How to Prepare Your Financial Figures for CT600 Filing

Before you can file your CT600, you need to gather your company's financial figures for the accounting period. This guide explains what figures you need, where to find them, and how to prepare them.

What Figures Does TinyTax Need?

TinyTax requires two sets of financial information:

Profit & Loss (P&L)

Your P&L summarises your company's income and expenditure over the accounting period:

Figure	What it is	Where to find it
Turnover	Total sales/income received	Sales invoices, bank deposits
Cost of sales	Direct costs of delivering your product or service	Purchase invoices, receipts
Expenses	Operating costs (salaries, software, rent, professional fees, etc.)	Bank statements, invoices, receipts
Net profit	Turnover minus all costs	Calculated from the above

Balance Sheet

Your balance sheet is a snapshot of what the company owns and owes at the period end date:

Figure	What it is	Where to find it
Fixed assets	Equipment, vehicles, property owned by the company	Asset register, purchase invoices
Debtors	Money owed to the company (unpaid invoices)	Accounts receivable records
Cash at bank	Bank balance at period end	Bank statement
Creditors	Money the company owes (unpaid bills, loans)	Accounts payable records
Director's loan	Money owed to/from the director	Director's loan account records

Where Do These Figures Come From?

If you have been keeping financial records during the year, you should have everything you need. The most common sources are:

Accounting software (FreeAgent, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage)

• Run a Profit & Loss report for the accounting period
• Run a Balance Sheet report as at the period end date
• These give you all the figures directly

Spreadsheet records

• Tally up all income and expense categories
• Calculate the balance sheet position from your records

Bank statements only

• Total up all income deposits = turnover (adjust for non-trading receipts)
• Categorise all outgoing payments = expenses
• Bank balance at year end = cash at bank

Do I Need an Accountant?

Not necessarily — TinyTax is designed for company directors to file without a full-time accountant. The form guides you through every field with explanations of what to enter.

However, if you want a professional to review your figures before filing, many accountants offer one-off or ad-hoc consultations rather than ongoing engagements. This can be useful to:

• Check your P&L categorisation is correct
• Confirm any tax adjustments (depreciation add-backs, disallowable expenses)
• Review your balance sheet for obvious errors

Search for accountants offering "one-off company accounts review" or "ad-hoc CT600 consultancy". The ICAEW's Find a Chartered Accountant service lets you search by location and service type.

Tax Adjustments

Accounting profit is not always the same as taxable profit. TinyTax handles most common adjustments automatically, but you should be aware:

• Depreciation is added back (TinyTax uses capital allowances instead)
• Entertainment expenses are typically disallowable
• Capital expenditure is claimed via capital allowances, not as an expense

See our CT600 checklist for more detail.

Common Questions

What if my records are incomplete?

Use your best estimate based on available evidence (bank statements, email history, invoices you can find). Keep a note of any estimated figures. If records are significantly incomplete, a brief accountant consultation is particularly worthwhile.

What if I used accounting software?

Run a Profit & Loss report and Balance Sheet from your software for the correct dates and use those figures directly in TinyTax.

How accurate do I need to be?

Your figures should be as accurate as possible. HMRC can query returns where figures look unusual. Minor rounding is acceptable, but avoid estimates for large items where you have the original records.