Your dashboard and the setup checklist

When you sign in you land on the dashboard. Brand-new accounts get a guided Get HMRC-ready checklist that walks you through setup, while existing accounts see their tax figures, next deadline and readiness at a glance.

Your dashboard at a glance

The dashboard is your home screen at /dashboard. You reach it after signing in. What it shows depends on how far through setup you are:

• Brand-new accounts (no property and no self-employment business) see the Get HMRC-ready setup checklist at the top.
• Existing accounts that are not yet connected to HMRC see an HMRC connection card instead, prompting you to link your account.
• Everyone sees a hero with a greeting, your projected tax liability for the year, your next deadline, and a readiness percentage, followed by your income and expenses trends and your list of properties or businesses.

The hero deadline comes from HMRC. The app reads your obligations and shows your real due dates on the Deadlines page, so check there rather than relying on a date from memory.

Note: The headline figure is your projected tax liability for the year, taken from HMRC's latest calculation for you. It is a projection to give you a running sense of your position, not a final tax bill. Once HMRC has accepted your tax return for that year, the figure becomes your settled tax liability from the final calculation, and it no longer has a Refresh button. If HMRC expects you to repay a student or postgraduate loan through your tax return, the figure includes that estimated repayment and a line under it shows the amount. These in-year estimates are for information only and do not reduce your loan balance during the year. Until HMRC has a calculation for you (for example before your first quarterly update is submitted), the headline shows an "Awaiting HMRC projection" message with a prompt to connect HMRC or submit, rather than a figure.

The Get HMRC-ready setup checklist

New accounts land on a checklist card titled Get HMRC-ready with the note A couple of minutes and a progress bar reading {n} of {total} done. It replaces the empty dashboard and guides you step by step. The first outstanding step with its own button becomes the single highlighted action, so you always know what to do next.

The steps are:

1. Create your account. Already done, and pre-ticked.
2. Verify your email. Also pre-ticked once you have confirmed your email during signup.
3. Add your first property (or Add your business if you signed up for self-employment). This is usually the first action button you see. See Add your first property.
4. Record your income & expenses. Add what you earn and spend. You can type entries in or import a CSV. When you add a transaction only the date, amount, and category are required: a description and a receipt are always optional.
5. Connect to HMRC. Link your HMRC account once so you can submit. See Connect your HMRC account.

As you complete each step, its row ticks off. The whole card disappears for good once you have at least one property or one self-employment business.

Important: The Record your income & expenses row does not have its own button, so the highlighted action can jump from adding a property straight to Connect to HMRC. That is by design. Record your figures from the Transactions area or by importing a CSV, and the row will tick off once you have any transaction.

The app builds your quarterly figures automatically from the individual income and expenses you record (typed in or imported from a CSV), so there is nothing to total up by hand.

Which steps you see

The middle step matches your income type:

• Property (the default): you see Add your first property.
• Self-employment: you see Add your business.
• Both: you see both rows, so the checklist covers adding a property and adding a business.

At the bottom of the checklist, the New here? See how it works link brings you to this Help Centre.

Switching between property and self-employment

If your income type is set to Both, a view switcher appears in your navigation with All, Property, and SE. Use it to focus the figures on one income source or to see everything together. This switcher only appears for Both users; if you have a single income type, the dashboard simply shows that one.

Tip: MTD Lite includes both income types together; if your plan has an income-source limit the app shows the upgrade route. See Plans and pricing.

If something goes wrong

• The checklist never appeared. It only shows to brand-new accounts with no property and no business. If you have already added a property or business, the checklist has retired as intended.
• The checklist vanished after I added a property. That is expected: it retires once you have a property or business. From then on you will see your figures, and an HMRC connection card if you have not connected yet.
• The highlighted button skipped a step. Only steps with their own button can become the highlighted action. Record income and expenses directly from Transactions or a CSV import instead.
• My next deadline or readiness looks off. The deadline is pulled from HMRC. Connect your HMRC account so the app can read your obligations, then check the Deadlines page for the authoritative dates.
• The dashboard says no quarterly updates are due. HMRC has every business you are viewing on annual reporting for the year (possible in a new business's first tax years), so it expects no quarterly updates from them. Settings, then HMRC, shows each business's reporting for those years.
• The dashboard says HMRC is not showing any quarterly updates for you, does not show you as signed up for Making Tax Digital, or does not have you on quarterly reporting. HMRC's Making Tax Digital status for your connected account does not show you on quarterly reporting for the tax year: it shows no sign-up, a status other than quarterly reporting (such as annual reporting or exempt), or no status HMRC will confirm. The dashboard then has no quarterly update of yours to count down to; where HMRC's answer is unclear it still gives the next standard deadline. Settings, then HMRC, shows the status HMRC holds. If you have already signed up, see Not signed up for Making Tax Digital yet?: use Refresh from HMRC there, and Reconnect if the status does not change.
• A business on the quarter timeline is marked Not linked here. HMRC expects quarterly updates from a self-employment business that no business in the app is linked to, so nothing can be sent for it from here. Its quarters are on What's due; Settings, then HMRC, lists every income source HMRC holds for you. HMRC still expects its updates, so the deadline on your dashboard can be for that business, named unless one of your businesses in the app is due the same day, when the app read your obligations from HMRC within the last day (open What's due to read them again).
• A quarter on the timeline says Filed with HMRC. HMRC shows that update as received, for example because it was sent with other software, so there is no amount from the app to show.

Frequently asked questions

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