Setting up Solo in an afternoon: open invoices, bank balance, done
You don't need to back-enter years of history. Start with what's open today and let the bank sync do the rest.
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Self-Employed Accounting Software
Purpose-built for a business of one.
MoneyMinder Solo is self-employed accounting software for the people who do the work, send the invoice, and sit down after dinner to figure out who paid. If the business is just you, why use software built for the big guys?
Estimate #0214
Full interior + exterior$420
Ceramic coat · 2.5 hrs logged$220
Total$640
Income · Sep
+18% vs. Aug
$6,240
Time · this week
Harper Landscaping6.0 h
Ruiz Wedding5.5 h
Elm St. Rental3.0 h
Ready to bill$1,160
Accounts
Synced today
Checking ····4821$4,318.60
3 transactions to matchReview
Built for the people who invoice their own clients
Massage Therapists
Graphic Designers
Dog Walkers- House Cleaners
Event Planners- Videographers
Tutors- Personal Chefs
Freelancers
IT Consultants- Hair Stylists
Mobile Mechanics- Copywriters
Life Coaches- Home Inspectors
Musicians- Virtual Assistants
- Handymen
House Painters- Web Developers
Landscapers- Notaries
Photographers- Pet Groomers
Personal Trainers- Caterers
- Yoga Instructors
Everything a Small Business Needs
Just for freelancers, contractors and solopreneurs
Quote the job, do the work, and get paid
Set up your template for estimates and quote the job by flat rate, item or hours logged. Once you do the work, convert the estimate to the invoice in one click. Every dollar ties back to the client it came from.
- Send estimates before the job starts
- Convert accepted estimates to invoices without re-entering
- Log time as you work
- See every client's open estimates, unpaid invoices and payment history
- Match payments to invoices
Estimate #0214
Full interior + exterior$420
Ceramic coat · 2.5 hrs logged$220
Total$640
Dollars in, dollars out, with less manual entry
Connect your bank, PayPal, Square or Stripe once and transactions come to you. Cash-based books mean you record money when it actually moves, which is how you already think about it.
- Connects to 12,000+ banks and financial institutions
- Syncs PayPal, Square and Stripe
- Import Venmo and others by file upload
- Cash-based recording — no accrual complexity
- Reconcile in minutes, not hours
- Keep business and personal finances separated
Register · Checking ····4821Synced today
- Square deposit · Ruiz Wedding+$1,200.00
- Home Depot · Supplies−$62.40
- PayPal · Elm St. Rental+$255.00
- Shell · Fuel−$48.10
Balance$4,318.60
Reports that answer your questions as quickly as you think of them
How did last month go? Which clients are worth it? Am I doing better this year than last? The reports section answers all three, and then some. Pull them in seconds on any device.
- Clean reports you or your accountant can work from
- Income by client
- Profit by month
- Expense breakdown by category
Income · Sep+18% vs. Aug
$6,240
Know where every outgoing dollar is going, and for what
Categorize expenses as they happen so tax time isn't a reconstruction project, and keep a clean running total on every subcontractor you paid.
- Categorize expenses the way your tax return will want them
- Track subcontractor payments and get per-person totals for 1099-NEC
- Spot recurring charges quietly draining your account
- See what you're spending by category, month or vendor
Expenses · Sep
- Supplies$412
- Fuel & mileage$388
- Software$49
- Insurance$120
2 charges flagged
Your client list is your business
Keep track of rates, history, estimates, invoices, hours logged, payments received — all in one place in the cloud, not scattered across your phone, your sent folder, and a legal pad in the truck. When a client calls back two years later, the answer takes one search.
- One record per client with billing history
- Agreed rates, past estimates, open invoices
- Hours logged against each client, ready to bill
- Find any client, invoice, or payment in seconds
- Keep track of receipts, documents and other work-related files
Client
Harper Landscaping
- Agreed rate$85 / hr
- Open estimates1
- Unpaid invoices$640
- Hours logged this week6.0 h
Build a budget the way your money actually moves
Self-employed income typically does not come in twelve equal pieces. You'll have slow months, busy months, big jobs and dry spells. Balancing your expenses against these fluctuations is key to a successful solo business.
