Solo and self-employed
QuickBooks for freelancers, without the enterprise baggage
You do not need inventory, payroll or a 25-seat licence. You need clean income records, a fast invoice, and a tax return you can defend. Here is the shortest path to that.
For most freelancers, Simple Start at $38/month is the right balance: invoicing, bank feeds, expense categories and reports for one person plus your accountant. If you only need to separate business and personal spending, the entry Solopreneur tier at $20/month is cheaper — both start with a 30-day free trial.
Free or Solopreneur
You send a handful of invoices, mostly track expenses, and file a simple Schedule C. Enough to keep a clean record without paying for reports you will never open.
- Income and expense capture
- Basic reports
- Limited invoices, no bills
Simple Start — $38/mo
Your books are actually books: invoicing with payment links, bank feeds, sales tax, mileage, and the P&L your accountant wants at filing time.
- Full invoicing and estimates
- Bank feed with category rules
- Sales tax and 1099 tracking
- Free accountant login
Essentials and above
Only when a second person needs a login, you pay suppliers through bills, or you invoice in a second currency. For a solo freelancer this is usually $47 a month of unused capacity.
- 3 users
- Bill management
- Multi-currency
Prices are US list prices in October 2026. Freelancers billing from outside the US should check their local pricing and currency before comparing.
Setup, in order
The five things that matter for a one-person business
Most freelancer bookkeeping problems come from mixing personal and business money, then trying to untangle it in April. Fix the plumbing once and the rest is maintenance.
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Separate the money
A dedicated business checking account and card. This is the highest-value hour in the whole setup — everything downstream gets cleaner.
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Connect the feed and set five rules
Rent, software, phone, insurance, and your main client. Five rules will auto-categorise most of your year without further thought.
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Build an invoice that gets paid
Your name, a clear description, a due date, and a payment link. Invoicing on the day you deliver shortens the cash cycle more than any reminder email.
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Decide how you will be taxed
Sole proprietor, single-member LLC, or S-corp election. The software records whatever you tell it; the entity choice is a conversation with your accountant.
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Put the tax money aside weekly
Move 25–30% of every payment into a separate savings account. Quarterly estimates stop being a crisis when the money already exists.
Deductions people forget to track
- Home office — square footage and utilities share
- Business mileage, tracked by trip not by estimate
- Software subscriptions and hosting
- Professional fees: accountant, legal, design
- Equipment, including the portion you depreciate
- Health insurance premiums, where self-employed
- Education that maintains or improves your skills
General guidance, not tax advice. Rules and limits change — confirm with a qualified preparer.
Contractor or employee? If a client controls when, where and how you work, that is closer to employment than freelancing — for them. Our payroll guide covers the classification test.
The money side
What a freelancer's year looks like on paper
A worked example for a designer billing $90,000 a year with about $18,000 of expenses, to show where the software earns its $456.
| Line | Amount | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Gross income | $90,000 | Invoices marked paid in the year |
| Deductible expenses | −$18,000 | Categorised transactions, receipts attached |
| Net profit | $72,000 | Flows to Schedule C |
| Self-employment tax (estimate) | ≈$10,170 | 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit |
| Federal income tax (estimate, single) | ≈$8,900 | After standard deduction and QBI deduction |
| Software cost | $456 | Simple Start at list price for 12 months |
Illustrative only, rounded, and not tax advice — actual liability depends on filing status, state, deductions and credits. The point is scale: the software is roughly 2.5% of the tax bill and removes the cleanup week that usually costs more.
Before you subscribe
Three cases where a freelancer should not buy QuickBooks
- You invoice fewer than five times a month and have one income source. A free tool and a spreadsheet will do the same job, and your accountant can work from a summary.
- Your client requires you to use their platform. If all your work flows through a marketplace that issues 1099s and statements, your bookkeeping need is small.
- You already pay a bookkeeper who runs their own system. Buying a second platform adds work, not control — ask what they want you to use first.
Fifteen minutes to a clean first month
Open the trial, connect your business account, set five category rules, and send one invoice. That is the whole setup for most freelancers.
Freelancer questions
Asked by one-person businesses
What is the cheapest way to use QuickBooks as a freelancer?
Solopreneur at $20/month is the entry point if you mainly need to separate business and personal spending and send a few invoices. If you want proper double-entry books — bank feeds, a chart of accounts and accountant access — Simple Start at $38/month is the tier most freelancers land on, and both start with a 30-day free trial.
Do freelancers need double-entry accounting?
You need records that support a tax return and survive a question from the IRS — that usually means proper income and expense categories and a reconciled bank account. Simple Start gives you that without asking you to learn debits and credits.
How do I handle 1099 taxes?
Set aside money as you are paid — a common rule is 25–30% of net income — and pay quarterly estimated tax. Our tax calendar lists the four dates, calculated for the current year.