Keep your spreadsheet. File Making Tax Digital from it.
Upload your figures from a CSV or Excel template and FileThat files your VAT returns and your MTD for Income Tax quarterly updates with HMRC. You check every figure first. No monthly subscription.
HMRC-recognised
CSV or Excel
No monthly subscription
What bridging software is
“This type of software will connect to existing records kept in spreadsheets or other accounting tools. It is sometimes referred to as ‘bridging software’.”
HMRC's description, from its guidance on choosing Making Tax Digital software
Making Tax Digital does not ban spreadsheets. It bans retyping. Your figures have to reach HMRC through compatible software, with no manual copying on the way. Bridging software is the piece that reads your spreadsheet and sends the figures. FileThat does that for VAT and for MTD for Income Tax, and it is also full record-keeping software if you would rather keep your books in it.
What you can file from a spreadsheet
VAT returns
Put your nine box figures in the VAT template and upload it. The file must carry all nine boxes or it is refused, so a half-filled return never reaches HMRC.
Self-employment quarterly updates
Turnover, other income and each expense category, as totals for the tax year so far. One template per business.
UK property quarterly updates
Rents, premiums and other property income, and the property expenses HMRC asks for, as year-to-date totals.
Foreign property quarterly updates
A column of figures for each property HMRC holds for you, each named in the template so the right figures go to the right place.
Fill, upload, submit
Download the template
Each return has its own CSV or Excel template, on the page where you file it. Keep your totals in it, or fill it with formulas that read from your own spreadsheet.
Upload it
FileThat reads the file and fills in the return. If a row is missing or a figure is not a number, it tells you which one so you can fix the file.
Check it and submit
You see every figure before anything goes to HMRC. If HMRC turns a figure down, you get HMRC’s own reason, not our guess at it.
How your figures are treated
Your figures are filed as you uploaded them
FileThat does not recalculate or adjust what is in your file. A blank cell is left out of the update rather than sent as zero.
Quarterly updates are year-to-date
Each Income Tax update covers the tax year so far, so your spreadsheet totals should too. If a figure is lower than what you have already filed this year, FileThat warns you before you submit.
The digital link stays intact
HMRC requires data to move between your records and your software digitally. The template holding your figures, or reading them with formulas, keeps that link. Copying numbers across by hand does not.
The year end is done on screen
The spreadsheet upload covers VAT returns and the quarterly updates. Your annual submission and final declaration are entered in FileThat itself.
Deadlines for this year are in the 2026–27 tax deadlines calendar.
Straight answers
Can I keep using my spreadsheet for Making Tax Digital?
Yes. HMRC allows spreadsheets as long as the figures reach HMRC through compatible software over a digital link. FileThat is that software: upload your figures through its template for your VAT returns and quarterly Income Tax updates.
Is FileThat recognised by HMRC?
Yes. FileThat is HMRC-recognised software for Making Tax Digital for VAT and Income Tax, and the spreadsheet upload submits through the same connection to HMRC as the rest of FileThat.
Do I have to use your template?
Yes. Each return has its own layout, so FileThat can tell which figure belongs in which box. You can keep your own spreadsheet as it is and link the template to it with formulas.
Which tax years does it cover?
VAT returns for any open VAT period, and Income Tax quarterly updates from the 2026-27 tax year, the first year of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.
What if I also keep digital records in FileThat?
For the update you upload, the spreadsheet figures replace the ones from your digital records. The page tells you when the figures came from your file, so you always know which you are about to submit.
What does it cost?
Uploading is free. You pay the normal per-submission price when you file, from £3.99 for a quarterly update depending on your income. Nil VAT returns, final declarations and amendments are free, and there is no monthly subscription.
Your spreadsheet, filed with HMRC
4 free credits, no card needed. Pay per submission after that, with no monthly subscription.
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