Disclaimer: I am not a certified tax professional, and recommend consulting with an accountant prior to making financial decisions. This article contains affiliate links.
Accounting and taxes fall into the "don't love" category for most of us creative entrepreneurs.
To streamline this portion of my business, I've always used Quickbooks Self-Employed. It was one of the first subscriptions I pulled the trigger on as a freelancer, so I don't really know freelance life without it.
Before you read any further, know that this article will not address anything about the desktop version: I have never used it!
What we're addressing are the pros and cons of one of the most widely-used accounting systems, and evaluating your options as a freelancer within that system. So on to the ever-changing Quickbooks online options for us freelancers!
I'll start with the negatives. The cost of Quickbooks Self-Employed has increased by at least $10/month since 2019. The latest increase brought the cost to $35/month. On top of that, it can be glitchy. I spent all of 2023 calculating my own quarterly tax payments, even though I was paying for a subscription to do that for me.
I've tried to get away from it altogether, but in researching alternative ways to file my annual taxes, I found that my accountant uses Quickbooks with her clients for annual filing, too.
Here is where some of the positives come in, and why I still haven't gotten away from it. The Self-Employed version I use has the following features that I've come to rely on:
Automated expense categorizing
Integration with TurboTax (we are annual filing DIY'ers here)
Automated mileage tracking
Easy-to-read overview of income vs. expenses throughout a given period of time
There are some additional invoicing and time tracking features I don't use, because I needed something more robust, but a big pro of their invoicing is that they'll process ACH transfers for no additional fees.
Now, they've added another freelancer option: Quickbooks Solopreneur - among other online versions for varying types of businesses.
So, if you're looking at just starting with Quickbooks, you should know:
Solopreneur appears to have all the same features as Self-Employed, for $20/month. But if you're already a Self-Employed user, switching is not easy.
Existing Self-Employed users have to export all transaction history to re-upload into an entirely new account. In creating your new account, you need to have entirely separate login credentials, and create a new business under your new account.
From what I can tell, Solopreneur does not offer the TurboTax bundle.
Quickbooks Solopreneur is great if:
You are not an existing Self-Employed user
You don't need to integrate with TurboTax
You want to automate mileage and expense tracking
You want to manage your quarterly tax payments on your own
Quickbooks Self-Employed is no longer available as an option, but will continue to function if you have had an active account.
If you're a TurboTax filer, you can get started with a plan that integrates at filing time here.
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