I've been running my own trade business for about three years now, and the admin side has always been a nightmare. Every time I'd finish a job, I'd have to manually log the expenses, fiddle with invoices, and then spend hours trying to get everything sorted for tax season. The CIS deduction paperwork was particularly painful — constantly checking if I'd recorded things correctly so my accountant wouldn't send it back.
Trade has basically eliminated that friction for me. The OCR receipt scanner means I can just snap a photo of receipts on the job and it pulls the details in automatically. The invoicing part is straightforward, and what actually matters is that it handles CIS deductions properly, which saves me from having to explain things to my accountant or worse, getting it wrong. Since everything's formatted for the SA103F forms right from the start, there's no scrambling around in January trying to reorganize months of data.
At twelve quid a month it's honestly a no-brainer. If you're a sole trader doing the work yourself and tired of swimming through spreadsheets, it's worth trying the free trial. Took me about twenty minutes to set up and I've already saved that time back several times over just not having to manually enter stuff or chase down receipts.
Check it out: Trade
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