AccountsPortal Help Documentation


Submitting your Quarterly Updates

During the tax year you send HMRC regular updates of your income and expenses. AccountsPortal builds these from your mapped accounts, so there is nothing to type in by hand.

Open the MTD for Income Tax report

Go to Reports and open "MTD ITSA" (under Tax Reports). This link only appears once you have completed the Income Tax setup.

Understanding the obligations table

The MTD for Income Tax page shows a table of your obligations for the tax year. The columns are your four quarters (Q1 - Q4) plus "End of Year", each labelled with its date range. The rows show:

  • Status — where each period stands (see below).
  • Due Date — when the update must be submitted by.
  • Submitted Date — when you sent it.
  • Received Date — when HMRC received it.
  • Income — your cumulative income for the period.
  • Expenses — your cumulative expenses.
  • Disallowable Expenses — shown for self-employment only.
  • NET PROFIT — income less expenses (less disallowable expenses where shown).

The status of each period can be:

  • Upcoming — the period hasn't started/finished yet, so it can't be filed.
  • Fileable — the period is ready for you to create and submit an update.
  • Overdue — it's past the due date and still hasn't been submitted.
  • Pending — you've created a report but haven't submitted it to HMRC yet.
  • Complete — submitted to HMRC.

Important - quarterly updates are cumulative

Each quarterly update covers the whole tax year to date, from the start of your accounting period up to the end of that quarter - not just the latest three months. For example, your Q3 figures include Q1, Q2 and Q3 together. 

Create a quarterly report

1. In the obligations table, find the quarter you want to file (its status will be "Fileable" or "Overdue") and click "Create Report".

2. AccountsPortal generates the figures from your mapped accounts for the period shown in the strapline (the start of your accounting period to the end of that quarter). Review the figures on screen. If you want to see the underlying transactions, click "View Details" (and "Hide Details" to collapse them again).

3. When you're happy, click "Save Report". This saves the report so you can review it before sending it to HMRC. (Its status becomes "Pending".)

Submit to HMRC

1. Open the saved report (click "View" against the period, or you'll land on it straight after saving).

2. Click "Submit to HMRC".

On success you're returned to the obligations table and the period shows as "Complete", with the submitted date filled in.

While a report is still Pending you can also:

  • "Delete" it (to start again) — you'll be asked to confirm.
  • "Export" it to a CSV file for your own records.
  • "View Details" to see the transactions behind the figures.

If something goes wrong

  • If your HMRC connection has expired you'll be asked to re-authenticate. Reconnect and try again.
  • If a report has already been submitted, it can't be submitted or deleted again.
  • If HMRC rejects the submission, the error message from HMRC is shown so you can correct the figures and resubmit.