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QuickBooks Self-Employed

QuickBooks Self-Employed

Overview

Recent Reviews

Honesty QB

9 out of 10
January 22, 2020
Incentivized
We use it for invoicing, electronic bank account, track payments. It keeps our records organized, it's easy to understand and use and very …
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Popular Features

View all 44 features
  • Electronic tax filing (13)
    10.0
    100%
  • Standard reports (14)
    10.0
    100%
  • Dashboards (12)
    10.0
    100%
  • Expense management (14)
    10.0
    100%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.

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Product Demos

QuickBooks Self-Employed | Is it right for you?

YouTube
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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

7.8
Avg 7.5

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

10
Avg 7.1

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

10
Avg 8.0

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

10
Avg 7.6

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

10
Avg 7.4

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

10
Avg 7.0

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

10
Avg 7.4
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Product Details

What is QuickBooks Self-Employed?

QuickBooks Self-Employed Video

Track Expenses Effortlessly - With QuickBooks Self-Employed

QuickBooks Self-Employed Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(51)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-15 of 15)
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Janine Wiggins, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
QuickBooks helps keep my business expenses and income organized. It alleviates having a messy pile of receipts by allowing an electronic storage option. Moreover, it links to various accounts, aiding in the automatic documentation of transactions. The software also allows invoice creation and sending and is a good one-stop accounting platform.
  • Keep track of income
  • Keep track of expenses
  • Estimate yearly tax liability
  • Having a better explanation of filing categories
QuickBooks Self-Employed is ideal for freelancers and independent contractors who need a simplified solution to track income and expenses related to their projects. It helps in managing finances efficiently while staying organized. Service-based businesses, such as consultants, designers, or photographers, can benefit from QuickBooks Self-Employed to easily invoice clients, track billable hours, and manage business-related transactions.
Ayo Bamgbose, Assoc CIPD, MSc | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[I] research[ed] accounting software tools suitable for small business and Sole traders 4 years ago. After realising I needed a much faster and convenient way to start filing taxes [recording my expenses], I discovered QuickBooks [...]. I could no longer manage using the old school Excel sheets to manage my business outgoings and sales. I also was looking for a tool that allowed me to stay mobile with access to a mobile app.
  • Create, send invoices and track online payments made from to clients on the go.
  • Connect with your [online] business bank accounts so that it records all [transactions] and expenses making it easy to access accurate and current business data.
  • Access information for Self-assessment purposes - making it easy and faster to submit your taxes.
  • [For] those that drive as part of their business, Quickbook allows you to also [record] mileage and snapshot real receipts to save for your records.
  • Reconnecting business account - I find it annoying as I find that I have to constantly reconnect QuickBooks with my business account to ensure it keeps my business data correct and update.
  • The invoice design has its limitations - you can not create invoices on brand due to the basic areas of design.
  • It's not a scaleable accounting software as it's geared towards small businesses, so at some point, a successful business that is growing will need to find alternative accounting software that meets their medium to large business accounting needs.
QuickBooks is a great tool for new SoleTraders that need basic accounting software and require digital invoicing for their clients to send via email and access key features via a mobile app on the go. QuickBooks is a straightforward tool to use with a simple design and learning curve for business owners that are not very tech-savvy.

For businesses that operate on a larger scale and need to provide access to other users on their team, QuickBooks is limited. This type of business may also require more insights into the business outside of accounting, and QuickBooks won't be able to supply insights outside of that.
Shannon Allen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it to keep up with finances and expenses for my independent recruiting agency. I do a lot of advertising and marketing and I have a lot of business expenses that I need to keep track of. Quick books for Self Employed is a wonderful tool to use when you run your own business.
  • Keeps track of my mileage
  • Categorizes my expenses
  • Let's me choice if a transaction was a personal or business transaction
  • Syncing the data in real time
It is well suited for someone that is self employed and needs to track there spending and expenses. Someone who needs to keep up with the mileage they put on a vehicle. Someone that has needs for generated reports. This would not benefit someone whom is looking for a software for personal finances. Two many features are offered for the self employed vs personal finances.
Jonathan Palance | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use QuickBooks Self-Employed to log expenses and keep track of invoices. This has helped me drastically reduce time spent during tax season. Also, the invoicing feature is fantastic.
  • Logging of expenses
  • Tracking mileage
  • Invoicing clients
  • Providing detailed tax info for you or your accountant.
  • Invoicing customization
  • Client organization
This is very well-suited for individuals and organizations who want to clean up their tax preparation. It also helps to keep track of profits and losses, giving you a real-time idea of where your business is headed. This particular version that I'm using wouldn't be well suited for large organizations who would need more control split among team members.
Alexa Tsongranis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
QuickBooks Self-Employed is being used across the entire organization. Mostly, it is used for expense tracking and invoice management. QuickBooks Self-Employed helps keep things organized and allows us to easily send invoices while tracking and receiving payments from clients and outside organizations.
  • Easy-to-use.
  • Great for small and medium-sized businesses.
  • Expensive for larger organizations.
  • Mobile app can be buggy.
We have found that QuickBooks Self-Employed is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses who need a solution for money tracking, invoices, and other miscellaneous money-related tasks. Tracking expenses, paying invoices and keeping track of cash flow are all easy to use for solopreneurs and larger business organizations.
Reagan Baird Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use QuickBooks Self-Employed for all of my accounting needs. I am able to track all of my profits and losses through the product, keep track of miles driven, connect my banking account, organize all of my expenses, and even use the product to charge my customers. This is especially helpful as I file my quarterly estimated taxes.
  • Syncs to bank to track all expenses and income.
  • Automatically organizes expenses into predicted categories.
  • Wish I could customize the appearance of my invoices.
  • No place for me to track my hours worked.
This is a great product if you are a freelancer of some sort who needs basic accounting software and a user-friendly way to track taxes. Its functions are intuitive and the integrations make it so easy to use. If you need more than a Profit and Loss statement and a basic breakdown of your taxes, then you will need software that provides more robust reports.
January 22, 2020