- Budget by income type and expense category
- Set aside money for quarterly estimated tax payments
- Track budget vs. actual as the year fills in
- Plan your finances around the uneven months
Budget vs. actual · Sep
Income$6,240
Expenses$1,655
Software$49
Have everything your tax preparer needs in seconds
Your books are current, your records tie to your bank, your subcontractor totals are sitting there. You have all you need to send to your tax preparer or file yourself.
- Categorized income and expenses reconciled to your bank statements
- 1099-NEC totals ready for anyone you paid for help
- Business kept separate from personal finances
- Hand off a clean year and move on to the next year
Tax-ready · 2026Reconciled thru Sep 30
- ✓Income, categorized$52,300
- ✓Expenses, categorized$14,210
- ✓1099-NEC contractors2
- ✓Business kept separateYes
Skip the Guesswork and Bulk
Simple books for self-employed businesses
Most accounting software is overkill for a business of one. It's not that QuickBooks is bad software, it's that it's built for companies with staff — payroll, assets to depreciate, inventory to manage, and a whole lot of accounting you may never need.
Spreadsheets go the other way. They're free, familiar, and silent when a number is missing, a formula breaks, or an invoice never goes out.
If you're the one doing the work, sending the invoices, and keeping an eye on the money, you need software that works the same way you do: simple, straightforward, and focused on what you actually need to get done.
Compare
Spreadsheets, QuickBooks, or Solo
Three honest options for a one-person business. Here's where each one lands.
Scroll to compare ↔
| Spreadsheets | QuickBooks | MoneyMinder Solo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | High risk of errors; silent when something breaks | Built for accountants; steep learning curve | Built for non-accountants; no jargon |
| Invoicing | Manual; no tracking of what's paid or overdue | Full invoicing — more than most solopreneurs need | Estimates → invoices → payment tracking in one flow |
| Time tracking | Separate spreadsheet; never connects to billing | Available on higher-tier plans only | Built in; log hours and bill from them directly |
| Bank & payment connections | Manual entry or CSV imports | Bank sync included; payment processors vary by plan | 12,000+ banks plus PayPal, Square and Stripe included |
| Tax-ready records | No structure; reconstruction required at year-end | Strong reporting; accrual default adds complexity | Cash-based; categorized income, expenses and 1099-NEC totals ready |
| Price | Free — but your time isn't | $200–$800+/year depending on plan | $399/year, everything included |
Start Your Free Trial
30 days free. No credit card required.
Business Your Way, Finances to Match
Bookkeeping for the way solo businesses operate
No accountant on payroll
You are the whole company, so bookkeeping happens between jobs and after the last client.
- Cash-based books — record money when it moves
- Plain language — no CPA required
- Free U.S. based support — real people
Stop chasing what you're owed
The whole picture in one place, so following up is a two-minute task.
- Estimate on the spot — flat fee or itemized
- Accepted estimate becomes the invoice, no retyping
- Open, sent and paid at a glance
Connect your bank once
Transactions come to you, and you record money when it actually moves.
- 12,000+ banks, plus PayPal, Square and Stripe
- Reconcile in minutes, not hours
- Business kept separate from personal
The Solo Difference
How is Solo different?
Most accounting software is overkill for a one-person business. Yet spreadsheets and paper trails put you at risk for not knowing your true profit and loss. Solo is the middle: real self-employed accounting software, priced and sized for one.
Time and invoicing in one place
Log hours against a client, then bill from them. An accepted estimate becomes the invoice without retyping a line.
Nothing to turn off
No payroll, inventory or accrual ledgers to ignore. Solo covers a business of one and stops there, so the screens stay legible.
One price, everything included
$399 a year. No per-invoice fees, no charge per client, and no tier to upgrade into when you get busy.
