Period Key - Relation between Obligations, View and Submit VAT return

[hmrc]

Period Key - Relation between Obligations, View and Submit VAT return

[MarkAKelly]

@swdatatracks A unique period key is created for each obligation, and in the same way the period key is unique to the VRN, so think of it as an 'ID' for a particular obligation period for particular VAT customer. This period key should be used as the period key included in your Vat Submission for that period.

As a note, the validation we perform in our API is that the period key is a 4 character string, although the backend systems have their own validation that checks the validity of the period key. This period key is created by the backend system and included in the 'Obligation', which you should then use in your Vat Return Submission.

The next obligation is created at the start of the next reporting period, and is not necessarily sequential. So in your case the period key would not be '#1', '#2' etc, it would be a 4 character string that uniquely identifies that period eg. '17GH', '17GH', '#001'.

Mark

[swdatatracks]

Thanks @MarkAKelly and @jonathanleather