Preparing myself for Making Tax Digital?

I have been using Hammock for over a year now and so easy as you do not have to be an accountant. Even if MTD was not coming in you should use the tools available now to manage your business. https://www.usehammock.com/

Reply to the comment left by Laura Delow at 19/12/2022 – 12:05I believe you can set up your spreadsheet to match the tax return and it uploads automatically. I have just done my first for VAT (non-property business) and it was surprisingly simple. My question is what is the point as the information is the same as entering it direct on to the HMRC website. I suspect they want the whole spreadsheet with feeder information to check people’s workings but I don’t see that it’s necessary to make it work

Reply to the comment left by Crossed_Swords at 28/12/2022 – 16:37
I shall look into that although I hope by 2026 there will be available software that’s simple to use for multiple income streams.

Most of the big bookkeeping software companies (Xero, QB, Freeagent etc) are putting together software packages for MTD which includes packages for property. There are also many smaller companies who are also in the market preparing software solutions.
Many of these companies have not yet been approved by HMRC as the goalposts keep changing and they see no point in having approved software if HMRC are going to keep changing things.
Software like Coconut is based on receiving a direct feed from your bank and the using that to allocate the expenses. I have seen a demonstration of the software twice and will be recommending it for the very smallest of my clients.
I have been using and recommending Hammock Software for 2 years now and many of my clients use it and find it easy to use. Again it takes a download directly from your bank and then using smart technology allocates the receipts and payments. It can cope with agents’ deductions and other unusual transactions.
There are also built in reminders and it saves copies of expense invoices doing away with the need for keeping paper copies.
Overall using software will enable you to be compliant with HMRC’s eventual requirement to comply with MTD.
However I see other benefits in that your records are complete and up to date and there is a tremendous time saving by using technology. Why would you not want to save time and be more accurate?

Reply to the comment left by Simon Lever – Chartered Accountant helping clients get the best returns from their properties at 03/01/2023 – 16:33
Will these be free?

Can they access more than one bank account?

And how do they improve upon a decent spreadsheet?

Reply to the comment left by Crossed_Swords at 03/01/2023 – 16:44Go Cardless list these as the best 5 paid packages
https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/five-best-accounting-software-for-landlords/
Many packages offer a 30 free trial
Some, such as Lendlord, offer an entry level version for free, with a charge for additional services.
Best bet is do your research and due diligence as you know what is important to you.
The advantage of these packages over a spreadsheet is that they come with some predefined reports and powerful reporting tools, both reports and graphs.
Most also offer additional tools and property management tools.
Best use of the spreadsheet will be to evaluate the packages and to download reports to for specific one-off analysis.

So another “advance” that used to be free and we now have to pay for like paper itemised statements.

Spreadsheets can do reports and graphs and you can define your own. I expect at least some of the software is based on a spreadsheet. I am designing one now. If I think it’s any good I’ll post it.

I don’t want anything to be linked to my bank, thank you very much. Same as I don’t link my accounts to each other. I have nothing to hide but I value privacy.

I’ve signed up for MTD for VAT (non-property) and there are free options – I chose one which uploads from a spreadsheet. I hope they will also do one for property tax.

Reply to the comment left by Crossed_Swords at 04/01/2023 – 14:12
Hear! Hear!