Sole trade

Onvio Tax enables you to create sole trade entities that support the latest Making Tax Digital (MTD) interactions with HMRC. Your client may or may not have already approached HMRC directly to subscribe to the MTD scheme. If they have subscribed then as part of this process your client will have provided them with the following information: name of business, commencement date, address, and accounting period. The MTD pilot takes effect from 2017/18 so it is applicable to businesses with accounting periods starting on or after 6 April 2017. HMRC automatically generate four reporting periods from the accounting period and the business owner must submit financials to HMRC no later than a month after the end date of a reporting period.

The steps below will give you an understanding of how to create a sole trade for MTD purposes in the two following scenarios:

Where your client has already subscribed to MTD and HMRC have the details of your clients' sole trade(s)

Create client and import sole trade from HMRC

  1. From Onvio Centre select Setup > Clients.
  2. Click Add.
  3. On the GENERAL tab:
    1. Enter a unique id for your client.
    2. Select an entity type of Individual from the drop-down list.
    3. Enter a valid National Insurance Number.
  4. On the HMRC tab:
    1. Click Import From HMRC. This will import all sole trades for the client that are registered with HMRC for MTD purposes. The imported sole trade will be linked to the client via the 'owner of' relationship, and the obligation periods received from HMRC for the sole trade will be created in Onvio. 
  5. On the RELATIONSHIPS tab:
    1. View all entities that are related to the client.
  6. On the PERIODS tab:
    1. Use the 'editing Periods for' drop-down to select the client or any of their related entities.
    2. Under Application Periods, view the sole trade MTD obligation periods created as part of the Import from HMRC.
    3. Click the Set As Current Period link next to the relevant period.
    4. Check the correct Tax Year is applied.
Import sole trade to UK Tax project 
  1. On the PROJECTS tab:
    1. Click Add to create an Onvio Tax project for the client. The project is essentially a task used to pull the data described in the opening paragraph in from HMRC.
    2. Select a Project Template from the drop-down list which reflects the task you want to perform, for example MTD Q1. This will create a project for the first quarter of the business.
    3. Use the Contact drop-down to assign the project to the relevant contact for whom this project applies.
    4. Ensure the Tax Year for this project is set to 2017/18 at the earliest as MTD is only effective from this date.
    5. Click Save.
  2. Click on  to open the project in Onvio Tax. The project opens on the Summary page.
  3. On the Data Entry tab:
    1. Select Sole Trade in the Schedule List.
    2. Click on Import. In the background the application will import all related Sole Trades from Onvio Centre and display them in the grid.  
  4. You now need to invite your client to use Thomson Reuters OnBalance which enables them to record their business transaction data. Click on the OnBalance Access tab, enter your client's email address and click Send Invitation.

    Note: The client will receive an email containing a link to create an OnBalance account. Once registered the client will be directed to Thomson Reuters OnBalance where they enter their income/expenses. The first time the client uses OnBalance they will need to add a bank account and a business record by selecting the options from the drop-down box at the top right of the OnBalance Home page next to the client name. The client can then click on the Transactions link to enter their income/expense information. Please refer to the specific OnBalance help for additional assistance.

  5. A day after the reporting period ends your client will be prompted by OnBalance to submit to you as their accountant. An automatic notification will appear at the top of your client's OnBalance Home page.  
  6. At this stage you will need to create another project specifically for the trial balance. Do this by opening the sole trade record in Onvio Centre, clicking on the Projects tab and selecting Trial Balance from the Project Template drop-down list.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Your client should then click the Notify Accountant button on their OnBalance Home page. Once clicked, all the data for the reporting period will be sent to you (see steps below to view the transactions in Onvio Trial Balance). Once sent, the information cannot be edited by the client.
  9. Click on  to open the project in Onvio Trial Balance. The project opens on the Trial Balance Settings page.
  10. Ensure the relevant period is selected from the Current Period drop-down list and that the correct Tax Year is selected.
  11. Click Save.
  12. Click on Transactions tab and you will see all the items brought in from OnBalance.  
  13. Click on the Trial Balance tab and then click on Update Balances to pull the information into Trial Balance. Information will be an amalgamation of the transactions, for example the cost of goods figure in the TB will represent the total of all the transactions with a cost of goods category. 
  14. Use Onvio Trial Balance to map the transactions to the appropriate tax categories via the Groupings tab.
Import Trial Balance data to UK Tax and submit to HMRC 
  1. Return to Onvio Tax via the hamburger menu and click to open the previously imported sole trade.
  2. To import Trial Balance values from Onvio Trial Balance, select the Accounting Period tab, ensure the relevant Accounting Period and Obligation Period is selected and click on Import.
  3. To submit reporting period data to HMRC, select the Review tab from the open Tax Return project tab in Onvio Tax, select the reporting period from the Digital Accounts Update section and click Submit.

