How to Track Business Expenses

Why track business expenses?

Every allowable business expense you claim reduces your taxable profit and therefore your tax bill. If you are a basic-rate taxpayer, every £100 of expenses saves you £20 in tax. For higher-rate taxpayers, it is £40.

But to claim expenses, you need records. HMRC requires you to keep receipts and evidence of every expense for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline.

What expenses can you claim?

Sole traders can claim any expense that is wholly and exclusively for business purposes. Common categories include office costs, travel, equipment, software, professional fees and marketing.

MileageCalendar uses HMRC-approved expense categories and auto-categorises your spending using AI, so you do not need to remember which category each receipt belongs to.

• Office costs: stationery, phone, internet, software
• Travel: mileage, parking, public transport, hotels
• Equipment: computers, tools, machinery
• Professional fees: accountant, legal, insurance
• Marketing: advertising, website, business cards

How to capture and track receipts

The traditional method is to keep paper receipts in a box and sort them at year-end. This is slow, error-prone and receipts fade over time.

MileageCalendar lets you snap a photo of any receipt. Our AI reads the merchant name, date, total amount and VAT automatically. You review the details and save — no manual data entry.

Receipts are stored securely in the cloud, so you never lose them and can access them from anywhere.

Exporting expenses to accounting software

Once your expenses are tracked, you need to get them into your accounting software. MileageCalendar exports to Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Sage with one click.

Each export includes the receipt image as an attachment, so your accounting records are fully auditable.