04 Jun Customising Acumatica Cloud ERP For The UK Market
Our company has been implementing Acumatica in the UK market for more than 6 years. We have successfully implemented ERP systems from the scratch as well as handled switching from other systems for UK based companies in different industries – eCommerce, beverages production and distribution, design and furniture production, healthcare, non-profit, and others.
We have collected a list of key functions that are a must for a successful ERP system implementation for companies within the United Kingdom.
Value-Added Tax (VAT)
VAT is used in more than 160 countries in the world, but most commonly in the EU countries. It is added to the price of the product in every stage of the supply chain – from production to distribution, where value is added. And although the United Kingdom is not a part of the EU anymore after Brexit, VAT is still used.
Why do we mention it here as something extraordinary? Well, the U.S. is not one of the countries which use value-added taxation. And ERP systems created with the focus on its market, need to be customised to work properly in different realities.
In Acumatica VAT reporting can be enabled in case a company needs it. VAT tax options can be configured according to HMRC requirements. The system will calculate taxes on invoices automatically and include them into a report to a tax agency.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
There are several key requirements of GDPR, but the most important are:
- Data Security
Companies which store personal data are obliged to implement both technical and organisational controls for data protection, prevention of information leaks and unauthorised data use.
- Users Rights
Companies are obliged to grant people extended rights for their personal data management, including the right to be forgotten.
Since Acumatica stores the personal data of people it has all the needed tools to protect them and restrict its use and processing.
Making Tax Digital (MTD)
HMRC has set a goal to become one of the most technically advanced and digitalised tax administrations in the whole world. This has led to important changes in how the whole taxation system of the United Kingdom works. The requirement is for most UK taxpayers to report their income and expenditure several times per year. Companies which have turnover bigger than £85,000 are obliged to keep digital records and submit their VAT returns in a digital form, according to Making Tax Digital rules. To meet these requirements, Acumatica has to be customised with the free add-on for the UK customers to be able to create digital files in the predefined format and submit them online.
Trade With The European Union (EU)
Reports
If the company registered in the United Kingdom deals with the cross border trade with the EU countries, to meet the international trade requirements two additional reports must be added in Acumatica.
- Intrastat Report
Intrastat is the system which aggregates the data on trade in products between European Union countries and the UK. All the requirements are the same for both parties. These data don’t include the supply of services, only physical goods are taken into consideration.
The data collected are extremely important for representation of the general economic situation in the country and are used by the Bank of England, UK Government, Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations to analyse the state of the economy, to set country’s trade policies, to initiate activities on new trade areas, to analyse new import/export opportunities and many more.
UK VAT-registered businesses are obliged to provide specific information about their trade activities. But UK business owners who are not registered for VAT or trade goods within the UK don’t have the obligation to submit any reports.
Acumatica customers can create Intrastat reports using built-in Acumatica reporting tools.
- EC Sales List (ESL)
UK businesses which are VAT-registered which are selling products or services to VAT-registered EU customers must submit reports to the HMRC about their transactions. EC Sales List (ESL) represents all the business’s EU customers’ details, the cost of the supplied goods or services to these customers and country code.
Acumatica offers the possibility to build EC Sales List reports and submit it online to the HMRC.
Banking
- General Codes:
– IBAN (International Bank Account Number) was introduced in the UK in 2001 and currently is used together with domestic bank account numbers. IBAN is not required for domestic payment operations, but it is required for international transactions.
-BIC (Bank Identifier Code or in other words SWIFT code). It consists of 6 digits and the number represents the UK institution and branch. These codes are registered by S.W.I.F.T.
- Bank Connections – Downloading bank statement files
In Acumatica users can import bank statement files and bank transactions both in OFX format and in XLS format. Some banks in the UK provide data in CSV format which should be converted to OFX files to be suitable for direct import to Acumatica.
- Bank Connections – Payment Upload Files
Since all banks have different formats for payment uploads, uploading payment instructions (BACS) should be developed for each case individually by developers.
Expenses
- Mileage on Expense Claims
If your company uses cars for business purposes, you can claim taxes back. The rates are calculated based on the type of the car according to CO2 categories and employees set the latter. And Mileage on the Expense receipt uses reimbursement rates accordingly.
- Mixed VAT on Expense Receipt
There are situations when VAT has to be added to the system manually. They may occur when some of the items in the receipt don’t need VAT. In this case, in order not to have miscalculations, users need to be able to insert data manually.
UK Terminology & Spelling
Customers in the UK are used to British English, which has slight differences in financial terminology used in the system to define conceptually the same things but with different terms. As well as some words might be spelt differently than those which are originally used in Acumatica with default US English.
Acumatica allows localisation through the creation of the UK English language pack, where text strings are substituted according to local standards. They can include not only interface text strings but also labels, error messages or prompts.
Address Fields
Additional configurations are needed for Acumatica to reflect a third address line for Customers and Vendors since in the UK addresses are usually much longer than US standard 50 Characters.
Consolidated Financial Reporting
In Acumatica use of two companies which have different base currencies requires setting them up as separate entities. Acumatica tools for consolidation helps to create financial statements which span different companies.
Conclusion
Implementation of an Acumatica ERP in the UK based companies requires deep knowledge of the system itself, as well as all possible UK requirements to businesses from the state institutions.
Acumatica implementation can be completed successfully when taking into account all these specific requirements and customising the system to provide the best possible results. The key to successful implementation is the selection of experienced ERP implementation companies to apply all these market-specific requirements.
At Arcus we have an experienced team of professionals who work only with UK-based companies and know all the features and tools which will help to successfully implement an ERP system and automate their business processes. For any questions, feel free to contact us today.
