For Your Accountant
How Reports › Accounts › For your accountant puts everything your accountant needs for a period in one download: what’s in it, downloading it, emailing your accountant a link that works for a week, and who can.
Reports > Accounts > For your accountant puts everything your accountant needs for a period in one download: your profit and loss, every transaction, your expenses with their receipts, your invoices, who owed you money, and your VAT returns, mileage and Self Assessment figures where you have them. Download it yourself, or email your accountant a link to it. Like the reports, it covers one business at a time.
Choosing the Period and Business
- Period: Starts as your last full financial year, such as 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026 (Last Tax Year for most businesses), which is usually what an accountant asks for. The choices are This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, This Tax Year and Last Tax Year, as on every money page, or pick any dates on the calendar. The heading above the list of what’s in the download shows the dates you’ve chosen.
- Up to two years: One download covers up to two years. A longer period gets Choose a period of up to two years.
- Up to today: A period that ends after today gets The period can't end after today., and one that ends before it starts gets The period has to end after it starts.
- Business: The business the download is for, when you have more than one. Each business has its own downloads.
What’s in the Download
The download is one ZIP file, named after the business and the period, such as sparkle-windows-accounts-2025-04-06-to-2026-04-05.zip. The spreadsheets in it are CSV files, which open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. On the page, the list under One ZIP file, with a README that says what each file is: shows what goes in it, and the README file in the ZIP says the same about each file:
- Profit and loss (profit-and-loss.pdf): Income, expenses and profit for the period and each month of it, beside the same period last year. It’s the PDF that Download PDF makes on the Profit and Loss Report.
- Transactions (transactions.csv): Every charge, payment, refund, tip, write-off and expense dated in the period, with its expense category, and whether it’s an opening balance brought over from before Work Planner. The columns are those of Export CSV on the Transactions list. Payments still pending, failed or cancelled, and missed visits, are in it too, with the Status column saying so, as they don’t count in your figures.
- Expenses and receipts (expenses.csv and the receipts folder): The expenses dated in the period, with the names of their receipt files, and the receipts attached to those expenses. Each receipt is named by its expense’s date and number, such as 2025-07-01-expense-1234.jpg, so they sort in the same order. A receipt that can’t be found is still named in the expenses file, with (missing) after it.
- Invoices (invoices.csv): The invoices made in the period, what each came to and what has been paid, with anything written off.
- Who owes you (who-owes-you.csv): The customers who owed money at the end of the period, and how much. It’s worked out the way their statements are: charges and refunds add to what they owe, payments and write-offs take it off, and opening balances count, as they were owed. Customers who owed nothing, or were in credit, aren’t in it.
- VAT returns (vat-returns.csv): For a VAT-registered business, or one that sent returns for the period before it deregistered. The VAT returns sent for the period: those sent from Work Planner with their figures, and those sent another way. One sent from Work Planner has the nine boxes as they were sent, the day it went and HMRC’s receipt number. One you marked as sent has just its dates, as Work Planner doesn’t know what was in it.
- Mileage log (mileage-log.csv): When mileage was logged in the period. Each day a van or car went out in the period, with its readings and business miles, and anything to check, such as a missing finishing reading.
- Self Assessment (such as self-assessment-2025-26.csv): Unless your business is a limited company. A file for each tax year the period is in, with the Self Assessment figures for the whole tax year, or the year so far, worked out from the records as on the Income Tax page. A period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 has two, for the tax years that start on 6 April 2024 and 6 April 2025.
The page lists VAT returns when your business is VAT registered, and Self Assessment unless it’s a limited company, as set in Settings > Accounts & tax. When something isn’t in the download, the README says why, such as No receipts were attached to the expenses in this period., No mileage was logged in this period. or There are no Self Assessment figures, as the business is a limited company. It also says which currency the amounts are in, and that dates are written year-month-day.
