Making Tax Digital (MTD) and TASBooks

UPDATE – Infoplex announces Tax Manager for TASBooks

Infoplex has announced the development of its own easy-to-use VAT submission system for TASBooks. Click here to find out more about Tax Manager for TASBooks.


The deadline for Making Tax Digital (MTD) is on the horizon. With any significant overhaul of the tax management system, there’s been a lot of concern, speculation and contradictory information. At Infoplex, we’re committed to ensuring that you have the most accurate information available at all times so that you can make informed business-critical decisions.

What is Making Tax Digital (MTD)?

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is the cornerstone of HMRC’s move towards digitising the tax system. From 1st April 2019, any business that is VAT-registered will no longer be able to file its VAT submissions using the HMRC gateway. In its place, VAT-registered businesses will need to use commercial accounting software that has MTD submission capabilities.

Is TASBooks suitable?

The simple answer is yes, but there’s a big twist.

All of the information that you need when your business files a VAT submission is in the TAS database. It is – literally – at your fingertips. Unfortunately, there’s no in-built way to access this information and send it to HMRC.

Is there a solution available for TASBooks?

Yes. In the last few months you will have seen an email from Sage about MTD. It sets out the steps that Sage are taking to help VAT-registered businesses. They have built a special module for TASBooks which will let all VAT-registered businesses file their submissions online and meet HMRC’s compliance requirements.

Can I buy a solution directly from Infoplex?

Yes. We’re working with a company to develop an easy-to-use, low-cost solution.  We’ll have an announcement on our plans in the New Year. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss your requirements, then feel free to get in touch with George by calling 01592 598101

TASBooks and Making Tax Digital (MTD)

New MultiTAS GDPR add-on

No doubt most of you (if not all) will be tired of hearing about GDPR and what it means for your business. We’re sure that, by now, your business has followed the rules to the letter and all of your data is safely and securely managed in a GDPR-compliant way. No? Well, read on. We may just be able to help…

The way in which your business can obtain and use sensitive data has changed. Your business now needs solutions for assessing, implementing and maintaining GDPR compliance everyday. To help TASBooks users, Infoplex has developed an essential GDPR add-on for TASBooks.

Data Compliance Manager

Our Data Compliance Manager can help your business handle sensitive financial and personal data efficiently.  The add-on will search the TASBooks database and ‘wipe clean’ any data that is no longer needed. If a customer wants to be ‘forgotten’, the Data Compliance Manager can locate any records associated with that customer and remove their data securely.

With Data Compliance Manager, your business can safeguard customer and supplier data but retain business-critical information. This includes contracts, transaction data and VAT records. You can search the TASBooks database using in-built filters – such as customer, supplier or marketing codes – and make changes individually or in bulk.

We know what you’re thinking. Why now? Is it necessary? How much is this going to cost? Well, to help you out and explain things a bit more, we’ve put together a quick list of the most common (obvious) questions and some answers.

Why aren’t TAS doing this? Surely this means that TASBooks will be mothballed?

Not at all. Sage and TAS are under no obligation to update their software to make it GDPR-compliant.  Under the GDPR legislation, the burden for compliance shifted from software developers (like Microsoft or Sage) to the consumer (your business).  It is now your responsibility to make sure that your business and your software is compliant.

What does that really mean for you and your business?

Well, you could ask TAS to develop a solution for you. They will either say no or attach a pretty hefty price tag to it, along with a new support contract.

So why Infoplex and why now?

We’ve been the official TAS development partner for some years now. As such, a number of businesses reached out to us before the GDPR deadline asking for advice and help.  We explained the situation to them.  We’ve had time to look into the issue and work out how we could best help TASBooks users.  The Data Compliance Manager is our solution to the problem.

I thought GDPR was done and dusted at the end of May. Why are you asking me about this now?

If only. If only… It’s not as clear cut as that, we’re afraid.  Your business needs to identify, analyse and manage the data it holds everyday.  Data that was relevant to your business last week may no longer be so next week.  Your business needs a way to manage that change as quickly and as easily as possible. To put it simply, GDPR is for life, not just for 25th May.

How much is it?

We don’t know. We’re still working that out. It’s based on a lot of different factors, including the amount of time that we’ve spent developing it. What we can tell you is that not only will there be a one-off charge but there will also be an annual recurring fee too.

Why is there a recurring fee?

We want you use the latest software.  Every so often, we will let you know that there’s an update to the GDPR add-on and you can download the latest version.

Why will there be an update?

First, the GDPR rules will change.  At the moment, ‘personal data’ is anything by which a person can be identified.  The problem is that we can be identified in lots of different ways, not just our name or our address.  The definition of ‘personal data’ will change and we want to update your software to reflect that.

