Do you submit your VAT returns and European Community Sales List direct from your sage accounts package? I do for both my own company and for those I do bookkeeping for. Up until earlier this year I have always had the utmost highest confidence that my submissions have been successful, but after a couple of recent problems I am now rather more cautious.
Twice this year I have submitted a European Community Sales list through Sage 50, one in version 2012 and one in 2014, only to then get a letter from the HMRC saying it has never been received. It hasn’t been a problem as I’ve been able to send them a copy of the paperwork and they have keyed in the data manually, so all has been fine. But on both occasions I had a successful submission receipt so my confidence has been knocked. So always keep a print out of the returns you submit and print your submission receipt as your evidence too.
Then today on Instant Accounts 2012 at another client’s site I calculated the VAT as normal, then clicked on submit VAT return and nothing happened. Not a flicker or a trace of the button working. I got straight onto the phone with Sage and was told that this is a problem Sage are aware of, but they are not yet sure what causes the problem and so cannot guarantee it won’t happen again.
The fix involved identifying and deleting corrupted *.DLL files, then reinstalling the software – so it helps if you have your original installation CD – although the software can be downloaded if you can’t locate it. We then had to download and install all the Sage updates for the version we were in, which included Service Pack 1, Update 5 and Update 6 for Sage Instant 2012,. When we tried to run the software Sage recognised it needed updating but then couldn’t automatically download the updates, a problem I have blogged about before and call the Sage Update Loop, but you can easily download the updates manually from www.sage.co.uk/au 
If you come across this issue, with the submission button in Sage not working then get in touch as we can easily remotely link into your machine and guide you through the process to replace the corrupted *.DLL files
