Download your sales, VAT, and MOT data as CSVs to hand to your bookkeeper or use when preparing your VAT return. The export covers sales (output) VAT only: Pistonlog doesn't track the VAT you pay on purchases, so it can't produce a full VAT return on its own. You can cover any date range — useful for quarterly VAT submissions or year-end.
Where to find it
The export is available to Owner and Manager roles on the Invoices page. Click Generate accounting export to open the export dialog.
If you have an external bookkeeper, the Accountant role gives them a login that lands directly on the export — no access to invoices, customer records, or anything else. See Inviting your team for how to invite someone.
Downloading the CSVs
Set your date range
Pick a preset (Last month, Last quarter, Tax year to date) or enter the start and end dates for the period you want — for example, your VAT quarter.
Download Sales/VAT CSV
Click Download sales/VAT CSV to get a file covering issued invoices and credit notes with their VAT breakdown for the period.
Download MOT CSV
Click Download MOT CSV to get one row per MOT job billed in the period, with the sell price, your standard MOT cost, and the margin. Download both if your accountant needs them.
Open the files in a spreadsheet, or send them directly to your bookkeeper.
Two things to tell your accountant
Standard VAT scheme only
The figures assume the standard VAT scheme. If you're on the Flat Rate Scheme, the VAT you owe is your gross turnover multiplied by your flat rate, which is not the output VAT figure in this export. Your accountant will need to work from the gross sales instead.
Pistonlog started storing the extra reporting fields on 10 June 2026. If your date range starts before that, the dialog shows a warning: invoices issued earlier still appear with their full VAT figures, but the MOT and vehicle detail attached to them is best-effort. Ranges that sit entirely after that date are unaffected.
The Accountant role
The Accountant role is designed for an external bookkeeper. It has access to the export only — no customer records, no invoice pages, no workshop data. (The CSVs themselves do carry the customer names that appear on your invoices, as any sales ledger would.)
Safe for external bookkeepers
An Accountant login sees only the date-range export. They cannot view invoices, customer details, or any other part of your workshop.
Every export is recorded in an audit log — who ran it, what date range, and when. You don't need to manage this; it's there for traceability.