Record Keeping for Business – Mobile Apps

HMRC have been encouraging the software development industry to provide mobile phone apps to assist small businesses and the self-employed (who are under the VAT threshold) with their basic accounts record keeping. These basic apps can be used on smartphones to record transactions in real time, including taking a photo of receipts.

A list of the currently available apps can be found on HMRCs website http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/softwaredevelopers/mobile-apps/record-keeping.htm
They are proving popular as HMRC say that, at the last count, there had been more than 5,600 apps downloads.

Which app you chose will depend on you mobile phone type but we have tried out a couple of the iphone apps to see how they work.

Free Agent Central – Earnest

Sage - Sage record keeper mobile

Both of these apps have basic functions for recording items of income and expenditure. They both have a facility for taking a photo of the relevant receipt and storing it against the invoice entry. We were hoping that that there would be intelligent analysis of the photo to transfer data directly into the record but alas for the time being this functionality is not yet available.

The apps add the income and expense invoices to give you a running profit total for the tax year to date and allow for simple analysis by expense type. Earnest attempts an estimate of tax liability but disappointingly Sage record keeper only directs you to HMRCs online tax calculator.

The collected data can be simply emailed to your computer as a spread sheet where further analysis and printing can be done. The downloaded information will still need to be analysed before it can be entered on your tax return. The apps also include handy diary reminders for key dates and links to useful pages on the HMRC web site.

We think these apps are an excellent idea and the ones we have tried are simple to use. They will be most useful for people who are out and about and need a practical method of recording details on the move with an easy way to send data back to the office. We can see the biggest user of this type of app being reps completing their expenses claims rather than the intended target of the small business, but they are well worth a try.