It’s a question we’re asked a lot: a member pays you at group on a Monday, but the money doesn’t reach your bank account until Thursday or Friday. So which date do you record in your accounts?
The short answer: the date of the group session is fine for cash and card payments — and for most of the year, the difference doesn’t matter at all.
The cash basis in a nutshell
As a self-employed Consultant, you’ll almost certainly prepare your accounts on the cash basis — it’s now the default for sole traders. Under the cash basis, HMRC’s rule is simple:
“With cash basis you only record income or expenses when you receive money or pay a bill.” — GOV.UK
So the question really becomes: when have you received the money?
What date to use, payment by payment
Hint: They’re actually the same, but let’s run through some examples…
Cash taken at group
A member pays you in cash during group – you therefore received the money the moment the member physically gave it to you.
Record it on the group date (not on the day you bank it, it was given to you on a specific date).
Card payments taken at group
Although the money may take 2–3 working days to land in your bank account, your card processor is holding it on your behalf from the moment the payment is made.
HMRC’s own date-of-receipt rules confirm this approach:
“You receive payment on the date you make out a sales voucher for the payment (not when you actually receive payment from the card provider).” — HMRC, Cash Accounting Scheme
In other words: use the date of the card transaction — the group date — not the date it clears.
Bank transfers
A member sends you a transfer on group day — say, Monday evening. With a bank transfer there’s no card processor holding the money for you, so the money is simply received when it’s credited to your account.
The good news: most UK transfers arrive by Faster Payments within seconds, so the group day and the receipt day are almost always the same.
If a transfer does land the next morning, recording it against the group day is harmless for day-to-day bookkeeping — the tax result is identical — but in the final week of the tax year, use the date it actually arrived in your account if it crosses into the next financial year.
The golden rule: pick your approach and stick to it
The best option is to choose a sensible, defensible approach — like the ones above — and apply it consistently to every transaction, every week.
Chopping and changing between dates to suit yourself is what attracts attention and can look like you’re trying to hide the flow of money; a consistent method applied in good faith does not.
When does the date actually matter?
Here’s the reassuring part: for a payment taken in, say, July, it makes no difference whatsoever to your tax whether you record it on the Tuesday or the Friday — it all lands in the same tax year.
The only time the date genuinely matters is at your year end (5 April, or 31 March if that’s what you use). A card payment taken at group on 3 April that clears on 6 April sits in one tax year or the other depending on your method — so that’s the one week of the year to apply your chosen approach carefully and consistently.
Making Tax Digital (MTD)
If you’re in Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (it applies from April 2026 if your self-employment income is over £50,000, with more Consultants joining from April 2027), you’ll be sending HMRC quarterly updates.
Does it matter if a payment’s date crosses one of those quarterly boundaries – for example, a card payment taken at group on 30 June which clears on 1 July? No. Quarterly updates are cumulative running totals, not tax returns — nothing is finalised and no tax is due when you send them. At the end of the year, the tax return will confirm the final values for the year and then tax is based on these amounts.
So the position doesn’t change under MTD: record payments using the consistent approach above, don’t lose sleep over quarterly boundaries — and the only date line that affects your tax bill is still the tax year end 31 March.
Further reading
This article is general guidance, not personal tax advice. If you’re unsure how this applies to you — particularly around your year end, or if you’re VAT registered — get in touch with the team and we’ll be happy to help.