Most tradespeople pick a bookkeeping app the week the accountant asks for the year's figures. With Making Tax Digital for Income Tax arriving in stages from April 2026, the pick matters more than it used to, because the app is where the quarterly updates will come from. Six things to check, in the order they bite.
1. Does it keep the record as the job happens, or after? The MTD rules want digital records kept at the time. An app that only imports a bank feed at month end is a reconciliation tool, not a record. Tradelynx Books lands each Tradelynx job automatically as it completes, with its provenance, and lets you add off-platform work and expenses with an edit history.
2. Where do the receipts go? A receipt in a glovebox is not attached to anything. Look for an app that attaches the receipt to the line it belongs to, so an HMRC query is an export, not a search. Books does this.
3. Does it work out VAT even if you are not registered? The registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in any rolling twelve months, and it creeps up on busy trades. An app that shows the figure as you go is worth more than one that tells you afterwards. Books works VAT out on what you record whether or not you are registered.
4. Is it HMRC-recognised, and does it file? This is the one to ask plainly. Many apps are; Tradelynx is not yet, so Books is MTD-ready but does not file to HMRC today. You, or your accountant, file from the export until recognition, and we say so on the page rather than in the small print.
5. What does it cost, all in? Accounting software is usually quoted ex-VAT, which matters if you are not registered and cannot reclaim it. Tradelynx Books is £15 per month including any VAT that applies, and free until Tradelynx is HMRC-recognised plus three months. No card to start.
6. What happens to your records if you stop paying? Ask before you start. With Books the tooling locks and the records stay yours and stay exportable; we never delete a trader's books.
If your work is outside the towns where Tradelynx offers customer jobs, none of this changes: Books works from any GB postcode. Details, and the honest list of what it does not do yet, at tradelynx.co.uk/books.