Home · Resources · Running multiple side hustles
Running more than one side hustle? Software charges per business.
Most accounting software licences cover ONE business. A second side hustle means a second subscription, a second login, and totals that live in two places. This page explains how multi-trade record-keeping actually works under Making Tax Digital, and why a spreadsheet-based system has a structural advantage the software firms cannot copy without changing their pricing.
The problem nobody prices honestly
If you drive for a platform, sell online, and do some freelance work, you are one taxpayer with three trades. Software treats you as three customers. Typical per-business pricing means £10 to £15 a month per trade; three trades can cost £360+ a year before you have filed anything. One of our research participants put it plainly: their software "allows for only one business or side hustle" per subscription, and what they wanted was everything "in the same place."
What MTD actually requires from multi-trade sole traders
Under MTD for Income Tax you submit quarterly updates PER TRADE, but you are still one taxpayer with one qualifying-income test: it is your COMBINED gross income from all self-employment and property that decides whether you are in scope (over £50,000 now, over £30,000 from April 2027, over £20,000 from April 2028). So someone with three £20k side hustles is in scope today even though no single trade crosses the line. Our qualifying income test explainer walks through how the combined figure works, and the free deadline checker tells you whether and when you are mandated. Each trade keeps its own records and its own quarterly totals; the final declaration brings them together. Figures per GOV.UK, dated.
Why a workbook fits this shape
A spreadsheet does not know or care how many businesses you run. One file, one tab set per trade, every trade's records in one place, one price, forever. You still need MTD-compatible or bridging software to SEND each trade's updates (a workbook records; it does not file), but the expensive part software charges for per business, the organised record-keeping, does not have to be per business at all. Per-trade running costs still get logged the same way: our free mileage and working-from-home calculators give you the allowable amounts to enter against whichever trade they belong to.
The honest trade-offs
Software genuinely wins on bank feeds (auto-importing transactions) and one-click filing. If you have high transaction volume in every trade, software may be worth per-business money. The workbook wins on cost, on seeing everything in one place, and on flexibility (edit it to fit your trades). Two of five research participants told us the doesn't-file limitation mattered to them; we agree, which is why we say it everywhere. Whichever you choose, the quarterly rhythm is the same: the next update deadline is 7 November.
Never be surprised by an MTD deadline again
MTD for Income Tax means four quarterly deadlines a year: 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May. We will email you before each one, with a short checklist of what to get ready. Free, and you can unsubscribe any time.
4 emails a year, one before each MTD quarterly deadline, with dates from GOV.UK. Double opt-in, no spam, unsubscribe any time. The guides stay free either way.
Double opt-in via Buttondown. We only use your email for this list; unsubscribe any time.
Sources
Thresholds and the per-trade / combined-income rules are from the GOV.UK Making Tax Digital collections (qualifying income aggregation and per-trade quarterly updates), checked 20 August 2026 against GOV.UK: find out if and when you need to use MTD for Income Tax. Research quotes are from our own study (n=5 UK sole traders, August 2026), paraphrased with no personal data. Educational only, not tax advice; software prices are typical market ranges, not quotes. Verify your own position with GOV.UK, your accountant or bookkeeper.