Smart Map - AI Column Mapping

What this is

Smart Map reads the worksheets you chose and works out which cells hold which HMRC figures, so you do not have to lay your workbook out the HMRC way. It suggests; you check and apply. The amounts themselves are always read from your cells, never invented, and nothing is sent to HMRC until you have reviewed every figure on the next step.

Add figures asks How do you keep your records? Select A summary of totals, then Continue, and choose Upload your spreadsheet on the step that follows, Add your summary of totals. Drop or select your XLSX workbook. Smart Map starts after aligned.tax has read the file and, for a workbook with several sheets, you have chosen the worksheets for that business.

What you see on screen

Smart Map runs as soon as your file is read. One progress indicator appears inside Mapping review while it reads the sheets, matches HMRC fields and checks amounts. The spreadsheet stays on the left; suggestions appear in the panel on the right.

The panel shows how many values it found and how many need checking. It names the selected update period and the source worksheet once. Each suggestion has a tick box, HMRC field, cell reference and amount. Click the row to see its source cell in the spreadsheet. The first selected cell is brought into view automatically. If you arrived here from a warning on the filing review, the mapping opens with the field behind that warning already selected and its cells in view. If suggestions span several sheets, each reference includes its worksheet. Each suggestion shows the reason for it in a short line under it. Why these matches is available below the list when Smart Map has notes. When several of your categories belong to one HMRC field and there is no subtotal, Smart Map adds them together, and the suggestion lists each part with its cell and amount, for example “Adds 2 cells: Boiler service (B2) £90 + Fixing stuff (B3) £140.50”.

When you resume mapping from a retained practice workbook, Retained source shows its filename, client, business and period. If the original XLSX is still available, you can download it. View activity shows the related work history.

Suggestions with warnings or low confidence need individual checking. They are not ticked automatically. A warning stays beside the affected row. The panel also tells you about HMRC fields it could not find, which you can map afterwards.

The image below shows the earlier dialog layout. The review steps above describe the current panel.

Smart Map suggestions in the earlier dialog layout

Where the matches open in that window rather than in the panel, clicking outside the window does not close it. If you close it with Escape or its close button before applying anything, the matches are kept: a banner above the spreadsheet says how many were found, for example “Smart Map found 3 matches - review them and apply the ones that are right.”, and Review suggestions in the banner opens them again. While required fields are still empty, the same Review suggestions button also sits beside Continue to Review, with “Apply Smart Map’s 3 matches to continue”.

Change worksheets appears when the workbook has more than one worksheet, and Change file and Re-run Smart Map sit above the preview. Your mapping from last time reuses cell locations but reads current amounts from the workbook you just uploaded. Check the selected update period and every amount before applying it.

When you upload the same spreadsheet again

When you upload a spreadsheet you have mapped before, aligned.tax recognises it by its headings, not its size, and fills in your mapping from last time, ticked and ready to apply in one click. The panel says We’ve used your mapping from last time. Check each figure is from the right period before you apply. If your spreadsheet has changed since then but its headings still match, it says so as well. If it is not right, choose Not right? Run Smart Map instead: the filled-in mapping is set aside and Smart Map maps the sheet, using your mapping from last time as a guide. It still works when the sheet has grown, gained a title row, or had one tab renamed, as long as each mapped figure sits beside the same row label and under the same column heading as before. If the labels or headings changed, or a range you mapped could now miss rows you added, Smart Map runs instead, and a known layout is not offered in its place.

This works for sheets with dates, months or quarters too, so check that each figure comes from the period you are filing. Your mapping stays in the same cells: if those cells hold last quarter’s figures, change them before you apply. When the column you used last time is headed with another quarter, the banner says so, for example The column you used last time is headed Q2. You are filing Q3. If the sheet names a different tax year from the one you are filing, Smart Map maps it instead. Nothing is sent to HMRC until you check the figures and submit.

If you have not mapped this spreadsheet before, and none of your saved mappings fits it, aligned.tax looks for a layout it has seen before. When one matches, the panel says A known layout and suggests where each figure is. Only the layout is shared between users, never anyone’s figures. Because that layout came from another workbook rather than from your own mapping, none of its suggestions is treated as certain. Each one is marked needs checking and starts unticked, so you tick each amount after checking it against your cells. A known layout is not offered for sheets with dates, months or quarters.

Before you apply suggestions:

Review the matches that need attention first. Flagged, low-confidence and competing matches are unticked. Select these individually only after checking them.
Click a suggestion row to bring its source cell into view.
On a phone, click Back to mapping review to return. Your ticks and source choices are kept.
Click Apply to apply the ticked suggestions. The button names how many, for example “Apply 3 selected”. Until you tick at least one it is unavailable and reads Tick values to apply (Select mappings to apply on a short screen), so only the suggestions you ticked are ever applied. If you applied a value earlier in this review and have since unticked it, it comes off the grid when you apply again; a field you have mapped by hand to a different cell is left as it is. Continue to Review stays disabled until you apply them or choose manual mapping.

