MTD Quarterly Record Organiser (2026/27)

Making Tax Digital is here - and you don't need to pay for software to cope with it

If you're self-employed or a landlord, the way you report your income to HMRC is changing in the biggest shake-up since Self Assessment was introduced. Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax means the end of the once-a-year tax return for many people, and the start of keeping digital records and sending HMRC a short update every three months. It sounds daunting, and the headlines about "quarterly tax returns" haven't helped. The reality is more manageable than it sounds - but only if your record-keeping is in order. That's exactly what this free organiser is built to do.

Most of the software approved for MTD comes with a monthly subscription. For a side-hustler turning over £30,000, or a landlord with one or two properties, paying £10 to £30 a month just to add up income and expenses feels steep. Our organiser lets you keep those digital records for free, builds your four quarterly summaries automatically, and exports everything to a CSV file you can hand to your accountant or type into whichever filing tool you eventually use. There's no signup, and your figures never leave your browser.

What Making Tax Digital actually requires of you

Once you're in scope (more on the timing below), MTD for Income Tax asks three things of you. First, keep digital records of your business or property income and expenses - no more shoebox of receipts reconciled in a panic each January. Second, send HMRC a quarterly update four times a year, summarising your income and expenses for each period. Third, after the tax year ends, submit a final declaration that pulls everything together, replaces the old Self Assessment return, and confirms your final tax position.

The quarterly updates are cumulative summaries, not full tax returns - you're not claiming reliefs or finalising anything four times a year. You're simply telling HMRC how the business is doing. The real reconciliation still happens once, at the final declaration. The official detail is set out in HMRC's guidance on using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which is worth bookmarking.

The four standard quarters

MTD uses standard quarterly periods that run from the start of the tax year:

• Quarter 1: 6 April to 5 July
• Quarter 2: 6 July to 5 October
• Quarter 3: 6 October to 5 January
• Quarter 4: 6 January to 5 April

Each update is due roughly a month after the quarter closes. Our organiser tags every income or expense line to the right quarter automatically based on its date, so you never have to work out which period a transaction belongs to. Add a fuel receipt dated in November and it lands in Quarter 3 without you thinking about it.

Are you actually in scope yet?

Not everyone has to comply at once. MTD for Income Tax is being phased in by income level, based on your combined gross (before expenses) income from self-employment and property. Those earning over £50,000 were brought in from April 2026, over £30,000 follow from April 2027, and over £20,000 from April 2028. If you're not sure where you stand, run your numbers through our free MTD Scope Checker first - it tells you whether and when the rules apply to you, so you don't start record-keeping a year earlier than you need to (or, worse, a year too late).

One common misunderstanding: the threshold is based on turnover, not profit. A landlord with £28,000 of rent and a big mortgage might have very little profit, but it's the £28,000 that counts towards the threshold. The same goes for a sole trader - it's your sales, not what's left after costs.

How to use this organiser

The tool is deliberately simple. Pick your tax year, then add each transaction as you go: choose income or expense, give it a date and a short description, and enter the amount as a positive number. The four quarterly summary cards update instantly, showing income, expenses and profit for each period, plus a running total for the whole year. When you're ready to file or hand things to your accountant, hit Export CSV and you've got a clean, dated record of everything.

Because the data lives in your browser, the best habit is to add transactions little and often - a few minutes a week beats a frantic catch-up before each quarterly deadline. If you switch devices or clear your browser, your records won't follow you automatically, so export a CSV periodically as a backup. Think of it as your digital ledger that happens to do the quarter-splitting for you.

What counts as an allowable expense?

For a sole trader, allowable expenses are costs incurred "wholly and exclusively" for the business - stock, tools, business travel, a proportion of home and phone costs, professional fees, and so on. Landlords can claim things like letting agent fees, repairs, insurance and ground rent, but not mortgage interest in the old way - that's now restricted under Section 24 and given as a basic-rate tax credit instead. If you're a landlord, our Landlord Rental Income & Tax Organiser handles that restriction specifically, and the Section 24 Calculator shows how much it costs you.

How this fits with the rest of your tax admin

Good record-keeping is only half the job - you still want to know what your bill will look like. Once you've got a feel for your annual profit from the year total here, sanity-check the tax with our Self Assessment Tax Calculator or, if you're a sole trader, the Self-Employed Tax Calculator, which factor in income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. If you also pay tax through PAYE, you may owe payments on account - our calculator explains whether they apply and how much to set aside.

