The CIS week
Every month, in the days before the deadline, your CIS clients all need the same thing at once. A builder sends a photo of four subbie invoices, one handwritten. Another has taken on a new plasterer and has not mentioned it. A third has paid someone twice and deducted once. The bookkeeper works through them, verifies new names, calculates deductions, files the return, and then remembers the statements still need to go to every subcontractor.
It is intense, repetitive and deadline-bound, and it lands on top of normal month-end work.
Why CIS gets squeezed
Builders are busy on site and paperwork happens when it happens. Subcontractor invoices arrive at month end in a batch, often without the details needed. New subcontractors are taken on by phone and nobody tells the office. The information needed for a return trickles in over the month but is only gathered at the end.
Across a firm, CIS clients tend to be looked after by whoever knows CIS, so the monthly crunch lands on the same one or two people.
What the CIS crunch costs
Late or incorrect returns can lead to penalties for your clients, and corrections take time. Unverified subcontractors paid at the wrong rate create problems to unpick. Statements sent late generate calls from subcontractors who need them for their own tax affairs. And the people who carry CIS in your firm burn out on the same week every month.
| Monthly task | Usual pain point |
|---|---|
| Collect subcontractor invoices | Arrive late, in photos, incomplete |
| Verify new subcontractors | Builder did not say someone was new |
| Calculate deductions | Labour and materials not split on the invoice |
| File the return | Everything lands in the last days |
| Send statements to subcontractors | Forgotten or sent late |
How we build a CIS workflow across your builders
- Each builder client gets a simple way to submit subcontractor invoices as they pay them, from a phone, by photo or forwarded email, with a model reading the name, amount and labour and materials split.
- Each subcontractor is matched against the client's list of known subbies. New names are flagged straight away to the bookkeeper and the client, so verification happens before payment where possible.
- Where the ledger or CIS software supports it, verification results and deduction rates are read and applied, and invoices missing a labour and materials split go back to the client with a specific question.
- Through the month, the return data builds up per client, so the bookkeeper reviews and files rather than assembles.
- Statements for each subcontractor are generated from the filed figures and sent by email, with a copy kept.
- A firm-wide screen shows every CIS client: data complete, awaiting information, filed, statements sent.
Filing itself stays in the CIS-capable software you already use, such as Xero's CIS features or your payroll package. We feed it and track around it. The rules on who needs verifying and at what rate come from HMRC, not from us.
CIS without the monthly crunch
Information arrives through the month rather than in one batch. New subcontractors get picked up when they start, not after they are paid. The bookkeeper's CIS week becomes a review and filing week. Statements go out on time as a matter of routine, and the load can be shared across more of the team because the process is visible.
Is CIS a monthly scramble for you?
- Builder clients send subcontractor invoices in a batch at month end.
- You find out about new subcontractors after they have been paid.
- Invoices often lack a labour and materials split.
- Statements to subcontractors are sometimes late.
- Only one or two people in the firm can do CIS work.