Receipt Storage and HMRC Compliance

Receipt storage and HMRC compliance

Keeping proper records is a legal requirement for all sole traders in the UK. Accounted helps you stay compliant by storing your receipts digitally and linking them to your transactions. Here's what you need to know about HMRC's requirements and how Accounted meets them.

HMRC's record-keeping requirements

As a sole trader, HMRC requires you to keep records of:

• All sales and income
• All business expenses
• VAT records (if you're VAT-registered)
• Grants or financial support received
• Your personal income (if it affects your tax)

For each transaction, HMRC may ask to see supporting evidence — such as receipts, invoices, or bank statements — that confirms the amount, date, and business purpose of the expense.

How long must you keep records?

HMRC requires you to keep your business records for at least five years after the 31 January Self Assessment deadline for the relevant tax year.

For example, records for the 2026/27 tax year (ending 5 April 2027) must be kept until at least 31 January 2033. That's a long time, which is why digital storage is so much more practical than paper.

If HMRC opens an enquiry into your tax return, you may need to keep records for even longer until the enquiry is closed.

Digital records are fully accepted

HMRC fully accepts digital copies of receipts and invoices. You do not need to keep the paper originals, provided the digital copy is:

• Legible — The text, amounts, and dates must be clearly readable.
• Complete — The full receipt must be captured, including the merchant name, date, items, and total.
• Unaltered — The image must be a true representation of the original document.

Accounted stores all receipt images in their original quality, with metadata including the upload date and any extracted information. Images are stored securely with encryption at rest.

How Accounted keeps you compliant

When you scan a receipt through WhatsApp or upload it via the dashboard, Accounted:

1. Stores the original image securely in encrypted cloud storage.
2. Extracts and indexes the data — merchant, date, amount, VAT — making receipts searchable.
3. Links the receipt to the matching bank transaction, creating an audit trail.
4. Preserves the record for the required retention period, so you don't need to worry about accidentally deleting something you still need.

Missing receipts

If you're missing a receipt for a business expense, it's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal either. HMRC may disallow an expense claim if you cannot provide supporting evidence during an enquiry.

Penny can help identify transactions that don't have a linked receipt. Before each quarterly submission, she'll flag any expenses over a certain threshold that are missing documentation, giving you a chance to find the receipt or make a note explaining why it's unavailable.

Bank statements as evidence

Your bank statements serve as supporting evidence alongside receipts. Since Accounted imports your transactions directly via Open Banking, your bank data is preserved as part of your digital records. However, bank statements alone may not be sufficient for larger or unusual expenses — a receipt or invoice provides the detail HMRC might ask for.

Exporting your records

You can export your full records at any time from Settings > Data Export. This includes:

• A complete transaction ledger in CSV format
• All receipt images as a downloadable archive
• Invoice PDFs
• Quarterly submission confirmations from HMRC

This ensures you always have a portable copy of your records, even if you decide to stop using Accounted.