Approve and sign a VAT return

This article explains how to approve and sign a VAT return that your accountant has sent you to approve in FreeAgent.

If you’re a FreeAgent Partner, please read how to send a VAT return to a client for approval.

If you use FreeAgent with your accountant or bookkeeper and they’re a FreeAgent Partner, they may submit your VAT returns on your behalf and send them to you to approve first. That's what we're going to look at here.

If you’re not currently working with an accountant, you may wish to find one through FreeAgent CoPilot.

Please note that you’ll need level 7 access or above to your FreeAgent account to approve VAT returns.

Approve and sign a VAT return

If your accountant or bookkeeper sends a VAT return for you to approve, you may receive an email with a link to log in to your account to approve and sign the VAT return if your accountant has chosen to send an email.

When you click on the button in the email and log in, you’ll see an option to ‘Approve and sign’ the VAT return at the top-right of the VAT return within your account.

Alternatively, if you don’t receive an email notification from your accountant to review your VAT return, or you delete the email by accident, navigate to the 'Taxes' tab at the top of the screen and select 'VAT' from the drop-down menu.

Next, select the VAT return that you would like to approve.

To view a breakdown of the figures, select the 'Full Report' tab. Please note that this breakdown is for you and your accountant's reference only and is not sent to HMRC.

Once you’ve reviewed the figures in FreeAgent, enter your name in the ‘Signed by’ field, tick the checkbox to confirm that you’re happy for the submission to be sent to HMRC and select ‘Approve and sign’.

Your accountant can then go on to submit your return on your behalf.