Clients who used to come once a year
Many sole trader and landlord clients used to arrive once a year with a bag of receipts, a spreadsheet of rents or a notebook of mileage. Your firm did the work in a concentrated burst and filed. Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, clients who fall within its scope need digital records and quarterly updates, which means that rhythm has to become quarterly.
For a firm, that is more deadlines per client, more contact points and many clients who need help changing how they keep records. It lands on top of VAT, payroll and monthly work that already fills the calendar.
Why this is hard for a firm, not only for clients
The difficulty is less in any single update and more in the volume and the variety. Some clients are ready with software and bank feeds. Some have spreadsheets. Some have a shoebox. Some have property income with a letting agent sending statements, some have several properties with joint owners. Each type needs a different routine, and the firm has to track which clients are in scope, which are ready and which updates are done.
Which clients are in scope, and from when, depends on HMRC's rules and their income, which your firm and the client work out. The system tracks what you decide.
What it costs to handle it ad hoc
Without a system, the firm is back to spreadsheets of deadlines, emails chasing records four times a year and a partner who cannot see how ready the client base is. Staff spend time converting records by hand each quarter. And clients who struggle with the change blame the firm for the hassle.
| Client type | Typical records | Routine needed |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader with bank feed in software | Already digital | Quarterly review and submit |
| Sole trader with spreadsheet | Digital but unstructured | Import and categorise each quarter |
| Sole trader with paper | Receipts and notebooks | Capture app and monthly habit |
| Landlord through a letting agent | Agent statements | Statement collection and parsing |
| Landlord managing directly | Bank lines and receipts | Feed plus categorisation rules |
How we build it for your firm
- We tag each client in your practice tool with your decision on scope, start date and client type, so the firm knows who needs what.
- For clients using software such as Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, we connect and read their records' readiness each quarter: feeds working, items categorised, nothing sitting in suspense.
- For spreadsheet and paper clients, we set up a simple capture route, photos of receipts and forwarded statements, with extraction and categorisation into their digital records, and a bookkeeper checking before anything is used.
- Letting agent statements are read automatically and posted against each property, with joint ownership shares applied as you record them.
- Each quarter, clients get reminders with a clear list of what is missing, and a status page they can check.
- A firm-wide tracker shows every quarterly update due, its readiness, who is working on it and whether it has been submitted through your MTD-compatible software.
Submission itself happens through the recognised software you and the client use. We build the collection, preparation and tracking around it.
Quarterly work that fits the month
Quarterly updates become a steady part of the calendar rather than four new crunches. Clients who were never going to keep perfect records have a simple routine that produces what you need. The partner can see how ready the client base is and plan staffing and pricing accordingly. And the year-end work gets easier, because the records were built up through the year.
Is your firm ready for it?
- You have many sole trader or landlord clients who come once a year.
- Some of them keep records on paper or in loose spreadsheets.
- You have not yet mapped which clients need what routine.
- Quarterly deadlines would be tracked in a spreadsheet today.
- Your pricing for these clients assumes annual work only.