Bournemouth University Graduate Turns Tough Job Market Into Launch of New Making Tax Digital App for Tradespeople
23-year-old software engineering graduate builds Graft, a job management and tax app, after watching his builder dad wrestle with paperwork
With graduate jobs in software engineering harder to come by than ever, one talented local 23-year-old has decided not to wait for the market to turn around. Instead, he’s built his own business.
Sam Barrett, who graduated in 2025 with a first-class degree in software engineering, has launched Graft, a new app aimed at sole traders and manual workers across the trades; builders, electricians, plumbers and beyond, that combines simple job management with support for HMRC’s incoming Making Tax Digital (MTD) rules.
The idea began close to home. Sam’s father runs his own building business, and like many self-employed tradespeople, found the administrative side of the job, tracking materials, invoices and receipts, a constant drain on time. Sam set out to build something that would make it easier, just as the government’s shift to Making Tax Digital began forcing sole traders to change the way they report income to HMRC.
“I grew up watching my dad come home after a full day on site and still have to sit down and sort out invoices, receipts and paperwork,” Sam said. “I knew there had to be a better way, and with the software skills I had from university, I was in a good position to actually build it, rather than just talk about it.”
How it works
Graft lets users create and manage jobs from start to finish: logging materials, clients and hours, then generating invoices as the work progresses. A built-in scanner reads supplier statements, such as monthly account statements from builders’ merchants, automatically logging expenditure without manual data entry.
The job management side of the app is already live and available to download. Graft has now also been added to HMRC’s official list of recognised Making Tax Digital software and users can log into their Government Gateway account directly through the app to submit their quarterly tax figures at the tap of a button.
Timed with a major change for sole traders
Making Tax Digital is being rolled out in stages. Sole traders earning above £50,000 must now report their income digitally each quarter, with the threshold dropping to £30,000 next year and £20,000 the year after, bringing hundreds of thousands more self-employed manual workers, from builders to electricians and plumbers, into scope over the next two years. The very first quarterly deadline under the new rules falls on 7 August, just days away, putting real pressure on sole traders to get their systems in order now.
To help early users through the transition, Graft is offering free sign-up until 15 September, giving new users time to complete their first quarterly return before any charge applies. After that, the app costs £9.99 a month, a fraction of the price of established alternatives on the market.
“The first few customers are always the hardest,” Sam said. “But once people are on board and can see it working, word travels fast in the trade, everyone talks to each other.”
What’s next
Sam is now focused on building his first users among local manual workers and tradespeople, with an Android version of the app in development. Longer term, he sees potential to adapt Graft for other sole-trader sectors with similar job-and-client structures, from hairdressers to other independent trades.
To contact Sam, email sam@trygraft.app, website trygraft.app, App Store link is https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/id6761282880