Let’s be frank – Retrospective audit claims are a pain in the proverbial! They take up your time, they can be challenging to defend and it’s normally difficult to get to the data you require quickly and easily for all sorts of reasons, like poor account manager filing; Retailer portals that no longer hold the relevant data (e.g. EPOS sales), or your business has changed its accounting system and the legacy system is not readily accessible?

But they are more than that. They are also bad for your business because they undermine profits because they represent only one side of a trading story. That side is the reconciliation your customers auditor has conducted in order to identify any monies you might owe to them. We don’t need to tell anyone in a FMCG accounting function that validating a claim that represents only half of a reconciliation is not good accounting and makes no sense. But this is what most food and drink suppliers are doing routinely because they don’t have the capacity to perform a forensic, commercial review and reconciliation of that trading activity. Reasonably so, because most businesses are focused on growing tomorrow’s business, not reconciling yesterdays! Much the same as the Retailer, who outsource the function to a 3rd party who does, the auditor you deal with. The effect is a double hit to profits by way of payment of these claims, while valid counter claims that you might have are left hidden from sight and not realised.

This is where Salitix fit in. We are the other half of the equation, the forensic audit specialists who reconcile supplier trading with their Grocery customers and beyond. We have worked hard to develop and maintain standards of working with all the Grocery Retailers that mean when we find money that is due to you, the supplier, we have established processes within the Retailer for getting the claim validated and paid, without recourse to a buying team, or commercial negotiation. And we do more – we collect and collate historic data sets and archive them for our customers, creating a valuable database that can be assessed as required, which means that we are highly effective at defending the claims the supplier receives. In fact, we are often able to reverse claims that have been validated by the supplier (normally because of a lack of time and data to comprehensively defend), reducing both the amount paid, while generating invoices for amounts due.

I’m not sure if there ever is something as simple as a ‘win win’ – but our service comes close for suppliers who realise that removing audit claims from their commercial dialogue is advantageous and reduces costs, while freeing up time. There are some facilitation costs – Salitix need to understand the business, how it works and access certain ledgers and data-sets etc. But our job is to reduce the frictional cost and free up valuable resources to focus on the job at hand… and its why we believe working with Salitix is as close to a win win as you are likely to find in the Food and Drink sector!

Don’t take my word for it, ask our customers, or get in touch to find out more. We’d be happy to help.

Members will be pleased to hear that after reviewing information received from industry regarding reusable plastic crates HMRC have determined that they DO fall within the definition of transport packaging and are therefore exempt from Plastic Packaging Tax when imported into the UK filled with goods. This exemption applies regardless of whether they are leased or owned.

The Plastic Packaging Tax primary legislation contained in the Finance Act 2021 exempts transport packaging where it is imported into the UK filled with goods.

This exemption will also apply to pallet wrap and straps when used to import goods. However, IBCs will remain in scope of the tax when imported filled, as they are used to import a single sales unit and therefore do not meet the definition of transport packaging.

(Note, these items are not exempt from PPT when they are manufactured in the UK or imported unfilled).

PPT has been in place since 1 April 2022 and only one return has been required from liable businesses. Should you already have accounted for these transport packaging items, you can amend a previous return. You are advised to sign into your plastic packaging account and choose ‘View or amend submitted returns’. If you are due a repayment as a result, you can request a repayment.

GOV.UK guidance has been updated to reflect this position which you can now find here.

HMRC have also produced a toolkit to help you understand the steps you need to take. This can be accessed here