One VAT return for every country we cover

Accounting is national. A VAT return in the Netherlands is not one in Germany, and neither looks like the UK's quarterly updates. This week Bertha's country packs filled in.

On the demo practice, Bertha now prepares the VAT return for each of the ten countries it covers, from the Netherlands and Belgium to France's CA3 and Finland's return, along with the EU sales list beside it and the filing dates that go with them. In the UK it reads the quarterly update from the trial balance. Charts of accounts are read the way each country keeps them.

We are honest about focus. New work goes first to five markets: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The others keep everything already built and get new work as soon as a firm there asks.

We also added a way for a firm to hand a kind of work over to Bertha. Only an approver can do it, only for a set period, and it is recorded in the audit trail. A firm might say: bank matches within our limits can be booked without asking each time. Bertha then books them, with a receipt naming who signed the work over, and reports them in the morning briefing. Anything outside the limits still waits for a person.