QuickBooks for the self-employed: the best choice for UK sole traders in 2026?

With the April 6 deadline now looming for the first wave of sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income crosses the £50,000 threshold, many users will be looking for reliable software that’s ready to tackle Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA).

QuickBooks is HMRC-approved, MTD-ready, and has a plan specifically built for sole traders. This is what’s now known as the Sole Trader Plus plan, so if you’re searching for QuickBooks Self-Employed, then this will be the plan you’re looking for.

We’ve tested seven of the best accounting software platforms, including QuickBooks, amounting to a total of 1512 areas of investigation. We’ve been advising businesses for 26 years, and we rigorously test accounting software to make sure you’re getting the best recommendations. So let’s find out if QuickBooks is right for you.

QuickBooks for the self-employed: at a glance

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		Price from	Best for	Key benefits
Sole Trader Plus	Simple Start
Paid monthly: £10/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months	Paid monthly: £16/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months
Sole traders not registered for VAT, and single property landlords, and being MTD for Income Tax ready	Self-employed business owners who are managing income tax and VAT
Helps you prepare your self-assessment tax return Receive income tax estimates Send out invoices	AI-powered bank feeds for quick categorisation Checks your VAT return for errors Gives you VAT deadline reminders

What are the key QuickBooks features for self-employed users?

A great new feature added in the latest QuickBooks product update is the ability for users to add more expense categories themselves. This was previously something only an accountant could do on the platform, so it’s nice to see that this has changed.

Of course, the Sole Trader Plus plan does the basics you’d expect (like handling invoicing and expenses), but it has a couple of other handy features like:

• The customer hub: centralise all your customer information, and keep an organised to-do list
• Run reports: including profit & loss, balance sheets, accounts payable and accounts receivable

In our testing, we found QuickBooks’ layout was easy to navigate around. Source: Startups.co.uk

Another major benefit is that all plan levels come embedded with Intuit Intelligence, QuickBooks’ AI-driven system which is designed to eliminate manual entry, and provide you with tailored insights.

How does QuickBooks AI automate bookkeeping?

A standout feature is the AI auto-entry and categorisation (if you have a business bank account connected to the platform). This can be such a helpful feature for less confident self-employed users, as it can assist with:

• Entering dates
• Knowing values
• Guessing categories

Essentially, this means the data will be already entered for you by AI. For the self-employed this can really take out a lot of the tedium of doing your accounts, and make the process actually quite satisfying.

Just remember, AI is not infallible. You need to verify transactions yourself, as the accuracy of AI-automated categorisation relies on the clarity of your bank feed. You’ll need to ensure it’s correct, but having the bulk of the admin work already done is very helpful.

What’s QuickBooks’ mobile app like?

This is one of the standout features, as the QuickBooks mobile app is arguably the best of any accounting software platform in the UK. This app has a built-in method of using your smartphone camera to snap your receipts, and then enters the data in your software.

Handily, the app also lets you track business mileage, which is something you don’t often see included in accounting apps. You can use the mobile app’s GPS to auto-log business trips, for example.

The only point we’d flag about QuickBooks ‘snapping workflow’, is that if there’s no matching transaction in the bank, then you’ll need to resolve this separately through a manual process. This can happen if you pay with cash, or a card not connected to your software.

What apps does QuickBooks integrate with?

QuickBooks integrates with over 800 apps, including Etsy, PayPal, Shopify, and Square POS, in order to sync sales channels automatically.

You can also connect a range of industry-specific apps that can supercharge your productivity. As QuickBooks is such a big name in the accounting software space, businesses will build with the platform in mind.

Can QuickBooks for the self-employed handle VAT returns?

In order to prepare and submit VAT returns, you’ll need to pay for the Simple Start plan. The Simple Start plan is £16 per month (plus VAT), and is both MTD for VAT and Income Tax ready.

It includes VAT AI, which can automatically flag any discrepancies between your profit and loss reports and your VAT reports, and then provide you with suggestions for corrections.

Is QuickBooks MTD-ready?

QuickBooks is fully HMRC-approved and MTD-ready for both VAT and Income Tax, supporting both quarterly and final submissions. This is very important, as some software options can only handle quarterly submissions!

It can also provide handy tax estimates, using categorised transactions, giving you confidence that your Income Tax and National Insurance records are accurate.

Through your dashboard, you’ll be able to find an Income Tax Self Assessment summary page. This landing page will feature a summary, and will provide more detail on each of your quarterly submissions below, including:

• Business income
• Business expenses
• Net profit or loss

Just remember, you need to sign-up for MTD ITSA directly with HMRC before QuickBooks is authorised to handle your submissions. You can find more information about this in our Startups MTD checklist.