Downloading It
Download starts making the download, which can take a minute or two for a year of receipts. The page says Getting your download ready. It starts by itself if you stay on this page, or the bell tells you when it’s ready. Stay on the page and the ZIP file downloads by itself once it’s ready. You don’t have to wait: leave the page and it’s still made, and the notifications bell, and your phone if you use the app, tell you when it’s ready, or if it couldn’t be made. Click it in the bell to come back here and download it from Made in the last 7 days. Downloading it takes it out of your bell.
- If it couldn’t be made: The page says Your download couldn’t be made. Please try again.
- One at a time: A business’s downloads are made one at a time. Asking for another while one is being made gets A download is still being made. Try again once it's ready.
Emailing It to Your Accountant
Email to your accountant sends your accountant a link to the download, once it’s made. The button shows once your accountant’s email address is in Settings > Accounts & tax, under Accountant’s email, and the line under the buttons says who it goes to, such as Emails books@example.com a link to the download that works for 7 days. Without an address, the line says To email it to your accountant, add their email address in Settings › Accounts & tax., which opens that page if your role can change your settings.
- When it goes: The page says Once it’s ready, we’ll email books@example.com a link to download it., and the email goes as soon as the download is made.
- The email: From Work Planner, with your business and the period in the subject, such as Accounts for Sparkle Windows, 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. It says who sent it and what’s in the download, with a Download the accounts button.
- Replies: Your accountant’s reply goes to whoever sent it: the person who pressed Email to your accountant.
- A week to download it: The link works for 7 days, and the email says until when. Your accountant doesn’t need to sign in to Work Planner, so anyone with the link can download the accounts until then. After that, the link says This download has gone and asks them to ask you to send it again: make another, and email it again.
Made in the Last 7 Days
Under the download, Made in the last 7 days lists the downloads made for the business, the newest first, whether they were downloaded or emailed. Each one shows its period, who made it and when, such as Made by Jo Bloggs on 23 October 2026, its size, and a badge:
- Being made: It’s still being made. The page checks every few seconds, so the badge changes by itself.
- Ready: It’s made. Download, beside it, downloads it, in a web browser.
- Couldn’t be made: Something went wrong, or it was still being made after half an hour. Make it again.
One you emailed also says Emailing to your accountant’s address when it’s ready, then Emailed to the address once the email has gone, or Not emailed to the address if it couldn’t be sent. When that one is Ready, download it and send it another way, or press Email to your accountant again.
Downloads are kept for 7 days, as long as an emailed link works, then deleted with their link, as they hold your customers’ names and addresses. With none made in the last 7 days, the list says Nothing yet. Downloads are kept for 7 days.
In the iPhone and Android Apps
The apps can’t save a download, so there’s no Download button in them: Email to your accountant is the only one, and the page says To download it yourself, open Work Planner in a web browser. Downloads made in a web browser are listed in the apps too, without their Download button.
Who Can Use It
It’s in the Reports menu for roles with Export Reports and Lists under Reports. As the download holds your transactions, expenses, invoices and debts, making or downloading one also needs View under Payments, Expenses, Invoices and Debts in that business. Without them, the page says Downloading everything for your accountant needs access to transactions, expenses, invoices, debts and report exports.
Owners and admins can use it, and so can the ready-made Accountant role, so an accountant you’ve invited to your business can make the download themselves. See Editing a Role.
Related articles
- Profit and Loss Report: The profit and loss in the download, line by line and month by month.
- Transactions List: The transactions in the download, and the same spreadsheet for any search.
- Expenses List: Your expenses, and adding their receipts.
- Who Owes You: Who owes you money now.
- VAT Returns: Each VAT return, sending it and marking it as sent.
- Income Tax: Your Self Assessment figures, tax year by tax year.
- Vehicles Report: Your business miles and the mileage log.
- Accounts and Tax Settings: Where your accountant’s email address goes.
- Editing a Role: The ready-made Accountant role, and the permissions the download needs.