Going paperless with purchase invoices is fully HMRC-compliant and dramatically reduces admin overhead. Here's the complete process for UK businesses.
HMRC's Making Tax Digital legislation requires VAT-registered businesses to keep digital records. Paper originals are not required as long as you have a complete digital record. Non-VAT-registered businesses can also go digital — HMRC accepts digital records for all tax purposes.
Most supplier invoices already arrive by email. Set up a forwarding rule in Gmail or Outlook to send these to InboxBill automatically. AI extracts the data and the original PDF is stored against the FreeAgent bill. Nothing else needed for email-based invoices.
Scan immediately on receipt
Use Adobe Scan, Microsoft Lens, or a desktop scanner to create a PDF of the paper invoice. Quality matters — at least 300 DPI, clearly legible.
Email the PDF to InboxBill
Forward the scanned PDF to your InboxBill forwarding address. It processes identically to an email attachment.
Keep the physical copy briefly
File the paper original for 30 days as a safety net, then shred. Once the digital record is in FreeAgent, the paper is redundant.
Digital records must be kept for 6 years from the end of the accounting period. InboxBill and FreeAgent store records indefinitely on their cloud infrastructure. Consider exporting an annual archive to cloud storage (Google Drive or Dropbox) as an additional backup.
InboxBill captures, extracts, and archives every invoice digitally.
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