You can also find out if QuickBooks or Xero will be a better fit for your MTD needs, as we put them head-to-head in our dedicated comparison article.

What’s QuickBooks help and support like?

This is one area where we give QuickBooks a lot of credit: you can speak to an actual human. In 2026, especially with the rise of agentic AI, this is a rarity, and a feature to be celebrated.

QuickBooks contact hours for the self-employed are:

• Callback times: Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00
• Live chat: Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 20:00, and 8:00 to 18:00 on weekends

You can also receive support via:

• A 24/7 chatbot
• A user forum
• A knowledge centre
• Video tutorials and webinars are available as learning resources

What’s it like using QuickBooks for the self-employed?

The current version iteration of Sole Trader Plus is a lot more user-friendly than its QuickBooks Self-Employed ancestor. In particular, the new addition of AI-powered transactions makes things much easier for a new user to get their head around.

If you have a separate business bank account (you should!), then using the AI-powered bank feeds is not just easy, but it can actually make your bookkeeping feel satisfying.

It mostly eliminates some of the more tedious admin tasks, so you just need to make sure everything adds up, shifting the user experience from ‘data entry’ to ‘data checking’.

Is QuickBooks easy to use for the self-employed?

There’s a learning curve to get to grips with QuickBooks initially, but once you’ve spent some time with the software, it becomes more intuitive.

In our testing, what stood out to us most was the well organised layout. Everything was categorised in a logical way, like placing bills under expenses.

During our testing process we could seamlessly convert estimates into invoices. Source: Startups.co.uk

We found the dashboard to be well designed, highlighting key metrics like overdue payments. The customisable menus also mean that you can tailor navigation to your liking.

QuickBooks dashboard gives you a snapshot of some of your key metrics. Source: Startups.co.uk

Once all your data is entered, QuickBooks’ reporting style is easy to read and to use. We especially liked the monthly profit and loss report, which is a great way to get a feel for your businesses’ financials.

We’d also note that if you’ve used QuickBooks before and found it to be an overwhelming experience, the latest version is much more streamlined and easy to manage.

Who’s QuickBooks right for?

If you’re a business owner who’s not VAT-registered, don’t need payroll, or carry out construction industry returns, then QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus is going to do a solid job for you.

Both the QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus and Simple Start plans offer quite a bit of value for money when you take into account the AI features and hundreds of third-party integrations.

Some examples of self-employed users who would benefit from QuickBooks would be:

• Freelancers: who just need seamless invoicing and expense tracking without breaking the bank.
• Small cafes, restaurant, and bar owners: who need excellent mobile app functionality, and may need to upgrade to the Simple Start plan if they cross the VAT threshold.
• High-earning sole traders: if you’re over the £50,000 threshold and you’re due to start MTD for Income Tax this year, and need MTD-ready software.
• Landlords: with QuickBooks you can manage property income alongside a small business.
• Online sellers: QuickBooks integration with a range of top sales channel apps makes it a great choice for ecommerce traders.

QuickBooks pros and cons for self-employed people

If you’re considering using QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus plan for your self-employed bookkeeping, here are the key pros and cons to consider:

As we’ve covered above, the standout features of the Sole Trader Plus plan are the top-of-the-range mobile app and the AI-powered tools that can make your bookkeeping much simpler.

However, QuickBooks isn’t without its drawbacks, so here are some limitations to be aware of:

Limitations of QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus for the self-employed

Because QuickBooks workflow is heavily based around bank feeds and automation, if you’re also working with receipts that weren’t paid from your connected bank, this can be tricky. Doing this manually from Sole Trader Plus isn’t necessarily the most intuitive process.

You should keep in mind that QuickBooks’ self-employed tiers don’t include custom fields. So, if you want to add contract dates to your invoices for example, you’ll need to pay for at least the Essentials tier (£38 per month), which includes four custom fields.

You should also be aware, if you hold banks in different currencies, or wish to invoice in another currency, then the sole trader plans won’t be for you. You’ll also need to upgrade to Essentials for multi-currency support. Although we will point out that this plan provides excellent value for money in terms of cost vs. features.

How much does QuickBooks cost for self-employed people?

QuickBooks has two main plans aimed at the self-employed, Sole Trader Plus (£10 per month plus VAT) and Simple Start (£16 per month plus VAT).

