Free sole trader bookkeeping spreadsheet for UK self assessment. Income and expenses tabs with SA103 category dropdowns and an automatic profit summary.
A sole trader needs to record every business income and expense with a date, description, category and amount. This free spreadsheet does that on two tabs with SA103 category dropdowns, then totals each self assessment box automatically for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, so the year-end return is a copy-out job.
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A free bookkeeping spreadsheet built for UK sole traders and the self employed. Log income and expenses on separate tabs, pick an HMRC category from a dropdown each time, and the summary tab totals everything by SA103 self assessment box and works out your profit for the 2026/27 tax year. There is a mileage tab too, so your 45p a mile claim is not forgotten. It also works in Google Sheets.
One Excel workbook: income and expenses tabs with SA103 category dropdowns, a mileage tab, and a summary that totals every self assessment box and calculates your profit. Enter your details and the file downloads immediately.
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Download Excel workbookAssumes tax year 2026/27 and HMRC approved mileage rates of 45p then 25p. Rates last checked: 15 July 2026.
Most free bookkeeping templates use generic categories that do not line up with the UK self assessment form, so you end up re-sorting a year of expenses in January. This one uses the SA103F boxes as its categories from day one. When Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you (from April 2026 above £50,000 of turnover, April 2027 above £30,000), the same records feed quarterly updates. The MTD spreadsheet template organises the identical structure into MTD quarters.
HMRC expects a record of all sales and income, all business expenses, and evidence such as receipts, invoices and bank statements. Records must be kept for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for that tax year. A spreadsheet with a date, description, category and amount per transaction meets the record-keeping requirement for most sole traders.
Yes. There is no rule that says a sole trader must use software for record keeping. A well organised spreadsheet is fine, and if Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you, you can keep using spreadsheets with bridging software to submit the quarterly updates.
The main SA103 categories are cost of goods, subcontractors, staff costs, vehicle and travel, rent, rates, power and insurance, repairs, phone and office costs, advertising, loan interest, bank charges and professional fees. Costs must be wholly and exclusively for the business. This spreadsheet has all of them as dropdown options mapped to the right box.
If you use your own car for business journeys you can claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p per mile after that, instead of actual running costs. The Mileage tab in this workbook applies the split automatically and feeds the total into your expense summary.
The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. This spreadsheet is set up for 2026/27, meaning 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, with the return and any balancing payment due by 31 January 2028 if you file online.
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Digital Adaption helps UK businesses fix the data behind the numbers: bookkeeping workflows, reporting you can trust and systems that talk to each other. Get in touch. Need a version of this tool built for your own company, with your rates, categories and workflows baked in? We build custom calculators, workbooks and internal tools. Contact us for a tailored quote.