Where your client has not yet subscribed to MTD, but is in the process of subscribing

Create your client record in Onvio Centre if you don’t already have one by following steps 1 to 9. If you already have your client record (with an appropriate Onvio Tax MTD project*) in Onvio Centre you must check that it has a valid National Insurance Number before proceeding to step 7 to create your sole trade entity.

Create client and import sole trade from HMRC 

  1. From Onvio Centre select Setup>Clients.
  2. Click Add.
  3. On the GENERAL tab:
    1. Enter a unique Id for your client.
    2. Select an EntityType of Individual from the drop-down list.
    3. Enter a valid National Insurance Number.
  4. On the RELATIONSHIPS tab:
    1. Click Add.
    2. Use the Relationship drop-down to select 'Owner of'.
    3. Enter the name of the sole trade. It must exactly match the sole trade name used with HMRC.
    4. Click Save.
  5. On the PERIODS tab:
    1. Use the 'editing Periods for' drop-down to select the sole tade.
    2. Under Application Periods - Accounting tab, edit the Year Begin Date and Year End Date to be the same as the sole trade Accounting Period. Adjust the Period Frequency to 'Quarterly'.
    3. Click the Set As Current Period link next to the relevant period.
    4. Click Save on the Accounting Period tab.
Import sole trade to UK Tax project
  1. On the PROJECTS tab:
    1. Click Add to create an Onvio Tax project for the client.
    2. Select a Project Template from the drop-down list which reflects the task you want to perform, for example MTD Q1. This will create a project for the first quarter of the business.
    3. Use the Contact drop-down to assign the project to the relevant contact for whom this project applies.
    4. Ensure the Tax Year for this project is set to 2017/18 at the earliest, as MTD is only effective from this date.
    5. Click Save
  2. Click on  to open the project in Onvio Tax. The project opens on the Summary page.
  3. On the Data Entry tab: 
    1. Select Sole Trade in the Schedule List.
    2. Click on Import. In the background the application will import all related sole trades from Onvio Centre and display them in the grid.  
  4. You now need to invite your client to use Thomson Reuters OnBalance which enables them to record their business transaction data. Click on the OnBalance Access tab from within the sole trade record, enter your client's email address and click Send Invitation.

    Note:The client will receive an email containing a link to create an OnBalance account. Once registered the client will be directed to Thomson Reuters OnBalance where they enter their income/expenses. The first time the client uses OnBalance they will need to add a bank account and a business record by selecting the options from the drop-down box at the top right of the OnBalance Home page next to the client name. The client can then click on the Transactions link to enter their income/expense information. Please refer to the specific OnBalance help for additional assistance.

  5. A day after the reporting period ends your client will be prompted by OnBalance to submit to you as their accountant. An automatic notification will appear at the top of your client's OnBalance Home page.  
  6. At this stage you will need to create another project specifically for the trial balance. Do this by opening the sole trade record in Onvio Centre, clicking on the Projects tab and selecting Trial Balance from the Project Template drop-down list.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Your client should then click the Notify Accountant button on their OnBalance Home page. Once clicked, all the data for the reporting period will be sent to you (see steps below to view the transactions in Onvio Trial Balance). Once sent, the information cannot be edited by the client.
  9. Click on  to open the project in Onvio Trial Balance. The project opens on the Trial Balance Settings page.
  10. Ensure the relevant period is selected from the Current Period drop-down list and that the correct Tax Year is selected.
  11. Click Save.
  12. Click onTransactions tab and you will see all the items brought in from OnBalance.  
  13. Click on the Trial Balance tab and then click on Update Balances to pull the information into Trial Balance. Information will be an amalgamation of the transactions, for example the cost of goods figure in the TB will represent the total of all the transactions with a cost of goods category. 
  14. Use Onvio Trial Balance to map the transactions to the appropriate tax categories via the Groupings tab.
Import Trial Balance data to UK Tax 
  1. Return to Onvio Tax via the hamburger menu and click to open the previously imported sole trade.
  2. To import Trial Balance values from Onvio Trial Balance, select the Accounting Period tab, ensure the relevant Accounting Period and Obligation Period is selected and click on Import.
Submit sole trade data to HMRC
  1. Once the client and sole trade is subscribed to HMRC for MTD you must do an import from HMRC to Onvio in order to link the existing Onvio sole trade with the sole trade registered on HMRC:
    1. From Onvio Centre select Setup > Clients.
    2. Select and open the client.
    3. On the HMRC tab, click Import From HMRC. This uses the client's NI number to import the sole trades registered with HMRC MTD and match them with any existing Onvio sole trades with the same name.
  2. To submit reporting period data to HMRC, open Onvio Tax, select the Review tab from the open Tax Return project, select the reporting period from the Digita Accounts Update section and click Submit

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