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Better Than Quickbooks Self Employed: The Benefits of Using Wave, Sage, or Bonsai for Your Accountin



Zoho Books provides cheap and feature-rich accounting solutions to small business owners. By offering lower pricing plans than Quickbooks and comparative (or even better) features, it tends to attract many Quickbooks users towards it.


The bottom line: In spite of their names, QuickBooks Online is actually best for most business owners, including self-employed freelancers. QuickBooks Self-Employed is too bare-bones for all but the smallest of businesses, but it can work well for tax-conscious freelancers who rely on end-of-year deductions.




Better Than Quickbooks Self Employed




QuickBooks Self-Employed is more expensive than some other self-employed accounting options, but it might be worth it for freelancers who rely heavily on tax deductions (a.k.a. tax write-offs) to save money at the end of the year. Its quarterly tax estimation is helpful and accurate, as is its app-based mileage tracking. Its basic invoices and receipt-scanning features help you charge clients and keep your finances in order.


Last year (2016) while riding in a peddle-cab between QuickBooks Connect and my hotel I actually set-up the driver on QBSE. At the time I was telling him about the conference and he asked "I guess I need to start thinking about this tax stuff. I've been doing these odd jobs all year." When I told him that the App could help him figure his quarterly SE tax estimates he was thrilled. They may not be perfect but they are better than paying no quarterly tax, right?


FreshBooks requires little in the way of setup, so you can be up and running in minutes. It is best suited for freelancers and sole proprietors. FreshBooks offers a self-employed plan, along with a teams plan for small businesses with multiple users. As an added bonus, FreshBooks includes a highly intuitive interface that even computer novices will be comfortable with.


Wave Accounting offers custom invoice creation and decent customer management capability. The application is better suited to those that offer services rather than products, since Wave Accounting does not offer inventory tracking or management capability.


It is an IRS form that most self-employed people file to report their business income and expenses to the IRS. With QuickBooks Self Employed, you categorize income and expenses according to categories on Schedule C.


As implied by the products mentioned here, QuickBooks is meant primarily for self-employed individuals and for small businesses that need up to 5 users doing the bookkeeping. That said, Intuit has recently added an Advanced plan which is suitable for up to 25 users.


Beyond that, choosing a plan comes down to your individual needs (and your budget). Are you self-employed but struggle with taxes? You might want to go for one of the tax bundles. I know taxes are definitely not my forte!


QuickBooks Self Employed is part of the Intuit family of self-service financial products. Like other versions of QuickBooks, the program helps users prepare and file tax returns and handle basic accounting tasks. QuickBooks Self Employed includes additional benefits for self-employed workers.


If you're self-employed, you'll usually have to pay higher Social Security and Medicare taxes, collectively known as self-employment taxes, than if you were an employee of a company. One way to help avoid these higher taxes is to organize your business as an S-corporation. The Internal Revenue Service may take a close look at your taxes if you choose this route, as you could end up lowering your overall tax liability while generating the same net income.


Whether you're self-employed or an employee, you'll have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes to the government. When you work for someone else, you're only responsible for part of these taxes, while your employer pays the balance. However, if you're self-employed, you have to pay both portions of this tax. The combined employee and employer portions of this tax amount normally amounts to 15.3 percent.


The IRS tends to take a closer look at S-corporation returns since the potential for abuse is so large. For example, if you make $500,000 in one year but only designate $20,000 of that as salary income, you might trigger an IRS inquiry, since you are avoiding so much self-employment tax. The guiding principle is that you must designate a "reasonable" amount of your income as wages, rather than a distribution. What constitutes "reasonable" can often be a gray area, but if you push the envelope too far, you put yourself at risk for an IRS audit and potentially penalties and interest on any back taxes assessed by the IRS.


While an S-corporation may save you in self-employment taxes, it may cost you more than it saves. As with larger corporations, an S-corporation has both start-up and ongoing legal and accounting costs. In some states, S-corporations must also pay additional fees and taxes. For example, in California, an S-corporation must pay tax of 1.5 percent on its income with a minimum annual amount of $800. This tax is not required for sole proprietors.


Self-employment is the state of working for oneself rather than an employer. Those who are self-employed usually generate income from various sources, including freelance work, consulting, and investments. This is often the first step for those who decide to start a side hustle.


However, self-employment also comes with a greater degree of risk and responsibility. Self-employed individuals must be diligent in managing their finances and ensuring that they have sufficient income to support themselves.


