Difference between revisions of "Accounting your Business in Norway"

Revision as of 17:08, 13 August 2008

For now, there are only a few notes on this topic. It should grow to a usable document over time. Norwegian terms are emphasized.

Account tree

Uploads have been disabled on this wiki. You may cut and paste the XML from Kontoplan. The XML can be stored into a .log file and opened directly from gnucash. Some accounts that are not used for a consulting business have been hidden.

VAT Accounting

The above account tree has several accounts for tracking Value Added Tax or Merverdiavgift, MVA. I grouped them together in a place holder, but the place holder account itself has no real accounting value:

In the course of business, the tax split of transactions are filling up accounts 2700–2713.

Pay-time

At the end of a VAT period you should prepare to fill out omsetningsoppgaven. That is when you zero-out the running balance of the accounts 2700–2713 with a transfer to or from the settlement account 2740. The resulting balance in the settlement account is the VAT that you owe to the state (or vice versa if the balance is negative). When you pay this (or receive payment) then this balance will be back at 0.

1. For every account 2700–2713 do the following:
   1. Register a transfer dated at the last day of the period
   2. with the amount equal to the floor (integer part) of the running balance at that point in time (i.e., you are always rounding to the lowest whole krowne)
   3. if the account in question is a liability, transfer from the settlement account; if it is an asset, transfer to the settlement account
   4. any remaining fracture is transfered in a split from (or to) account 7790 andre driftskostnader, "other expenses".
   5. You can give it a description of "VAT settlement term N-YYYY".
   6. You should number the transaction with the document number that you give to the settlement form (bilagsnummeret til omsetningsoppgaven).

How to show the results for a period

Resultat is the difference between income (inntekter) and expenses (kostnader). At the end of an accounting period (når du avslutter regnskapet), this difference is to be transferred to the equity account (egenkapital). I skip setting up an account for the result, which you would do when accounting manually, and instead transfer from the income and expense accounts directly to the equity account. This way, the result appears in the running balance. The amounts to be transferred are equal to the running balance in the account in question, but opposit in sign so that the running balance in the income or expense is back at 0 after the transaction.

Egenkapital should also reflect the value that you have taken out of your business for living expenses. To do that, you should repeat the above procedure for Privatkonto and sub-accounts. However, this amount it not part of resultatet and therefore it is important to exclude these transactions from the report below.

Result over one VAT period

To show the result, make a transaction report with the following options:

1. Accounts tab
   • Report Accounts

     Only select Egenkapital

   • Filter Accounts

     Select Privatkonto and all subaccounts

   • Filter Type: Exclude Transactions to/from Filter Accounts
   • Void Transactions? Non-void only
2. Display tab

   Select only the following:

   • Date
   • Other Account Name
   • Use Full Other Account Name
   • Other Account Code
   • Amount: Double
   • Totals
   • Sign Reverses: Credit Accounts

3. General tab
   • Report name: Resultat <Your Business>
   • Stylesheet: Technicolor
   • From: <start of VAT period>
   • To: <end of VAT period>
   • Style: Single
4. Sorting tab
   • Primary Key: Other Account Code
   • Primary Subtotal: No
   • Primary Subtotal for Date Key: Monthly
   • Primary Sort Order: Ascending
   • Secondary Key: Other Account Code
   • Secondary Subtotal: No
   • Secondary Sort Order: Ascending

Result over several VAT periods

This transaction report gives a nice overview of the results over longer periods, a whole year for example.

1. Accounts tab
   • Report Accounts

     Only select Egenkapital

   • Filter Accounts

     Select Privatkonto and all subaccounts

   • Filter Type: Exclude Transactions to/from Filter Accounts
   • Void Transactions? Non-void only
2. Display tab

   Select only the following:

   • Date
   • Other Account Name
   • Use Full Other Account Name
   • Other Account Code
   • Amount: Double
   • Totals
   • Sign Reverses: Credit Accounts

3. General tab
   • Report name: Årsresultat <Your Business>
   • Stylesheet: Technicolor
   • From: <start of year>
   • To: <end of year>
   • Style: Single
4. Sorting tab
   • Primary Key: Date
   • Primary Subtotal: No
   • Primary Subtotal for Date Key: Monthly
   • Primary Sort Order: Ascending
   • Secondary Key: Other Account Code
   • Secondary Subtotal: No
   • Secondary Sort Order: Ascending