Second, there’s a new law called the ePrivacy Regulation.  It will complement the GDPR and offer individuals control over all their data and ensure that businesses handle data with care. It will be approved by the end of 2018 and come into effect next year.  To make things easier for your business, we’re going to update our GDPR add-on when the ePrivacy Regulation comes into effect.

Third, there’s Brexit.  We don’t yet know how data protection requirements will change after Brexit.  During the transition, we expect there to be ‘regulatory-alignment’ and ‘divergence’.  We want to help you stay in control and will be updating GDPR add-on as appropriate.

When is it available?

Soon. We’re testing it out at the moment. We’re seeing how easy it is to break (we’re experts at breaking things). Once we’re certain it’s ok, we’ll release it.

In the meantime… if you want to know more about it, why not give George a call on +44 (0)1592 598100 or send him an email at sales@infoplex.co.uk

Cleaning your TASBooks database

Is TASBooks a little slow? Is it a bit sluggish? Is it taking you longer to run a report or find a record than it used to?

This is something that we hear a lot at Infoplex. Obviously, there are lots of reasons for this. Over time, you’ve saved lots of transactional data that you only used once or twice. If you’re like us, you’ve built up multiple copies of files and lines of code that you’ve never even used. You have records that are out of date – customers have moved on, products have been discontinued and suppliers have changed.

In these circumstances, the best solution is to start again. Build a new company from scratch in TASBooks. Think of it as a ‘factory-reset’ for mobile phone.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy that. Can you imagine having to re-enter all of those records? Your customers, your suppliers, your products, opening balances and orders. Everything would need to be re-done. And let’s not even think about Dynamic Discounts…

That’s where we can help you with (drumroll, please) our new TASBooks Data Migration service.

Our new TASBooks Data Migration service will:

  • Analyse your TASBooks company data
  • Identify which data to migrate
  • Work around you to ensure minimal disruption
  • Work alongside you to clean up your data
  • And, of course, migrate your data.

Our new service will launch sometime in June. We’ll tell you more about it closer to the time and explain in greater detail how it all works. In the meantime, if you want to sign up to be notified when we launch this service, head on over here to let us know!

TASBooks v6 info

The changes in TASBooks v6, released 6th March 2015, include:-

  • New feature to allow the customisation of the text when email(s) are sent via TAS
  • New Foreign Currency Transactions settings in Program 0.1.2 > System > Miscellaneous
  • New option to customise whether inactive/discontinued records appear in Lookups (Program 0.1.2 > System > Lookups/Mapping)
  • New ‘Update Profit And Loss Account’ setting (Program 0.1.2 > Purchase Orders > Entry/Costing Options)

There are bug fixes too which include:-

  • Fixing a Runtime error 380 when running Program 4.4.4
  • Enabling Order Acknowledgements to be printed for Sales Orders where the order number is 7 digits long

Ireland-based Caraden Construction adopts TASLink

Another company with in-house development skills has taken advantage of TASLink, the leading application for real-time bi-directional TASBooks integration, to streamline their accounting processes.

The Ireland-based Caraden Construction have worked with Infoplex, Europe’s leading TASBooks developer, to develop further their in-house Sales Order Processing system. Using the real-time features of TASLink, Caraden have integrated their custom-built IT systems with TASBooks.

Using the Infoplex TASLink solution has enabled Caraden to integrate our systems with our TASBooks accounts… in turn allowing us to post our invoices from our bespoke system directly to  TASBooks in real time.

Yet another example of having the ability to custom-develop TASBooks’ integration with other applications using TASLink.

Driving improvements in multi-location stock management

The renowned Welsh publishers, Y Lolfa, wanted the functionality to manage and maintain stock locations for distributors where stock is on consignment. When the distributor sells stock, Y Lolfa also wanted to be able to assign a sales order to the distributor’s stock location so that the stock for the order could be fulfilled from the distributor’s stock location.

Thanks to the team at Infoplex, we now always know how much stock we have and where it is located which further improves our relations with customers and distributors… All this at a touch of a button.

Yet another TAS user taking advantage of our MultiTAS Trade product and its stock management functions. Diolch yn fawr!

MacDonalds franchise streamline internal TASBooks process by 80%

Infoplex have developed another solution for the MacDonalds chain!

This is our 11th pack development for a MacDonald’s client and highlights our ability to deal with large high-profile clients and improve their use of TASBooks. We helped to speed up the daily – and somewhat repetitive – processes of moving data from TASBooks in to third party systems and vice versa.

Portable Handheld Terminal Integration to TASBooks

The Irish company Chef in a Box has joined the ranks of TASBooks users that have implemented portable handheld terminal functionality into their business to ensure that their customers’ experience is smooth and trouble free.

In conjunction with ONM Systems we are continuing to develop new ways to integrate portable handheld terminals with TASBooks to ensure we meet all of our customers’ requirements.