Fix a mistake on a VAT return

A return that has been sent to HMRC is frozen; its boxes never change. You don't need to unlock anything: keep your books right and BusyBee Hub carries the difference forward.

Corrections from earlier periods

Add, change or delete an invoice, bill, expense or bank explanation that belonged to a period you've already sent, and the difference appears on your next open return under Corrections from earlier periods, listed document by document. This is how HMRC expects small errors to be corrected (VAT Notice 700/45): on your next return, as long as the net error is £10,000 or less, or up to £50,000 if it's under 1% of that return's box 6.

If your corrections go above that limit the checker warns you. Larger errors have to be reported to HMRC separately on form VAT652 rather than through a return.

Manual adjustments

For anything your documents can't express (bad debt relief, a fuel scale charge, an error you found in a spreadsheet), add a manual adjustment on the open return. Choose the box (1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9; boxes 3 and 5 are worked out), the amount (a minus sign reduces the box; boxes 6 to 9 take whole pounds), whether it corrects an earlier error, and a reason. The reason stays with the return and in your audit log, which is exactly the record HMRC asks you to keep.

Adjustments can be deleted while the return is open. Once the return is sent they're frozen with it.