PingtailMaking Tax Digital: collecting quarterly records
Four quarterly updates a year means four rounds of chasing. A calendar, checklist and routine for UK bookkeepers with Making Tax Digital clients.
For years a sole trader or landlord client was a once-a-year job. You asked for the year's records in the spring or the autumn, chased them through the winter, and filed by 31 January. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax changes the rhythm. A client in it sends HMRC an update every quarter, and an update needs the quarter's records. One round of chasing a year becomes four, plus the tax return.
Your software and your team can handle four updates. What decides whether each update goes in calmly or in the last two days before the 7th is the same thing as before: when the client's records arrive, and whether they are the right ones. This guide sets out the calendar, a records checklist per quarter, and a routine for collecting them that a small UK firm can repeat four times a year. The tax facts here are general and come from HMRC's guidance on gov.uk; check the current rules for your client.
Who is in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
It applies to sole traders and landlords who are registered for Self Assessment and have sent a tax return. Whether a client must join, and when, depends on their qualifying income: self-employment and property income together, taken from a tax return they have already sent.
| Qualifying income on this return | Is over | Making Tax Digital from |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 to 2025 | £50,000 | 6 April 2026 |
| 2025 to 2026 | £30,000 | 6 April 2027 |
| 2026 to 2027 | £20,000 | 6 April 2028 |
So the first clients are already in, and each April brings a new group. A practical step now is to sort your sole trader and landlord clients into these three groups, so you know how many quarterly collections you will run each year from 2026 to 2028.
What changes for the client
- They keep digital records and use compatible software, or you do it for them.
- An update goes to HMRC every quarter.
- The tax return is still due by 31 January after the tax year.
- Supporting records, such as bank statements and invoices, are still kept, as they were for Self Assessment.
For the collection side of your firm, the third and fourth points matter most. Nothing about the documents themselves changes. A bank statement is still a bank statement. What changes is how often you need them and how firm the dates are.
The quarterly calendar
There are two ways to divide the tax year into quarters. Standard update periods end on the 5th of the month, following the tax year. Calendar update periods end on the last day of the month. The deadlines for both are the same.
| Standard period | Calendar period | Update due by |
|---|---|---|
| 6 April to 5 July | 1 April to 30 June | 7 August |
| 6 April to 5 October | 1 April to 30 September | 7 November |
| 6 April to 5 January | 1 April to 31 December | 7 February |
| 6 April to 5 April | 1 April to 31 March | 7 May |
The periods are shown from 6 April (or 1 April) because each update carries totals from the start of the tax year to the end of the period, not only the latest three months. More on why that helps in the section on corrections below.
Notice the gap between the end of each period and its deadline: about a month. That month is your whole collection window. If the records arrive in the last week, the update is a rush. If they arrive in the first two weeks, it is routine.
What to ask for each quarter
Keep the quarterly request short and the same every time, so the client learns it. Four items cover most sole traders and landlords. Adjust per client: take out what they do not have and add what is particular to them.
- Bank statements: the full statements covering the quarter for every account used for the business or the rental property, as PDFs from online banking, every page. Not screenshots and not a transaction list.
- Sales and income records: sales invoices, a takings report from the till or invoicing app, or the client's own list of amounts with dates, including cash received.
- Bills and receipts: what was bought for the business or the property in the quarter, especially anything paid in cash or on a personal card. A clear photo is fine if the date, supplier and total can be read.
- Rental income statements (landlords): the letting agent's statements for the quarter, or the client's own list of rent received per property, with the bills for repairs, insurance and agent fees.
Say the period in dates in every item: "6 July to 5 October", not "Q2". Clients do not think in quarters, and a client on standard periods who sends a statement ending 30 September has left five days out. The guide to chasing bank statements covers how to ask for the right account and period so the first statement is the usable one.
A collection routine for one quarter
Here is one quarter, the period ending 5 October with its 7 November deadline, run backwards from the deadline. The same shape works for every quarter.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 6 October | The request goes out to every client in this quarter's group, with the period in dates and a due date. |
| Due date: about 20 October | Early enough to leave two weeks for your own work and one round of fixes. |
| 9, 13 and 18 October | Written reminders, each listing only what is still missing. |
| 21 to 23 October | A call to anyone still missing records. |
| Late October | Records reviewed and entered. Problems sent back the same day they are found. |
| By 7 November | The update goes in from your compatible software. |
Two habits make the routine hold. First, send the request the day after the period ends, every quarter, without waiting to be reminded. Second, set the client's due date well before the 7th, never on it. The 7th is your deadline, not theirs. For the reasoning behind three reminders and a call, see how many reminders before you call.
Late records and corrections
Because each update carries totals from the start of the tax year to the end of the period, a correction goes into the next update. A receipt that turns up in November for a September purchase does not mean the last update has to be redone; it goes into the cumulative totals next time.
That is useful, but it is not a reason to relax collection. A client who sends half the records every quarter pushes the work to the final update and the tax return, which is exactly the January crunch Making Tax Digital was meant to spread out. Use it for genuine stragglers, not as the plan.
What happens if an update is missed
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year there is no penalty for missing a quarterly update deadline, but the updates must still be sent before the tax return can be. For tax years after 2026 to 2027, each missed quarterly update or tax return deadline is one penalty point, and at 4 points the penalty is £200.
The first year is a good time to set the routine up, while a missed quarterly deadline brings no penalty. A client who learns in 2026 that records go in during the first two weeks after the quarter will keep doing it when points start to count.
Explaining the change to clients
Clients joining Making Tax Digital mostly want to know what they have to do differently. Keep the message short and practical.
Subject: Your records every quarter, starting [month]
Hi [first name],
From [date], your income tax works a little differently. Instead of sending us your records once a year, you will send them every three months, so we can send HMRC a quarterly update for you.
The records are the same ones you send now: your bank statements, your sales records and your bills and receipts. The only change is timing. After each quarter ends, we will email you a short list. Please send everything within two weeks.
The first quarter ends on [date]. You will hear from us the next day.
Thanks,
[your name]
Then do exactly what the email says, on the day it says. A client who receives the list the day after each quarter ends, four times running, has learned the routine.
Questions
Does Making Tax Digital change which documents a client needs to keep?
No. Supporting records such as bank statements and invoices are still kept, as they were for Self Assessment. What changes is that the figures go into digital records and an update goes to HMRC every quarter, so you need those documents four times a year instead of once.
Should a client use standard or calendar update periods?
That depends on the client and on how your firm works, and the deadlines are the same either way. For collection, what matters is that every request names the exact dates of the period, so a client on standard periods sends statements to the 5th and not to the end of the month.
When should I send the quarterly records request?
The day after the period ends. That leaves about a month before the update deadline on the 7th of the following month. Set the client's due date about two weeks after the request, so you have time to review the records and ask for fixes.
Is there a penalty if a client's records are late and the update is missed?
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year there is no penalty for a missed quarterly update deadline, although updates must still be sent before the tax return. For later years each missed deadline is a penalty point, and 4 points bring a £200 penalty. Check the current rules for your client.
Doing this with Pingtail
Pingtail is not Making Tax Digital software: it keeps no digital records for HMRC, sends no quarterly updates and does not file a tax return. What it does is the collection: a ready-made quarterly records checklist for sole traders and landlords goes to each client by email, reminders follow on their own and list only what is missing, and every upload is checked so a statement for the wrong quarter is caught while the client is still on the page. The Making Tax Digital page shows the quarter from request to the 7th. You can try it on yourself first: send a test request to your own email and upload the wrong file on purpose.