Money basics, minus the jargon.

How to download your bank statement

Every major South African bank lets you download statements from online banking or the banking app. Look for a section called Statements, Documents or Transaction history, choose the account and dates, and pick a format.

• PDF is the official statement and often arrives by email each month. It may be protected with a password such as your ID number.
• CSV (sometimes called “Download transactions” or “Export”) is a spreadsheet file and is the most reliable to read.
• OFX is made for accounting software and works too.

Then open Bank statements in LedgerMate and choose the file. Start with the last three months.

Need a walkthrough of what to check next? Read our bank statement bookkeeping guide.

VAT basics for small businesses

VAT is a 15% tax added to most goods and services. Only businesses registered with SARS for VAT may charge it, and they pay SARS the VAT they charged customers minus the VAT they paid on business costs.

• Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable sales over 12 months pass SARS’s threshold. You can also choose to register voluntarily once you meet SARS’s minimum. Check the current amounts on the SARS VAT page.
• Most small vendors submit a VAT201 return every two months on eFiling.
• You may only claim VAT you paid if you have a valid tax invoice from a VAT-registered supplier.
• If you are not registered, do not add VAT to your invoices.

PAYE, UIF and SDL if you employ people

When you pay staff, you hold back some of their pay for SARS and add contributions of your own. You declare and pay these every month on the EMP201.

• PAYE is the income tax on your employees’ pay. You work it out from SARS’s tax tables and pay it over for them.
• UIF is usually 1% of each employee’s pay held back from them, plus 1% from you, up to a monthly limit.
• SDL is 1% of your total payroll, once your payroll is over R500 000 a year.
• The EMP201 is due by the 7th of the next month, or the last business day before it. Twice a year you reconcile on the EMP501, and after the tax year ends you give each employee an IRP5.

LedgerMate records the wages you pay and your EMP201 payments, and shows each month’s due date. It does not work out PAYE for each employee, so use payroll software or your accountant for that. Read more on the SARS PAYE page.

Provisional tax in plain language

If you earn income that is not a salary, such as profit from your own business, SARS usually expects you to pay income tax in advance, in two instalments during the tax year. This is provisional tax.

• The tax year for individuals runs from 1 March to the end of February.
• The first payment is usually due by the end of August and the second by the end of February.
• Each payment is based on an estimate of your profit for the year. LedgerMate’s Tax page shows your profit so far to help you estimate.

Read more on the SARS provisional tax page.

Which records to keep, and for how long

SARS generally requires you to keep records that support your tax returns for five years from the date you submitted the return, and longer if you are being audited or have a dispute with SARS. Keep invoices you sent, receipts and tax invoices for costs, bank statements and your books.

Keep business and personal money apart

The single most helpful habit is a separate bank account for the business. It makes your statements cleaner, your profit easier to see and your tax simpler. When you do pay yourself, LedgerMate records it as money you took out, not as a business cost.