Keeping a "tax pot" as you go is the single best habit a newly self-employed person can build. A rough rule of thumb is to set aside 20–30% of your profit for tax and National Insurance, more if you're a higher earner. The numbers in this organiser make that easy to estimate quarter by quarter, so the final bill never comes as a shock.

Why free, and where's the catch?

There isn't one. TaxFly is free to use and supported by advertising and affiliate partnerships, not by charging you per record or hiding the result behind a signup. This organiser doesn't connect to HMRC and doesn't submit anything on your behalf - when the time comes to file, you'll use HMRC-recognised software or your accountant, and the CSV export drops straight into that process. What we save you is the donkey work: the categorising, the quarter-splitting and the totting up.

If you'd like a fuller picture of the changes - including how MTD interacts with property income, jointly owned lettings and multiple businesses - the government's Making Tax Digital for Income Tax collection on GOV.UK is the definitive source. Use it alongside this tool: GOV.UK for the rules, TaxFly for the day-to-day record-keeping that keeps you on the right side of them.

The bottom line

Making Tax Digital isn't going away, and the thresholds are only coming down over time. The businesses and landlords who'll find it painless are the ones with tidy, up-to-date digital records - and the ones who leave it until the deadline will find it stressful, exactly as they do with the annual return today. Starting now, even before you're mandated, means you'll glide into the new system instead of scrambling. This organiser gives you a free, private, no-nonsense way to do that. Add your first transaction above, and let the quarters take care of themselves.

The mistakes that catch people out

A few avoidable errors come up again and again with quarterly record-keeping. The first is leaving everything to the deadline: because the updates are due roughly a month after each quarter ends, a last-minute scramble defeats the whole point of going digital. Adding transactions weekly, or even as they happen on your phone, keeps the job tiny. The second is mixing personal and business spending - keep them separate, ideally with a dedicated account, so you're never guessing whether a payment was a business cost. The third is forgetting that the threshold is based on gross income, not profit, which leads some landlords and traders to assume they're exempt when they're not.

Another frequent slip is treating a quarterly update as final. It isn't - you can correct figures later, and the real reconciliation happens at the final declaration, where you claim reliefs and confirm your position. So don't agonise over perfection each quarter; aim for accurate, complete records and fix anything in the wash-up. Finally, remember that capital purchases (like equipment) and ordinary running costs are treated differently for tax, so a quick note in the description field - "laptop, capital" versus "stationery" - saves head-scratching later.

Choosing MTD-compatible software when the time comes

This organiser keeps your records and builds your summaries, but the actual submission to HMRC must go through recognised software. When you reach that point, you have choices: full bookkeeping packages, lightweight apps aimed at sole traders, and "bridging" tools that simply file the figures you've already prepared. Because you'll arrive with a clean CSV of categorised, quarter-split transactions, even the cheapest bridging option will do - you've done the hard part here for free. HMRC keeps a list of compatible software for MTD for Income Tax that's worth scanning before you commit to a subscription.

If you use an accountant, ask how they'd like the figures. Many are happy to file on your behalf from a spreadsheet or CSV, which means you may never need to pay for software at all. Either way, keeping the underlying records yourself - as you do here - gives you control and keeps your accountancy bill down, since you're not paying someone to do data entry. Pair this organiser with our Self-Employed Tax Calculator through the year and you'll always have a good sense of both your records and your likely bill.

Who should use this tool

A structured record book for MTD quarterly updates, keeping income and expenses in a form that can be summarised at each quarter end. It is aimed at sole traders and landlords who need to move off paper or an ad-hoc spreadsheet before their start date arrives.

The habit it builds matters more than the format. MTD requires records maintained during the year, not reconstructed at the end — and the quarterly rhythm means a year’s worth of catching up in January stops being possible.

What this tool assumes

• Entries are recorded with date, type, amount and category, split between income and expenses.
• Categories align to the headings used in quarterly updates.
• Records are kept as transactions occur rather than reconstructed later.
• Quarterly periods follow the standard MTD quarters.

Limitations — what it does not cover

• Submission itself, which must go through HMRC-recognised software — this organises records, it does not file.
• Digital links, required between record keeping and submission.
• Whether a cost is allowable, which remains a judgement.
• The final declaration, which brings in all other income and reliefs.
• Adjustments — capital allowances, private use, accruals — usually made at year end.
• Multiple businesses, which need separate records.