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Making Tax Digital Software for Decorators
Making Tax Digital for decorators. Trade Assist keeps your income and expense records organised and exportable for MTD. Works alongside Xero and Sage. Try free.
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is changing how UK businesses report their income and expenses to HMRC. For painters and decorators, it means keeping digital records throughout the year rather than scrambling at year-end with a box of receipts.
Trade Assist helps decorators stay prepared for Making Tax Digital by keeping your income and expense records organised and exportable as you run your business. Trade Assist is not HMRC-approved bridging software and does not submit directly to HMRC — instead, it keeps your records digital and produces exports your accountant or MTD-compatible accounting software can use.
What Making Tax Digital Means for Decorators
Making Tax Digital is an HMRC initiative to move UK tax records and submissions into the digital age. Under MTD for VAT, VAT-registered businesses must keep digital records and submit VAT returns using MTD-compatible software. MTD for Income Tax is being phased in for self-employed businesses and landlords above certain thresholds.
For decorators, this means you can no longer rely on paper records and manual year-end calculations. You need to keep digital records of your income and expenses throughout the year and use compatible software for your submissions.
Digital Record Keeping Throughout the Year
Trade Assist keeps your records digital and organised automatically. Every invoice records income, every expense logs a cost, and every payment updates your financial picture — just by using the software to run your business as normal.
Your income is categorised by client, job and invoice. Your expenses are categorised by type — Materials, Fuel, Subcontractor, Equipment. VAT is calculated automatically on every invoice if you are VAT-registered.
Tax Export for Your Accountant or Software
The Tax Export feature produces a complete summary of your income and expenses for any tax year or month, including all invoices, expenses, payments and VAT amounts, categorised and totalled.
Provide this export to your accountant for your Self Assessment or VAT return. If you use MTD-compatible accounting software like Xero or Sage, your accountant can use the export to populate your records for MTD submission.
Works Alongside Xero and Sage
Trade Assist is designed to work alongside accounting software, not replace it. Use Trade Assist for day-to-day business management — quoting, jobs, invoicing and expenses — and use Xero or Sage for your formal accounting and MTD submission.
This division of labour means you get decorator-specific business management and accounting power without entering data twice. See our Xero for decorators and Sage for decorators pages for details.
Related Pages
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Trade Assist HMRC-approved MTD software?
No. Trade Assist is not HMRC-approved MTD bridging software and does not submit directly to HMRC. It keeps your income and expense records digital and organised throughout the year and produces a Tax Export that your accountant or MTD-compatible accounting software (such as Xero or Sage) can use for MTD submission.
Can Trade Assist help with Making Tax Digital?
Yes. Trade Assist keeps your records digital and organised automatically as you create invoices and log expenses. The Tax Export produces a complete summary of your income and expenses for any period, which your accountant or accounting software can use for MTD submission.
Does Trade Assist handle VAT?
Yes. Set your VAT rate in your settings and every quote and invoice calculates the net amount, VAT amount and gross total automatically. The Tax Export includes a VAT breakdown by period to help you or your accountant prepare VAT returns.
Does Trade Assist work with Xero or Sage?
Trade Assist produces a Tax Export that your accountant can use alongside Xero or Sage for MTD submission. Trade Assist does not connect directly to those platforms or submit data automatically. See our Xero for decorators and Sage for decorators pages for details.
Can I track expenses for tax purposes?
Yes. Trade Assist lets you log expenses against each job — materials, fuel, subcontractor costs and equipment. The mileage log tracks business miles for tax-deductible travel. All expenses are included in the Tax Export.
Stay Prepared for MTD
Join UK decorators using Trade Assist to run their business. No card required.