Accounting for contractors under CIS: the invoice worked, the year kept, the accountant handed figures
Accounting for contractors is mostly one deduction and one year: the CIS deduction the main contractor takes off every invoice, and the twelve months of income, expenses and deduction statements the accountant needs in April. Subbielane works both on the page from your own figures: the invoice from labour, materials, your deduction rate and the VAT you charge, so the invoice, the deduction and the amount that lands in the bank agree; and the year from a day rate, days worked, expenses and the CIS already withheld, so profit before tax and what is still to set aside are numbers rather than a worry. Free, no account. Pro keeps every invoice, statement, payment and expense against the client and the tax year. Nothing here files a return or gives tax advice.
Built for the subbie's books, on purpose
Subbielane is not an accountancy practice, not a payroll, not an umbrella company and not a tax-filing service, and it is not going to become any of them. Every figure on every worksheet is there because someone paid under CIS needs the invoice, the deduction and the year to be right before the accountant sees them.
Work the invoice. Keep the year. Hand over figures.
- The CIS deduction worked before the invoice goes out. £2,400 of labour and £600 of materials at a 20% deduction rate is a £480 deduction, a £3,000 invoice and £2,520 into the bank, worked on the page so the invoice, the deduction statement and the payment agree before anyone rings to ask.
- Profit before tax and the set-aside, as the year builds. £250 a day for 220 days is £55,000, £11,000 of it withheld under CIS before it reaches you; less £6,000 of expenses it is £49,000 of profit, and a 25% set-aside is £12,250, of which the contractors already hold £11,000. The set-aside is yours; the arithmetic is the worksheet's.
- Every invoice, statement and expense filed to the tax year. Invoices with their deductions, deduction statements matched to payments, and expenses with receipts file themselves against the client and the tax year, so April is an export rather than a shoebox. Everything exports.
The free tools
Both worksheets on this site compute on the page, free, with no account and no trial clock. The free version is the whole calculation; the paid plan is about keeping it: every invoice with its deduction, every deduction statement matched to a payment, every expense with its receipt, the year's totals as they build, and an export the accountant can open.
- Accounting software for contractors: the CIS invoice: Work a CIS invoice: labour, materials, your deduction rate and the VAT you charge into the deduction, the invoice total, the amount paid to you and the amount HMRC holds.
- Contractors accounting: the year worked: Work a subbie's year: a day rate and days into gross income, the CIS withheld, cash received, profit before tax and the set-aside still to hold after what the contractors already took.
Subbielane Pro
The worksheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: every invoice you raise with its CIS deduction kept against the client, every deduction statement matched to the payment it came with, expenses filed against the tax year, your name and logo on the invoices, no watermark, and an export when the accountant or HMRC asks. Subbielane Pro is £33 per month for your whole business, billed monthly.