Despite the challenges, self-employment can be a rewarding way to earn a living. Those who are successful in self-employment often relish greater levels of freedom and satisfaction than those who work for someone else.


LLCs and self-employed people have a few things in common. First, neither is considered an employee of their clients or customers. And in the case of single-member LLCs, the IRS taxes LLC business income as personal income.


If you want to bring your online business idea to life, there is no better platform to do it with than WordPress. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to create a website or blog from scratch without any coding knowledge.


QuickBooks Self-Employed is suitable for people who work in the "shared economy", are self-employed, file a Schedule C with their tax return, have no payroll. It is easier to use than traditional QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Self-Employed is not designed for businesses, with the exception of Single Member LLC's, under certain circumstances.


As you probably guessed, QuickBooks Self-Employed is for the self-employed. More specifically, it's for sole proprietors who need a little help staying organized. By sole proprietor, we mean just about any freelancer, whether they offer a product or service. If you sell online via a third-party marketplace or you market your services on Craigslist, QuickBooks Self-Employed can help you stay organized.


The most common program QuickBooks Self-Employed is compared against is QuickBooks Simple Start. QuickBooks SE is for the self-employed, whereas Simple Start is for small businesses. But we've also compared it against a second competitor: FreshBooks.


However, when you are self-employed (whether you run your business full time or if you have a part-time side gig) and your net income is $400 or more, you are responsible for filing a tax return and paying the entire 15.3% of Social Security and Medicare taxes when you file which are known as self-employment taxes. The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% and consists of 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. Though all of your net income (profits) from the business are subject to the Medicare portion of the self-employment tax, only the first $147,00 of your net income is subject to the Social Security portion for tax year 2022 ($142,800 for tax year 2021).


QuickBooks Online is better than QuickBooks Desktop if your business is looking for easy cloud-based accounting software with more mobility. For more complex and traditional accounting, QuickBooks Desktop is better than QuickBooks Online. Read our full QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison to learn more.


  • There are six different QuickBooks products, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Self-Employed, and QuickBooks Mac Plus.\n"}},"@type": "Question", "name": "Which version of QuickBooks do most companies use?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "The majority of small businesses use QuickBooks Online over the other versions of QuickBooks. Currently, there are over 3.2 million QuickBooks Online users.\n","@type": "Question", "name": "What are the versions of QuickBooks?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "There are six different versions of QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Pro Plus, QuickBooks Premier Plus, QuickBooks Enterprise, and QuickBooks Mac Plus. Each QuickBooks version targets a different business type and size.\n","@type": "Question", "name": "Is QuickBooks Online better than QuickBooks Desktop?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "QuickBooks Online is better than QuickBooks Desktop if your business is looking for easy cloud-based accounting software with more mobility. For more complex and traditional accounting, QuickBooks Desktop is better than QuickBooks Online. Read our full QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison\u00a0to learn more.\n","@type": "Question", "name": "What is the difference between QuickBooks Pro and Premier?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "QuickBooks Pro only supports up to 3 users, while QuickBooks Premier supports up to 5. The other big difference between QuickBooks Pro and Premier is that QuickBooks Premier offers more features and reports for specific industries like construction, retail, manufacturing, nonprofits, and more.\n","@type": "Question", "name": "Is QuickBooks Desktop being discontinued?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "While Intuit is definitely pushing customers to choose QuickBooks Online, there is no evidence that QuickBooks Desktop is going away any time soon. However, the QuickBooks Desktop licenses have been discontinued, and users have to buy a yearly subscription now instead. Additionally, QuickBooks Mac Plus and QuickBooks Pro Plus can no longer be purchased from the QuickBooks website and can be purchased by contacting Sales by phone or through an authorized QuickBooks reseller.\n","@type": "Question", "name": "What is the cheapest version of QuickBooks?", "acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer", "text": "QuickBooks Self-Employed is the cheapest version of Quickbooks, but it is designed specifically for freelancers. For small businesses, QuickBooks Online is the most affordable monthly payment option.\n"]} Bio LinkedIn Latest Posts Erica SeppalaExpert Analyst & Reviewer at Merchant MaverickAn expert in accounting, finance, and point of sale, Erica has been researching and writing about all things small-business since 2018. Erica's insights into personal and business finance have been cited in numerous publications, including MSN, Real Simple, and Reader's Digest. She is a graduate of Limestone College. View Erica Seppala's professional experience on LinkedIn. Latest posts by Erica Seppala (see all) How To Check Your ERC Refund Status - February 6, 2023

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