Honesty QB

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for invoicing, electronic bank account, track payments. It keeps our records organized, it's easy to understand and use and very easy to make corrections.
  • Reconciliations.
  • Track customers.
  • Number of records allowed.
  • Recovery.
QuickBooks Self-Employed is well suited for businesses that have to keep track of inventory, charge for services, and create invoices on the fly. Payment received and deposited.
Paul Lipman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am a sole proprietor of a recruiting firm. This solves 99% of my accounting needs by tracking every transaction from bank, credit card and cash spending, as well as producing invoices and preparing me for year end tax. It integrates with TurboTax, allowing me to simplify my year-end tax reporting. Through a phone app, it tracks mileage as well.
  • Tracks mileage through phone app.
  • Integrates with TurboTax.
  • Add easier ability to send out invoices manually.
  • Ability to track to see if invoice was delivered.
Well suited for sole proprietorship (me). Allows me to review each transaction to determine if it is a business or personal transaction. Tracks mileage using GPS through both android and apple IOS phones. Inexpensive solution for accounting purposes. If you have a simple business, don't need to hire an accountant. Generates and tracks invoices well.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
QuickBooks Self-Employed is a software program that is used by a lot of our 1099 insurance agents to keep track of expenses and other financial aspects of their jobs. It is beneficial for them to have everything in one place for tax time and for personal audits.
  • Collaboration with TurboTax for tax submission.
  • Linking to accounts to ensure all purchases are included.
  • Allows for shortcuts for recurring expenses.
  • Doesn't explain how taxes are calculated for newcomers.
  • Sometimes automatically moves transactions to a different category.
Their mobile app is what I used more than anything, and it's very easily navigated. It brings up all of your transactions from bank accounts and cards linked, so you're able to categorize them accordingly. The same with trips in your car - allowing for mileage to be counted. It would be good for users who are 1099 looking to have a good grasp of their credits and debits, as well as for tax time preparation as everything is already in one place.
Aaron Metzger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I currently run all of our business expenses and income through QuickBooks. The simple app on my phone allows me to swipe business and personal expenses, keeping all our finances separate and accounted for. Additionally, I can run invoices and reporting through QuickBooks which allows me to keep my clients on track with their monthly retainers.
  • Tracking expenses is as simple as swiping left and right, it couldn't be easier.
  • Running invoices through QuickBooks is simple and effective.
  • Allowing clients to pay by card or check allows you to get paid faster and give the clients multiple ways of paying invoices, which helps everyone.
  • Automatically tracking estimated quarterly taxes is very helpful and it keeps it top-of mind for each month.
  • Automatic mileage tracking used to work a lot better than it currently does. I got a new phone, and now I have to manually input call tracking, because it just doesn't work anymore.
  • When creating invoices, there should be a way to import data into an invoices from Excel, which would make the invoicing a lot faster. Additionally, being able to press ENTER to save a line item on an invoice would be nice. Currently it doesn't work that way.
  • Editing invoices shouldn't require sending a reminder.
Absolutely a must-have for small business owners. It connects to all your personal and business banking and credit accounts to keep your business and personal expenses separate. The design of the phone app makes tracking your expenses a little fun, honestly. The online desktop dashboard allows for enhanced features which helps you invoice and track client spends.
Tim Vahsholtz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use QuickBooks Self-Employed for my sole proprietor business. (I also use Quicken, which I find to be a little easier to manage, actually.) My main reason for choosing QuickBooks Self-Employed was the mileage tracking feature, as well as the ability to have transactions auto loaded. The mileage feature works pretty well, but the auto transaction feature tended to miscategorize many of the entries. This resulted in a lot of extra time spent.
  • QuickBooks Self-Employed does keep a running total of your income and estimated taxes. Of course, this requires that your entries are accurate.
  • The mileage feature is particularly helpful. One just needs to either use the phone app in conjunction with QuickBooks Self-Employed, or keep a log of all mileage.
  • When tax time comes around, it's easy to use TurboTax software and import your data from QuickBooks.
  • Automatic entries could be improved. QuickBooks Self Employed requires you to login every day or two to check on your entries to ensure they are in the correct category. You can mark certain entries for certain categories
  • I find the whole site to run a little slow. While going through and marking the entries to the correct category, the page will sometimes get stuck and entries won't update very quickly. It slows down the process.
