CIS taken off a subcontractor
The CIS deducted this tax year opens onto every payment it came off, with the contractor, the date and the invoice. It counts by the date the money arrived, as HMRC does.
For accountants and bookkeepers
Every number explains itself.
You do not have to take Stoneledger’s word for a number. Stoneledger shows you where it came from. Click it.
Accounting and tax software on a real double-entry ledger, for the clients who take the most of your time: CIS contractors and subcontractors, landlords, sole traders coming into Making Tax Digital (MTD), and the companies and LLPs whose accounts you prepare. Every total is a button. What opens adds back to it, and says so - and a right-click explains it in words.
Click it and Explain this
The audit trail is the product.
A client asks why their tax went up. HMRC asks how a VAT box was made. A reviewer wants to see the CIS behind a refund. In most software the answer is a report to run and a spreadsheet to rebuild. In Stoneledger the answer is on the screen already: open the figure.
Every total is a button
The tax calculation, the VAT return, the CIS pane, the trial balance, every property, drawings and dividends, payroll. Click a figure and it opens onto what makes it up.
What opens adds back, and says so
Each breakdown ends by saying what its rows add to, and that it is the figure you opened. If a list ever came to a different total, the panel would say so in plain words rather than leave you to find it.
As deep as the question goes
Running costs opens by category, the way the trial balance groups them. A category opens its items. An item opens the invoice, bank entry or journal it came from. Two clicks answer most questions.
The document reference, everywhere
Every breakdown’s Reference column is the reference of the record behind the row, such as SAL-000105 or BNK-072515, with an Open button that takes you to it. The same reference on every screen.
Click it, in five places your clients will ask about
Each pair is a real screen and what one click on it opens. Click any screen to see it full size.
A VAT return, box by box
Before anything is sent, each box opens onto the invoices and entries that make it up, including reverse charge and cash accounting.
A sole trader’s Self Assessment
Every line of the calculation opens. Running costs opens by category first, and a category opens its items, each linked to its invoice.
A landlord’s property
Each property’s income and costs open onto the entries behind them, at the owner’s share where it is jointly held.
CIS on a busier book
The same on a book with thousands of entries: the figure, then every payment it came off, in the order they arrived.
Explain this: the same answer, in words
Right-click any figure that opens and a small menu appears where your browser’s would: Explain this, or Continue to right click menu. Explain this opens a note beside the figure saying what it is and what makes it up, written from the very rows the figure opens onto, so the words and the breakdown can never disagree. Shift and a right-click always gives the browser’s own menu.
Your CIS clients
Both sides of CIS, in one book.
The subcontractor having 20% taken off every payment. The contractor with a CIS300 due every month. And the client who is both: a subcontractor who has started paying other trades. Stoneledger handles each side from the same invoices, so a client never has to leave the product when they grow.
The subcontractor side
- Labour and materials split on every invoice. The deduction worked on labour at the client’s rate: gross, 20% or 30%.
- Counted by payment, as HMRC does. A deduction belongs to the tax month the money arrived, so the CIS pane, the ledger and the Self Assessment credit agree every month.
- Every statement checked. Payment and deduction statements matched to what was paid; a missing one, a wrong rate or a deduction taken from materials is flagged, and a chase email is drafted in one click.
- Retention tracked from the invoice until it is released, and never taxed before it is paid.
- What is owed back, and the route to it: the Self Assessment for a sole trader or partner, the monthly payroll return for a company.
The contractor side
- Every subcontractor on file with their UTR, the verification number and the rate HMRC gave, and anyone missing something a return needs flagged before the month closes.
- A CIS300 for every tax month, nil returns included, built from the payments made, with the due date and the penalty if one is late.
- Statements for everyone paid, from the same figures as the return, kept in a Statement Outbox. Due within 14 days of the tax month end.
- Retention held from subcontractors on its own account, with the CIS worked at the rate in force on the day it is released.
- Records with a date on them: kept three years after the tax year, and the day they can go. The contractor side comes out as one file.
What has been taken off the client so far this tax year, their tax bill from their own books, and the refund it comes to, with this year’s real dates for getting it back.
Statements not yet received, and statements that do not agree with the invoices, each with the reason and a chase button.
Each subcontractor with their rate. An unverified subcontractor is deducted at 30% instead of 20%, and that cannot be put right once the month’s return has gone.
A CIS300 for every tax month, with prepared kept apart from submitted, because only a submitted return stops a penalty.
A payment and deduction statement for every subcontractor paid, referenced and kept on file.
What the scheme makes a contractor keep, and the date each year’s records can be disposed of.
Your company and LLP clients’ accounts
Financial statements, live from the books.
