There is often confusion concerning the handling of VAT regarding whether to enter the VAT exclusive or inclusive price, e.g.

• If the vendor is VAT registered but has not reflected a VAT amount on the invoice?
• When can VAT be claimed and when not?
• What to do to ensure that VAT reflects correctly on the PO and in the fund?

UCT is liable to SARS for compliance in this area and our handling of VAT is carefully scrutinised by the auditors. The SAP online help topic Overview: VAT charges has been rewritten to clarify all these issues, including a "What should I use" table.

Please read this topic carefully and refer to the table whenever you are in doubt.

VAT ON TRAVEL MATERIALS

It is extremely important to use the travel materials on SAP (20 different materials) when raising a PO on a travel vendor. These have each been set up to correctly manage VAT.

There must be a separate line item for each item on the quote (e.g. air ticket, airport tax, service fee). When you have entered the material number, the fund and cost centre, then overtype the text with the relevant information e.g. passenger name, flight destination and date. This greatly facilitates the processing of the invoice against the correct line item on the PO and use of the SAP material will ensure that the VAT is correct. See Procedure: Ordering travel services. This will prevent much of the delay in clearing travel orders and reduce a great amount of rework in Creditors and Master Data.