MTD doesn’t create the friction. It makes the friction you already have expensive.
Built for multi-office and acquisition-led accountancy groups where growing client, document and exception volumes are putting pressure on tax operations, review capacity and cost-to-serve.
Six numbers. Your own. No email.
Already know there's a material problem? See the Evidence Sprint →
Two ways in, depending on where you are
Answer six questions with your own numbers and see what chasing and exception handling consume today. No account, no email to see the result, and it can conclude that there is nothing here worth investigating.
What the Workflow Evidence Sprint establishes, what it costs, and what you hold at the end of it.
Know what to change, and what it is worth
You leave with an evidence-backed decision on what to change, what it is worth and what should happen next.
We establish what the workflow costs today, where avoidable effort and rework concentrate, what is driving it, and which intervention is justified before more technology or headcount is added.
Where the cost sits — and where the work stops
- Information arrivesStepWhere capacity leaks: Waiting
- Chasing incomplete informationStepWhere capacity leaks: Chasing
- ClassificationStepWhere capacity leaks: Hand-offs
- PreparationStepNo avoidable work here
- RekeyingStepWhere capacity leaks: Duplicate entry
- ReviewStepWhere capacity leaks: Unnecessary review
- Exception and reworkStepWhere capacity leaks: Rework · Exceptions
- ApprovalStepNo avoidable work here
Avoidable work accumulates here
The cost problem is not the final tax judgement. It is the volume of chasing, repair, categorisation exceptions and qualified-review time required before the work is ready.
The deadlines are fixed. Capacity design does not need to wait for them.
The first threshold is already in force; the qualifying-income threshold widens again in April 2027 and April 2028.
- April 2026MTD for Income Tax applies to qualifying income over £50,000 (source: GOV.UK)
- April 2027Threshold extends to qualifying income over £30,000 (source: GOV.UK)
- April 2028Threshold extends to qualifying income over £20,000 (source: GOV.UK)
What you will know at the end
Where is capacity actually being consumed?
What does a unit of this work cost today?
What happens to that as volume rises?
Which response has the strongest economics?
What should be funded in the next 90 days?
Centralising a document-intensive workflow with controlled AI assistance
A Leania engagement, shown anonymised; the client is not identified.
An end-to-end document-to-workflow improvement covering ingestion, validation, exception handling and review preparation, with process definition, integration requirements and delivery assurance.
Start with the problem. Earn the technology.
Six ways to remove capacity loss. Each is assessed on the evidence; none is the default.
- Stop
- Simplify
- Standardise
- Workflow
- Automate
- AI
The preferred intervention is the simplest one that reliably achieves the outcome and clears the economic and control threshold.
Every input stated separately, so finance can challenge any one of them
Leania separates delivered results, released capacity, identified opportunity and forecast value so leadership can see exactly what has — and has not — been achieved.
What it is worth
On the published synthetic model, the capacity released would absorb about 1,365 more cases a year — volume the practice could take without recruiting qualified capacity.
The same released capacity is either redeployed into volume or taken out as cost. It is one or the other, never both.
Synthetic demonstration case — calculated preview
Illustrative, on the stated inputs of the synthetic demonstration case. Not a forecast, and not realised cash: released capacity becomes cost only if management takes it out.
One engagement, two stages, one decision between them
21 working days to a Pilot Blueprint
- Stage 1 · Working days 1–10Establish, then Diagnose & Select
Build the evidence and the baseline, find where capacity is actually going, and select the intervention worth testing.
Ends in a GO / STOP decision on the evidence.
- Stage 2 · Working days 11–21Design, then Specify & Challenge
Design the future state to the depth the selected intervention requires, then specify the pilot and challenge its assumptions.
Ends in the Pilot Blueprint and a GO / CHANGE / STOP pilot decision.
Stage 1 runs working days 1–10 and ends in a decision. If the evidence doesn't justify continuing, the engagement ends there: you keep the evidence and pay only for Stage 1. If it does, Stage 2 takes the selected intervention to a Pilot Blueprint by working day 21.
Your commitment is £7,500 until day 10. You decide then whether the evidence justifies continuing — if it doesn't, the second stage is never invoiced.
£7,500 to start. Stage 2 (£9,500) only if the evidence justifies it.
£17,000 — Total if both stages run, for one bounded workflow. Larger scopes are quoted.
Technology is not the default answer
The right answer was training — not more technology
Upstream prevention and a quantified business case instead of a back-office automation solution.
Who leads the work
Tony Walker is the founder of Leania, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and the author of "Business @ the Speed of Bots". He has more than 20 years' experience across financial services and operational transformation, with work spanning banking, insurance, pensions, accountancy, utilities and rights management.
A worked synthetic example
Client records received and logged to complete quarterly-update pack ready for qualified review. Worked end-to-end on a synthetic operational log — the discipline is inspectable without any client data.
What we do not do
No actuarial, underwriting, tax-technical, legal or audit advice. No audit opinion. No certification of accounts. Where technical build is required, it is delivered by the client's existing technology team or vetted specialist delivery partners against Leania's requirements, acceptance criteria and quality controls.