The year’s statutory accounts, built from the same ledger as everything else and laid out the way Companies House expects. Post a journal and the statements follow it. Every total casts, every note agrees with its statement, and every figure can be opened, explained, reviewed and, where you must, typed over with the change logged.
Every format the size allows
Micro-entity, small, filleted for filing, abridged, full FRS 102 and dormant, offered by the company’s size on the Companies Act tests as they stand from April 2025. A thin bar switches between them and says why any is not open.
To Companies House’s layout
The statements the Act requires above the signature, the directors’ or members’ report, the notes each format calls for, the accountants’ report when you are named, and the date of approval and who signs.
Casts, ties and agrees
Each total against the lines it adds up from, each note against its statement, both years, and the whole set against the trial balance and the tax screens. When anything disagrees, a notice says which and by how much.
Every figure explains itself
Right-click a figure for Explain this: a total names what it adds up from, a line the accounts behind it, a balance sheet figure the note that makes it up.
The company, its period and its size at the top, then the formats it may use. Export to PDF, Export for filing, Review and Edit sit above the pages.
The income statement for the year and the one before, each line built from the accounts the books map to it and rounded once to the pound.
The balance sheet with the statements the Act requires above the signature: the audit exemption, the directors’ responsibilities and the small companies regime.
The notes the format calls for. Fixed assets class by class, debtors and creditors line by line, each agreeing with the balance sheet.
Review on, the button red. Drag a box or click a figure to leave a point, shown as a yellow square pinned to its figure through scrolling, signing out and coming back. See all review points lists them.
Type over a figure and the edit log keeps what it was, what it became and why. The notice stays up for as long as the edit leaves a total that does not cast.
- Export to PDF for signing: page by page on A4, the contents page numbered from the pages themselves.
- Export for filing as inline XBRL, tagged to the FRC’s 2026 FRS 102 taxonomy: the format Companies House and HMRC take accounts in.
- Your business details carry the rest: directors or members, share capital, approval, the accountants’ report and the notes a set needs, asked for once.
- An LLP gets its own: net assets attributable to members and the reconciliation of members’ interests. See LLPs below.
Filing straight from Stoneledger is still to come. Sending the accounts to Companies House needs its software filing credentials, and the CT600 that goes with them to HMRC waits on HMRC recognising Stoneledger. Until then the file is ready for you to send with the software you use now.
Sole traders and Making Tax Digital
Quarterly updates from the books, and the tax as it builds.
From April 2027 the client with more than £30,000 of self-employment and property income comes into Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax: an update every quarter, then the tax return at the end of the year. Stoneledger builds each update from what is already recorded, cumulative from 6 April, and shows the tax that follows from it all year rather than in January.
The year still ends with a tax return. Under MTD the client still submits a tax return, through the software, by 31 January. It is not an extra filing.
Your LLP clients
Each member’s share, and the LLP’s own accounts.
An LLP is two jobs: the members, each taxed on their share of the profit through their own Self Assessment, and the LLP itself, with accounts at Companies House. Stoneledger keeps one set of books for both.
- The share, worked out. A member’s prior share first, then the rest by their profit-sharing ratio, and their Self Assessment worked on what is theirs, with the CIS taken off the LLP at their share.
- What a member can take, against their share of the profit after the tax on it, and the money the LLP actually has.
- The LLP’s financial statements in the LLP formats, with net assets attributable to members, loans and other debts due to members, and the members’ report.
- The reconciliation of members’ interests, whether profits are divided automatically or after the year end, casting and agreeing with the balance sheet.
Your company clients
Corporation Tax, reserves and the director’s loan, worked from the ledger.
- Corporation Tax with its reasons. The band that applies and why, marginal relief, associated companies, and a short first period cutting the limits and allowances.
- Losses carried year to year, set against total profits; a company’s letting on the company rules, with mortgage interest deducted in full.
- Any year end, with Corporation Tax due nine months and a day after it and the return twelve months after it.
- A monthly tax provision, so retained earnings are never stated before tax, with any true-up made in the latest month rather than by rewriting history.
- What is available to distribute: accumulated realised profit after tax, less what has been paid, including the reserve brought forward. One definition, everywhere.
- A warning before an unlawful dividend is posted, not after.
- The director’s loan and s455 at the rate for when each loan was made, with repayments clearing the oldest first.
- Payroll for the directors and staff: the Employment Allowance with HMRC’s lone-director rule applied.
- The year’s accounts, live from the ledger: see Financial statements, above.
Stoneledger Practice Tools
Keep your ledger. Replace the spreadsheet beside it.
Where does Xero stop and your spreadsheet start? For most practices it is CIS and Making Tax Digital. Practice Tools does that work beside whichever ledger your clients are on, without moving a single book.
