Keeping Your HMRC Submissions in Sync — Introducing Automatic Drift Detection

Release v1.0.243 · Reconciliation Workflow

---

For UK landlords navigating Making Tax Digital, accurate submission records aren't just useful — they're essential. Knowing that your quarterly figures have actually been received and recorded by HMRC, not just sent, is the difference between confidence and uncertainty at tax time.

With v1.0.243, we're introducing a new background workflow that runs every week to automatically detect and correct any discrepancies between what the platform has on record and what HMRC actually shows for your obligations.

The Problem: Submissions Can Drift

When you submit a quarterly summary through the platform, the data is sent to HMRC's Making Tax Digital API and the local record is updated to reflect a successful submission. In the vast majority of cases, that's the end of the story.

But occasionally, things don't line up. A network interruption, an API timeout, or a delay on HMRC's side can mean that:

• A submission that looks successful locally was never actually recorded by HMRC — your obligation is still open
• A submission attempt that appeared to fail was in fact processed by HMRC — your obligation is already fulfilled

In either case, your platform records and HMRC's records are telling a different story. Without a mechanism to detect and resolve that difference, a landlord could unknowingly miss a deadline or spend time troubleshooting a problem that doesn't actually exist.

The Solution: A Weekly Reconciliation Sweep

Every Sunday night at 01:00 UTC, the platform now runs an automated reconciliation sweep across all connected organisations. For each one, it re-queries HMRC's API for the current obligation status of every relevant quarterly period and compares it against what's stored locally.

When a discrepancy is found, the platform corrects the local record and notifies the affected organisation immediately.

Two Scenarios, Two Resolutions

Scenario A — The submission didn't land

If your platform record shows a period as submitted but HMRC is reporting it as still open, that period is flagged as failed and you're notified straight away. You'll be able to review and resubmit without having to manually check the HMRC portal.

Scenario B — The submission did land, but wasn't acknowledged

If your platform record shows a period as draft or failed but HMRC reports it as fulfilled, the local record is updated to reflect that — and you're notified that your obligation for that period is confirmed as met.

Nothing is Changed Without a Reason

The reconciliation logic is conservative by design. Corrections are only applied where there is a clear, unambiguous mismatch between local state and HMRC's authoritative response. Every correction — and every discrepancy detected, even those that aren't automatically correctable — is written to the audit log with a full before-and-after record.

This means you always have a transparent, auditable trail of what changed, when, and why.

What This Means for You

For most landlords, most of the time, you won't notice this workflow at all — because your records and HMRC's will agree, and nothing will need to change.

But when drift does occur, you'll be notified promptly and automatically, without having to log in to the HMRC portal to cross-check your submissions manually. The platform does that checking for you, every week, in the background.

Accurate records. Fewer surprises. One less thing to worry about.

---

This feature is available automatically for all organisations with a connected HMRC credential. No configuration is required.