KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
How to file your NRS Rev360 VAT return without retyping a single transaction
The NRS Rev360 VAT return needs seven data points per sale: customer name, TIN, product, VAT category, description, state, LGA, and amount excluding VAT. TunedBooks captures all of them when you record the sale. When filing day comes, you export a guide with your data already organised in the column order the Rev360 template expects then copy, paste, and upload.
In this article
The real problem with VAT filing for small businesses
The problem is not the filing itself. The NRS portal works. The template is a spreadsheet. Uploading takes five minutes.
The problem is the three days before the upload. That is when a business owner sits down with a stack of receipts, a notebook, a phone full of bank transfer screenshots, and tries to reconstruct three months of sales into a format the template accepts. Customer name did I write that down? TIN do I have it? Was that sale vatable, zero-rated, or exempt? Which state was the customer in?
Most of that information existed at the moment of the sale and vanished seconds later because nobody captured it.
The fix is not a better spreadsheet. It is recording the right data at the right time the point of sale so that when filing day arrives, the work is already done.
What the Rev360 template actually asks for
The NRS Rev360 VAT return template is an Excel workbook with several tabs. The two you need to fill are the Sales Schedule (tab A) and the Purchases Schedule (tab C2). The VAT Return Form tab auto-populates from those two.
Sales Schedule (Tab A) one row per sale
For every sale in the period, the template needs these columns, starting at row 6:
| Column | Field | Example |
|---|---|---|
| B | Customer name | Emeka Trading Ltd |
| C | Customer TIN | 12345678-0001 |
| D | Product name | Office chairs |
| E | VAT category | 0 = vatable, 1 = zero-rated, 2 = exempt |
| F | Description | Ergonomic office chair, 5 units |
| G | State | FCT |
| H | LGA | Abuja Municipal |
| I | Amount ex-VAT | 250,000.00 |
That is eight fields per sale. For a business doing 50 transactions a week, a quarterly return contains 600 rows. Typing those by hand, after the fact, from memory and receipts, is where the errors come from and where the days disappear.
Purchases Schedule (Tab C2) one row per purchase
For goods you bought with VAT, the template needs seller name, seller TIN, description, amount excluding VAT, and VAT status. For services, the same fields go into columns J through N. This is how you claim input VAT back.
600 rows, already filled.
TunedBooks captures every field at the point of sale. When you export, the data is already in the column order Rev360 expects.
What TunedBooks captures at the point of sale
This is the part that eliminates the reconstruction. Every time you record a sale in TunedBooks, the app captures or calculates everything the Rev360 template asks for:
| Rev360 field | Where TunedBooks gets it |
|---|---|
| Customer name | Customer field on the transaction saved and auto-completed for returning customers |
| Customer TIN | TIN field on the customer profile entered once, reused on every future transaction |
| Product name | From your product catalogue set up once when you add the product |
| VAT category (0/1/2) | Set per product: standard, zero-rated, or exempt. Inherited by every sale of that product. |
| Description | Product name and quantity, auto-generated |
| State and LGA | Set in your business profile applies to in-store sales. Can be overridden per transaction for delivery or remote sales. |
| Amount ex-VAT | Calculated automatically from the selling price based on the VAT category. If the product is vatable at 7.5%, TunedBooks separates the VAT and shows the ex-VAT amount. |
The key principle: data captured once, at the moment it is true, never retyped. The customer's TIN does not change between January and March. The product's VAT category does not change between Tuesday and Friday. Recording these facts once and reusing them on every transaction is what makes a quarterly export take minutes instead of days.
For marketplace sales that come in through Shopify, eBay, or Chowdeck, TunedBooks pulls the order details automatically. The product name, quantity, amount, and fees arrive without you typing anything. You may still need to add the customer's TIN for B2B sales but everything else is already there.
The three VAT categories and why they matter
The Rev360 template uses integer codes for VAT status: 0, 1, or 2. Getting these wrong does not just cause a filing error it miscalculates your VAT liability.
| Code | Category | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Standard (vatable) | VAT at 7.5% applies. Output VAT is charged and remitted. | Electronics, clothing, professional services |
| 1 | Zero-rated | VAT applies at 0%. Still a VATable supply it counts in your gross sales and you report it, but no actual VAT is charged. | Exports, certain agricultural products |
| 2 | Exempt | Outside the VAT system entirely. Not counted in VATable turnover. No VAT charged. | Basic food items, medical services, educational services |
In TunedBooks, you set the VAT category when you add a product. Every future sale of that product inherits the category automatically. If a product changes status for example, a product moves from exempt to standard under a tax reform you update it once in the product catalogue and every new sale picks up the change.