CIS statements, matched
Each contractor’s statement against the payments that arrived, month by month: what agrees, what is short, a deduction taken at the wrong rate, and the statements that never came - chased in a click, with the email written.
Retentions, tracked
Every retention a contractor holds for a client, when it is due back, how long it is overdue, and the CIS that comes off it on release.
MTD readiness, by client
Who is in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and from when, on HMRC’s thresholds - and what is still to do for each: records, software, your authorisation, sign-up.
One dashboard, each client’s own records
Every client at a glance, and their records a click away. A statement logged, a payment recorded or a retention released from the dashboard is saved in that client’s own records - and every list comes out as a spreadsheet whenever you like.
On your own website, too
The free CIS refund checker and MTD checker on this site can go on your practice’s own website, in your name and colour, with the enquiries they bring coming to you. See the CIS refund checker.
Your landlord clients
Letting, treated as the business HMRC says it is.
Rent kept out of trading turnover and carrying no Class 4. Residential finance costs worked as the 20% tax reduction they are, with the caps and the carry-forward shown. Joint ownership split by share. And for a company that lets property, the rent goes into its Corporation Tax on the company rules.
Underneath all of it
A real general ledger, and a trial balance that explains itself.
Every posting is a balanced pair. The trial balance is generated from them and checked against every screen that reports a control account. When the profit on the tax screens differs from the accounts, a bridge says why, line by line.
Walkthroughs
Four jobs, the way they run in Stoneledger.
What happens, in order, on four of the jobs that take a practice the most time. Every walkthrough, screen by screen, is on its own page; book a demo and we will run any of them on a sample book of the same kind as your client.
A CIS subcontractor’s month
- The invoice goes in with labour and materials split. The deduction is worked on labour, at the client’s rate.
- The contractor pays. The payment is matched to the invoice and the deduction counts in the tax month the money arrived.
- The statement goes in and is checked against what was paid. A missing or wrong one is flagged, with a chase email ready.
- Retention held on the invoice stays on its own account until it is released.
- The CIS pane shows what has been taken off so far and the refund it adds up to. Click it: every payment behind it.
A small contractor’s month end
- Each subcontractor is on file with UTR, verification number and rate. Anyone missing something is flagged.
- Each payment is deducted on labour at the subcontractor’s rate, with materials outside it.
- The CIS300 for the tax month is built from the payments made, or a nil return if nothing was paid. Due on the 19th.
- A statement is ready for everyone paid, from the same figures, due within 14 days of the tax month end.
- What is owed to HMRC, and by when, is on the contractor’s money screen. Prepared and submitted are kept apart.
A landlord’s quarter
- Rent due is worked from each tenancy agreement across the days it ran, against rent received.
- Costs go against the property. Residential mortgage interest is held for the 20% reduction, not deducted.
- A jointly owned property is split by each owner’s share.
- The quarterly update is built in HMRC’s own property boxes, cumulative from 6 April.
- The compliance diary shows what is due on each property, and the tax that follows from the letting is shown as it builds.
A company’s year end
- Accruals, prepayments and deferred income go in from templates, releases and reversals posted for you.
- The trial balance balances and every control account agrees with its screen.
- Corporation Tax is worked from the ledger, with the band and the reason, losses carried and any letting included.
- Dividends are checked against what is available to distribute, and the director’s loan against s455.
- The payment date and the return date follow from the confirmed year end.
Your practice
Your clients’ books, kept safe and kept apart.
Invite-only sign-in
A password and an authenticator code at every sign-in. Nobody reaches a client’s books without being invited to them.
Each business separate
Each business’s books are kept apart in the database itself, not only by the screens in front of it.
One sign-in, every client
Sign in and the Practice Dashboard opens: every client you look after, and where each one stands. Switch between their books from the top of the screen.
Every version kept
The books are saved to the server on every change, with earlier versions kept. A client’s data leaves whenever they want, as a spreadsheet of everything.
Being built for practices
These are in development and not in the product yet. We will not describe them as ready until they are.
- One practice bill each month, not one per client
- Staff permissions within the practice, and a record a client can see of who opened their books
Pricing for practices
Per active client, per month. The band covers the whole book.
Every client business gets the full product: both sides of CIS, VAT on all three schemes, Self Assessment and Corporation Tax, property, payroll and journals. No setup fee, no charge per member of staff, and no long contract.
| Active clients | Per client, per month |
|---|---|
| 1 to 9 | £5.00 |
| 10 to 24 | £4.50 |
| 25 to 49 | £4.00 |
| 50 to 99 | £3.25 |
| 100 to 249 | £2.50 |
| 250 or more | £2.25 |
The band applies to every client in the practice. Forty active clients is 40 × £4.00 = £160 a month, not a blend of bands.
