Guides
Guides
How to do the job, from the first file to the thing you file — written by somebody who has watched it go wrong.
8 guides · 62 steps · 49 named ways to get it wrong
How-to guides for the jobs this site has tools for — reconciling GSTR-2B, a VAT return from a spreadsheet, a bank reconciliation, a first MTD quarterly update, an Indian payroll run, a school timetable, chasing an invoice and getting a spreadsheet into Tally.
A tool page tells you what a tool does. These tell you what the job is: what you need before you start, what order to do it in, what the numbers mean when they come out, and where it usually goes wrong. Each one names the tool that does a particular step and says nothing about the tools that do not help.
Every guide
How to reconcile GSTR-2B against your purchase registerMatch your purchase register to GSTR-2B invoice by invoice, decide what to do about the four piles that are left, and keep the working behind the input tax credit you claim.How to work out a VAT return from a spreadsheetWhat goes in each of the nine boxes of a UK VAT return when your records are a spreadsheet — including what belongs in box 6 and what does not — and what you still need in order to file it.How to reconcile a bank statement against your booksMatch a bank statement to the bank account in your ledger, and read what is left over: what the bank knew and you did not, and what you have entered that has not cleared.Your first Making Tax Digital quarterly updateWhat a Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly update actually contains, which businesses need their own, when the periods end and what you still have to do at the end of the year.Running a monthly payroll in IndiaThe month-by-month sequence for an Indian payroll: freezing attendance, pro-rating, the statutory deductions, what the payslip must show, and which filings follow the payment.How to build a school timetable that does not clashWrite the allocation, check the arithmetic that decides whether a timetable can exist at all, place the hard constraints first, and read the list of what would not fit.How to chase an unpaid invoiceAge the debt properly, chase in the right order, escalate on a schedule rather than on mood, and know what a UK business is entitled to claim on a late commercial payment.How to get a spreadsheet of vouchers into TallyLay a voucher spreadsheet out so it can be imported, create the ledgers first, and get the sign convention right — because in Tally XML a debit is negative and every voucher must sum to zero.
How these are written
- Every guide says where it goes wrong. Named, specific failures — the credit note that is not negative, the bank account number a spreadsheet turned into a number — because the happy path is the part nobody needs help with.
- No undated figures. A rate, a threshold or a deadline is never stated in running prose. It sits in a box with the date it was last checked and a link to the authority that sets it, so you can tell at a glance whether it is still worth trusting.
- Worked examples say they are invented. Figures in an example are there to show the shape of the arithmetic, and the caption says so next to them.
- Tools are named where they help. A guide that links every tool on the site is an advertisement. These link the one that does step four.