Product Roadmap
Building the Future of
UK Accounting
From a single founding idea in July 2025 to a full professional ecosystem for UK businesses, accountants, and auditors — here is where we started, what we've built, and where we're going.
July
2025
Company Founded
MTD
HMRC MTD VAT Connected
FRS
102 & 105 Compliant
Open
Banking
Pay by Bank Live
The Day Countee Was Born
On 24 July 2025, Frank Cross — MSc, MBA, AIA — incorporated Countee Ltd in Scotland (Companies House SC856666). It was not a spontaneous idea. It was the result of more than a decade of frustration watching the same problem go unsolved, year after year.
Through his accounting practice Genius Outlander Ltd, Frank had spent years working with overseas businesses that were fully registered UK VAT payers — German manufacturers, Czech software companies, US e-commerce brands, Australian service providers. Every quarter the same ritual: open the foreign accounting system, manually calculate the UK VAT figures, paste them into a spreadsheet, upload via a "bridging tool", and hope HMRC accepted it.
Not a single piece of accounting software on the market — not Xero, not QuickBooks, not Sage, not FreeAgent — was designed to handle the reality of a non-UK business that owes UK VAT. The market was simply ignoring tens of thousands of legitimate taxpayers who had no proper MTD-compliant solution.
! The Gap Nobody Would Fill
Every MTD VAT software on the market assumes you run a UK company on UK accounting software. Tens of thousands of foreign businesses — fully registered UK VAT payers — had no compliant solution at all.
⚠ Barely Legal Workarounds
Manual copy-paste into spreadsheets, bridging tools with broken digital links, audit trails that wouldn't survive an HMRC enquiry. Accountants doing their best with tools never designed for this job.
✓ The Decision
Build it properly. A full cloud accounting platform with a native HMRC MTD VAT API connection — not a bolt-on, not a bridge, but a system designed from day one to be MTD-first, audit-first, compliance-first.
What We've Built
A complete UK cloud accounting platform — not a patchwork of third-party integrations, but a coherent system built by accountants for accountants.
Core Accounting Engine
True Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Full double-entry ledger engine. Every transaction posts both sides automatically. Not a simplified "income and expenses" view — a real accounting system.
UK GAAP Chart of Accounts
Pre-built chart of accounts mapped to FRS 102 (Section 1A) and FRS 105. Codes 0010–9010 with correct balance sheet and P&L classification.
FRS 102 & FRS 105 Reports
Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Trial Balance — auto-generated from your live ledger, formatted to UK GAAP standards. Ready for your accountant or auditor.
Invoices & Estimates
Professional invoices with VAT, line items, payment tracking, and credit notes. Convert estimates to invoices in one click.
Bills & Purchase Ledger
Full accounts payable: supplier bills, credit notes, payment allocation, and a complete purchase ledger.
Projects & Time Tracking
Track costs, revenue, and time against projects. Bill clients directly from timeslips.
HMRC & Compliance
HMRC MTD VAT API
Direct OAuth 2.0 connection to HMRC Making Tax Digital. View obligations, submit returns, retrieve liabilities and payment history — all from within Countee.
Fraud Prevention Headers
Every API call to HMRC includes the full set of fraud prevention headers required by MTD legislation. Your submissions meet the technical standard — not just the content standard.
Unbroken Digital Link
The digital trail from your source records to the HMRC submission is continuous, timestamped, and auditable — exactly as MTD legislation requires.
Payments & Open Banking
Pay by Bank (Open Banking)
Customers pay invoices directly from their bank account via TrueLayer. Funds arrive instantly, no card fees, and the payment auto-reconciles in your ledger.
GoCardless Direct Debit
Collect recurring payments automatically. Perfect for subscription clients and regular retainers — fully integrated with your invoice and ledger.
PayPal Payments
Accept PayPal on invoices and invoice payment pages — giving international clients the option they prefer.
Bank Feed & Reconciliation
Import bank transactions and match them against your ledger entries. Set up smart rules to auto-categorise recurring items.
Cross-Currency Transfer Matching
Paying from a GBP account into a CZK, EUR or USD account? Countee fetches the official central bank rate for that exact date and automatically identifies the matching transaction — even across completely different currencies. No manual rate lookups, no clearing accounts, no calculator. Every other UK accounting platform either refuses to match across currencies or makes you do it by hand. We solve it automatically.
Payroll & People
Payroll & Pay Runs
Process employee payroll, calculate PAYE and NI, generate payslips, and post the entries directly to your ledger.
Attendance & Leave
Log attendance, manage leave requests, and track absence against payroll — all in one place.
Employee Self-Service Portal
Employees have their own secure portal to view payslips, request leave, and submit timesheets — without accessing your accounting data.
Expenses & Mileage
Submit, approve, and reimburse business expenses and mileage claims. Auto-posts the accounting entries.
What the Competition Can't Match
These are not marketing claims — they are structural advantages that come from being built differently, from day one.
Built by Practicing Accountants
Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage are built by software companies that employ accountants as consultants. Countee is built by an accountant who happens to be an engineer. Every design decision comes from the daily reality of preparing UK accounts and filing returns — not from user research committees.
The Only MTD Solution for Overseas Businesses
No other accounting software is designed for a non-UK business that is a UK VAT registrant. This is a market of tens of thousands of businesses using DATEV, Pohoda, SAP, or dozens of other non-UK systems — all of whom currently have no compliant MTD option. Countee is the first and currently the only solution.
