Keep your spreadsheet: bridging software explained

You don’t have to abandon the spreadsheet you’ve refined over years. Bridging software is the officially sanctioned way to keep it: it reads the summary figures from your sheet and submits them to HMRC, so you stay compliant without learning a new accounting app. For confident spreadsheet users it’s usually the cheapest route to compliance.

What “digital links” actually mean

MTD requires two things from a spreadsheet setup: you must keep digital records, and there must be a digital link between those records and what’s submitted. In plain terms — the numbers have to flow from your sheet into the bridging tool without being retyped by hand into a portal. Copy-typing figures into a website breaks the digital link and isn’t compliant. A formula, a linked cell range or an import is fine; manual re-keying is not.

The main options and prices

Two names come up repeatedly for landlords: 123 Sheets and VitalTax. As a guide, ~£30–£36 per year is the ballpark — VitalTax is around £36 including VAT a year with a free tier for very small traders, and 123 Sheets is roughly £30 plus VAT a year (also quoted from about £5 a month). That makes bridging the lowest-cost compliant option on this site. Always confirm the current price on the provider’s own site before buying.

The trade-offs to accept

• You own the accuracy. The bridging tool just submits your figures — if the spreadsheet is wrong, the submission is wrong. There’s no bank feed double-checking you.
• Four deadlines a year need a routine. Going from one annual summary to four quarterly updates plus a final declaration is a bigger change of habit than the software cost suggests.
• Not every tool does the final declaration. Some bridging products submit quarterly updates but not the year-end final declaration — check the specific product covers the whole journey.

Bridging and joint ownership

If you co-own, bridging keeps the split manual: you divide income and expenses between owners yourself in the spreadsheet, and each of you submits your own figures. That’s fine if your sheet is already set up that way, but a purpose-built landlord tool will do the splitting for you. Weigh the few pounds saved against the admin.

Is bridging right for you?

Choose bridging if you genuinely like your spreadsheet, your affairs are stable, and you’d rather not learn new software. If you want automation, bank feeds or automatic ownership splitting, a landlord app may be worth the extra. The picker recommends bridging as the primary route whenever you tell it you keep a spreadsheet — try it and see.