The 🇿🇦 SARS section is where 360books earns its keep. It's a preparation aid — it builds your returns from your real books so filing on eFiling is a review, not a reconstruction. (It doesn't file to SARS for you.)
Tax profile
Start on the Profile tab: your income-tax reference, VAT number and category (monthly/bi-monthly), PAYE number, whether you're a provisional taxpayer, and your income-tax regime (standard company 27%, Small Business Corporation, or turnover tax).
VAT201
The VAT201 tab builds your return for a period: output VAT (on sales) less input VAT (on purchases), with a full box-by-box breakdown — standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt supplies, capital vs other input VAT, and bad-debt adjustments. Mark a return filed (with its reference) and paid as you go. A VAT reconciliation tab ties your VAT control accounts to what you've declared.
When something lands in a period you've already filed
This happens to everyone, and it used to be the easiest way to end up quietly owing SARS money.
A filed return is a snapshot. 360books reads your ledger at the moment you mark it filed and stores those figures, because that's what you submitted. But the period stays open to postings: you void an invoice, a customer returns goods, or a supplier's invoice finally arrives dated three weeks back. The VAT moves — and the return you already submitted no longer matches your books.
360books now tells you, in three places:
- At the moment it happens. Issue, void or credit-note a document dated inside a filed period, or approve a bill dated back into one, and you get a warning saying which period it was and that the filed VAT201 is now out of date. The document still posts — see below for why.
- On the VAT201 tab. Every filed return has a Since filing column. "unchanged" means it still matches. A figure there is the difference, and whether you now owe more or less.
- At month-end. The month-end checks raise it as a high-severity finding, so it can't sit unnoticed until your next filing.
Do not re-file the return. SARS doesn't expect a corrected VAT201 for this, and 360books deliberately won't stop you posting into a closed period — a late supplier invoice is a real cost you're entitled to claim, and blocking it would be worse than the problem. The correct treatment is to carry the difference into your next return, which is what the warning tells you to do. Your accountant will do exactly this.
If the difference is large, or the period is old enough that the next return is far off, speak to your accountant about a voluntary disclosure rather than waiting.
Income tax & the worksheet
The Income tax tab estimates your tax for the year: it starts from your accounting profit and applies a worksheet — add-backs (disallowed expenses), capital allowances, and any assessed loss brought forward — to reach taxable income, then taxes it at your regime's rates.
- Capital allowances (wear-and-tear) flow in automatically from your Fixed assets register.
- The R1m / 80% assessed-loss cap is applied for companies, showing how much loss is set off vs carried forward.
Provisional tax (IRP6)
If you're a provisional taxpayer, 360books works out your two IRP6 payments (due end of the sixth month and at year-end), using the higher of your estimate or your basic amount as a safe minimum, and flags under-estimation risk.
Compliance calendar
The Compliance calendar lists every upcoming obligation — VAT201, EMP201, provisional tax, EMP501 and the annual return — with due dates and filed/overdue status. 360books also emails the company owner reminders before deadlines.
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