The pack
How Cispack works
Stay the system of work. Let the accountant stay the system of record. The product is matching, expected cash, and one pack for the 19th.
A main contractor pays you under the Construction Industry Scheme. They send a payment and deduction statement — sometimes a PDF, sometimes a photo, sometimes nothing until you chase. The credit that hits the bank is not the invoice total. CIS came off the labour. Retention may be held. Reverse-charge VAT may sit on the invoice and never move as cash.
If you also take on subcontractors, you operate CIS the other way: verify them, deduct, and report what you operated. HMRC later compares what you say you suffered with what the contractor says they deducted. The two sides have to live in the same tax month.
01
Add the inbound statement
Enter the contractor, the tax month (6th to the 5th), labour, materials and the CIS rate on the statement. Cispack calculates the deduction. You can add an outbound statement the same way when you have deducted from a subcontractor. The first version is typed in by hand. A PDF drop comes later.
02
Match invoice and bank
Pair each statement line with the invoice you raised and the credit that actually arrived. A line with no match stays on the overview as unmatched. That is the pile: not a feeling, a count. Unmatch if you paired the wrong invoice.
03
Read expected cash on the job
A job has a site, a retention rate, invoices and bank credits. Expected cash is invoice minus the matched CIS deduction minus retention. You see invoiced, expected and received on one job — so a £10,000 invoice is not mistaken for a £10,000 credit.
04
Send the month pack
Pick the tax month. The pack lists CIS suffered and CIS operated: the party, the line, the deduction, and the matched invoice. That is what the bookkeeper re-types today from a folder of PDFs. Give them the pack. They put it in Xero and file the CIS300.
What you track
Suffered and operated
CIS suffered
Money a main contractor deducted from you and will pay to HMRC. It belongs on your monthly return as tax already taken. Without the statement matched to the invoice, it is a hole in the month.
CIS operated
Money you deducted from subcontractors. Same tax month, same pack. HMRC will ask both sides to agree. Cispack keeps them next to each other so the 19th is a check, not a reconstruction.
The tax month
6th to the 5th. Due on the 19th.
Cispack stores statements against a tax month, not a calendar month. 6 March to 5 April is not “March”. A statement that arrives late still belongs to the month it covers. Quiet months still need a nil CIS300. The pack for a quiet month should be empty on purpose — not missing because nobody looked.
Limits
What Cispack does not do
- It does not file to HMRC. Making Tax Digital production access for new products is restricted. We will not tell you we file the return.
- It does not replace Xero, Sage or the accountant’s working papers. Those stay the books.
- It does not verify subcontractors with HMRC, run payroll, or calculate VAT. You already have tools for that.
- It does not give tax advice. The 20% example on the home page is illustrative. Your rate is whatever HMRC and the contract say.