Stoneledger CIS Companion · for CIS businesses on Xero, QuickBooks or Sage
Specialist CIS deductions, statements, retentions, reconciliations and contractor workflows - without replacing your accounting software. Bring in the files Xero, QuickBooks or Sage export, and see both sides of CIS in one place.
Reads the files your software exports. It never asks for your Xero, QuickBooks or Sage password.
A sample business on both sides of CIS · made-up figures
What needs doing
Click it. Each one opens to what it is about.
Two ways to Stoneledger's CIS
You keep Xero, QuickBooks or Sage
Your books stay where they are. The Companion takes the files your software exports and does the CIS work around them: statements, deductions, retentions, the CIS300 and what needs doing next.
See the Companion's pricesYou want one place for everything
Your whole books, CIS built in, VAT, Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital - for less than the Companion - in place of your accounting software, not beside it.
See Stoneledger's pricesAlready use Stoneledger? Everything in the Companion is in it already - you never need both.
Pricing
Monthly
£15 a month
Everything in the Companion, for one business on either side of CIS or both.
For the whole year
Yearly
£120 a year
A third less than paying monthly
The same, paid once for the year - every tax month, every statement and every CIS300 of it.
Start with 30 days free, no card - choose monthly or yearly before it ends, or simply stop. No VAT to add: Stoneledger is not registered for VAT.
See inside
Click a screen to see it larger.
Why CIS ends up in a spreadsheet
CIS runs from the 6th of one month to the 5th of the next. A statement is due within 14 days of each, a CIS300 by the 19th - and a payment belongs to the month it is made in, not the month it was invoiced.
Contractors' statements arrive late, go missing or show a different figure from what you were paid. Finding which, month by month and contractor by contractor, is the work most often left until the year end.
CIS comes off labour only - never materials, never VAT. Retention held back is paid months later, and its CIS is taken then. Both have to be followed through every payment.
How it works
Your sales invoices, your bills or your contacts, as the CSV or Excel file Xero, QuickBooks or Sage gives you. Nothing to reformat.
Tick which customers take CIS off you and which suppliers you take it off, which accounts are labour and which materials, and when they were paid. You see everything before anything is kept.
Statements missing or wrong, CIS300 returns due, subcontractors to verify, retention to chase - and your accountant's file whenever they ask.
What the Companion does
Worked examples · made-up figures
An invoice for £2,000.00 of labour and £500.00 of materials. CIS comes off the labour only, at the rate HMRC gave when you verified them:
| Their status | CIS taken off | You pay them |
|---|---|---|
| Registered, verified | £400.00 | £2,100.00 |
| Not matched by HMRC | £600.00 | £1,900.00 |
| Gross payment status | £0.00 | £2,500.00 |
What you took off goes on that tax month's CIS300, and on the statement you give them.
£6,000.00 of labour and £1,200.00 of materials, at 20%, with 5% retention held back. Both businesses are VAT registered, so the reverse charge applies and no VAT is on the invoice:
So the year's statements show £1,200.00 taken off this job in total, in the two tax months it was paid in.
Before and after
Xero, QuickBooks and Sage
The Companion reads sales invoices, bills and contacts exported from Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, in CSV or Excel, and any spreadsheet with similar columns. It reads each column by what it means rather than by one package's spelling, so a file with its columns in another order still reads - and it shows you what it found before anything is kept.
It never writes anything back to your accounting software, and never asks for its password.
Compared with Stoneledger
| What you need | CIS Companion | Stoneledger |
|---|---|---|
| Your accounting software | Keep Xero, QuickBooks or Sage | Stoneledger is your accounting software |
| CIS on both sides | Yes | Yes |
| Statements, retention, CIS300 | Yes | Yes |
| How records arrive | From your software's exports | Kept in Stoneledger as you go |
| VAT returns, Self Assessment, Making Tax Digital | Stay with your software | Yes |
| Price | £15 a month or £120 a year | £8 a month or £50 a year |
For accountants
A client on the Companion brings in their own exports through the year, so their statements are checked, their retention followed and their CIS300s made up before you see them - and the year arrives as one Excel file. Your practice keeps its own software too.
Questions
No. That is the point of the Companion: your books stay in your accounting software, and the Companion does the CIS work beside them, from the files your software exports.
Not yet. Today you export your invoices, bills or contacts from Xero and bring the file in - it takes a minute. A live connection needs Stoneledger's own app registered with Xero - and certified by Xero before it can be offered widely - which has not been started yet; the same goes for QuickBooks and Sage. When one is built it will read only what CIS needs, and only with your say-so.
No. It reads the files you bring in and never writes anything back. If a figure needs correcting, you correct it in your own software and bring the file in again.
Every invoice and bill is known by where it came from and its own number, so a second copy is recognised and not added again. If an invoice has changed since, you are told before anything is kept, and a whole import can be undone in one step.
Not yet. The Companion prepares each month's return - nil months included - and tells you when it is due. Stoneledger has tested its CIS returns with HMRC's test service and applied for recognition; until HMRC grants it, send the return through HMRC's own online service or software on HMRC's list.
No. One Companion covers both sides of CIS for one business, and you choose which sides you use when you start.
No. Everything in the Companion is already in Stoneledger, built in. The Companion is for businesses that want to keep their current accounting software.
Choose monthly or yearly to carry on, with everything you have brought in kept. No card is asked for at the start, so if you do nothing, nothing is charged.
On Stoneledger's server in London, behind your password and an authenticator code. Nobody sees them unless you invite them - your accountant, for instance - and you can export everything whenever you like.
No. The Companion applies HMRC's CIS rules to the records you bring in and shows how each figure is worked out, so you and your accountant can check it. For your own circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser.
Bring in last month's export and see what needs doing, on both sides of CIS. 30 days free, no card.
Xero, QuickBooks and Sage are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of any of them; the CIS Companion reads the files they let you export.
