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Sage 50 and Brexit

Written by Sharon Foley on .

Introduction

 

The United Kingdom (UK) withdrew from the European Union (EU) on the 1st of January 2020 which fundamentally changes how the UK and the countries of the EU will trade with each other. A Transition Period of a year was entered into at that point which allowed trade to continue under the existing terms while a new trade agreement was attempted to be put in place. This Transition Period ended on the 31st of December 2020 and the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is now in place.

In summary, under this new agreement, from the 1st of January 2021 there will be:

  • No free movement of people: UK citizens will no longer have the freedom to work, study, start a business or live in the EU. They will need visas for long-term stays in the EU. Border checks will apply, passports will need to be stamped, and EU pet passports will no longer be valid for UK residents.
  • No free movement of goods: Customs checks and controls will apply to all UK goods moving between the UK and EU (exports and imports). 
  • Tariff and quota free trade: Despite the customs checks, there will be no tariffs or quotas on goods going between the UK and the EU
  •  No free movement of services: UK service providers will no longer benefit from the country-of-origin principle. They will have to comply with the – varying – rules of each EU country, or relocate to the EU if they want to continue operating as they do today. There will be no more mutual recognition of professional qualifications. UK financial services firms will lose their financial services passports.
  • Concessions: The UK have made some concessions on both fisheries and the level playing field, while the EU conceded on the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to decide on whether the trade deal has been breached in the future.

More info can be found at gov.ie – Brexit. Are you ready? (www.gov.ie).

This article and its links will be updated with any new information as it emerges, so please check back regularly for the latest information.

 

What Businesses Will This Effect

 

Any Irish business trading with the UK will be subject to the above Trade & Cooperation Agreement while companies trading with Northern Ireland will use the Northern Ireland/Ireland Protocol of the original Withdrawal Agreement. (which pushes EU- UK checks to the Irish Sea border, avoiding checkpoints on the Irish land border).

The main steps that businesses should take to be ready for Brexit can be categorized under the following areas:

  1. Customs – including getting your EORI number, custom control and declarations, changes to regularity reporting (i.e. Vies and Intrastat) etc.
  2. Product Compliance – ensuring any products you export to the UK complies to their rules and any UK products you import complies with EU rules..
  3. Supply Chain – check that you suppliers and logistical operators can supply your goods and deliver your imports.
  4. Financial  – know the extra costs that may be involved and how these will be covered (i.e. cashflow).

The Irish Government have made available a range of business supports, including advisory, financial, and upskilling supports to prepare for Brexit. This latest information is hosted on the Government’s main website at gov.ie/brexit.

UK businesses trading with any EU country will be similarly effected but will also have to agree new trading terms with countries that it traded with under EU terms or trade under World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms. The following link gives a detailed summary of this UK Governments Summary of the Trade and Cooperation Deal.

 

Using Sage 50 Software to Support Brexit

 

Sage have put together a dedicated Brexit Hub to help users understand how the changes could affect their business, and what needs to be done. This includes details of software changes to help manage the impacts of Brexit.

Ireland Brexit Hub –> https://my.sage.co.uk/public/help.aspx#/customer/support/brexit/category/50accounts/roi 

UK Brexit Hub –> https://my.sage.co.uk/public/help.aspx#/customer/support/brexit/category/50accounts/uk

Important Note: These will be updated with late-breaking changes resulting from any trade deals made between now and the 31st December – so keep checking back!

Sage have been updating their Sage 50 software to be ready for Brexit and the latest update is version 27.1 ,  You can download the 27.1 Update from here and the full version of Sage 50 V27 can be downloaded from here.

This will include the following features:

  1. New tax codes to allow for Postponed Accounting
  2. Sage 50 Cloud Accounts – ROI only
  3. New tax codes UK (5 new codes)
  4. New Tax Codes Ireland (Ireland will have 12)
  5.  Commercial invoice Layout 
  6. New Country Codes Introduced
  7. Sage 50 Work Around for version 27 and below (ROI)
  8. Sage 50 Version 27.1 Brexit (ROI)

 

Irish Businesses Trading with the UK

An Irish business trading with the UK or Northern Ireland should do one of the following to prepare for Brexit –

It is recommended to update Sage 50 to the latest software version (27.1) and then follow this checklist for trading with the UK after Brexit –> Brexit Checklist for Irish business when using Sage50 version 27.1.

OR

If you can not update to version 27.1 of Sage 50 in time then you can follow this checklist to use earlier versions of Sage 50 to trade with the UK after Brexit –> Brexit Checklist for Irish business when using earlier versions of Sage50

You can find information here on how to upgrade your Sage 50 software. As always, we recommend that you use a qualified Sage technician to upgrade your Sage 50 software to ensure it is done correctly and can be supported, especially if this is a network installation. Contact us to book your upgrade,

 

UK Businesses Trading with EU Countries

A UK business trading with the EU should follow these guidelines to prepare for Brexit with Sage 50 –> Brexit checklist for a UK Business trading with the EU. (Note, the guidelines are different for Northern Ireland).

 

Disruption to Irish Automated Bank Feeds

Irish automated bank feeds will be disrupted for a temporary period of about 8 weeks after the transition period from the 1st of January 2021. This will effect all systems providing automated bank feeds to Irish banks because new local regulatory authorisation is required.  If you use any automated Irish bank feeds in Sage, see the following article for advice on how to manage this disruption –> How to enter and reconcile bank transactions if my bank feed is unavailable.

 

For more detailed information on Brexit please see the following links: