What counts as
compatible software?

What does compatible actually mean?

• —It keeps the required records digitally, in the form the regime specifies.
• —It submits to HMRC directly through their API rather than through a person retyping figures.
• —Data moves between components by digital link, with no copy and paste in the chain.
• —It appears on HMRC's published list of recognised software for the relevant regime.

Bridging software, and when you need it

Bridging software connects records you keep elsewhere — commonly a spreadsheet — to HMRC's API. It is a legitimate route and plenty of businesses use it.

What it does not do is remove the requirement for the underlying records to be digital and digitally linked. A spreadsheet with bridging software on the end is compliant; a spreadsheet with someone reading numbers off it is not.

What to check before you choose

• —Is it on HMRC's recognised list for the specific regime you need — VAT and Income Tax are listed separately.
• —Does it cover the whole chain from record-keeping to submission, or only part of it?
• —Will your accountant work in it? Their time is a real cost, and unfamiliar software costs more of it.
• —Can you export everything in standard formats if you leave? Records outlive subscriptions.
• —What happens to the price after the introductory period, which is where the real cost usually sits.

Where Bizzle sits

Bizzle keeps digital records with an unbroken chain from source document to submission, because capture, ledger and filing are the same system rather than three products with connectors between them. That removes the digital link problem rather than solving it.

It is in early access and rolling out in phases. Check the current recognition status before relying on it for a live filing obligation — that is the honest answer, and a product telling you otherwise about a compliance requirement is not one to trust.