For UK musicians, DJs, producers and creative sole traders

Making Tax Digital, sorted in one sitting.

Open it once a quarter. Drop in your bank statements, confirm what's business and file your update straight to HMRC, all in an hour or so. Then forget about tax until the next one is due.

HMRC recognised software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax

Import a statement free Try sample data
No card neededNo bank login requiredYour statement file stays on your deviceNothing sent until you press file

Try it. Keep or bin these five.

Expenses kept£0.00
Income logged£0.00
Reviewed0/5

Anonymised example transactions. This demo stays in your browser.

Watch your statements get sorted.

Your bank statement mixes gig fees, gear, trains and the weekly shop in one long list. Your accountant needs it the other way round.

01Import

Drop in a year of statements.

Drag a CSV or PDF from your banking app onto Add a statement. Cratebooks reads every line in your browser, then groups them by who you paid.

Works with Monzo, Starling, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, Amex, Revolut and most UK banks. Selected PDF statements are supported too, with a preview before import.

02Review

One tap sorts a whole merchant.

Cratebooks suggests the category for each merchant, and a business share for mixed-use bills like your energy (25%). Fourteen train tickets are one decision, not fourteen.

Tick always do this and next year that merchant sorts itself.

03Check

Catch what an accountant would.

Before anything leaves, Cratebooks checks for the usual mistakes, like a parking fine filed as travel, and fixes each one in a click.

04Export

File direct to HMRC, or give it to your accountant.

Send your quarterly update straight to HMRC and keep the receipt. Or download an Excel pack mapped to the SA103 boxes for your accountant.

Import a statement free Try sample data

Illustrative example. You confirm every decision, and nothing is sent to HMRC until you press file.

Four sittings a yearMaking Tax Digital

Not another app to babysit.

Most tax software wants you logging in every week, all year. Nobody actually does. Cratebooks is built to be opened four times a year: drop in your statements, do the boring bit in an hour or so, file it, and forget it until the next one is due.

HMRC recognised
Cratebooks has been through HMRC's recognition process for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and files quarterly updates for self-employment.
Clean books at year end
Four filed quarters add up to a full year of sorted records, mapped to the SA103 boxes for your accountant.
Who it applies to
Sole traders with income over £50,000 since April 2026, over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028.
The four deadlines
7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. Catch up the week before, not every week.
What it doesin detail

Built for your world.

Recognises your merchants
Gear, studio time, distribution, royalties, gig fees. It recognises what creatives actually spend on, and remembers every correction you make.
Checked before export
Fines, card payments counted as expenses, cash with no receipts, over-claimed splits: all flagged, each with a one-click fix.
Every account, pooled
Banks and credit cards together, card statements read the right way round, and your own transfers set aside automatically.
By tax period
Scope the whole app to a supported UK tax year and MTD update period, including last year for filing in arrears.
PayPal, Stripe and Patreon
Add their statements next to your bank's. Sales are counted once, before fees, and the payouts into your bank are set aside for you.
Straight to HMRC
HMRC recognised for Making Tax Digital. Your quarterly update goes from Cratebooks to HMRC when you press file, and not before.
Ready for your accountant
An Excel workbook mapped to the SA103 boxes, quarter by quarter, with a fixed-cell filing tab and larger equipment flagged for accounting-method review.
No bank login required
You hand Cratebooks statements you downloaded yourself. It never touches your bank, and can never move a penny.
Josh Brown, founder of Cratebooks

Built by a musician, not a bank.

I'm Josh, a platinum-selling producer and DJ known as Unglued. For years my tax return meant a lost weekend trawling a year of statements, working out which payment was DJ gear and which train was a gig. Every generic accounting app I tried was clunky and spoke a language that wasn't mine.

So I built the one that does. Cratebooks is the tool I use on my own books: it recognises the transactions that are common in creative work, asks me about the uncertain ones, and produces a clean record I can check before it goes anywhere near my tax return. It gets sharper every time you use it.

Josh Brown, aka UngluedFounder, Cratebooks

Records worth keeping.

★★★★★

“Incredible product, and so reasonable. I used to pay my accountant loads.”

Ed · artist manager
★★★★★

“So handy. Honestly, I've got no notes, it's fantastic. It's amazing to see how much I spend on coffee.”

Harry · musician
★★★★★

“Unreal platform and a massive time saver. How well it detects and recommends categories is huge.”

Bayley · cybersecurity specialist
★★★★★

“A super simple way to organise your expenses before filing a return. I'd recommend it.”

Liam · musician
★★★★★

“Took like five minutes and I wasn't stuck at all. Super easy. I'm impressed.”

Tom · DJ & producer
★★★★★

“I used QuickBooks, and this is a similar experience, if not a little more polished. A slick system.”