Deciding between these two plans is pretty straightforward:

• If you’re not VAT-registered you should choose Sole Trader Plus
• If you are VAT registered you’ll need Simple Start

Beyond this, QuickBooks also has a range of plans aimed at small to medium sized businesses costing from £38 per month to £123 per month (plus VAT).

Just as a reminder, these plans won’t be suitable if you run a limited company. If that’s you, you’ll need to go for at least the Essentials plan (£38 per month), and you can find out more detailed information in our full guide to QuickBooks’ costs.

To get an idea of all the plans that QuickBooks offers, you can compare them in our table below:

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	Plan	Cost	Best suited for:	Features
Sole Trader Plus	Simple Start	Essentials	Plus	Advanced
Paid monthly: £10/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months	Paid monthly: £16/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months	Paid monthly: £38/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months	Paid monthly: £56/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months	Paid monthly: £123/month (+ VAT) You can currently get 90% off for the first six months
Sole traders not registered for VAT, and single property landlords, and being MTD for Income Tax ready	Sole traders and small business owners who are managing income tax and VAT	Small, growing limited companies	Small businesses that are managing projects and inventories of stock	Businesses that need more sophisticated support like custom permissions and tailored insights
Helps you prepare your self-assessment tax return Receive income tax estimates  Send out invoices	AI-powered bank feeds for quick categorisation Checks your VAT return for errors Gives you VAT deadline reminders	Bill management Multi-currency support (over 145 currencies) Employee time tracking so you can invoice your clients accurately	Track your products, and see what’s selling the most See the profitability of each of your projects Smart budgeting	Version control Automate workflows Custom charts and customised dashboards

Is QuickBooks worth the money for the self-employed?

Yes, for the asking price of £10 per month (plus VAT), QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus plan is certainly worth the money, especially considering you get access to the AI-powered bank feeds and excellent mobile app.

QuickBooks frequently runs deals, and right now you can get 90% off for the first six months, which is a pretty substantial discount. That means you can get the Sole Trader Plus plan for just £1 per month for the first six months.

Does QuickBooks have a free plan?

Unfortunately, QuickBooks doesn’t have a free plan, but it does have a free trial for 30 days. It’s worth noting that, strangely, if you opt for the free trial you can’t access the 90% discount.  

If you’re looking for a free accounting software option, our number one recommendation is Zoho Books. Although, if you specifically need free accounting software for MTD for Income Tax, we’d suggest going with FreeAgent (just as long as you qualify for a free plan).

Does QuickBooks have any hidden costs?

You’ll need to pay extra for payroll, as this isn’t included at any plan level, but we don’t consider this to be a hidden cost (it’s fairly standard in the industry that payroll costs extra). Although competitor Sage does include payroll with each of its plans.

Most self-employed users won’t need payroll, but if you do, you’ll be looking at spending:

• Core payroll: £5 per month, plus £1.30 per paid employee, per month
• Advanced payroll: £10 per month, plus £1.30 per paid employee, per month

Any plan below Advanced is limited to 250 lines in the chart of accounts, but it’s highly unlikely that the majority of self-employed users will exceed this.

How did we test QuickBooks?

Our rigorous testing of QuickBooks fell under our wider testing of seven top accounting software platforms in January 2025: we worked alongside our in-house research team to carry out a total of 57 hours of testing.

That totaled 555 tasks, across 37 different user tests. These tasks were separated across the six categories we determined to be the most essential to self-employed people in the UK looking for accounting software:

1. The core accounting features of the software.
2. Tools for financial planning and clear visibility of your business finances.
3. Efficiency of your daily operations (for example third-party software integrations).
4. Help and support options, and the hours these are accessible.
5. The cost of the software, including hidden fees.
6. How easy to use the software is.

In March 2026, we then engaged the services of our external expert accountant Dan Heelan. Dan is a Licensed Accountant, with 19 years of experience, who worked closely with us to ensure this review was as accurate and helpful as possible.

Summary: is QuickBooks a good choice for the self-employed?

QuickBooks is an especially a good fit for time-poor sole traders and landlords who do a lot of their bookkeeping on the move, as QuickBooks’s excellent mobile app is a standout feature.

We’d still recommend you do the bulk of your bookkeeping on a desktop or laptop, but if you do like managing your accounts and invoicing on a mobile, QuickBooks is the one to go for.

If you need MTD-ready software that’s relatively simple to use, and still powerful enough to simplify your bookkeeping, then QuickBooks is a good choice for the self-employed. If you’re still feeling lost as to what MTD actually is, and if it applies to you, you can find all the answers in our full guide to Making Tax Digital.