This week in UK small business software — 12 October 2026
The Budget date that matters for MTD, a "free" bank plan quietly repricing its meters, and one calculator trick worth ten minutes. Three stories, our take, no filler.
1 · Mark 28 October twice: Budget day meets MTD planning
The story: The Autumn Budget is confirmed for Wednesday 28 October 2026, Chancellor John Healey's first, with the OBR forecast the same day. It is the final fiscal set-piece before MTD for Income Tax wave 2 (£30k–£50k sole traders and landlords) goes live on 6 April 2027.
Our take: Treat anything announced on the 28th as refinement, not rescue. Nobody sensible expects wave 2 to move. The sole traders who will suffer in April are the ones still "waiting to see what the Budget says" in March. Software chosen and bank feeds reconciled by January is the calm position.
Do this: Read the live timeline on our MTD hub — we refresh it within a week of every fiscal event, and the next update is already scheduled.
2 · "Free" business banking keeps re-metering itself
The story: While updating our banking reviews we confirmed three pricing moves: Revolut Business's entry point is now Basic at £10/mo (the old £0 tier has quietly left the page); Tide's Pro tier is showing £27.49 where £24.99 sat earlier this year; and ANNA's free plan still takes 0.95% of incoming payments above £1,000 a month.
Our take: The subscription was never where the money was — the meters are. A subscription creeping up £3 is visible and annoying; a 0.95% commission on your revenue is invisible and expensive. ANNA on £8k monthly revenue costs ~£800 a year on a "£0" plan. That is not a criticism of the product (its tax tooling is genuinely good) — it is an argument for reading fee tables the way we do.
Do this: Run your own month through the bank cost checker. Every move we spotted this week is now logged on the Price watch section of the pricing index.
3 · The ten-minute calculation worth doing this weekend
The trick: Take one real month of your business: outbound transfers, incoming revenue, cash deposits, FX spend, team cards. Multiply by twelve. That number — not the marketing tier — is what your bank account costs.
Our take: A typical sole trader at 30 transfers and £5k incoming pays roughly £60 a year on Tide Free, ~£456 on ANNA Free, and £0 on Starling or Mettle. The account with the best invoice templates is not automatically the account with the best price. Neither review sites nor vendors will show you that arithmetic — so we built it into the checker, assumptions included.
On the site this week
Two new reviews (ANNA, Revolut Business), two head-to-heads including Revolut vs Starling, the new bank cost checker, and the first entries in Price watch. Same time next week — or get it by email once our list opens via the signup below.