VAT Investigation discrepancies between sales report and transactional report

[webuyfromthehighstreet]

I have noticed discrepancies between the sales report download and transaction report download

If you download a sales report from the sellers hub and then download a transactional report from the payments/reports section then the information does not match.  How is this possible?  And which is accurate?  Within the VAT return you have to complete total sales for the period.  

The sales report I assumed was accurate??  but the transactional report shows "orders" and "refunds".  Taken both into account neither match up.  

If there any advice as to what report contains total sales as required by HMRC? 

[dantiques01]

hi there, did you find anythiung out, ebay has several sales reports, all can be thousands out from the other, i was told the most accurate was under my ebay, performance tab, then sales, then you can enter custom dates for tax periods etc, the other ones download in an excel type file which ive no idea how to use, ebay are shocking at telling you which is accurate, im now told the performance sales isnt accurate for hmrc, thanks

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You need to base your records on the actual transactions from within the payments section.

Sales reports can differ due to time periods not quite matching up and things like returns not being accounted for properly.

At the end of the day, sales reports are meant as an overview and are not necessarily 100% accurate.

If you still not sure, then I would recommend that you look at using something such as Link my books, linked to accounting software.

But whatever way you do it, be sure to involve your accountant.

[dantiques01]

thank you for that, yes the payments section downloads come out in a jumbled up form for excel or something which ive never used and id guess lots of others dont know how it works either. 

i was always told by ebay to use the sales under performance tab for my tax returns, and every other ebayer i know also uses the same sales reports as it lets you put the custom dates in, the only others are monthly pdf reports you can print off, but they are for complete months, so for tax period 5th april to 6th april following year they wouldnt be accurate as you could only print off complete months not custom dates.

my accountant also uses the performance sales reports to do all her ebay clients as she also said it was the most accurate one.

thanks, dan