Dundeemedia Ltd

What features do you need in document management software? I’ve come up with a list, using standard paper based (real) document management, over software based (virtual)

1. Easy to file - You don’t walk over to a filing cabinet and start building one everytime you need to put a document in, the first time perhaps you add an index card or a new colour tag, but mostly you open a drawer and put a document inside. Hopefully it’s in the right place too.
2. Easy to retrieve - Ok, this is a hard comparison, as long as number 1. is done correctly, then it should be easy to retrieve the document.

Well, I think I covered the main points. That is how easy document management software should be, and it will be, just watch this space!

Being in the final throes of writing a custom software package, and implementing the much needed “Export to Sage” functionality, I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle. Why? you ask? Well, it’s all down to rounding, and VAT.

Because I don’t use Sage - I first used excel, and now use my homegrown invoicing software - when I create my invoices I total up the amounts, multiply by 0.175 to get the VAT amount and multiply by 1.175 to get the Total. I then cunningly round up using the method I was taught at school, ie 0.5 or higher becomes 1 (and 0.05 becomes 0.1) - also known as the symetric implementation.

Bankers rounding is slightly different, but statistically better. It’s also known as round to even, which does describe the workings a lot better - ie, 3.15 becomes 3.2, and 3.45 becomes 3.4. Bankers rounding also seems to be the default when programming (more on this later…)

Now on to Sage…

Sage uses bankers rounding Sage uses symetric rounding, but it also rounds the VAT amount per line. This can cause a difference between Sage’s VAT calculation vs multiplying the subtotal by 0.175.

 Eg,

So which is right for VAT purposes? Well, they all are. As long as you stick to one method and don’t mix and match. Personally, I’m sure that HMCE would prefer the last method as it can net them an extra 1.74p per £100!

 Ah well, lesson learned, and 90 mins wasted redeveloping the accounting side of my custom software to match up with the values Sage will give on export…

 UPDATE:

Well, after spending hours last night checking my code and putting orders through sage and checking the amounts with my system I realised something - the utility I use to transfer data from my system into Sage appears to calculate the VAT itself based on the products tax code - clever I hear you say - well, my program uses symmetric rounding, Sage uses symmetric rounding… This utility uses Bankers Rounding, not good, and I’m not happy.