After applying, the same panel lists all HMRC fields. Use:

Map to choose a cell for an empty field
Change to replace the cells used by a mapped field
Add to include more cells in a numeric total

The spreadsheet opens while you make a change. Select the cell or cells, then click Use these cells to save the change. Click Cancel to leave the existing mapping unchanged. On a phone, Back to mapping review keeps any pending selection. Use the cells or cancel the change before continuing to the filing review.

How to use Smart Map

Accept the suggestions

Read each row. Click a row to inspect its cell in the grid.
Untick any match that is wrong.
Click Apply. Its number is how many ticked suggestions will be applied, not how many will be sent to HMRC. While nothing is ticked, the button is unavailable and the panel reminds you to select any flagged, low-confidence or competing mappings individually before applying them.
Click Continue to review.

Map a field by hand

Click I’ll do it manually below the suggestions. After a run that found no matches, the same control is labelled Map manually.
In Mapping review on the right, click Map for the field you want to fill. The required ones, such as Turnover, are marked.
Click the cell in the grid that holds the figure, then click Use these cells.
Repeat for any other fields, then continue to review.

For a mapped field, use Change to replace its source or Add to include more cells. Choose Cancel to keep the previous mapping.

Try again

Click Re-run Smart Map above the spreadsheet to scan again. Change file lets you upload a replacement, including the same file again once you have corrected it in your spreadsheet app. If you chose manual mapping, or closed the matches without applying them, Review suggestions reopens the saved result without a new scan. Back returns to Add your summary of totals, where you chose Upload your spreadsheet, and keeps your mapping until you choose a new file there.

Things to know

Smart Map reads numbers, it does not write them. Every figure that reaches the review screen is the value of a cell in your workbook. If a suggestion points at the wrong cell, untick it and map by hand.
Zero and blank are different. Enter the number 0 in the workbook when the amount is nil. A blank cell, an empty formula result or a display dash is not treated as zero.
Unticking undoes a value you applied. If you change your mind about a value you already applied in this review, untick it and apply again: the suggestion is taken off the grid, and a field you have mapped by hand to a different cell is left alone.
Your mapping from last time means saved cell locations. It does not reuse last quarter’s amounts. Check the current workbook value and selected update period before applying it. The final step before you submit reminds you when some boxes were filled from your mapping last time.
Your corrections count. When you confirm, aligned.tax keeps your mapping for next time, updating the one it already has for that spreadsheet rather than saving another copy. It also records which suggestions you kept, changed or mapped yourself, so we can see what Smart Map gets wrong: cell locations only, never your figures.
Only the boxes that apply are counted. If you report one consolidated expenses total, the itemised expense boxes are not listed as missing. The panel names the boxes that still apply and were not found, for example Other business income, or gives a count once there are more than three.
Figures left out are pointed out. On a short summary sheet, the panel lists any labelled row with a figure that no box uses, so you can check whether it belongs in one, for example added into your expenses. It does this whether the suggestions came from Smart Map or from a mapping you are reusing.
Warnings override confidence. A match marked as strong still moves to needs checking if Smart Map finds a conflicting label, a future-quarter column or another safety warning. It is not ticked automatically.
Conflicting expense totals need your choice. If a consolidated expense total does not match the itemised expenses, neither version is ticked automatically. Check the source cells, then tick either the consolidated total or the itemised fields before applying mappings.
Large worksheets are checked beyond the first rows. Smart Map samples both the beginning and end of a long worksheet and keeps the original cell references when it shows a match.
Changed or older aligned.tax templates are read by their field codes. Our summary templates print the HMRC field code beside each figure. If yours has been changed or is an older version, Smart Map reads those codes instead of asking the AI, follows the expense method chosen in the template, and uses the accounting total for each expense with the disallowable part sent separately. You still check every figure before applying it.
Labels matter more than layout. A figure with a recognisable label next to it (“Turnover”, “Rent received”, “Repairs”) maps well. Unlabelled numbers or a sheet of individual transactions do not; export a summary sheet instead.
Leaving with matches you have not applied asks first. If you leave the upload page from Map fields while Smart Map has matches you have not applied, or the mapping is not saved anywhere yet, Leave without saving your mapping? says “Your spreadsheet and Smart Map matches are not saved yet. If you leave now you will need to upload and map it again.” Choose Stay to carry on, Save and leave to save the mapping as a draft and then go (offered when there is a spreadsheet to save), or Leave to go without it. If the draft cannot be saved, the warning stays open and says why. The draft keeps your spreadsheet and the matches you have applied; if this browser could not keep the matches you have not applied, the warning stays open and says “We could not keep Smart Map’s unapplied matches on this device. Your spreadsheet and applied matches are saved as a draft. Apply the rest before you leave, or choose Leave to go without them.” Moving between the upload steps is not leaving the page, so it never asks; closing the tab or reloading brings your browser’s own warning instead. The same check runs if you answer the records question with My transactions while a mapping is open, so that work is saved as a draft before Transactions opens.
Only the worksheets you confirmed are read. If a figure is missing, check whether its sheet was ticked; use Change worksheets.
One worksheet, several businesses. If a worksheet holds figures for more than one of your businesses, for example a column for each, Smart Map is told which business you are filing for and maps only that business’s figures. A column or section headed with a business’s full trading name is recognised; one headed with only part of the name, or a nickname, may not be. If it cannot tell which column or section belongs to that business, the match is marked as needing checking and is not ticked.
Consolidated or detailed expenses. For self-employment, one expense total is fine if turnover is under £90,000 this year and was under £90,000 last year. Above that HMRC needs the detailed categories, and the review screen tells you which mode applies.
Foreign property does not use Smart Map. It uses the structured template; Add figures says so for that income type and takes you straight to the template. If a foreign property sheet has changed since you last mapped it, for example a renamed worksheet, your mapping from last time and other people’s layouts are not filled in, because each property needs its own fields rebuilt. Map it again; the official template is still recognised.
What Smart Map sees. The worksheets you chose are sent to the AI model with personal details removed. Hidden worksheets are never sent, and blank rows and columns at the end of a worksheet are left out. Your NINO, names and addresses are not part of the mapping request. Your businesses are identified to the AI only by placeholders such as “business 1”, never by their trading names: wherever a trading name appears in full in your worksheets, it is replaced with the same placeholder before anything is sent.

