1. What are months/tabs 13, 14, 15 and can I enter data to the next year before the year end routine has been ran?

  • Tabs 13, 14, 15 are the first 3 months of the next financial year. You can enter transactions to these months before running the year end routine. Once the year end routine is complete, transactions entered to months 13, 14, 15 will automatically show in months 1, 2 and 3 of the new year.
  • Month 15 (i.e. month 3) of the new year is the latest month you can add transactions to prior to running the year end routine.

 

2: How can I close any completed month’s in Big Red Book to prevent changes being made?

  • Click ‘Utilities’.
  • Click ‘Period Control’.
  • On the grid that appears click ‘Close/Open’ (or double click) on any month/book that you do want to prevent changes being made to (the ‘X’ in the field indicates that changes cannot be made to the relevant book/month).
  • You can click ‘Close/Open’ (or double click) to switch that month/book back to where changes can be made again.
  • There is an ‘Open All’ button that can be clicked, which means changes can be made to all books/months, and a ‘Close All’ button that can be clicked to switch it to where no changes can be made to any of the books/months.
  • Click ‘Save’ once you are happy with the open/closed months/books selected.

 

3: What is the book enquiry?

It allows you to filter transactions within books and export/print it. For example: You could run a book enquiry on the cash book, to show all transactions for a particular customer between a number of months’ range, and to only show transactions over €100 for them.

4: How do I use the book enquiry?

  • Click ‘Reports’.
  • Click ‘Book Enquiry’.
  • Select the relevant option/book.
  • Highlight a cell in a relevant column. Example highlight cell in the total column.
  • Click “Set Range” at the bottom of screen.
  • New window opens “Select range for total”
  • If you are looking for a value between 25 and 50 in the From type 25 and in the To type 50. Click ok.
  • It will now show all transactions with a total between 25 and 50.

 

 

 

5: How do I use the Margin VAT calculator?

Under the Margin Vat Scheme, the dealer only charges Vat on the Sales Margin i.e if a good is bought for €5,00 and sold for €6,00 the €1,00 is the net margin + vat.

To facilitate this calculation there is button “Margin Vat Scheme’ in the Sales Transaction screen. This calculator asks for the Purchase Price and the Sale price and works out the Net and Vat for the Margin, the Purchase Price will be at zero %.
To enable Margin VAT, go to setup and options click yes to the warning message.

Tick the option Margin VAT calculator.

6: VIES Report

The VAT Information Exchange System (VIES) was put in place by the EU and contributes to the effectiveness of the new VAT arrangements.

It provides a mechanism whereby checks can be made in each Member State on the validity of claims to zero-rating VAT and it helps to detect unreported movements of zero-rated goods between Member States.

It enables traders who have doubts about the validity of VAT numbers quoted to them to confirm the VAT registration numbers of their customers in other EU Member States.

For your business it provides a method of breaking down the Goods and Services provided or obtained from other EU countries during the course of business.

This applies to Sales and Purchases from other EU Member States.

When adding a Purchases Book entry change the vat type to Other EU.

Under the For Resale and Not For Resale VAT columns you will see the ‘Other EU Analysis’ section appear containing the Goods and Services breakdown entry fields.

Enter your Total and break it down over the appropriate VAT rate.

As Other EU VAT is Notional only the full Gross Total will be entered to this box.

Break down your Total between the Goods and Services boxes as shown to the left and fill your analysis categories as normal.

 

The steps above will apply equally for Sales Book Entries and Sales Book Invoices as shown below.

Please Note

While sales book entries have the Goods/Services breakdown on the main screen (the only one) the Sales Invoices have you select whether something is a Good or a Service while adding it to the invoice and the fields on the main screen are filled based on the value of what is entered.

 

 

 

 

 

VIES for Your VAT Return

On your VAT return you will notice the following details near the end of the report.

This report is available from the VAT menu through the ‘Standard VAT Calculations’ report.

 

The details listed above will contain the figures required to complete your VAT return.

7. Gmail App Password Setup

If you are using Gmail for sending invoices and Statements from the 30th of May 2022 Gmail will no longer support less secure apps.
Up until now most of us would have been using less secure apps to send invoice and statements via Big Red Cloud, Big Red Book or Big Red Book Payroll.

Gmail is making these changes to make everyone’s emails more secure.
To continue using Gmail for sending your invoices and statements you will have to turn on 2FA (2 Factor Authentication). With 2FA enabled you will be able to turn on app passwords, app passwords gives you the ability to assign a specific password to a particular software or device for connecting to your email and send an invoice or statement on your behalf.

For more information on 2FA and app passwords use the following Google help pages.
2FA
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185839?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&oco=0
App Password
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

If you are unsure if you are using Gmail or not go to settings, and email settings.
In the window the SMTP will be set to smtp.gmail.com if you ae using Gmail.

To check if you are still using Less secure apps for sending your emails via Gmail go to your google account settings.
You can do this by clicking on your initials or company logo when in Gmail or google search page

When you click on the logo or initials you get the option “Manage your Google account” Click on it.

When the new window opens you will have list of options along the left.
Select the option for Security.

Once the page loads scroll down to “Signing in to Google” if the option for App password is there you have already gotten 2FA on and may not need to go any further if the option for App Password isn’t there scroll down to the Section “Less Secure app access”

It is most likely turned on if it is On you will need to turn 2FA.

On the Security page again near the top you need to go to the “Signing in to Google” section.

Click on the “2-Step Verification” button.

You will get a conformation message asking to confirm you wish to proceed with turning on 2FA
On the Next window you will need to enter your Gmail password.

Next it will look for a landline or mobile number to send a text or Voice call with a 6 digit code that will be needed for the next step.

Once you receive the code enter the code and click “Next”

Finally you will get the following screen with a button “Turn On”.
On the next window you will get the option to turn it off instead click on the back button beside “2-Step Verification”

This will bring back to the “Security” page.
Scroll down to the “Signing to Google section” and there will be a new option “App passwords”

You will need to input your password again and then brought to the App passwords window.

Click on the “Select app” and select “Other(Custom name)”
You can type any name but in this example we have typed “Big Red Cloud”

Click on the “GENERATE” button and it will generate an app password.

This will generate a random password highlighted in yellow.
Take that password and input it to your email settings Big Red Cloud, Big Red Book or Big Red Book Payroll.

Big Red Cloud
Go to setup, Company details and email setup.

Big Red Book Payroll
Go to Settings and Email Settings

If you would like help in setting your 2FA in Gmail call support on 01 204 8300

Other Accounting Support Topics

Set Up Basics

Cash Book

Cheques Journal

Purchases Book

Sales Invoicing

Year End Routine

Backup & Restore

Other Topics

Back to Accounts Support