Accounting

The Shoebox of Receipts Isn’t a System.

Most tradespeople run their books on a van dashboard full of receipts, a folder of invoices, and one long, painful weekend before every tax deadline. Accounting software exists — but it’s built for accountants, costs extra every month, and still makes you type everything in yourself.

✕Receipts fade, get lost, or never leave the van — and every lost receipt is lost tax relief
✕No idea what you’ve actually made until the accountant tells you months later
✕Quarterly digital tax reporting is rolling out to every self-employed tradesperson in the UK
✕QuickBooks and Xero mean another £7–£35/month and hours of setup and jargon

Try Free — No Card Needed Calculate Your Savings

9:41

ACCOUNTING

Accounting

Live

Tax year 2026–27 · up to date

Invoiced this year: £38,450

42 invoices · £4,200 outstanding

AUTO

Receipt scanned: £86.40

Screwfix · Cost of goods · filed by AI

📷

Expenses: £9,120

13 categories · photos attached

✓

Profit so far: £25,130

Q2 figures ready · deadline 7 Nov

✓

Books done · 0 minutes of data entry this week

THE SOLUTION

Your Invoices Already Live Here. So Your Books Build Themselves.

Every invoice you send and mark paid becomes income automatically — no data entry, because the data entry already happened when you invoiced the job. Expenses are one photo: the AI reads the receipt, writes the description, and files it under the right tax category. Open the Accounting tab any day and see earnings, spending, and profit — with your quarterly tax figures always ready.

HOW IT WORKS

Three Simple Steps

Income Tracks Itself

Send invoices and mark them paid like you already do. Invoiced, collected, and outstanding totals build automatically for the tax year — nothing to type.

Snap Your Receipts

Photograph any receipt at the merchant counter. The AI reads the supplier, date, and total, then files it under the correct tax category. Check it, tap save, done.

Quarterly Figures, Ready to Go

Your cumulative quarterly summary is always up to date, with the deadline counting down. Download the accountant-ready summary in one tap — or soon, file digitally without leaving the app.

BENEFITS

Why Tradesmen Love This

Zero Data Entry Income

Income comes straight from your invoices. Mark a job paid and every number updates — books as a by-product of work you already do.

AI Receipt Scanner

One photo turns a crumpled Screwfix receipt into a categorised, tax-ready expense in about five seconds. Bin the shoebox.

Know Your Profit Daily

Collected minus spent, on screen every day — not a surprise from your accountant once a year.

Plain-English Categories

“Van, fuel & travel”, “Cost of goods / materials”, “CIS subcontractor payments” — thirteen categories that map exactly to a UK sole trader’s tax return. No accounting jargon.

Deadlines That Can’t Sneak Up

Your next quarterly tax deadline is on screen with a countdown, and we email you before it’s due. Never a panicked Sunday night again.

Included With Every Paid Plan

No second subscription. Competitors charge £7–£35/month for accounting alone — here it’s part of the app you already quote and invoice with.

Why every UK tradesperson is about to need this

The UK is moving self-employed tax to digital record-keeping and quarterly reporting under Making Tax Digital. It already applies to higher-earning sole traders, and over the next two years the threshold drops until it covers effectively every full-time tradesperson — the test is your turnover before expenses, not your profit. When it applies to you, keeping digital records in compatible software stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the rule.

That means millions of tradespeople who have never used accounting software are about to need it. The choice is learning a general-purpose accounting package built for finance people — or using the app that already writes your invoices, where your books build themselves. Sleepless Tradesman keeps your records digitally, tracks the quarterly periods and deadlines that apply to you, and produces the exact figures the quarterly system asks for.

The receipt scanner your glovebox has been waiting for

Every faded receipt is tax relief you paid for and never claimed. The moment you're handed a receipt — at the merchant counter, in the van, on site — photograph it in the app. The AI reads the supplier, the date and the total, writes a sensible description, and suggests the right tax category from the thirteen that UK sole traders report against. You glance at it, correct anything, and save. The photo stays attached to the expense, so the evidence is there if anyone ever asks.

There's no folder organising, no month-end pile, and no doubt about whether that £40 at the merchant was claimed. Materials, fuel, insurance, tools, subcontractor payments — it all lands in the right box the day you spend it.

Made to work with your accountant, not replace them

If you have an accountant, this makes them cheaper and faster: instead of handing over a carrier bag of paper in January, you send a clean quarterly summary — income, categorised expenses, and profit — downloaded in one tap. They spend their time on advice, not data entry, and many will charge you less for it.

If you do it yourself, the same summary gives you exactly what the quarterly digital tax system asks for, and direct in-app filing is on the way — the plumbing is already built and going through the official approval process now.

The Difference

Metric	Without AI	With AI
Monthly cost	£7–£35 extra for accounting software	Included in your plan
Entering income	Manual data entry	Automatic from your invoices
Recording an expense	Type it in, attach files	One photo — AI does the rest
Knowing your profit	Once a year, from the accountant	Live, every day
Quarterly tax figures	Spreadsheet weekend	Always ready · one-tap download
Built for	Accountants	Tradespeople

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need any accounting knowledge to use it?

No — that's the point. Setup is three plain-English questions (with sensible defaults), income tracks itself from your invoices, and expense categories use everyday names like “Van, fuel & travel”. If you can send an invoice and take a photo, you can keep your books.

How does the receipt scanning work?

Photograph the receipt in the app. AI reads the supplier, date, and total, writes a short description, and suggests the right tax category. You review the details, change anything that's wrong, and save. The photo stays attached to the expense as evidence.

Is this Making Tax Digital ready?

Your records are kept digitally and your quarterly figures follow the exact periods and categories the new quarterly reporting system uses — including support for both standard and calendar quarters. Direct digital filing from the app is in the final stages of the official approval process.

What does it cost?

Nothing extra. Accounting is included with every paid Sleepless Tradesman plan alongside AI quoting, invoicing, and job management — while standalone accounting tools charge £7–£35 per month on top of whatever else you use.

Can I still use my accountant?

Absolutely — they'll love you for it. Download the quarterly summary and send it over: income, categorised expenses, and profit in one clean file, instead of a bag of receipts. Less data entry for them usually means lower fees for you.

What about VAT and limited companies?

Today the Accounting tab is built for self-employed sole traders — the majority of UK tradespeople. VAT return support and limited company accounts are on the roadmap.

FOR EVERY TRADE