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Change your transaction start date

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Summary

How to change the transaction start date in Sage Sole Trader. This controls the earliest date you can record transactions.

Description

Your transaction start date controls the earliest date you can record transactions in Sage Sole Trader.

Transaction start dates always align with the UK tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April.

This setting only controls when you can start entering transactions in Sage. It doesn't affect when you submit updates to HMRC under Making Tax Digital (MTD).

How Sage sets your start date

When you first create your account, Sage automatically sets the transaction start date based on the current date:

  • If you set up Sole Trader between 6 April and 31 December, your start date is 6 April of the current calendar year
  • If you set up between 1 January and 5 April, your start date is 6 April of the previous calendar year

You can only choose dates that align with 6 April, because Sage follows HMRC tax year rules.

Transactions dated 1 to 5 April

HMRC's tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. If you have income or expenses dated from 1 to 5 April, record them in the tax year that ends on 5 April.

For example, if you start using MTD for Income Tax on 6 April 2026, transactions dated 1 to 5 April 2026 belong to the 2025/2026 tax year. Include these transactions in your tax return for 2025/2026. Don't include them in your first MTD update for 2026/2027.

If you use calendar update periods, HMRC starts your first MTD update period on 6 April. HMRC sets these obligation dates, not Sage.

Do I need to change my start date?

You can only change the transaction start date to an earlier tax year. You can't set a future tax year that hasn’t started yet.

TIP:

If you signed up before 6 April and your account shows the current tax year (for example, 2025/26), this is correct. You don't need to change anything. The next tax year becomes available automatically once it begins. Wait and start recording your transactions when you're ready.

Sage Sole Trader uses cash basis accounting. This means you can only record income and expenses when you actually receive or pay them. You can't post future-dated transactions.

Resolution

  1. Go to Settings, then Transaction settings.
  2. Select Transaction start date, then Change start date.
  3. Choose the relevant tax year.
  4. Confirm the change and select Save.

NOTE:

You can only change the start date to 6 April of a valid tax year. If you change to the previous tax year, you can't change it back later. This prevents differences between your start date and recorded transactions.

You can't change the start date if:

  • The tax year submission deadline has passed
  • You're already using the selected tax year
  • You’ve recorded a bank opening balance

If you recorded an opening balance, delete it before changing the start date.

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