Jon · senior product manager, DJ
More from the first group of working musicians as they put it through their own returns. Try it on your own statements

One price. No monthly drip.

Try it free on your own statements and watch Cratebooks sort them. You only pay when you want the figures out, checked and filed, or ready for your accountant.

Free
£0

to try, no card needed

  • Try it on your real bank statements
  • See every transaction sorted automatically
  • Your full category breakdown, on your own data
Start free
Cratebooks, full access Founding rate
£39/year

Founding rate, for the first 100 members. £39 a year, locked for as long as you stay subscribed. The standard rate after that is £99/year.

  • Your statements read in seconds
  • Likely business income and expenses suggested automatically
  • Confirm in one sitting, whenever suits
  • HMRC recognised: quarterly updates filed straight to HMRC, with receipts kept
  • A full year of books mapped to the SA103 boxes for your accountant
Claim founding rate

£39.00, billed once a year. Your subscription renews automatically each year at the founding rate until you cancel. The founding rate covers the full product: statement import, sorting, checks, exports, and filing your MTD quarterly updates straight to HMRC, at no extra cost. Cancel anytime from your account, in a couple of clicks. Payment is taken securely by Stripe. The free plan needs no card.

Most bookkeeping tools charge monthly (£120 to £240 a year) because they want you logging in every week. Cratebooks is £39 a year because your tax isn't a hobby, and the subscription may itself be an allowable business expense. Your quarterly updates go straight to HMRC from Cratebooks, or you can hand the figures to your accountant. Cratebooks does the transaction-sorting you would otherwise do yourself or pay someone to do.

Your data

Read in your browser. Never sold.

Your statement file is parsed on your own device and never uploaded. The transaction rows it contains are sent to your account so they can be categorised, and you then decide which to keep. We also receive technical import diagnostics (counts and error codes, never your transactions) so failed imports get fixed. Categorisation is a deterministic rules engine, not AI, and your data is never used to train any AI model. Read the full security page →

Questions

What people ask first.

Is my bank data safe?

Yes. Nothing connects to your bank at all: you download a statement from your banking app and drop it in, so your bank login never touches Cratebooks. The engine reads your transactions to categorise them, and it can never move money.

Which banks does it work with?

Any UK bank or card that can export a statement, including Monzo, Starling, HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, NatWest, Amex and Revolut. CSV works best, and PDF statements work too, with a preview before anything is imported. Your statement file never leaves your browser, and there are no bank logins or bank feeds.

Does Cratebooks file my taxes?

Your Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, yes. Connect HMRC once, check the figures, press file, and Cratebooks sends the update and keeps the receipt. Nothing is sent until you press file. Your year-end final declaration isn't filed from Cratebooks: your accountant or other software does that, using the same totals.

Is Cratebooks HMRC recognised?

Yes. Cratebooks has been through HMRC's recognition process for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and files quarterly updates for self-employment straight to HMRC. HMRC does not recommend or endorse any software product, so choose the one that fits how you work.

Do I still need an accountant?

That's your call. Cratebooks does the sorting you'd otherwise pay for: it categorises your year, runs accountant-style checks and produces a clean pack mapped to the SA103 boxes. For a straightforward sole trader, you can send your quarterly updates to HMRC yourself from Cratebooks. It doesn't give tax advice. If your affairs are more involved (a limited company, VAT, big equipment purchases), an accountant is worth it, and Cratebooks still saves you both the sorting. Either way, check the figures before you file.

What does the pre-export check actually catch?

The things an accountant would bounce back: parking fines claimed as travel, card bill payments counted as expenses, cash withdrawals with no receipts, mixed-use bills claimed at 100%, mileage and fuel both claimed, likely duplicates, and larger equipment to review. Each comes with a one-click fix, and nothing ever blocks your export.

Can I use Cratebooks for Making Tax Digital?

Yes. Cratebooks keeps your income and expenses digitally, organises them into MTD quarters and sends your quarterly updates to HMRC when you confirm them. Your year-end final declaration is done by your accountant or other software. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for some sole traders and expands in stages.

Will it handle last year's Self Assessment tax return?

Yes. Sole traders often file a year in arrears, so you can pick any past tax year and quarter and Cratebooks scopes everything to it.

What does it cost?

Free to start: import a statement and see your full breakdown, no card needed. Exporting and filing your quarterly updates to HMRC is £39 a year for the first 100 founding members (£99 after), billed annually, with filing included at no extra cost. The founding rate covers the full product for as long as you stay subscribed. The subscription may be an allowable business expense. Cancel any time.

Get this quarter filed.

Drop in your statements, file it, and forget about tax until the next one is due.

Import a statement free Try sample data