Native Open Banking Payments, Not a Plugin
Pay by Bank (via TrueLayer) is woven directly into invoicing. When a payment arrives, it reconciles automatically against the invoice, posts the ledger entry, and updates the bank account — zero manual steps. Most competitors treat payments as an add-on; for us it's core infrastructure.
True Digital Link — Not a Bridge
Many "MTD compliant" tools are spreadsheet bridges: they take a number you typed and pass it to HMRC. Countee maintains a continuous digital trail from source transaction to submitted return. The link is never broken by human re-entry. That is what MTD legislation actually requires — and most software only gets close.
Full HMRC Fraud Prevention Compliance
HMRC requires extensive fraud prevention headers with every API call — device information, connection details, user identity signals. We implemented the complete specification. Many smaller MTD tools omit headers or send placeholder values; that is a compliance risk that is rarely discussed.
Annual, Transparent Pricing — No Monthly Lock-In
Most cloud accounting tools are designed to maximise monthly recurring revenue — add-ons for payroll, extra for bank feeds, charge per user. Countee is priced simply and annually. You know what you're paying for the year, upfront, with no surprise charges.
| Feature | Countee | Xero | QuickBooks | FreeAgent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTD VAT for non-UK businesses | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Unbroken digital link (not a bridge) | ✓ | Partial | Partial | ✗ |
| Full HMRC fraud prevention headers | ✓ | ? | ? | ? |
| Native Pay by Bank (Open Banking) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| GoCardless + PayPal native | ✓ | Add-on | Add-on | ✗ |
| FRS 102 & FRS 105 compliant reports | ✓ | Partial | Partial | ✗ |
| Employee self-service portal (included) | ✓ | Add-on | Add-on | ✗ |
| Cross-currency bank reconciliation (auto, via central bank rates) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Built by practising UK accountant | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Information based on publicly available feature documentation. Correct as of March 2026.
What's Coming Next
We don't publish a detailed sprint plan — we don't want to hand our roadmap to a marketing team at a bigger competitor. But we can tell you the problems we are solving and the direction we are heading.
Group & Multi-Entity Consolidation
ComingFor holding companies, group structures, and multinational organisations that need to consolidate accounts across multiple legal entities — whether in the UK, EU, or beyond. Automatic intercompany eliminations, group-level reporting in a chosen presentation currency, and a single consolidated view of your entire group's financial position.
Auditor Access & Verified Auditor Directory
ComingA dedicated read-only auditor portal giving appointed auditors secure, timestamped access to your books — trial balance, ledger, supporting documents, and the full audit trail — without giving them any ability to modify your data. Paired with a searchable directory of verified UK statutory auditors, making it easier for businesses to find and appoint the right firm.
Verified Accountant Directory & Practice Platform
ComingA comprehensive platform for accounting practices — covering everything from client onboarding to ongoing compliance management. A searchable directory of verified UK accountants (with professional body credentials confirmed) so businesses can find a qualified accountant with confidence. Practices get tools built for how they actually work: multi-client dashboards, client document portals, workflow management, and engagement letter templates.
Integrated CPD Platform for Accountants
ComingContinuing Professional Development — but built properly. Every accredited course, webinar, or learning activity you complete in Countee will flow directly to the relevant professional body's CPD record in real time. No more end-of-year scramble to remember what you attended, manually fill in CPD logs, and cross-reference certificates. The hours log themselves as you go. We're working with UK accounting bodies to make this a seamless, automated process.
Imagine: you finish a webinar on FRS 102 changes at 3pm on a Thursday. By 3:05pm your CPD record with your professional body is already updated. No form. No spreadsheet. No year-end panic.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD IT)
ComingHMRC is rolling out MTD for Income Tax to self-employed individuals and landlords from April 2026 onwards. Countee will be ready — with quarterly digital submissions, annual finalisation, and the same unbroken digital link that makes our MTD VAT implementation best-in-class.
White-Label Platform for Accounting Practices
ComingEvery accounting practice has clients who need a simple, modern bookkeeping solution — but not every practice wants to send their clients to a competitor's branded platform. With Countee White-Label, your practice can offer your clients the full power of Countee's accounting engine — invoicing, bank feeds, payroll, VAT filing, open banking payments, reports — under your own brand, your own colours, your own domain.
Your clients log in to yourpractice.co.uk/portal and see your logo, your colour scheme, your welcome message. Behind the scenes, everything runs on Countee's infrastructure. You stay in control of which features each client can access, with full visibility of all their books from your practice dashboard.
AI-Powered Bookkeeping Automation
ComingIntelligent transaction categorisation that learns from your chart of accounts and posting history. Automatic bank rule suggestions, anomaly detection, and a natural-language assistant that can answer questions about your accounts — without you needing to be an accountant. The goal: bookkeeping that runs itself, with a qualified accountant keeping oversight.
Join Us
Be Part of the Story
We started in July 2025 with a clear mission: build the accounting software that UK businesses — and the accountants who serve them — actually deserve. We're moving fast, we're building properly, and we're not stopping.
Countee Ltd · SC856666 · 4 Drum Court, Dollar, Scotland, FK14 7EQ · info@countee.ai