions

Thanks Kevin, I have tried that but am unable to verify any subcontractors and support says this is because I am not registered as a Clearbooks client, it will cause Chaos if I have to do this and without the ability to run CIS on the system I cant use it. Which will be very sad because I prefer it to all the other options.

Apologies, I don't currently verify/file CIS within the system itself so was more commenting from a VAT return perspective.

Would imagine it would be the same thing though, if you can get your VAT returns to work using your own gateway why wont the CIS do the same thing

Stupid question but I presume you're fully registered as a CIS agent?

Yes the company that I am needing to set up on here right at the moment has a gateway registration which works for VAT & CIS and I am having no trouble verifying and submitting CIS returns or VAT returns through our current software (Tas) its just that we want to get all our clients on to a cloud package and this one really fits the bill. Xero apparently will have the ability to do CIS in February but I dont like it as much as this but may have to wait until then and use it if I cant get this working.

Hmmm....i'm stumped then i'm afraid.

Hopefully somebody (support) will be along with a decent solution asap. Surely removing you as agent isn't what's required, seems like drastic action to have to take.

Thanks for you time and thoughts, yes I hope that suport can sort this one out because the action would be too drastic for me, dealing with the revenue is difficault enough at the best of times but without a 64-8 it, no cant even go there.

Hello Janet,

Have you tried to manually verify any subcontractors in the Reports > CIS > Verification's area?

Just to pipe up, I tried to do that for a client earlier but just kept getting an error msg 'failed to send verification request'.

If I remember rightly, when you produce a VAT return you're given the option to manually enter your agent gateway credentials so there's no need to have Clear Books as the agent. However, I can't see the same option in terms of CIS?

To answer Michael first, yes I can manually enter verification numbers, but that is no good to me I need it to link to the gateway and do the verification or matching every time we have a new contractor. All the subbies I have tried to verify so far ecxcept one which I know I have problems with on Tas and have also been unable to verify directly with the revenue, are subbies which we have been paying for a long time an have all got verification references on our old system. Also it would seem that if I cant verify the subbies on line through the program I will have the same problem when it comes to the month end returns and I really do not have time to then go and manually enter the details of 30-60 depending on the company I am using subcontractors to do the return manually on the government website. I need to make sure this works before I transfer my clients over to CBs.

To reply to you Kevin, what you say makes sense can anyone in support tell me if the option is available in the CIS part of the program because I assume that will solve my problem ( I hope anyway).

Our development team will be looking into why the CIS verification's are still showing as pending. We are currently getting an 'authentication failure' message so we will update you via email as soon as we get any information on why that is happening.

I'm afraid there isn't a way of submitting CIS returns as an agent, that option is only available for VAT returns.

So just to clarify; in order to verify subbies or submit returns directly through Clear Books, we'd have to remove ourselves as agents and appoint you guys in our place thus removing the ability to discuss CIS matters with HMRC directly ourselves?

Very confusing especially when I am given instructions to set Clearbooks up as the agent and this is for submission of VAT returns in the first place according to the instructions sent to me. At the present I submit both VAT Returns and CIS Returns and verification requests using the clients government gateway credentials via Tas and it works. Which ever way it is done in Clear Books, somewhere I would think you would need to have some government credentials on the system somewhere and as yet no one has told me where to put them ( answers in the nicest possible taste please)

That's correct Kevin, you can set yourself as agent for VAT return purposes but In order to submit CIS submissions through Clearbooks, you would need to remove yourself as agent and set it as Clearbooks.

Apologies for the miss communication Janet, those instructions only apply for VAT returns. Setting yourself up as agent for CIS submissions is something we will need to look into implementing onto the system in the new year. As the only way to submit CIS submissions is using Clearbooks as the agent, your user credential are not needed to be entered on the system.

Thanks for clarifying this Michael, that leaves me unable to use the system until this is sorted out unfortunatly. So I supose its back to looking for alternatives which is really sad because I do like you guys. If you come up with a solution in the near future please can someone contact me.

I'm sorry to hear that, Janet. As soon as we've found a resolution for you, I shall be in touch.

Thanks,

Michael

I agree, it is disappointing Janet but I'd urge you still to consider Clear Books. You can still use Clear Books for the general bookkeeping, pull off a CIS report come month end then quickly cope the info over into your CIS software (I do a bulk monthly entry per subbie instead of weekly or whatever). I agree it's an added step that isn't ideal but if CB are prepared to work on it it's perhaps worth sticking around.

Believe me I dont want to go, the only option I have at the moment is to leave any of our contructions companies on Tas until this is sorted out and just concentrating on the others for now.

So with that in mind I will if able start another trial of another client who has no CIS problems and see how we go.

Just to say that I have recieved more help and feedback with CLear Books than any others I have been looking at. Which to me is also very important. And as they have promised that they are looking into the problem with the CIS and I understand that remittance advices are also in the pipe line I wouldnt want to give up on them yet.

Just a bit of patience needed (not my strong point)

Ha, in this day and age I don't think it's anyone's strong point but for the greater good it'll be worth while.

As I said in my last post, providing your clients haven't got zillions of subbies, quickly copying the month end totals over into Tas isn't the end of the world and would still give the client the opportunity to start using Clear Books for everything else in the interim.

I will give it a go Kevin see how it works for a month on one of my smaller CIS clients and then by that time hopefully it will be sorted.

Just as a further peice of information that has me totaly stumped, by accident I submitted a CIS return (having already submitted it because I thought it wouldnt work on here) and low and belold back comes a message and a government gateway acceptance reference saying it was recieved. Now can someone answer me this, why can I apparently submit the return but be still unable to verify the subcontractors. And would I recieve a gateway reference if it actually wasnt recieved. As you can imagine I am now wondering if the submission is safe to use when I havent already submitted via another program or is this something that Clear Books has just told me worked but didnt. I will of course have to ring the revenue to find out if they had the return twice though I am reliably informed that can not happen so I now need to know if the submission is good before I do it through this program next month and find myself paying my client for late submission fines. I still havent registered clearbooks as the agent by the way. This submitted using the clients reference as set in the peramaters.

Hello Janet,

We have been looking into the issue for the submission processes via Government Gateway and there is no CIS authorisation required.

The submission would be successful if you had a blue confirmation box. There will also be a correlation ID as well which you can ask the revenue to confirm with.

I am unsure as to why you are still getting an issue for the CIS subcontractors. Another Clear Books user has signed up recently and has had no issues with the verification process.

Vanish.

Thanks Vanish, I have been back to check this and yes I do have a blue box so I assume its all sorted as far as the submission is concerned. I would love to know what I am doing wrong on the verification in this case. Is it possible for someone to look for me.