Digital expense records for Making Tax Digital

Who the current Income Tax rules affect

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax began on 6 April 2026 for qualifying sole traders and landlords with total qualifying income over GBP 50,000. The government timetable extends this to those over GBP 30,000 from April 2027 and over GBP 20,000 from April 2028. Eligibility and exemptions depend on HMRC's rules, so check the current GOV.UK Making Tax Digital guidance or ask a qualified adviser about your circumstances.

What digital expense records need to achieve

A digital process should capture transactions consistently and preserve enough evidence to explain each entry. For expenses, that normally means retaining the source receipt or invoice and recording its date, supplier, amount, currency, tax and business purpose in the appropriate accounting workflow.

A Google Sheet can be a useful collection and review layer, particularly where a sole trader or bookkeeper receives receipts from many supplier portals. The important part is that entries are complete, checked and transferred into the accounting process without uncontrolled copying or unexplained changes.

A practical receipt-to-record workflow

1. Collect promptly. Export web receipts or process invoices as they arrive rather than reconstructing a quarter from bank statements.
2. Keep the source. Retain the receipt or invoice according to your records policy and preserve a traceable source reference.
3. Verify the fields. Check supplier, transaction date, gross total, currency and tax against the source.
4. Add accounting context. Apply the correct category, business purpose, project or disallowable proportion in your controlled process.
5. Reconcile. Match the records to bank and card activity and resolve missing, duplicate or refunded transactions.
6. Submit through suitable software. Use HMRC-compatible accounting or bridging software for the submissions that apply to you.

Where Receipt Export Pro helps

Receipt Export Pro reduces the repetitive step between opening a receipt and creating a structured spreadsheet row. The free plan handles receipt web pages. Pro adds PDFs and images, which is useful when invoices arrive as downloads or scans.

The extension does not decide whether an expense is allowable, choose an accounting category, calculate a private-use adjustment or determine the correct VAT treatment. Those decisions remain part of your bookkeeping and professional advice process.

Controls that matter more than automation

• Use a consistent monthly close and reconciliation routine.
• Restrict access to business records and review sharing permissions.
• Correct errors transparently instead of silently overwriting unexplained figures.
• Keep source documents for the required period.
• Review extraction errors and repeated supplier-layout problems.
• Confirm that transfers between Sheets and accounting software preserve the required digital links.

Talk to your accountant before changing the process

Ask which fields, categories, evidence and export format they need. A simple Sheet can save time when it matches the downstream accounting process; it creates more work when columns, periods or tax conventions have to be rebuilt later.