Invoice numbering

[SimonMac]

So let me get this straight, HMRC only says that they need to be distinguishable and unique, having them sequential is just helpful for your accountant?!

[Contreras]

So let me get this straight, HMRC only says that they need to be distinguishable and unique, having them sequential is just helpful for your accountant?!

Serial numbering is strictly an HMRC requirement for VAT invoices, see the earlier links. If it helps your to reduce the accountant's fees then so much the better!

[Vandalay]

Such a trivial matter. Sign up to Freeagent.com and it'll do it all for you.

[SimonMac]

Serial numbering is strictly an HMRC requirement for VAT invoices, see the earlier links. If it helps your to reduce the accountant's fees then so much the better!

I don't use an accountant, my fee's are low enough

Would it be best to go back and renumber them, even if you don't send the new one to old clients?

[Contreras]

I don't use an accountant, my fee's are low enough

Would it be best to go back and renumber them, even if you don't send the new one to old clients?

Dunno mate, ask your accountant. Oh, wait...

It's your call but personally I wouldn't do anything that even faintly whiffed of an attempted cover up. Anyway it was an honest mistake, right?

Just think, if the accountancy fees you saved come to more than the penalty for failing to maintain proper records then you're quids in!

[escapeUK]

I have to wonder if any of you guys have ever worked for a proper company or used a computer based financial system. I have never experienced anyone having suffixes or prefixes to denote client.

Your first invoice is 00001, then comes 00002. Its really easy.

[eek]

I have to wonder if any of you guys have ever worked for a proper company or used a computer based financial system. I have never experienced anyone having suffixes or prefixes to denote client.

Your first invoice is 00001, then comes 00002. Its really easy.

Actually your first invoice doesn't need to start at 00001. Starting it at 00204 or something makes it seem like you've been going for a while.

[blacjac]

I don't use an accountant, my fee's are low enough

Would it be best to go back and renumber them, even if you don't send the new one to old clients?

My accountant says not.

They recomended keeping all issued invoices as is, but then for each client switch to a sequential number for the next invoice.

Apparantly (accoring to my accountant) this rule exists so that if you get investigated, they can tell at a glance if any invoices have gone missing...

[ColinT]

My accountant says not.

They recomended keeping all issued invoices as is, but then for each client switch to a sequential number for the next invoice.

Apparantly (accoring to my accountant) this rule exists so that if you get investigated, they can tell at a glance if any invoices have gone missing...

And yet, EACH customer can have a unique, non-sequential reference, as can each job/contract with that customer, so quite how this prevents anything form being hidden is entirely beyond me. If customers and contracts needed to be sequentially numbered as well, then it may be understandable.

For those in doubt about larger companies not having just ONE continuous sequence for invoices, I refer you to your BT bill (where each invoice number is your account number, followed by a 4-character suffix: the letter being the type of bill (e.g. M for monthly) followed by the serial number, starting at 001) or Vodafone (which is the contract number, followed by a dot and the 6-digit invoice number on that account). These are just 2 examples from the top of my head. It's quite easy to spot, your next invoice from that supplier is just one more than the previous one, last month/quarter.

This is an excellent way of hiding the number of invoices you're issuing, i.e. to the customers themselves. If you do a job for one customer in May and another in September, he's not going to be very impressed to discover you've issued only 4 invoices since then (depending on the nature of your work, obviously!).

As I understand it, you can also start a new sequence each trading year (i.e. within customer's contracts) - this helps you quickly refer to the right year, but be aware to number for your relevant trading year, rather than the current tax year - e.g. if you trade May to April, you may wish to use May's or April's year, but clearly can't use both - or you could start at 1 (or any number) for your first trading year and continue from there.

Again, it's better to make it as simple as possible, but sometimes a simple sequence isn't the easiest answer. If you're producing your invoices in a word processor, you can just call up the last invoice for that client('s job) and increase the invoice number by 1 before amending other details - this ensures the invoice is addressed correctly, quoting relevant details (such as their VAT number) …*all assuming it was correct last time!

[malvolio]

This is an interesting question as my main contract is self-billed and the agent creates an invoice number, however when I work direct I have my own invoice sequence, is this an issue?

Never yet had a satisfactory answer to this one. Personally I treat the agency invoice as a remittance advice - which it is, functionally - and raise my own correctly numbered invoice in parallel. The self-billing rules (which weren't written for continual supply of services, only widgets, but hey...) say you don't submit invoices, it doesn't say you can't use your own tracking mechanism.