The most common filing mistake is treating zero-rated and exempt as the same thing. They are not. Zero-rated sales still count toward your VATable turnover and must appear in the Sales Schedule. Exempt sales do not. Mixing them up either inflates or deflates your reported turnover both of which create problems on audit.
Five steps: from your phone to the NRS portal
If you have been recording sales in TunedBooks all quarter, this process takes under ten minutes.
Step 1 Download the official NRS template
Go to nrs.gov.ng and download the current Rev360 VAT return template. It is an Excel workbook with pre-formatted tabs.
Step 2 Export your VAT return guide from TunedBooks
- Open TunedBooks → Reports → VAT Return
- Select the filing period (the quarter you are filing for)
- Tap Export
- TunedBooks generates a PDF with three sections:
- Section 1 VAT Return Form summary (total vatable sales, output VAT, total purchases, input VAT, net VAT payable)
- Section 2 Sales Schedule data in the exact column order of Tab A (customer, TIN, product, category, description, state, LGA, amount ex-VAT)
- Section 3 Purchases Schedule data in the column order of Tab C2 (goods in columns B–F, services in columns J–N)
Step 3 Copy sales data into the NRS template
Open the NRS template in Excel. Go to the A – Sales tab. Starting at row 6, column B, paste the rows from Section 2 of your TunedBooks export. The columns are already in the right order.
Step 4 Copy purchases data
Go to the C2 – Purchases List tab. Starting at row 8, paste goods into columns B–F and services into columns J–N from Section 3 of your export.
Step 5 Verify and upload
The VAT Returns Form tab in the NRS template auto-populates from your Sales and Purchases tabs. Check that the totals match Section 1 of your TunedBooks export. If they match, save the file and upload it to nrs.gov.ng → VAT Assessment → Upload.
That is the entire process. No reconstruction. No retyping. The data was captured at the point of sale, stored all quarter, and exported in the format the portal expects.
What if I am not VAT registered yet?
You should still track VAT on every transaction. Two reasons.
First, the VAT registration threshold is based on turnover. If your business is growing, you may cross it sooner than you expect. If your records already carry VAT data, registration is a formality and your first return files from existing data. If they do not, you start from zero on registration day and spend a month reconstructing.
Second, clean VAT records are part of the organised financial picture that lenders, investors, and grant programmes look for. Even if you never file a VAT return, the discipline of categorising every sale as vatable, zero-rated, or exempt tells you and anyone looking at your books exactly what your business does and what it earns.
TunedBooks tracks VAT regardless of your registration status. When the time comes, the data is there.
Record the sale once. The return builds itself.
Free to start. Works offline. Every field the Rev360 template needs, captured automatically.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NRS Rev360 VAT return?
Rev360 is the Nigeria Revenue Service portal where VAT-registered businesses file their Value Added Tax returns. The return consists of a VAT Return Form, a Sales Schedule (Schedule A), a Purchases Schedule (Schedule C2), and a Sales Adjustments schedule. Businesses download the template from nrs.gov.ng, fill it with their transaction data, and upload it.
What data does the Rev360 template require for each sale?
For each sale, the Rev360 Sales Schedule requires the customer name, customer TIN, product name, VAT category (vatable, zero-rated, or exempt), description, state of consumption, LGA, and the amount excluding VAT. TunedBooks captures all of these fields at the point of sale.
Can TunedBooks generate a Rev360 VAT return?
TunedBooks generates a VAT return guide that contains your data organised in the exact column order the Rev360 template expects Sales Schedule, Purchases Schedule, and a VAT Return Form summary. You copy the rows into the official NRS template and upload. TunedBooks does not submit directly to NRS.
Do I need to be VAT registered to use TunedBooks for tax records?
No. TunedBooks tracks VAT on every transaction regardless of your registration status. If you are not yet registered, you still have clean records ready for the day you cross the threshold. If you are registered, your filing data is already captured.
How does TunedBooks handle the three VAT categories?
When you add a product or record a sale, you set the VAT category: standard (7.5 percent, vatable), zero-rated (0 percent but still a VATable supply), or exempt (outside VAT entirely). TunedBooks calculates VAT amounts automatically, separates them on invoices, and groups them correctly in the export.