Active means live. A live client business, not archived. A demo, a test business or a prospect is never billed, and a dormant client is billed whether or not anything was posted that month.
Prices are before VAT.
A private demo first, on a sample book like your clients’, not a sign-up form.
Your practice's bill, against QuickBooks, Xero and Sage
Each band at a practice of that size, per client and for the month. The competitors are on the plan a client with an accountant needs, and at the best discount each one publishes for accountants.
| Active clients | Stoneledger | QuickBooks Essentials £38, 50% off | Xero Grow £39, 20% off | Sage Standard £43, 25% off | A year saved against the cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 9 at 9 clients | £5.00 £45.00 a month | £19.00 £171.00 | £31.20 £280.80 | £32.25 £290.25 | £1,512 |
| 10 to 24 at 24 clients | £4.50 £108.00 a month | £19.00 £456.00 | £31.20 £748.80 | £32.25 £774.00 | £4,176 |
| 25 to 49 at 49 clients | £4.00 £196.00 a month | £19.00 £931.00 | £31.20 £1,528.80 | £32.25 £1,580.25 | £8,820 |
| 50 to 99 at 99 clients | £3.25 £321.75 a month | £19.00 £1,881.00 | £31.20 £3,088.80 | £32.25 £3,192.75 | £18,711 |
| 100 to 249 at 249 clients | £2.50 £622.50 a month | £19.00 £4,731.00 | £31.20 £7,768.80 | £32.25 £8,030.25 | £49,302 |
| 250 or more at 300 clients | £2.25 £675.00 a month | £19.00 £5,700.00 | £31.20 £9,360.00 | £32.25 £9,675.00 | £60,300 |
Why these plans, and not the cheapest ones. A client with an accountant records purchase bills and raises more than a handful of invoices a month. Xero Ignite stops at 20 invoices and 10 bills a month; QuickBooks Simple Start has no bills and one user; Sage Start has no bills and no CIS. So the comparison is Grow, Essentials and Standard, the first plan each sells that does the job.
Every competitor at its best. QuickBooks takes 50% off, ongoing, when the firm pays for the client. Sage's discount grows with the practice's client subscriptions, up to 25%. Xero does not publish its partner discounts; 20% is what a Xero Silver Partner passes on, and a higher partner status may earn more (at 30%, Grow is still £27.30). Each is shown at that rate in every band, even where a small practice would get less.
And what costs extra there is in Stoneledger's price. Contractor CIS returns are £5 a client a month more on Xero. Payroll is a separate QuickBooks subscription, and Xero and Sage charge for each person beyond those included. QuickBooks' practice suite, Accelerate, is £69 a month from 20 January 2027 (its Core tier is free). Stoneledger has no practice fee, and both sides of CIS and payroll are in the one price.
Per client per month, before VAT. List prices and discounts as each company publishes them, checked on 22 September 2026; introductory offers ignored. The year saved is against QuickBooks, the cheapest of the three here.
What your clients would pay on their own
| Software | The plan they would need | A month | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stoneledger | Everything, one plan | £8 | £50 on the yearly plan |
| QuickBooks | Simple Start - its first plan with VAT | £16 | £192 |
| Xero | Ignite - VAT and CIS, and £5 a month more to file contractor CIS returns | £18 | £216 |
| Sage | Accounting Standard - its first plan with CIS | £43 | £516 |
List prices before VAT as each company publishes them, checked on 21 September 2026, ignoring introductory discounts. CIS and payroll can cost extra on top elsewhere: Xero charges £5 a month more to file contractor CIS returns, Sage moves you up a plan for CIS, QuickBooks sells payroll as a separate subscription, and Xero and Sage charge for each person on payroll beyond those included. With Stoneledger, VAT, CIS and payroll are all in the one price.
Straight answers
What’s next, and how it works today.
Where Stoneledger is heading next, and what your clients can do in the meantime.
- Sending to HMRC: on track for 2027 to 2028. Testing in HMRC’s sandbox is complete for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax and for VAT, and we are preparing our applications to HMRC. Until HMRC grants live access, every figure is ready to file through HMRC’s own services or your agent software.
- Filing accounts to Companies House: next. The financial statements are produced, checked and exported today, as a PDF and as inline XBRL.
- RTI filing: next. Pay, tax, National Insurance, payslips and postings are worked out, and the FPS and EPS messages already pass HMRC’s own Local Test Service. Until HMRC recognises them, they go to HMRC separately.
See it on a book like your clients’.
Stoneledger is software, not advice: it works out the figures, and the judgement stays with you.
