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1. Installation and registration
2. Create a set of accounts in Excel
4. Submit an iXBRL file of the accounts to Companies House with VT Filer
5. Create an iXBRL file of the accounts for a corporation tax return
6. Create an iXBRL file of the tax computation for a corporation tax return
7. Prepare accounts for a subsequent year
1.Installation and registration
Install the software
If you have not already done so, download the installation file from here.
A pop-up for the installation file then appears in the corner of your screen; click on this (or select Run or Open depending on your web browser).
If you do not see the pop-up, go to the Downloads folder on your PC and click on the file from there.
Accept the prompts that come on screen to install the software.
This installs the following programs on your PC: VT Filer; VT Fact Viewer; VT Transaction+ and VT Cash Book. VT Final Accounts is not a standalone program itself but gets installed as a set of VT Add-ins to Excel.
If you experience any issue when installing see Installation.
Access the VT Add-ins
After installation the Add-ins tab appears in the main Excel menu, containing VT menu commands. If this is not visible, follow the steps at Add-ins missing.
The Add-ins menu in Excel
The add-ins tab also contains the VT Toolbar which has buttons for the most commonly used commands in VT Final Accounts. If this is not visible, follow the steps at The VT toolbar.
The VT Toolbar
Register your license key
1.From the Add-Ins menu select VT Final Accounts>Help>Register Software:
2.Enter your name, customer number and license key in the screen that follows:
2.Create a set of accounts in Excel
VT Final Accounts enables you to create a set of accounts in Excel (known as the 'accounts workbook'), from which you can generate an iXBRL file which can be submitted to Companies House.
Create a new accounts workbook
1.Click on the new accounts workbook button 
on the VT Toolbar to open the following dialog:
2.Select the template for the type of business you are preparing accounts for.
3.In the Trial balance and adjustments section, select either:
oStored directly in the workbook in Excel ('manual entry') if you want to enter a trial balance directly in the workbook or import a trial balance from another source, or;
oStored in a VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book file ('linked entry') if you want to link the workbook to a trial balance in VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book
4.In the message that comes up, click on Yes to open the Workbook Properties dialog:
5.In the Workbook Properties dialog, enter the company details and financial period, select any of the options that are relevant to your accounts, then click on OK. The workbook properties dialog can also be accessed at any time by clicking on the workbook properties button 
on the main toolbar.
Enter or import a trial balance (TB)
(Alternatively, if you wish to link the workbook to a trial balance in VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book (i.e. you selected the Linked Entry trial balance when creating the new accounts workbook), ignore this section and follow the steps below)
1.In the accounts workbook, select the TB sheet:
2.Enter the current year trial balance figures in the Current year column, and the prior year trial balance in the Comparative column (or if this is your first year of trading, untick Display Comparative Columns in Workbook Properties).
3.Alternatively you can import a trial balance from another source by clicking on the Import Trial Balance button on the VT Toolbar 
- for further details see Importing a trial balance.
4.Once the figures in the trial balance have been entered or imported, they feed through to the appropriate headings in the financial statements.
5.Click on the Auto-hide On/Off button 
which hides any rows in the financial statements which have nil balances (except for average number of employees, which is required by Companies House, even if nil) - for further details see Automatic hiding. The auto-hide function should normally be used rather than the standard Excel hide command where possible.
For further details on creating a manual entry workbook see Completing a set of accounts (manual entry workbooks) and The manual entry trial balance.
Link to a VT Transaction+ or VT Cashbook trial balance (TB)
(Alternatively, if you wish to enter a TB or import a TB from another source (i.e. you selected the manual entry trial balance when creating the new accounts workbook), ignore this section and follow the steps above)
1.Select the Get Balances From VT File button 
on the VT Toolbar to open the following dialog:
2.Select Get balances from an existing VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book file (or if you do not have one, you can select the first option):
3.In the dialog that comes up, click on the Browse button to locate your existing VT Transaction+ or VT Cashbook file on your PC (by default these files are saved in your Documents folder unless you have moved or saved them elsewhere):
4.Double click on the file to select it, then the path and name of the file appears under VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book file name:
5.Click on OK and this will populate the financial statements with figures derived from the trial balance from the VT Transaction+ or VT Cashbook file. Unlike the manual entry workbook, you will not see a dedicated TB sheet.
6.Click on the Auto-hide On/Off button which hides any rows in the financial statements which have nil balances (except for average number of employees, which is required by Companies House, even if nil) - for further details see Automatic hiding. The auto-hide function should normally be used rather than the standard Excel hide command where possible.
7.If you update the VT Transaction+ or VT Cashbook file, you can refresh the accounts workbook with the updated trial balance by repeating the process above
For further details on creating a linked entry workbook see Completing a set of accounts (linked entry workbooks) and The linked entry trial balance.
