Your Dashboard

What this is

Home is where you land after signing in. It tells you in one line what, if anything, needs doing, then shows every quarter of the selected tax year with its status. Once HMRC is connected it is the quickest way to see what is due and to start filing.

These are the controls for your own individual taxpayer account. An accountant invited directly to your records sees an adviser view for the selected taxpayer. View only lets them inspect saved information; Manage my records also permits upload, review and correction through Transactions or Cashbook when available. Neither permission lets them connect HMRC, submit returns or manage your account. You choose and change their permission through Accountant access in Settings.

What you see on screen

The greeting at the top (“Good morning”, “Good afternoon”, “Good evening”) is followed by a one-sentence summary such as “One thing needs doing. Quarter 1 for your self-employment business is due by 7 August”, or “You’re all caught up. Your next update opens on 25 September”.

Until setup is finished, a You’re nearly set up card lists the five steps with a progress bar: create your account, verify your mobile, connect to HMRC, check your HMRC data, file your first quarterly update. The next step has its own button, for example Start your update. If you missed a quarter and a later one is open, that button and the greeting at the top of Home point at the later quarter, because its update also covers the one you missed.

From 17 months after you connected to HMRC, a reminder appears that HMRC asks you to reconnect every 18 months and repeats its 2-step verification when you do, with the date to reconnect by and a Reconnect to HMRC button that starts a fresh HMRC sign-in straight away. If you have filed before and the connection is missing or has expired, a notice with Reconnect to HMRC appears instead.

If HMRC’s latest check of your record was that it did not authorise aligned.tax, a Fix the HMRC connection panel appears under the card. HMRC does not say why, so the panel gives three steps to try in order, all visible at once: check or edit your National Insurance number (saving an edited number checks with HMRC again straight away, and This number is right moves you to step 2), connect again with the user ID and password you used to sign up for Making Tax Digital (the same ones you use for Self Assessment; this also fixes it if you connected before your sign-up was finished), or sign up for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax on GOV.UK and connect again. The panel stays until a later check succeeds.

Your Filing Journey shows four counts for the selected tax year:

Still to file
Past deadline
Due within 30 days
Filed with HMRC

Each has a small What is …? button that explains the count. A Refresh button asks HMRC for the latest obligations and businesses.

Your Tax Year at a Glance lists each business with its quarters, for example “Demo Plumbing - 1/4 filed”, and for every quarter (Q1 to Q4) the cumulative period it covers, such as “6 Apr - 5 Jul” or “6 Apr - 5 Oct”, and one of these states:

Filed - HMRC has received this quarter
Not open yet - HMRC does not accept the update yet; it shows the date it opens, 10 days before the period ends (“Submit from 25 Sept”)
Covered - “By your later update”: a later quarter you sent already covers this one
An open quarter shows its due date and an Upload data button. If an earlier quarter was missed, the open quarter says Also covers Q1 (or whichever quarters), and the missed quarter says the later update covers it, so sending it on its own is optional

Individual dashboard

How to use your dashboard

Start filing a quarter

Find the open quarter under Your Tax Year at a Glance, or use the action button in the summary card.
Click Upload data (or Start your update on the checklist). The upload journey opens with that quarter already chosen.
Follow the filing journey: choose your spreadsheet or eligible saved transactions, check the figures, then confirm submission to HMRC.

Check what HMRC holds

Click Refresh in Your Filing Journey. aligned.tax asks HMRC for your businesses and obligations again and shows “Sync complete” when done. Do this if a quarter you filed elsewhere is not showing as filed, or after HMRC has told you something has changed.

See a different tax year

Use the Tax Year dropdown in the header. Every count and every quarter on the page follows it.

Things to know

Quarters are cumulative. Each period starts on 6 April, so Q2 covers 6 April to 5 October, not July to October. When you file Q2 you send the year so far and HMRC keeps only the latest figures. See Cumulative Quarterly Updates.
Quarters open 10 days before their period ends. They do not have to be filed in order: one update for the latest open quarter covers any earlier quarter you missed.
The dates come from HMRC. aligned.tax shows the periods and due dates HMRC holds for your registration; it does not calculate them.
A filed quarter can take up to an hour to show as fulfilled after HMRC accepts it. The receipt on the success screen is your confirmation in the meantime.
Nothing here needs a person at aligned.tax. If the page shows a problem with HMRC, the header status chip and the message on the page say what HMRC reported.

FAQ

Why does Home say nothing is due when I know I have a quarter to file?

Check the Tax Year in the header. Home only shows the selected year. If the year is right, click Refresh so aligned.tax asks HMRC again.

I missed a quarter. Do I have to file it before the next one?

No. Each update contains the year so far, so the next update covers the missed quarter too. For the 2026-27 tax year there is no penalty point for the missed deadline. For 2027-28, if you joined MTD in April 2026, HMRC may still give a penalty point for the missed deadline; the government has said people required to join in April 2027 will not get points for 2027-28 quarterly updates. You can still send the missed quarter on its own first if you prefer.

I filed a quarter through other software. Will it show here?

Yes, after a Refresh. HMRC is the source of truth, so a quarter fulfilled anywhere shows as Filed here. It will not appear in Past submissions, which only lists what was sent through aligned.tax.