The error 'The archive VAT return was created after reconciliation and therefore doesn’t contain a detailed list of transactions' appears if a non alphanumeric character is present in the transaction reference on the customer or supplier record for that transaction.

NOTE: This also causes the VAT Detailed report to be incorrect as it doesn’t show all the transactions from the customer or supplier record. 

As a workaround, once you archive VAT Return, you can edit the VAT Return file and then save it as a UTF-8 encoding file rather than ANSI encoding, which it incorrectly uses. 

 NOTE: The VAT return can be rerun for the same period to retrieve consistent figures. This allows you to drill down into each box and generate the corresponding detailed report. 

Edit the VAT file

1. Take a backup of your data.
2. Click Help then click About and click the Data Directory path.
3. Browse to the folder before Accdata.
   
   For example, if the data path is C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\2023\COMPANY.001\Accdata browse to the C:\ProgramData\Sage\Accounts\2023\COMPANY.001 folder
   
   
4. Double-click VATRTNS then double-click _DATA and double-click the required VAT Return.
5. Double-click the folder for the box number; the folders relate to the boxes as laid out below:
    
   

   Folder number	Related Box Number
   0	1
   1	2
   2	3
   3	4
   4	5
   5	6
   6	7
   7	8
   8	9

   
   
   
6. Right-click on the first file then click Open with and click Notepad.
7. Click File then click Save As and from the Encoding drop-down list,
8. Choose UTF-8 then click Save and click Yes.
9. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each file.
   
   If the issue still occurs after doing this, repeat the steps for each file within each folder in this VAT Return. If the issue persists, repeat the steps for each file for all VAT Return folders in the VATRTNS/_DATA folder.

Stop it from happening again

To prevent the problem from happening in the future:

• Check your regional settings are set to English (United Kingdom) or English (Ireland).
• Don't use non alpha-numeric characters in the transaction references.