Editorial Guidelines

WhatsUK is committed to providing accurate, up-to-date financial information for UK residents. We are a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) website - meaning the content we publish can directly affect the financial decisions of our users. We take that responsibility extremely seriously.

All content on WhatsUK - whether a calculator, a blog post, or an explanatory guide - follows the editorial standards set out on this page. These standards are not aspirational; they are requirements that every piece of content must meet before publication.

Our editorial standards are based on three core principles: accuracy (figures come from official sources and are tested before publication), transparency (we show our sources and explain our methodology), and currency (we update content whenever official rates or legislation change).

All calculators on WhatsUK are built and tested by James Hartley, a CIMA qualified financial analyst with 8+ years of experience in UK tax, payroll, and compliance. No calculator is published without being personally reviewed and approved by James.

All blog articles and guides are written by financial professionals with direct, hands-on experience in the topic being covered. We do not publish AI-generated articles, content produced by writers without relevant financial qualifications, or content that has not been reviewed by a qualified professional.

Every piece of content must meet the following minimum standards before publication:

Every calculator published on WhatsUK is tested against known HMRC examples before publication. This means we input figures from HMRC's own worked examples - published on GOV.UK - and verify that our output exactly matches HMRC's stated result. Any discrepancy triggers a full review of the calculation logic before the tool is published.

For blog posts and articles, all statistics, rates, and figures cited must include a direct hyperlink to the official source. We do not cite statistics from financial media articles, research reports, or secondary sources without also linking to the primary data. If a primary source cannot be found for a statistic, the figure is not published.

Content is reviewed and updated whenever:

• HMRC publishes new rates at the start of each tax year (6 April)
• A Budget announcement changes rates or thresholds mid-year
• Legislation changes affect the calculation methodology
• A user reports a potential error (reviewed within 24 hours)

For a detailed explanation of our technical testing process, including edge case testing and automated unit tests, see our Methodology page.

Despite our rigorous quality process, errors can occur. When they do, we correct them as quickly as possible and are fully transparent about the change.

Our corrections process is as follows:

1. If a user or team member reports a potential error, it is investigated within 24 hours
2. If the error is confirmed, the calculator or article is corrected immediately
3. The page is updated with the current date to reflect the correction
4. For significant errors (wrong rates used in calculations), a correction notice is added to the page explaining what was changed and when

Users can report errors via our contact page or by emailing james@whatsuk.com directly. We acknowledge every correction report and follow up once reviewed.

WhatsUK is independently operated. James Hartley is the sole owner and editor. There are no shareholders, investors, or parent companies with editorial influence over the content we publish.

Calculator results on WhatsUK are not influenced by advertising partnerships, affiliate relationships, or financial incentives of any kind. When we display an advertisement on the site, it is clearly labelled as such and has no bearing on the calculator results, rates used, or editorial content presented alongside it.

We do not accept payment for calculator placements, favourable write-ups of financial products, or any form of sponsored content that is not clearly disclosed to readers. Our calculators are built to give accurate, unbiased results - not to promote any particular financial product or service.

If WhatsUK ever publishes content containing affiliate links (for example, links to financial products), these are clearly disclosed at the top of the relevant page. The presence of affiliate links does not influence the editorial content, calculator rates, or recommendations on that page.