Client VAT returns in Ireland: running fifty without spreadsheets

Most clients file bi-monthly, so the practice calendar has six peaks a year, each landing in the month after the period ends. Building a single list of every client, their period type and their due date is the first job, because it turns six scrambles into a schedule.

Most clients file for two-month periods starting in January, March, May, July, September and November, with returns due by the 19th of the following month and ROS filing allowed until the 23rd. Some clients will have been authorised for four-monthly, six-monthly or monthly returns. Keep one practice calendar that shows every client’s frequency, so nothing relies on memory.

Ask any VAT team and the answer is the same: chasing missing information, re-keying bank statements, and fixing VAT codes on transactions coded in a hurry. The arithmetic of the return takes minutes. Every hour saved comes from having clients’ books complete and coded before the window, not from filling the return in faster.

Agree a cut-off with each client, perhaps the 5th of the filing month, by which bank data, receipts and sales must be in. Clients on software that brings in bank data automatically and reads receipts can usually meet it without effort. Clients still sending paper need a reminder a week earlier.

Exception review means the reviewer looks only at what is unusual: a VAT figure that moved sharply against the same period last year, a supplier coded to a rate it has never used, a large purchase with input VAT claimed, or a credit note that reverses a sale. Everything else is spot-checked rather than read line by line.

With current books, the review focuses on what is unusual rather than checking every line. Look at transactions on unexpected VAT rates, large one-off purchases, reverse-charge and intra-EU items, and any period where the net VAT moves sharply compared with the same period last year. That approach catches the errors that matter in a fraction of the time.

• Lines coded at rates the client does not normally use.
• Purchases above a set value.
• Reverse-charge, import and intra-EU entries.
• A large swing in net VAT against the same period last year.

When rates change, review every affected client. The move of food service and hairdressing from 13.5% to 9% on 1 July 2026 meant restaurant, café, catering and salon clients had a period split across two rates. A practice-wide list of clients by sector makes those checks quick.

Once the figures are approved, enter the return in ROS, confirm the payment arrangement with the client, and save the ROS acknowledgement with the period’s workings. A simple status column per client, from information received to reviewed, filed and paid, turns a busy window into a visible queue the whole team can work.

Each client’s Return of Trading Details is filed with their final VAT3 of the accounting year, by the 23rd of the month after the year ends. It breaks sales and purchases down by rate, so clients whose books carry the right VAT code on every line produce it with little extra work. Clients with a December year end all land in January.

Accountants manage all client workspaces from one login at no extra cost. In each, HelloBooks keeps transactions coded with Irish VAT treatment and computes VAT3 figures box by box, each drilling back to the documents behind it. You review and enter the return in ROS; HelloBooks does not file it. Irish client bank data arrives by statement upload today, with direct connections rolling out.