Changes to VAT Rates from January 2011

If you are based in the UK then you may be aware that the standard rate of VAT is currently 17.5 per cent but will be increasing to 20 per cent on the 4th January 2011. If your business is VAT registered then this article will apply to you.

The change only applies to the standard VAT rate. There are no changes to sales that are zero-rated or reduced-rated for VAT. Similarly, there are no changes to the VAT exemptions. Any sales you make at these rates are unaffected by this change.

We are including extra functionality for changing the Tax Settings as part of the new features of our latest software release, which will allow users the ability to pre-emptively setup their new VAT rate to apply itself on a specified date, whilst keeping the older VAT rate in place for any back-dated charges which may need to be raised.

To update your PPS system, you can follow click this link which will guide you through the process.

http://www.rushcliff.com/kb/article/updating-pps-81.html

1) From the PPS Menu, go to Tools - Options - General System Options.

2) Select the Accounts tab.

3) Within the existing standard 17.50 per cent - input the end date in the 'To' box to the 31/12/2010

4) Click on the 'Insert' button, and input the Tax Category name to be exactly as your current tax category is called - once done you will receive the following message:

5) Click OK. Now enter in the same tax code as your current 17.50 per cent category has. You will receive a similar message to the above - Click 'OK'.

6) Finally enter the rate as 20.00 per cent, and assign the 'From' date to the 04/01/2011.

7) You should now have a very similar setup to the screenshot below:

That's all you need to do! Any charges you raise at standard rate from the start of 2011 will have the new rate applied, and any charges raised beforehand will keep the existing tax rate setting.

In addition to the above, it is also worth remembering that due to the 'From' and 'To' dates, if required, you can back-date charges, and by doing so this will assign the correct tax rate setting.

Accounts
The PPS Accounts system includes facilities for you to bill your clients, or third parties, record payments received, and manage all invoices that are overdue for payment. In addition, PPS also offers an additional module called PPS Expense that can be used to record details of practice expenditure. The Accounts system in PPS is not designed to be a full accounts system with ledgers, balance sheets, etc. but it can be used to supply revenue and expenditure information directly to another accounts system by way of exporting the information through reports. PPS Accounts billing is structured into three areas: Charges, Invoices and Payments. Firstly Charges must be created, then an invoice produced, then a payment recorded. A Charge, or charges simply become “line items” on an invoice, and a payment recorded is “allocated” to the invoice. PPS is flexible enough to accommodate all requirements for practice billing including third-party billing, split billing (between client and third party), recording several payments against one invoice, or recording one payment against several invoices. There are various points throughout PPS that enable charges to be quickly created and “paid off” in one step. This single step still produces the correct Charge, Invoice and Payment records.

Calculate
See: Statistics and Summaries

Change
See: Cash Desk; Modify

Charge
A charge is the first step for PPS billing. You have to create a charge before you can raise an invoice – a charge is a “line item” on an invoice. Charges can be either for various types of treatment, or for stock/sundry items you may sell. PPS has a “list of standard charges” that you set up yourself giving you quick access to your charges via a code, or description. There are several ways in PPS that you can create a charge, you can also skip very quickly from creating a charge to recording a payment and PPS creates the invoice for you as you go. --br-- You can create a charge in the following ways (which way you regularly use will depend upon the way that you prefer to use PPS): 1) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Create a Charge; 2) from the PPS Taskbar click on Create a Charge (if you have the diary open then highlighting an appointment first will create the charge related to that appointment); 3) from the PPS Menu: Accounts – Charges List, and click the New button; 4) from the diary, highlight an appointment, right-click on the appointment and select the Client Charge option from the pop-up menu; 5) when completing a consultation record, the “consultation complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 6) when completing an appointment the “appointment complete” screen allows you to create the charge; 7) Cash Desk can be used to create charges. The first four options above will show the Client Charge screen. This allows you to select / enter all the appropriate charge details and save the charge, or go on to create an invoice for the charge. An invoice can contain more than one charge so you do not always want to create the invoice each time. --br-- Whenever creating a charge, you have the option to select who will be invoiced for the charge, this includes the Client, and any one of the Third-Part Contacts associated with the client. This is how to bill an insurance company directly, for example. If the client does not have a third party contact associated with them, then you can select one while creating the charge, and select to always associate this third-part with the client. This will update the third-party contact details for you on the Main Client Details screen.

Code
See: Charge – Code; Diagnosis Code; Outcome Code

Options
PPS has a screen on the PPS Tools menu called Options. This screen can be used to set up a wide variety of system settings that affect the way that PPS works. You can make your changes to these areas and press the OK or Apply button to save your changes. The Options screen has four tabs along the top: General, Custom Client Fields, Set Up Client Contacts, and Clinical Notes. See the entries under each of these sections for more details, for example Options – General.

PPS
PPS is the acronym for “Private Practice Software”.

Select
A term used when you choose something on the screen. Some PPS screens have a <Select> button, this normally means that you pick an option, or entry in a list, then click the <Select> button. This will “select” your chosen entry and proceed to the next screen, or return to the previous screen with your chosen entry selected.