How it works
Capture is deliberately effortless. Checking is deliberately strict. That combination is the whole product.
Catch it early
A merchant will fix last month's invoice. Not one from 2024.
Most self-builders open the box after completion and find invoices missing VAT numbers, addressed to the wrong name, or charged at the wrong rate. By then it's too late to do anything about it.
Footings checks each one as it arrives, while it's still a two-minute email.
VAT number missing
Pour Decisions · INV-4471 · £2,814.60
Delivery invoiced separately
Usually only claimable on the same invoice as the goods.
Possible duplicate
Same supplier and invoice number as one from 3 Sept.
Ready to submit
No shoebox. No weekend of sorting.
Because every invoice was checked as it arrived, there's nothing left to sort at the end. Footings puts your schedule in the order HMRC's form expects, with every document indexed to match.
You check it, sign it and submit it yourself, so HMRC pays your refund straight to you, never through us.
Ready to submit
£28,415.60
Getting invoices in
However an invoice reaches you
Effort per invoice decides whether a tool like this gets used at all, so we've made each route as close to nothing as we could.
Drop it in
Available nowDrag a PDF or scan onto the page, one at a time or dozens at once, or tap to upload on your phone. Footings reads the supplier, VAT number, invoice number, date and every line, then checks each one.
Forward it on
Available nowEvery build has its own Footings email address. Forward anything that lands in your own inbox, or ask your merchants to copy it in on invoices so you keep your own copy too. Approve a new sender's first email once, and theirs are filed automatically after that. Works with every supplier, including one-off local trades.
Photograph it
Available nowFor counter dockets and paper invoices. On your phone, tap Add invoice and choose to take a photo. It's read and checked like any other invoice.
Statements aren't invoices, so they never count towards your claim. Add the invoices they list instead.
What gets checked
Three questions, every invoice
They have different answers and different fixes, so Footings keeps them apart.
Is the document valid?
- Supplier name and VAT number
- Invoice number and date
- Your name and address, on invoices over £250
- Net, VAT and gross shown separately
- A real VAT invoice, not a pro-forma, statement or till receipt
Fixable. The merchant reissues, and Footings drafts the email.
Is the item claimable?
- Every line checked against HMRC's published list
- Conditional items get a question, not a guess
- Your answers are recorded and kept
- Lines that don't qualify come out of your total
Not fixable. They just don't go in.
Is it already in?
- The same file can't be added twice
- Nor can the same supplier and invoice number
- Near matches are flagged for you to compare
Caught on arrival. No double counting.
A perfectly valid invoice can contain something you can't claim, and a defective invoice can be full of things you can. Treating those as one question is how claims go wrong.
When something's unclear
Held, never guessed
Not everything has a clean answer, and pretending otherwise would be worse than useless. Anything uncertain is routed to whoever can actually answer it.
You answer
Questions only you can answer. Did the digger come with a driver? Is the blind manual or electric? Your answer is kept with the invoice.
The merchant answers
Document defects. Footings drafts the email, you send it from your own inbox, then add the corrected invoice and it's checked again.
Ask us
Bundled supplies, invoices in someone else's name, anything the document alone can't settle. Email us or use the feedback box, and we'll look at it with you.
New questions become checks
When a new kind of question comes up, we look into it against HMRC's published guidance. Where the answer applies to everyone, it's added to Footings' checks.
At the end
Your claim is already built.
When your build is finished, Footings makes your claim pack: the schedule of invoices laid out like HMRC's own template, ready to upload, every invoice numbered to match, your build details for HMRC's questions, and a list of anything left out, so nothing is missing without you knowing.
You check it and submit it yourself, so the refund is paid straight into your account.