By law there are certain documents which businesses must keep a record of. This doesn’t mean hard paper copies, these can be stored electronically. If you’re using cloud accounting like we do for your bookkeeping then the majority of the paperwork you need to keep will already be stored safely away.

But what exactly do you need to keep?

• Bank statements
• Cash books
• Cheque stubs
• Paying in slips
• Till rolls
• All invoices you issue
• Invoices you receive
• Debit or credit notes
• Import and export records
• Expenses which you can’t claim VAT on ie business entertainment
• Records of goods which you donate
• Records of goods which you use for personal use
• Records of zero rated, reduced or VAT exempt items which you buy or sell
• A VAT account
• Self billing arrangements - this is where your customer prepares the invoice, 
• You need to keep a record of names, addresses and VAT numbers for any self billing suppliers

Retail

You don’t have to produce VAT receipts for your customers if you work within the retail industry unless your customer specifically specifies that they need one.

MTD (Making Tax Digital)

Within the rules of MTD you must store your;

• Business name
• Address
• VAT registration number
• VAT accounting schemes
• VAT on goods or services you supply
• VAT on goods and services you receive

And;



• Any adjustments you make
• The tax point of transactions
• The Value of sales
• The rate of VAT you charge
• Reverse charge transactions
• Daily gross takings
• Items you can reclaim VAT on (Flat rate scheme)
• Total sales and VAT

If you’re not 100% sure that your should be keeping a record of a particular document then please get in touch and remember it’s best to keep something rather than not!