  • Overall, QuickBooks has a fairly steep learning curve. It does try to intuitively do some things for you, but if you have to go and correct them, I think you spend more time, and it defeats the purpose of the software.
QuickBooks Self-Employed is a very detailed software to keep track of your finances and tax obligations. I'm reviewing the online version here and honestly, if you are into QuickBooks, it might be worth looking into the stand-alone software version. Ideally, if you work remotely, in various places and on more than one computer (desktop or laptop) then QuickBooks online is a good idea. But the slow interface is troubling to me and I spend a lot of time going through and correcting entries QuickBooks imports from my bank account. In fact, I've gone back to my stand-alone version of Quicken.
Benjamin E. Jerew | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a freelance writer, solo entrepreneur, and one-man-army, my time is divided between several activities, from scoping out clients and researching content to bookkeeping and tax preparation. QuickBooks Self-Employed makes bookkeeping and tax preparation easier than ever. Only a few clicks and my income and expenses are categorized for easy review and year-end taxes, not to mention automatic quarterly-tax reminders.
  • Cross-platform compatibility (Browser, Android) makes it easy to see how my business is doing almost anywhere.
  • Smart enough to recognize and automatically categorize most of my transactions, so I don't have to fuss with spreadsheets at the end of the year.
  • Updates automatically and notifies me when it needs help, so I don't have to spend too much time babysitting it.
  • Integrated with TurboTax and automatically exports year-end tax info for easy filing.
  • Doesn't integrate with Mint, which I use for my home expenses. I think this would be a nice addition to the program, so I could keep track of my whole financial situation.
  • A Windows 10 app would be a nice addition to the program, so I could access it securely from my desktop.
As the name of the program suggests, QuickBooks Self-Employed is best-suited for self-employed people, freelancers and solo entrepreneurs would find the tools within to be exceptionally useful to keep track of expenses so they can focus on more profitable activities. Other QuickBooks tiers might be more fitting for small businesses and larger companies.
Nathanial Holt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My partner and I use QuickBooks to keep track of all our financials. It's easy to use and inexpensive compared to hiring an accountant.
  • Easy to keep track of expenditures such as mileage, equipment purchases, equipment rentals, really anything we use for our business
  • Helps keep track of our income and which clients paid what.
  • It's inexpensive compared to hiring an accountant.
  • I honestly don't have anything bad to say about QuickBooks. It does everything we need it to do and more.
It works perfectly for what we need it to. It's easy to create an invoice and keep track of the invoices you have out. I think it might be less appropriate for a small business that had a large amount of inventory and was selling a product as opposed to a service like we do.
Andreas Jones - LSSGB, CPP, CSCS | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
QuickBooks is being used to send invoices, collect payments and track quarterly taxes. QuickBooks has been a great value add to our company and it helps stay on top of our finances and accounting information. QuickBooks is being used across the entire organization and it addresses our accounting and invoicing needs.
  • Invoicing
  • Accounting
  • Taxes
  • Notifications
  • Taxes
Exceptional user interface and navigation. Easily tracks expenses and income. Automatic mileage tracking. Can assign business transactions to Schedule C categories. Estimates quarterly income taxes. New invoices and reports. Lacks direct integration with e-commerce sites. No data records, time tracking, project tracking, or recurring transactions. Accounting service QuickBooks Self-Employed helps users track income and expenses, and estimate quarterly taxes. Though it lacks some standard accounting tools.
Lawson Brooks III | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Quickbooks self-employed (QBSE) to track all of my daily expenses and categorize them as either business, personal or excluded expenses. QBSE does a great job in allowing me to not only follow my spending, but it provides me a quarterly tally of my estimated taxes which I can pay directly online. The software also allows me to generate quarterly or annual profit and loss reports as well as accumulate all of my tax information which I can migrate seamlessly to TurboTax.
  • The expense tracking feature is outstanding. I'm prompted to reconcile new transactions whether on my laptop or my phone and can delineate them with the touch of a button.
  • The ability to monitor and pay my quarterly estimated taxes is huge and by using this feature the tax headaches that many freelancers experience are taken care of.
  • The linking to TurboTax makes doing one's taxes a very manageable endeavor.
  • There are a number of unnecessary and ongoing prompts to do small tasks, like creating a rule for certain transactions. I could do without those.
  • There are also occasional glitches with bank setup that produce duplicate transactions which can be a pain to deal with. I also haven't been able to find a way to effectively edit transactions.
  • I also wish that QBSE integrated with software like Freshbooks, TripIt and Expensify.
QBSE is ideally suited for the freelancer and not so much for companies.
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