For freelancers & the self-employed

Bookkeeping for freelancers, done by your AI

Free double-entry books with a Schedule C report built in. Connect the AI you already use, hand it a statement a month, and review its flags. Ten minutes a month, a defensible number every quarter, no software bill.

Start free, no cardSee the Schedule C report

Freelance books, kept

It’s quarterly tax time. Where am I year to date?
Through August 4: $61,300 income, $14,850 expenses, $46,450 net profit. Your biggest categories are software and contract help. Want the Schedule C view, or an estimated-tax worksheet from these numbers?

The freelancer bookkeeping trap

Solo businesses get squeezed from both ends: software priced for real companies, or a shoebox that explodes in April.

Software costs more than it saves

Mainstream accounting subscriptions start around $38/mo, real money against freelance margins, for features (payroll, inventory, invoicing workflows) a solo business barely touches.

Spreadsheets quietly rot

Untracked income, categories that drift, no reconciliation. It works until the quarter you are too busy, which is exactly when the record matters.

Fewer 1099s are coming

As of 2026, clients only must file a 1099-NEC at $2,000+ and payment apps at $20,000+. The IRS still expects every dollar reported; increasingly, your books are the only complete record.

Set it up in an afternoon

  1. 1

    Split business from personal

    One business book, fed by the account or card you actually get paid into. Bought business things on a personal card anyway? Your AI sweeps just those charges in, posted against Owner’s Contribution, without dragging your groceries along.

  2. 2

    Let your AI keep it current

    Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok and hand it a statement each month. It imports, categorizes against a freelancer-shaped chart of accounts, and flags what it is unsure about. Ten minutes of review instead of a lost Saturday.

  3. 3

    Know your quarterly number

    A live P&L means your estimated-tax payment is a report, not a guess. At year-end the Schedule C report maps your categories to the form your preparer (or software) files.

Start with the walkthrough for your assistant: Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok. The fundamentals live in the freelancer bookkeeping guide.

Built for the solo tax year

Schedule C, mapped

Categories map to the form’s lines, travel and meals split correctly, and the report is ready whenever your preparer asks.
How the report works →

Quarterly numbers on demand

A live P&L plus the 2026 self-employment tax math (15.3% with the $184,500 wage base) gets you to a defensible estimated payment in minutes.
Estimate your SE tax →

Mileage and home-office ready

Vehicle and mileage records are a categorization discipline, not extra software. The mileage guide shows the setup.

Personal money too

A personal book under the same free account: spending, subscriptions, safe-to-spend. One login for the whole financial picture.
Personal finance mode →

Common questions

What is the best bookkeeping software for freelancers?

The best fit tracks income and expenses on a real ledger, maps to Schedule C, and costs close to nothing, because a solo business should not carry enterprise software fees. LedgerMCP is free double-entry software where the AI assistant you already pay for does the work; live bank feeds from $9/mo are the only paid feature.

Do freelancers really need double-entry bookkeeping?

You need books that reconcile to your bank account, and double-entry is how numbers stay provable. The good news is the rigor is the software’s job, not yours: your AI posts balanced entries, the database refuses unbalanced ones, and you just review. You get audit-proof books without learning debits and credits.

Does it handle Schedule C?

Yes. The built-in Schedule C report maps your categorized income and expenses to the form’s lines, including splitting travel and meals the way the form wants. It is the report for sole proprietors and single-member LLCs, which is exactly the freelancer case.

What about quarterly estimated taxes?

You need a current profit number four times a year; that is mostly what bookkeeping is for at this size. Ask your AI for a year-to-date P&L any time. For the mechanics and 2026 numbers, our quarterly estimated taxes guide walks through it, and the self-employment tax calculator gives you the SE piece.

Will I get a 1099 from my clients?

For payments made in 2026, a client only has to file a 1099-NEC if they paid you $2,000 or more (the threshold rose from $600 under 2025’s tax law), and payment apps file a 1099-K only past $20,000 and 200 transactions. Plenty of real income now arrives with no form at all, which makes your own books the record that matters. All of it is taxable either way.

What does it cost?

Free: unlimited books, CSV import, categorization, reconciliation, every report including Schedule C. Live bank feeds are the one paid upgrade, from $9 per month. Add the AI subscription you already have, and your total bookkeeping stack is roughly the cost of one streaming service.

Books that cost nothing and prove everything

Free for CSV and manual books. Connect your AI, hand it a statement, and see this month categorized before your coffee cools.

Start free, no cardRead the docs