Breaking Changes in API versions v3 and v3.1 in case of a No Deal Brexit

Though the nature of the UK leaving the EU is still subject to uncertainty to this time (Sep 30, 2019), we are committed to providing clear direction as to the impact of no deal on the Accounting API. The following is a list of breaking changes that may impact your API integration in the case of a no deal brexit. You will be made aware of this event to enable you to react accordingly. The following is meant to help you get prepared for the changes. (As new scenarios for a Brexit arise, we will keep you updated as to any potential impact.)

Note: The Brexit changes only affect businesses in the UK 🇬🇧 which are VAT-registered. Businesses in other countries supported by this API (Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, U.S.) can safely ignore the upcoming Hard Brexit changes. Please be aware that all issues about pre- or post Brexit behaviour concern the official date of the invoice/credit note/payment, not the time of creation of this entity.

Restricted transaction types when modifying ‘other payments’

Operations concerned

• create and update actions on endpoint /other_payments

This change will only be in effect, when…

… all of the following three conditions are met:

• The business which the ‘other payment’ is being created for is VAT registered.
• The date attribute in the POST data refers to a date after a hard Brexit.
• The contact_id attribute in the POST data refers to a contact that is an EU contact without VAT registration.

What will change?

In the JSON data posted, the attribute transaction_type_id will not accept the values

• OTHER_PAYMENT
• OTHER_RECEIPT_REFUND

any more.

Data inconsistency risk for sales quick entries

Operations concerned

• create and update actions on endpoint /sales_quick_entries

This change will only be in effect, when …

… all of the following three conditions are met:

• The business which the sales quick entry is being created for is VAT registered.
• The date attribute in the POST data refers to a date after a hard Brexit.
• The contact_id attribute in the POST data refers to a contact that is an EU customer without VAT registration.

What will change?

Modifying sales quick entries will be allowed before and after a No-Deal-Brexit, so this change is not actually ‘breaking’, however, it may still require your attention and manual action: before Brexit, a non-VAT EU customer could be treated like a domestic (i.e. UK) non-VAT customer when it came to modifying a sales quick entry: tax did not require different handling as they are not VAT-registered, and free movement of goods was possible due to EU agreements. After a No-Deal-Brexit, the same EU customer must be treated differently to domestic customer if the sale is for goods (free movement of goods no longer applies, and rules required to record this type of transaction are not supported in Quick Entries), only sales quick entries for services are valid. No error will be raised; the responsibility lies with the end user to mitigate.

Goods/services indicator required for foreign contacts

Operations concerned

• create and update actions on endpoints
  • /sales_credit_notes
  • /sales_estimates
  • /sales_invoices
  • /sales_quotes
  • /purchase_corrective_invoices
  • /purchase_credit_notes
  • /purchase_invoices

This change will only be in effect, when …

… all of the following three conditions are met:

• The business which the resource is being created for is VAT registered, but not “flat rate”.
• The date attribute in the POST data refers to a date after a hard Brexit.
• The contact_id attribute in the POST data refers to a foreign contact.

What will change?

In the JSON data posted, the line item attribute eu_goods_services_type_id will become mandatory. Before Brexit, it was optional or—in the case of non-VAT-registered EU contacts—not even read at all.