Making Tax Digital · Accountants
Packaging MTD practice services: defining Bronze, Silver and Gold scopes
ONLY£15A MONTHService tiers are useful when they describe clear differences in work and responsibility.
Service tiers are useful when they describe clear differences in work and responsibility. They become difficult to price when the same broad promise covers every client. Start with records, review, submission and annual work, then calculate the capacity and fee needed for each level.
Use published tiers as a scope reference
The checked Avona Concierge plans separate professional retainers from the £15 monthly software fee. All figures below exclude VAT.
| Tier | Professional retainer | Software | Combined monthly cost | Published emphasis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | £60 | £15 | £75 | Client-maintained records, guidance, checks and quarterly review and filing |
| Silver | £90 | £15 | £105 | Additional categorisation up to 75 bank transactions per month, reconciliations and forecasts |
| Gold | £150 | £15 | £165 | Broader managed support up to 200 transactions per month and year-end tax-return preparation within the stated scope |
Confirm current terms, inclusions and limits. These are supplier service descriptions, not a guarantee of a practice's margin or an automatic right to resell an identical white-label service.
Cost the complete delivery process
Include onboarding, client queries, technical review, correction work and supervision. Define what happens when transaction volumes exceed the tier or records arrive incomplete. Separate a software charge transparently where that is the commercial arrangement.
Annual-return preparation should be described precisely. Specify included income sources and whether filing and additional personal tax work are covered by the engagement.
Worked example: an illustrative service margin
A practice designs a £100 monthly professional service with an estimated £65 delivery cost, giving £35 contribution before other overheads and tax. If exceptions add another £25 of staff time, the contribution falls to £10.
Transaction limits and clear responsibilities therefore affect profitability. Copying a supplier's tier name and price does not establish the practice's own cost of delivery.
Make responsibility visible at each stage
An effective practice process identifies who supplies the records, who resolves queries, who reviews the figures and who submits. Record those responsibilities in the engagement and workflow. Do not rely on the assumption that somebody else has completed the final step.
Agent authorisation is also separate from client consent to a commercial service. Use HMRC's correct MTD authorisation process and the agent's own access. A client should not hand over their Government Gateway password simply to make the process more convenient. HMRC explains how to authorise an agent.
Track each relevant business and period. A green client-level indicator can hide an outstanding property update if the sole-trade update has been completed. Store the approved figures and acknowledgement against the correct record.
For recurring work, use a short exception list rather than sending the client every transaction again. Give each question a reference, amount and clear request. Access controls and a secure reply route matter, especially where the same practice handles several family members or businesses. Good workflow design reduces repeated questions without replacing professional judgement.
A review that checks more than the total
Start with coverage: the correct person, business and period, plus all relevant accounts and cash records. Then look at completeness. A feed can be connected today while still missing an earlier week. Confirm the earliest and latest transactions against the source.
Next, inspect unusual items. Large transfers, loan receipts, refunds, net settlements and private purchases often need more context than a bank description provides. Check for duplicate imports where a statement overlaps a live feed. An automatic warning is useful evidence to investigate, not proof that the entry must be removed.
Finally, review category totals. A category unexpectedly showing zero, a large increase or a negative amount deserves an explanation. You do not have to make every annual tax adjustment at this stage, but you should understand the records behind the summary you approve.
HMRC explains what quarterly updates contain. Keep the approved version and the resulting acknowledgement together. If something later changes, correct the source record and use the software's supported update process so you can explain which figures are current.
Choose software by the work it needs to do
Start with your actual income sources and records. A sole trade, a UK property business and foreign property can involve different requirements. A product suitable for one set of circumstances is not automatically suitable for every annual-return item you might have.
HMRC's software guidance allows different approaches, including software connected to existing spreadsheets. Check the complete workflow: importing or recording transactions, reviewing the quarterly summary, submitting it, making corrections and completing the annual return.
Try a representative sample that includes a refund, a private transaction, a cash item and an awkward bank description. Ask how the system handles a missing period and how you export records if you leave. These questions are more informative than a long feature list.
Software support and professional tax advice are different services. Confirm who answers each kind of question, when help is available and what the quoted fee covers. Avona.app's entry-level self-service price is £15/month; professional services and additional product capabilities should be checked against the current scope rather than assumed to be included.
Pilot the scope before selling it widely
Track total staff time and rework across representative clients. Explain upgrades, exceptions and annual work in plain terms. Review the fee when the underlying service changes, rather than relying on a tier label to cover unlimited work.
Take the next step
Avona.app offers a self-service route from £15/month. Bring your records together, review the figures and choose a workflow that fits your business. For professional help, discuss the scope and total price of Avona Concierge, managed by chartered accountants, before choosing a service.