Almost every business now runs on subscriptions — email, accounts, design tools, job management. The good news is that software you pay for to run the business is a straightforward deductible expense, and one of the easiest categories to keep tidy in your quarterly updates.
Small subscriptions are invisible money. An £8.99 app here and a £14.99 service there quietly add up to well over £300 a year of unclaimed expenses. At the end of each quarter, sweep your bank statement for recurring card payments and catch them all.
Annual renewals cause their own problems. Paid in April, claimed in April — that's fine under cash basis accounting. But auto-renewals can be charged twice or on a card you've stopped checking, so keep a note of renewal dates with each entry.
Finally, hardware and software often arrive on one invoice. A £649 laptop bundled with £90 of antivirus needs splitting — the software is an expense here, the laptop goes the capital allowances route with your accountant's help.
Select Computer software for every subscription and app the business uses, noting the renewal date so nothing gets double-counted. A quick review of this category at the end of each quarter usually finds something you forgot you were paying for.
Track all your expenses in HMRC's own categories with the MTD Sole Trader Tracker.
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