If something goes wrong

Smart Map found nothing, or very little. The panel says why. It may have found no labels it recognised, or pointed at cells it could not use. If your sheet looks like a list of individual payments rather than totals, it says so, because Smart Map maps the totals for each category. Where transaction import is available for that business, Import as transactions takes the list there and adds it up for you; when you are correcting a quarter you have already submitted, Transactions opens on that quarter with the correction carried over, so it offers you the way back to it. Otherwise click Map manually and select the cells for each box, and they are added up for you. Where a run finished and left its own explanation, it appears under What Smart Map saw, tidied into plain English; a long explanation ends at a full sentence, with Show all to read the rest and Show less to collapse it again. The same applies to the reason shown under each suggestion. When a run found nothing and gave no explanation of its own, the panel says Smart Map could not find totals it was sure about, and asks you to check that you selected the sheet with your quarter totals, or to map the fields yourself. If the selected sheet has no figures at all, the panel also reminds you that a nil period needs explicit zero values. Amounts below zero are shown with the minus sign first, for example -£363.68. Otherwise add a label next to each figure, or choose a different worksheet with Change worksheets, then Re-run Smart Map.

Smart Map could not finish reading your sheet. The panel says Smart Map could not finish, and shows the error message where there is one. A run that did not finish is not the same as a run that found nothing, so it is never reported as “No matches this time”. If it took too long, try again, choose fewer worksheets, or map the boxes yourself. Click Try again inside the panel to run it again, or Map manually and choose the cells yourself from the spreadsheet grid.

Continue to Review got no answer. If your connection drops, or no answer arrives in time, you stay on Map fields with your mapping exactly as you left it, and a message appears in the bar at the bottom with a Try again button beside it. Try again sends the same mapping again and does not ask you a second time about choices you have already made, such as expense signs. It is unavailable while the mapping is incomplete or while Smart Map matches are still waiting to be applied, so apply or finish those first. Nothing is sent to HMRC at this step, so trying again is safe.

Continue to Review is unavailable. The reason is shown beside it: “Apply mappings first” while suggestions in the panel are waiting to be applied, “Apply Smart Map’s 3 matches to continue” (with Review suggestions) after you closed the matches without applying them, “Choose manual mapping or re-run Smart Map.” after a review with nothing to apply, “Both consolidated and itemised expenses are mapped - remove one to continue”, or how many required fields are left, for example “2 required fields left”.

A required field is still empty after applying. Map it by hand from Fields. The review step will not let you continue with a required field missing.

The amounts look wrong. Click View to see the cell. Common causes are a totals row that includes VAT, a column of previous-year figures next to this year’s, or a cell that holds text rather than a number.

Smart Map keeps mapping the same wrong cell. Untick it and map by hand. The next upload of the same layout starts from your corrected mapping.

FAQ

Does Smart Map submit anything?

No. It only proposes which cells map to which fields. Submission happens after you have reviewed the figures and ticked the declaration.

Can I skip Smart Map entirely?

Yes. Click I’ll do it manually, or Map manually after a run that found no matches, and map each field from the grid.

Is my data used to train the model?

No. The request is made through a provider setting that does not retain or train on the content.