See Pricing
Twenty years of keeping books simple
Built for volunteer-run nonprofits in 2003, MoneyMinder brings the same plain-language approach to solo businesses.
From the Blog
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Keep up with Solo
Estimate to invoice in one click, and why that matters at month end
The double-entry in most solo workflows disappears when the estimate and the invoice are the same record.
Read more
What your tax preparer actually needs from you in January
Categorized totals tied to your bank, plus a 1099-NEC figure for anyone you paid. Here's the short list.
Read more
FAQs
Before you start a trial
The top things people ask — what Solo is, what it costs, and what happens to the books you're keeping now.
Visit the Help CenterWhat is self-employed accounting software?
Self-employed accounting software is software designed for a one-person business — a freelancer, contractor or solo service provider — to handle its own books without an accountant. Required features include sending estimates and invoices, recording income and expenses in a bank register, tracking billable time, and producing accurate numbers to make tax time easier. It differs from full accounting platforms by leaving out what a solo operator doesn't have: payroll, accounts payable, inventory, multi-user permissions and accrual ledgers.
Who is MoneyMinder Solo for?
MoneyMinder Solo is bookkeeping made easy for solopreneurs, self-employed, freelance and service provider businesses that don't have payroll or inventory needs. Photographers, designers, copywriters, virtual assistants, personal trainers, hairdressers, massage therapists, tutors, house cleaners, painters, landscape crews, home inspectors, mobile mechanics, IT consultants, event planners, musicians, and business, career and life coaches. If you invoice your own clients and do your own books, Solo is for you.
Do I need accounting experience to use Solo?
No, and that's the point. Solo is cash-based, which means you record money when it comes in or goes out — the way you already think about it. There are no debits and credits to learn, no chart of accounts to build, and no jargon standing between you and the answer to "how did last month go?"
How is this different than QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is built to scale with a company that has staff, payables, payroll and an accountant — a good fit for that business, and mostly aimed at problems a solo operator doesn't have yet. Solo covers the working set for a business of one and stops there, so setup is short and the screens stay legible. If you eventually hire employees and need payroll, a full accounting platform is the right move, and you'll leave with clean, exportable records.
Can Solo replace spreadsheets?
Yes, and it fixes the two things a spreadsheet can't. A spreadsheet won't tell you an invoice never went out, and it won't catch a number you typed wrong — it just carries the error forward. Solo ties every invoice to a client and every deposit to an invoice, so paid means paid. Start with your open invoices and your current bank balance, connect your accounts, and you can be running live inside a week.
What does MoneyMinder Solo cost?
MoneyMinder Solo is $399 per year. Every feature is included at that price — no per-invoice fees, no charge per client, and no tier you have to upgrade into when you get busy. Full details are on the pricing page.
Does it handle estimates and invoices?
Both, and they're connected. Write the estimate as a flat project fee or itemize it by service, send it to the client, and convert it into an invoice when they accept — same line items, no retyping. You can also bill straight from the hours you logged against that client.
Can I track time in Solo?
Yes. Log hours against a client or a project as you work, or enter them at the end of the week, then bill from them directly. Compare hours logged against what you invoiced and the flat-rate job that took three times as long shows up plainly.
Will it help me at tax time?
It gets your records ready. Solo keeps income and expenses categorized through the year, tied to your bank statements, with business kept separate from personal — plus per-contractor totals for anyone you paid, which is the figure a 1099-NEC asks for. To be clear about the line: Solo gets you the totals, it does not generate or file tax forms, and it doesn't give tax advice.
Can my accountant or a bookkeeper see the books?
Yes — you can share what you need to share and pull reports to send over. Solo is built for one operator running the day-to-day, not a firm managing dozens of clients inside it, so the sharing is deliberately simple. If your accountant wants records in their own system, the reports export cleanly.
No bookkeeping experience? No problem.
Start free for 30 days — no credit card required, no setup fee, nothing to cancel if it isn't for you.
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