Pegasus Opera 3 Update: Release Information for v2.91.00

The VFP and SQL variants of Opera 3 2.91.00 will also integrate to CIS 5 (5.00.00), their new and next generation Construction and Contract Costing solution.

Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) & Brexit

The new functionality improvements in this release provides further automation, greater efficiency, and an enhanced user experience. The improvements are effectively a phase 3 of changes relating to PVA and Brexit, applicable from 1 January 2021, and follows on from the changes implemented in Opera 3 2.80.00 and 2.80.50.

For GB businesses who import/export goods, particularly within the EU, and in Northern Ireland (NI) who also import and/or export goods with countries outside the EU (e.g. USA, China), then the way in which they complete the boxes on the VAT Return from 1 January 2021 differs significantly with how they were completed pre-1 January 2021, especially where PVA is in use.

Currently, Opera 3 customers must undertake VAT adjustments to ‘make good’ the VAT Return, because VAT Return boxes that used to be updated for imports from the EU must now (from 1 January 2021) update different boxes instead. One of the significant improvements in this release provides the ability to automatically update the VAT Return when importing and/or exporting goods, be that for a GB trader or an NI trader, and therefore significantly reducing the number of VAT adjustments required to make good the VAT Return when import/exporting goods. However, the functionality currently provided by Opera’s Import/Export Module is still required, either in full (for NI traders) or at least in part (for GB traders).

The functional improvements can be summarised as follows:

• A new option has been added to Company Profiles to indicate whether Import/Export rules are to be applied (or not) when trading with an EU customer or supplier (e.g. a trader in NI would need to apply EC VAT rules, whereas a GB trader would not). This new option controls various aspects of the new functionality and behaviour being introduced.
• New options have been added to the VAT codes maintenance table to allow the user to specify whether a specific VAT code is to be used for a PVA import (i.e. non-domestic purchase), or whether the VAT code is to be used for an export (non-domestic sale). These options will ensure that the appropriate boxes on the VAT Return are automatically populated as based on the current requirements for imports and exports.
  

  Important – Please note:

  Import VAT in Opera 3 is calculated on the associated goods value of a purchase invoice. However, Import VAT can also apply to shipping costs and shipping insurance etc (where they are not paid for by the supplier you are buying from), and it also applies to any import duty applicable on the goods; those additional figures will not be present on the supplier’s purchase invoice. Therefore, any additional import VAT arising from costs over and above the cost value of the goods themselves, will still need to be manually adjusted on the VAT Return; i.e. to update boxes 1 and 4 with the same value (cancelling itself out).

  The way in which the new PVA import VAT code option will behave will vary depending upon whether the user has specified that Import/Export rules are to be applied or not. For example, with Import/Export rules being applied, purchase transactions for EU member suppliers must continue to calculate acquisition tax, in which case associated VAT codes must not be allowed to be set to indicate a PVA import.

• The new export VAT code setting will automatically select the appropriate boxes and options on the VAT code as suitable for an export. The way in which the VAT code’s boxes/options are set will vary depending upon whether the user has specified that EC VAT rules are to be applied or not. For example: with EC VAT rules being applied, sales transactions for EU member customers must continue to be treated as EU sales (i.e. not exports as such, and hence update the VAT Return accordingly), whereas EC sales from a GB trader must be treated as exports now (and hence update the VAT Return; for example: EC related boxes omitted). The changes implemented will apply more specifically to purchase areas, such as Purchase, Purchase Invoice Register (PIR), Purchase Order Processing (POP), and VAT Return reporting and production.
• To assist Opera customers to transition to the new import/export VAT codes, a new facility is being introduced to allow the user to exclude no-longer-required (old) VAT codes from various VAT code dropdowns within Opera (e.g. transaction posting forms). However, any no-longer-required VAT codes will still optionally be available for reporting on within the various detailed VAT reports.
• Opera customers can now also treat VAT as either UK Tax or as Foreign VAT when processing invoices and credit notes for non-home-based customers and suppliers.
• Various detailed VAT reports have been enhanced to allow reporting on PVA import VAT postings only. This will subsequentially assist the user in reconciling their Opera VAT data with their monthly online import statement they receive from HMRC. For export VAT codes, the user can simply select the specific VAT code required using existing functionality on the detailed VAT reports (however for PVA imports it is more important to be able to produce a single report that can include all PVA import VAT codes at the same time).
• The Importer module/DLL have also been updated to handle the new PVA import VAT codes (Purchase transactions).

 
The release also contains customer reported maintenance fixes. For a full list of corrected defects please go to the Infor Support Portal.