Getting started with Sage Sole Trader

Sage Sole Trader keeps a digital record of your income, expenses, and tax. What to do first, how to categorise your transactions, and where to go next.

Sage Sole Trader is for self-employed people and sole traders. It records your business income and expenses. If you're signed up for Making Tax Digital (MTD), it sends quarterly updates to HMRC. You don't need to be an accountant to use it.

If you prefer to watch, see our short intro video.

 

Your first session

Two things to get you started:

1. Connect your bank account. Sage then imports your transactions for you. See Connect a bank feed.
2. Look at your transactions, then categorise or check a few to see how it works. See Choosing the right tax category.

How categorising your transactions works

Your transactions move through two stages.

Draft is your to-do list. New transactions land here from your bank feed, receipts, or manual entry.

Completed is your done list. These are your categorised transactions, ready for your reports and HMRC.

How you categorise is up to you. You can do it yourself, or let Sage help.

To categorise manually, open Draft and choose a category for each transaction. Then save it to Completed.

If you have a bank feed, you can turn on auto-categorisation. Sage categorises your transactions for you. You then check them in Completed. See Auto-categorisation.

Other things you can do

A few things to set up when you're ready:

• Set up invoicing if you bill clients
• Download the mobile app
• Invite your accountant if you have one

If you're using Sage for Making Tax Digital

HMRC recognises Sage for MTD for Income Tax. To get set up and understand what it means for you, see:

• Set up Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• What MTD means for you
• Key dates for MTD

Getting help

If you get stuck, we're here to help:

• Join a webinar for Sage Sole Trader
• Get in touch with our support team
• Ask other users in the Community Hub