Enter other data not in the trial balance
In the accounts workbook, select the Data sheet and enter the Company Registration Number (if you have not already done so in Workbook Properties), Approval date of the accounts, Person signing directors report, Name of director signing balance sheet, Address of Registered Office* and Average number of persons employed (enter 0 if none). Complete any of the other boxes in the Data sheet if they are relevant to your accounts.
* In the Medium or Large Company workbook, the registered office address is entered directly on the Notes sheet
Modify the accounts workbook
If you wish to modify the accounts workbook this should be done by selecting the sheet you wish to modify and performing the following actions (rather than using the standard Excel commands):
•To insert a new heading/financial row*, click on the cell containing the name of an existing heading above which you want the new heading to appear, then click on the Insert Financial Row button 
which will create the financial row in the cell above. In the manual entry workbook, the same financial row is also created in the TB sheet with a link between the two. In the linked entry workbook, you need to create a new account in your VT Transaction+ or VT Cash Book file, then match the account to the new heading in the accounts workbook by clicking on the Trial Balance Analyser button 
. For further details see Inserting a new financial row - linked entry workbooks or Inserting a new financial row - manual entry workbooks
•To insert a new note, click on the cell containing the name of an existing note above which you want the new note appear, and in the Add-ins menu select VT Final Accounts > Insert > New Note. For further details see Notes and note numbers.
•To insert a new accounting policy, click on the cell containing the name of an existing accounting policy above which you want the new policy appear and in the Add-ins menu select VT Final Accounts > Insert > Accounting Policy. For further details see Accounting policies.
•To hide an accounting policy, click on the Policies and Paragraphs button 
, select the accounting policy and click on Hide. For further details see Accounting policies.
•To edit an existing note or accounting policy, select the cell containing the text and type over the existing text
For further details see Modifying workbooks.
* If the new heading does not require sub-headings in the Detailed PL2(1) or Notes(2) sheets, you can insert the heading directly on the PL or BS sheets. Otherwise, insert a sub-heading on the Detailed PL2(1) or Notes(2) sheets. E.g., to enter a new sub-heading that forms part of Cost of Sales, insert a new financial row somewhere in the list of Cost of Sales sub-headings in the Detailed PL2(1) sheet - this then forms part of the total Cost of Sales figure, which feeds through to the Cost of Sales figure in the PL sheet.
(1) Called the 'Detailed PL' sheet on the Micro-Company template
(2) Called the 'Detailed BS' sheet on the Micro-Company template
1.Open the accounts workbook and click on the print button 
on the VT toolbar.
2.Select the Print... button to open the standard Print dialog.
3.Select a printer from the list of printers and click on OK.
4.If you wish to print to a PDF file, select Microsoft Print to PDF from the list of printers. If this is not available you will need to install a PDF writer on your PC. Free PDF writers include Microsoft Print to PDF and CutePDF.
For further details see Printing and Printing the accounts to a PDF file.
4.Submit iXBRL accounts to Companies House with VT Filer
1.Open the accounts workbook and from the Add-ins menu select VT XBRL > Companies House > Generate New submission to open the following dialog:
2.Select the type of accounts to submit (the filleted option is not available on the Medium or Large company workbook).
3.A suggested name and location comes up under Destination file name and folder for the VT Filer submission file (.vfi file). If you want to change the folder or name, click on Browse to choose the folder/change the name.
4.Click on OK and this will generate the VT Filer submission file (.vfi file) with the accounts attached in iXBRL format - click on Yes to the message that asks if you want to open the file in VT Filer.
5.In VT Filer, select Set Up > Presenter Details and enter your Presenter ID (11 digits long) and Presenter authentication code (11 characters long) issued to you by Companies House and click on OK.
6.To submit to Companies House, click on Submit in VT Filer. See also Generating an iXBRL file
5.Create an iXBRL file of the accounts for the corporation tax return
VT Final Accounts does not have the functionality to submit a CT600 corporation tax return to HMRC. However the iXBRL file of the accounts that is required to be attached to a CT600 can be generated in VT Final Accounts. You can then attach this file when submitting a CT600 in a third party tax program.
1.Open the accounts workbook and from the Add-ins menu select VT XBRL > Generate XBRL file to open the following dialog, then select Normal accounts:
2.A suggested name and location comes up in the Destination file name and folder for the iXBRL file (.html file). If you want to change the folder or name, click on Browse to choose the folder/change the name.
3.Click on OK and this will generate the iXBRL file (.html file) of the accounts and save it in the folder shown under Destination file name and folder.
4.Using a third-party tax filing program, attach this iXBRL file to your CT600. See also Generating an iXBRL file
6.Create an iXBRL file of the tax computation for the corporation tax return
If you wish to use the TaxComp sheet in the accounts workbook, you can generate an iXBRL file of this by following the same process as above but selecting Tax computation. You can then attach this file when submitting a CT600 in a third party tax filing program. Alternatively you can use the tax computation in your third party tax filing program.
