Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT) is here. The clock has officially started for clients above the £50k threshold. But let us be honest about the real issue. It is not the compliance rules that keep practice owners up at night. It’s the sheer volume of work.
One practice told us recently that MTD IT doesn’t feel like one new thing, it feels like a hundred new things happening all at once. What worked for a single quarterly client suddenly needs to happen for everyone you work for. MTD IT isn’t just a ripple in your workflow, it’s a tidal wave.
If you don’t have systems built for this new level of scale, things will slip. That’s exactly why we added new features to BrightManager by Bright, so it can be your ultimate MTD command centre. Let’s look at how these new features make MTD IT compliance a whole lot easier.
How does bulk client editing save you days of admin?
Think about how you usually set up clients for a new initiative. You sit down, open a record, update the threshold, assign a staff member, save and close. Then you repeat that process fifty times.
That’s a massive waste of your day combined with an opportunity for human error.
We fixed this with our new bulk client editing capability. You can now select a whole cohort of clients and update them all at once. Need to set the MTD qualifying year for thirty sole traders? Done in one click. Need to change the assigned manager? Done in a jiffy.
You can even create shared bookmarks (filtered views that update automatically). If you want a live list of your “£50k+ Self-Assessment” clients, just set the bookmark and your whole team can access it.
What does an MTD command centre actually look like?
Once your clients are set up, the novelty wears off.
Then the real challenge begins.
How do you track dozens of clients across different quarters without losing your mind?
You need absolute visibility, and our new MTD menu gives you a practice-wide view of every client in the cycle. It pulls their submission statuses, income streams, and quarterly progress.
You can instantly see who’s on track, who’s pending, and who needs an urgent phone call. You don’t have to hunt around different portals to find out where a client stands. Everything you need is right in front of you.
How do automated tasks stop work falling through the cracks?
Manually creating tasks for every quarter is a recipe for disaster. Someone will forget. A deadline will get missed.
BrightManager acts like an invisible project manager working in the background. Once you set a client’s next due date for quarterly filing, the software takes over. It automatically generates the required tasks. They’re named correctly, dated accurately, and tied to the exact period.
You can also attach specific workflows to these tasks. We provide customisable templates that break down the exact subtasks needed for preparation and submission. You can assign different team members to different steps. Nobody has to guess what comes next.
Can you automate client chasing without sounding like a robot?
Every quarter, you need records. Sending one email is easy. Remembering to chase fifty clients consistently is exhausting.
BrightManager automates the entire chasing process. You simply set how many days after the period end you want the requests to go out. The software does the rest. If an email is not enough, you can set the system to send an automated SMS nudge alongside it.
Best of all, we use smart variables in our email templates. The emails pull in specific client details, exact dates, and relevant services. Every message reads professionally and personally, as if you typed it yourself.
How does BrightManager wrap up the year flawlessly?
When year-end arrives, you don’t want to be scrambling for context. In the client file, you get a single, unified view of everything. You can see all four quarterly income streams side-by-side with the final declaration status.
We’ve even updated our Letter of Engagement templates for MTD. The system automatically pulls in the relevant MTD services you enabled during that bulk setup.
With BrightManager by Bright, your team focuses on the actual accounting work. The software handles the rest.
Ready to upgrade your MTD process?
Stop fighting with manual spreadsheets. If you want to see how BrightManager compares to your current setup, book a quick demo today and see the command centre in action.v
