123 Sheets are the Making Tax Digital spreadsheet specialists. Their Value Added Tax (VAT) bridging software allows you to file your HMRC VAT returns, imported straight from Excel. Compatible with Sage and Intuit Quickbooks, and recognised by HM Revenue & Customs, 123 Sheets helps make light work of your accountancy needs and allows you to keep using Microsoft Excel.
Founded by Peter Hamilton, a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser, 123 Sheets is used by top 15 accountancy firms to bookkeepers, and FTSE PLCs to window cleaners. The software is ideal for all business sizes, and there are options for VAT, the self-employed, landlords and accountants.
123 Sheets is secure, easy to use, and is regularly updated to ensure it remains the best Making Tax Digital bridging software around.
At the end of 2021, everything to do with tax and VAT had to be filed digitally to HMRC. However, 70% of accountants were still using Excel. Peter designed 123 Sheets as a software service for accountants to use that allowed them to convert their Excel sheets into a digital format to be submitted to HMRC.
The main problem was that because this was a new problem that had come about due to a change in the way HMRC worked, Peter’s target audience didn’t really know what the product they needed was. This meant that Peter wasn’t quite sure how to pitch his service online, his target audience didn’t know what they were looking for, and keyword search terms were constantly changing as the trends weren’t stable.
Alongside this, the 123 Sheets website was simplistic, designed across one page, and with basic branding that wasn’t connecting with the targeted audience.
After carrying out research into the unique problems 123 Sheets was facing, we decided the first thing to focus on was education. We needed to educate the target audience about Making Tax Digital (MTD) and chose to optimise for ‘MTD software’ and other specific keywords. We predicted that the trends would increase gradually overtime, and by then we would be ranked on first page.
We then built a new website with new inner pages that targeted specific user cases (accountants, landlords, the self-employed), and developed 123 Sheet’s visual identity. We did this by creating new branding, modernising the feel of the website, and featuring ‘how to’ videos prominently on the website. We also identified that users wanted to know that 123 Sheets software was compatible with Sage and Intuit Quickbooks and was HMRC recognised.
We’re pleased to say that the results we’ve helped 123 Sheets achieve have been profound. Three to six months down the line, 123 Sheets was ranking for targeted search terms, and their organic website traffic had grown 30-40 fold.
By the end of the first 12 months, they were in the first three positions for all target rankings. Now, the company boasts over 25,000 customers and is helping to make filing digital tax returns as cohesive and easy as possible for clients all over the UK.