Worldpay & VAT
Discussion
Any other Worldpay users who account for VAT on an accrual basis?
Getting paid by Worldpay 6 weeks after billing the customer (and raising a VAT invoice) is confusing matters because in effect I should be entering each shop invoice into my accounts system rather than the single transaction with Worldpay.
I'd be interested to know how other people manage the process...
Getting paid by Worldpay 6 weeks after billing the customer (and raising a VAT invoice) is confusing matters because in effect I should be entering each shop invoice into my accounts system rather than the single transaction with Worldpay.
I'd be interested to know how other people manage the process...
I'll be ditching world pay* as soon as my 6 month term ends, they've been absolutely shocking.
there are other cheaper agents out there who don't hold onto your money for an age and who don't have set-up fees either. If you have your merchant account take it elsewhere!
*following an informative chat I had with someone who'd done just that and was much better off for it, and with less hassle.
Don't know how you get around your VAT predicament though, my paperwork is handled by people who understand that side of things, they charge me and I'm very happy with that arrangement
.. 
there are other cheaper agents out there who don't hold onto your money for an age and who don't have set-up fees either. If you have your merchant account take it elsewhere!
*following an informative chat I had with someone who'd done just that and was much better off for it, and with less hassle.
Don't know how you get around your VAT predicament though, my paperwork is handled by people who understand that side of things, they charge me and I'm very happy with that arrangement
.. trackcar said:Trouble is, once you've paid all those set-up fees you're essentially locked in unless you're happy to just write them all off. More so if you paid a web developer to integrate your site with WorldPay. Even more so if you don't have a Merchant Account and are using WorldPay's.
I'll be ditching world pay* as soon as my 6 month term ends, they've been absolutely shocking.
there are other cheaper agents out there who don't hold onto your money for an age and who don't have set-up fees either. If you have your merchant account take it elsewhere!
That's what i thought Jon, but i was assured by my friend that if you have a merchant account you can transfer it anywhere (as he has done), and other agents are only too willing to have you onboard so no set-up fees again.. essentially yes you write off the worldpay fees and have some re-integration to do, but I'd be happy to do that to get rid of worldpay .. they really have been shockingly poor for a newbie like me ..
PetrolTed said:None here either, apart from the delayed payments mean they tie up thousands of pounds of cashflow that could be used to pay suppliers, necessetating a business overdraft to maintain cashflow. It's only the fact that they're a big player / well respected company that prevents sleepless nights on them folding and taking the money with them - a concern than makes us wary of choosing anyone else.
I know people's experiences differ but I've been using Worldpay for about 4 or 5 years now and I've no complaints.
Edit: One other niggle is that if a customer enters their Credit Card details incorrectly and a WorldAlert comes in, and then the customer gives you corrected details, you can't seem to amend the details and re-validate. Only option seems to be to cancel the payment and then make a new manual payment using the Internet Terminal, which seems slightly ridiculous to me (and looks unprofessional to the customer too). Or perhaps we're missing something.
>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 7th December 11:40
trackcar said:Yes, but that's the whole thing. It is difficult to get a Merchant Account if you are a new business, and one of the advantages of WorldPay is that you don't need one - you can use theirs. Of course, this then locks you in until you are no longer a new business and can then get your own Merchant Account.
i was assured by my friend that if you have a merchant account
PetrolTed said:Yes, sorry 'Ted, went O/T a bit there.
My headache is simply in how I account for the transactions.
Your accountant, or possibly Eric MC, would probably be able to advise, but I would assume that if you are using Cash Accounting then you should simply be able to treat your WorldPay account as a bank account and thus show the transactions against that in your books, with each payment from WorldPay being a transfer between two bank accounts.
That's just a layman's opinion though.
Cash accounting isn't a problem apparently, but accrual means that when someone buys from me then VAT is due at that point, not when I receive the money six weeks later.
Never considered it a problem until now (the VAT man gets his money regardless) but it seems I need clarification on it.
Never considered it a problem until now (the VAT man gets his money regardless) but it seems I need clarification on it.
PetrolTed said:I'd suggest a phone call to HMR&C's National Advice Service on 0845 0109000 in that case. They're usually quite helpful in clarifying things like this.
Never considered it a problem until now (the VAT man gets his money regardless) but it seems I need clarification on it.
>> Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 7th December 12:04
PetrolTed said:My accountant switched me to Cash Accounting a couple of years ago and it is much, much easier to cope with. Could be the way forward.
The other option looks like switching to cash accounting (should have gone this route anyway).
Are you in the middle of a VAT Audit then?
JonRB said:
The other option looks like switching to cash accounting (should have gone this route anyway).
Are you in the middle of a VAT Audit then?
Yes.
Does seem like cash accounting would be to my advantage.
PetrolTed said:
Got a VAT man here right now!
I was hoping to find out how other people cope before they force me into creating individual invoices for each transaction in the shop! The other option looks like switching to cash accounting (should have gone this route anyway).
Gordon Brown raised the turnover threshold for when you are allowed to use cash accounting in his pre-budget statement.
, but telling me off twice is a bit much surely? 
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