Most self-builders lose VAT to paperwork, not to the rules.
You get one claim, and only invoices meeting HMRC's requirements count. Footings checks each one as it arrives — while the merchant will still reissue it.
One claim. No second go.
Typical VAT reclaimed where the owner buys materials directly.
From completion to submit, for builds finished on or after 5 December 2023.
How long a defective invoice typically sits before anyone checks it. By then merchants won't reissue.
Three ways in. However suits you.
Effort per invoice decides whether a tool like this gets used at all. So we made it as close to nothing as we could.
Give the merchant your address
Every account gets its own Footings email. Ask your merchant to copy it on invoices and they arrive on their own. We draft the request for you.
Forward it on
Anything that lands in your own inbox, forward it. Works with every supplier, no setup at all.
Photograph it
Counter dockets, paper invoices, anything handed to you at the yard. Snap it and carry on.
Catch it the week it happens
A merchant will reissue last month's invoice without a second thought. They won't reissue one from two years ago. That gap is where the money goes.
It gets checked
Against HMRC's list and the invoice requirements. Duplicates, replacements and credit notes reconciled so nothing counts twice.
Problems come with a fix
Anything defective arrives with a drafted email to the merchant. You send it from your own account, that week.
Your claim builds itself
By completion the schedule is already there. Export it, check it, submit it.
Why Footings
The first thing you pour
Everything above ground depends on it being right. Same with the first invoice you file.
Footing the bill
You're paying for all of it. A fifth of that is VAT you're entitled to have back.
Footing a column
In bookkeeping, footing means totalling up — and the double rule underneath marks a figure that's been checked and holds.
Start at the footings
In development now, built by a self-builder partway through his own claim.