Heather says she got ahead of the curve before April rule changes
From April 6, new mandatory government initiative Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will see sole traders earning a gross income of £50,000 or more required to file their taxes digitally. A children’s princess party host says a ‘magic trick’ has helped her cut the time she spends on her financial admin in half.
Small business owner Heather Moor, 26, from Slough, used to spend at least four hours a month keeping on top of her accounts – inputting her data manually on spreadsheets.
And at the end of each tax year she would be left scrambling to recover receipts and save extra money to cover her HMRC bill. But this year she moved her tax returns online, and saw a massive drop in her workload.
Heather said: “I wasn’t too clued up on what digital taxes would entail. But I assumed that like many things, if you’re going to be using an external site, it would incur a cost to use and that makes it trickier to move.
“Using spreadsheets is all I’ve known since I started my business, and when you’re used to a free spreadsheet it wouldn’t make sense to move to a paid platform. But I wanted to get ahead of the curve rather than waiting till April to work it all out.
“I then realised there are loads of free tools available so it doesn’t have to come at a cost to your business, and once I switched it halved the amount of time I spend on financial admin. When you’ve got the hang of the software, it’s as simple as a few clicks and done – rather than trawling through your purchases and noting everything down.
“It’s going to make things a lot more efficient, which is very welcome given how difficult things are for small businesses at the moment.”
Heather, who dresses up as Snow White and Princess Anna to entertain kids, has been a franchisee for company Snow Princess Parties since 2020. But she told how she has noticed a slump in demand for events in the past year, as increasing numbers of parents are too cash-strapped to afford them.
She said: “Demand is usually up year on year, but this year it hasn’t moved much. A lot of the parents I speak to are feeling financially challenged. That means having difficult conversations and trying to compromise where we can, while also keeping the business profitable.
“As well as running the business Monday to Friday, I often travel to four different party venues every weekend – it’s seven days a week. I do feel so lucky to do this job as it’s my dream, but it is definitely not a conventional 9-to-5.
“I often feel like I have two jobs running the day-to-day of the business as well as the financial side of things. My diary is full for January – meaning I won’t get a single weekend off work. So much of my time is spent on the business already and I don’t really have much of a social life.
“So every bit of time I can get back means I get some time for self care – whether it be going to the gym, getting out for a walk or seeing family.”
New research from Sage shows the average UK business owner says added admin hours have held them back from getting their businesses off to a good start in 2026. Heather, who recently signed up for Sage’s free MTD app, said: “With a business like mine, you’re always buying costumes, little bits for the parties, you get receipts coming out of your ears.
“When you have left your tax admin for a couple of months, it’s easy to lose track and miss things and very quickly you can fall behind. You end up spending even more time trying to catch up. I would urge other business owners not to be scared about moving to digital tax returns. Making Tax Digital is without a doubt going to be beneficial.
“It’s a much more simplified process – and sorting my taxes digitally has made my tax admin so much easier.”
