What is the best self-employed accounting software?

Whether you’re a freelancer or run a small company, being self-employed means you have to do your own business accounting. Unless you’re well-versed in bookkeeping, doing your accounts can be tricky and time-consuming. But, the right accounting software helps you spend much less time on accounting and more time running your business.

This guide will show you the benefits of self-employed accounting software. We’ll cover:

• How accounting software has evolved lately
• The benefits of using self-employed accounting software 
• How to install Countingup accounting software

Implementing self-employed accounting software means you’ll save time on financial admin. How? Because accounting software automates all those tedious manual bookkeeping and accounting processes, such as logging transactions, recording receipts, and so on. You’ll no longer have to download files from your debit card or bank account: accounting software captures that data automatically. 

For example, Countingup offers a business account and accounting software in one simple app. This means your financial activities are automatically recorded in your accounting software in real-time. This way, you have all the information you need readily available in your Countingup accounting software and app in the palm of your hand.

One of the main benefits self-employed people will experience with accounting software is that they can invoice their clients from anywhere. Like most systems these days, accounting software like Countingup comes with an app that allows you to carry out accounting tasks from anywhere. 

With the Countingup app, you can: 

• Create an unlimited number of customised invoices for free
• Add a logo to invoice templates
• Send invoices to customers on the go
• Match a payment to an invoice
• Customise an invoice’s due date 
• Receive a notification when an invoice is paid

These features allow you to work more proactively and increase efficiency for your business and customers or clients. 

Keeping a close eye on your cash flow and monitoring outgoings as well as incomes is crucial to creating a successful company. A good understanding of your cash flow means you can use those insights to create and manage your budget, plan ahead with cash flow forecasts, and continue to thrive. 

The best self-employed accounting software lets you update your system as soon as money enters or leaves your business. Aside from the automated invoices that we’ve mentioned, Countingup gives you real-time cash flow insights so that you can keep on top of your finances easily every day. 

Countingup also generates a running profit and loss report, which helps you create a profit and loss statement (often also called an income statement) for your business.

Profit and loss statements help you understand how much you’re making, where you can save on expenses, and where to improve the business. These statements can reveal a lot about how your business is run and how it can be optimised.

In addition, you need your profit and loss statement if you ever need funding to move your business forward. As such, Countingup’s self-employed accounting software may help you get funding faster since you already have the information you need.

As a self-employed person, you have to handle your own taxes. You don’t have an employer to do it for you. Since taxes are complicated enough as it is, you’ll want to pull out all the stops to make managing them as easy as possible. 

The great thing about self-employed accounting software like Countingup is that you can view tax estimates all year round. This way, you know how much to set aside, so you don’t have any surprises when the time comes to submit your Self Assessment tax return.

In addition, Countingup is MTD-compatible. Making Tax Digital will eventually be a mandatory practice for income tax for all businesses. The Countingup app’s digital tax filing service automatically calculates the VAT associated with your business transactions. 

You can easily share bookkeeping data with your accountant, who can file your tax return directly with Countingup’s free accounting software. 

When running your own business, it is crucial to keep your finances in order. Self-employed accounting software helps you do just that by organising your expenses for you. 

For example, the Countingup app has automatic expense categorisation and a receipt capture tool that make it easy to keep an accurate, digital record of your business expenses. Automatic categorisation into HMRC approved categories helps to keep your financial records organised. That and Countingup’s handy receipt capture tool save you time from remembering and inputting the category for each expense when you submit your tax return. 

Learn more about Countingup’s expense categorisation here. 

As your business grows, you’ll have more financial activities to keep track of and managing it on your own might become too complicated. Hiring an accountant will help take some of the burdens off your shoulders so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Self-employed accounting software like Countingup can help here, too, since you can give your accountant access to your bookkeeping data via the app. As a result, you won’t need to send them any information via post, email, or over the phone.

Instead, your accountant will have access to your data whenever they need it, enabling them to reconcile and prepare your accounts to file your tax returns. Sharing your financial data through Countingup is fast, efficient, and more secure than sharing information through the post or by email.

Countingup’s self-employed accounting software helps thousands of self-employed people keep on top of their financial management. Designed to help you focus more of your time on doing what you love, this unique two-in-one app makes running your business much easier. 
Keep your business finances running like clockwork. Download the Countingup app today.