Can I use a spreadsheet for Making Tax Digital?

Yes. Since 6 April 2026 you can keep Making Tax Digital records in a spreadsheet, as long as bridging software sends your updates to HMRC and the two are digitally linked.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD) asks you to keep digital records and send HMRC a summary every quarter. A spreadsheet can do the record-keeping half. Bridging software does the sending half. The rules below follow GOV.UK as checked on 16 October 2026.

What bridging software does

GOV.UK describes two kinds of compatible software. One kind creates the records itself, from a bank feed, scanned receipts or typed entries. The other kind "will connect to existing records kept in spreadsheets or other accounting tools", and GOV.UK says it is sometimes called bridging software.

With a spreadsheet and bridging software, the spreadsheet holds your records and the bridging software reads them and sends your quarterly updates. GOV.UK says some bridging products also let you submit your tax return. Check that before you choose one, or you may need a second product at the end of the year.

What your spreadsheet must hold

Each income or expense is a digital record, and each record needs:

• the amount
• the date the money came in or the cost was incurred
• a category, using the same categories as the Self Assessment tax return

If your turnover from a self-employment, or your UK property turnover, is under £90,000, you can categorise in less detail. A sole trader then only needs to mark each row as income or an expense. A landlord with residential property must also mark mortgage interest and other finance costs as a separate type of expense.

If your turnover reaches £90,000, you must go back and categorise every record for that business in full, from the start of the tax year, before you can send your next update.

The digital link rules

This is the rule that matters most for spreadsheet users. GOV.UK says the record-keeping software and the software that makes submissions must be digitally linked, and the link should be in place when you set up or before you send an update.

Links GOV.UK accepts include linked cells with formulas, emailing a spreadsheet so it can be imported, CSV or XML import and export, file uploads, automated transfers and API connections. Once a record has been sent to HMRC in an update, you must not move it by hand. That means no copying it out into another cell or product, and no cut and paste or copy and paste.

You do not need to link software that only submits your tax return, because it gets your figures directly from HMRC. Joint landlords do not need to link to the other owner's records.

What this means for you

If you already run your trade or your lets from a spreadsheet, you can keep it. A roofer who logs each day's materials and each customer payment in rows can carry on, provided the rows are complete, dated and categorised, and the bridging software reads the file rather than you retyping totals.

The weak point is discipline. Every cash job, every card payment at the builders' merchant and every rent receipt needs a row before that quarter's update goes. GOV.UK suggests recording each one as close to the transaction as you can. You also keep the receipts and statements behind the rows for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year.

Steps to set up a spreadsheet for MTD

1. Choose bridging software from the GOV.UK list of compatible software, and check whether it also submits the tax return.
2. Set out your sheet with one row per transaction: date, amount and category.
3. Start from 6 April of your first MTD year (1 April if your accounts run to 31 March), and use separate records for each self-employment.
4. Link the sheet to the bridging software by import, upload or direct connection before your first update.
5. Fix any mistakes in the spreadsheet itself, then send them through the link.
6. Send each quarterly update by its deadline: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May.

The free MTD check shows when MTD starts for you. Our guides on what records to keep and update deadlines go further, and the trades section and landlord section describe our service.