Setting up VAT

If you are registered for VAT, DDM Flow adds VAT to your invoices, calls them tax invoices and keeps track of your returns. If you are not, VAT is left off everything until the day you register.

Tell us whether you are registered

You answer this in the last set-up step, and you can change it at any time under Settings → Tax rates, in VAT registration.

• Registered: choose Yes, then enter your VAT number (10 digits, starting with 4, from your SARS registration letter) and the date you were registered from.
• Filing months: under Which months do you file VAT returns in?, pick the months your returns are due. You do not need to know your SARS category; DDM Flow works it out from the months.
• Not registered: choose No. DDM Flow will not track VAT deadlines or prepare returns.

Press Save VAT settings. The card then shows your category and your next returns with their due dates.

Your rates

Below the registration, Rates holds the tax rates that pre-fill on every new invoice line. Add the one you charge most often, in South Africa VAT at 15%, with a name and a rate, then press Add.

Preparing a VAT201

Returns are under Accounting → VAT, on Pro and Ultra. Each period in your filing calendar is listed with its due date. The calendar is built overnight, so periods appear the day after you first save your VAT settings.

1. Open a period and press Generate draft. DDM Flow computes each field from your invoices and expenses.
2. Check the figures. Where a field can be overridden, type your figure and note the reason beside it.
3. File the return on SARS eFiling using the figures in the To file column. Download PDF gives you a copy.
4. Back in DDM Flow, enter the SARS reference and the date filed, and press Mark as filed.

Marking a return as filed locks its period: invoices, credit notes and expenses dated inside it can no longer be created, changed or deleted, so what you filed stays true. Provisional tax and EMP201 are not in DDM Flow yet; use SARS eFiling for those.