The end of the tax year (5 April) is when sole traders close their books. Here's the checklist that catches the things that usually go missing.
Before 5 April
- All receipts scanned — anything sitting in a drawer goes into the scanner. Under MTD ITSA from April 2026, paper-only records won't comply.
- All invoices issued — anything delivered in the tax year that you want counted as income needs to be invoiced by 5 April (the issue date is what matters, not the payment date).
- Mileage logged — open Mileage and check the year-to-date total. Anything missing gets added at HMRC's simplified rates (45p / 25p per mile).
- Personal vs business — anything paid with personal money should be marked Paid personally so it flows correctly into your director's loan account (Ltd) or sole-trader drawings.
On or after 6 April
- Profit & Loss report — Reports → Profit & Loss → Tax year 2025/26. Eyeball the totals; categorise anything sitting in "uncategorised".
- Reconcile the bank — match any unmatched receipts/payments to invoices and expenses.
- Generate SA103F — Reports → Self Assessment → 2025/26 → Download SA103F PDF.
Submitting
If you're in MTD ITSA, file your final declaration through MTD in the Tax menu — that replaces the old Self Assessment. If you're not in MTD yet, use the HMRC website and the SA103F PDF as your source of truth.
Don't forget
- Class 2 + Class 4 NIC — included in Self Assessment; figures are in the same report.
- Payments on account — HMRC takes a 50% advance on next year's bill in January and July. Plan the cash flow.