Making Tax Digital · Accountants
Planning a practice workflow around Karbon and Avona
ONLY£15A MONTHA practice can use workflow software to organise people and tax software to prepare reporting.
A practice can use workflow software to organise people and tax software to prepare reporting. The benefit comes from a clear handover between the two. Before automating a Karbon and Avona process, establish which connections are currently supported and which steps need controlled manual handling.
Start with a workflow you can explain
Map the stages: obtain records, resolve exceptions, review totals, obtain approval, submit and retain the result. Give each stage an owner and a completion rule. “Sent to software” and “accepted by HMRC” should be separate statuses.
Consult the current Karbon integrations information and Avona's documentation or support team. This article describes a workflow design, not a promise of a released native integration. Do not build around an assumed API endpoint or an undocumented attachment capability.
Design for failure as well as success
If a supported connection exists, decide how duplicate events, retries, missing client identifiers and failed submissions are handled. A request returning successfully is not automatically evidence that the tax submission was accepted.
If a step is manual, make it visible. A controlled link to the approved document and a recorded status can be more useful than an automation whose meaning nobody understands. Use the minimum necessary permissions and keep credentials outside task descriptions.
Worked example: the review handover
A reviewer completes a client's sole-trade update and records approval in the practice workflow. The submission owner then sends the update and records HMRC's outcome against that business and period.
If the client also has property income, the property update remains separately open. A single completed task must not conceal the second obligation. The workflow should show both the completed work and the remaining exception.
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.
Share the information needed for the task
Tax records need to be useful without containing unnecessary personal detail. Keep payment references sufficient to reconcile the accounts, and hold sensitive client notes in the appropriate restricted system. Financial software should not become a second, informal store for clinical notes or identity documents.
Use individual accounts and the access controls available for the service. Remove access when a working relationship ends. A secure product can still be misused through shared sign-ins, forwarded access links or files sent to the wrong person.
For Open Banking, distinguish account-information access from payment initiation. Read the consent screen and check the authorised provider. Account-information permission does not itself authorise moving money, but Open Banking as a whole also includes separately authorised payment services. The FCA explains these different services.
If you need an assurance about encryption, hosting, retention or security testing, ask for the current documented answer. Terms such as “bank-grade” do not tell you which controls apply to a particular service. Choose a workflow whose permissions and responsibilities you understand, and protect the email or phone account used to recover access.
Pilot before expanding
Test a small group containing a single trade, multiple businesses and a correction. Check access, records, acknowledgements and recovery from a failed step. Expand only after the team can demonstrate that each status corresponds to a real completed action.
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.