If several sets of client records are handed in at once, then it makes sense to do all the optical character recognition scanning of bank statements at once, for everybody, before we do anything else. We call this scanbashing and it gives us an early warning if any bank statements are missing. Monday is a good day for scanbashing because the online tax and banking systems are effectively still shut and there is not so much to do.
The dust has now settled on our “making tax digital” efforts and we are currently up to date with everything. It has swallowed up a lot of time and energy and left us with a backlog of other work. We have now scanbashed all the bank statements we have and life is returning to normal. If anybody telephones asking for their accounts to be produced quickly, then we are ready for them.
We have triaged our work-in-progress according to our estimate of when the job is likely to be asked for. Obviously the next round of VAT returns are at the top of the “to do” list, so we are now getting on with them. As we submit each return, we will make a point of downloading it again on another computer to prove that we have submitted it correctly. We have a new Intranet which lays out the procedure to follow and which helps us find our way round the over-complicated MTD system.