Nobody freelancing full time wants to spend Sunday evening in accounting software. The work itself isn’t hard. What wears you down is that a simple task takes more steps than it should, spread across screens that each want something slightly different, inside a product priced for a company with staff, inventory, and a bookkeeper.
Below are the six tools freelancers and independent contractors shortlist most often: GlassJar, QuickBooks Solopreneur, FreshBooks, Wave, Xero, and Zoho Books. Our pick for a full-time freelancer is GlassJar, but it isn’t the right call for everyone, and we say who should look elsewhere.
Key Takeaways
- Judge on the three tasks you do every week: send an invoice, categorize what the bank imported, and see whether you’re profitable. Count the screens.
- Get real double-entry books. An invoicing tool with expenses bolted on works until you need a balance sheet, an accountant asks a question it can’t answer, or you incorporate.
- Check what happens when a client is also a supplier. Freelancers hit that constantly, and most tools force two records.
- If you pay subcontractors, record those payments in the same books as everything else.
What a freelancer should judge
Start with the three tasks you repeat every week: send a branded invoice and have the payment recorded when it lands, categorize what the bank feed imported, and check whether you’re actually making money. Time each one. Then look at the slower-burn questions. Do income and deductions stay organized through the year, or do you rebuild them in March? Can the reports tell you which client is worth the time? Can you connect a bank and start the same afternoon without calling anyone? And when something breaks on a Sunday night, is there a person to ask?
Why we’d start with GlassJar
GlassJar is cloud accounting software for freelancers, contractors, and self-employed people who want real double-entry books without the overhead of software built for companies with staff. Every transaction type is entered from one screen. An expense, an invoice, a payment, a journal entry: you pick the type from a list, fill in the same short form, and you’re finished. It’s the same motion every time, which matters more than it sounds when you’re doing it at the end of a long day. Most of these run in the browser, and cloud-based accounting software has real advantages over a desktop install.
A client who also invoices you stays one contact record instead of two. A single record can be a customer, a vendor, and a contractor at once, and duplicate names are allowed when two different people genuinely share one. You also choose which reports sit on your dashboard. For most freelancers that means a profit and loss, an open-invoices list, and whatever the accountant asks for in January, and none of those should take four clicks to find.
It’s proper double-entry accounting underneath, with bank connections and reconciliation, invoicing, bill management, expense tracking, budgets, custom tags for tracking by client or project, check printing, and user roles so an accountant can log in without your password. Plans are Intro, Essentials, and Advanced, all with support from the GlassJar team and a 14-day free trial. Early access opens in November 2026.
Two things to know before you get attached. GlassJar is new, so it doesn’t have the track record the products below do, and it’s built for U.S. businesses. It also doesn’t track time, so if you bill by the hour, work out how tracked hours get onto an invoice during the trial rather than after.
How the others compare
QuickBooks Solopreneur
Formerly QuickBooks Self-Employed. It separates personal from business spending with a swipe, tracks mileage by GPS, estimates quarterly taxes, and exports to TurboTax. For a Schedule C filer with simple income it’s easy to learn.
It’s not full accounting. There’s no balance sheet, so assets, liabilities, and equity are invisible. Invoicing and reporting are limited, and moving up to QuickBooks Online later means starting a new account and re-importing data.
FreshBooks
The invoicing and time tracking are excellent. The client portal lets customers approve estimates and pay online, a timer converts hours to invoice lines, and reminders and late fees run automatically. For hourly service work it’s a well-designed workflow.
The accounting half is thinner. The Lite plan caps billable clients and does not include double-entry reports or bank reconciliation, the chart of accounts is limited, and each extra team member costs more. The FreshBooks comparison covers the differences.
Wave
Free invoicing and basic accounting with no revenue cap, which makes it a common starting point. The reports cover profit and loss and balance sheet.
Bank connections and reconciliation now require the paid Pro plan, support on the free tier is email and a help center, and there’s no budgeting, time tracking, or project reporting. Once you have real volume, the free plan costs more time than a subscription would. The Wave comparison has the detail.
Xero
Full double-entry accounting, with multi-currency on its top plan if you invoice clients abroad, plus a reconciliation screen bookkeepers like and a large app marketplace.
Xero’s entry plan limits monthly invoices and bills, add-ons carry their own fees, setup assumes some accounting knowledge, and support is email and chat, no inbound phone line. For a solo operator it can be more product than you need.
Zoho Books
Part of the Zoho suite, so if you already run Zoho CRM or Zoho Projects the data flows between them. Automation rules handle reminders, categorization, and recurring invoices, and there’s a free plan for businesses under a revenue threshold.
Configuration takes time, the learning curve is steeper than tools built for freelancers, and features you might expect in accounting live in other Zoho apps with their own subscriptions.
Side by side
| What a freelancer needs | GlassJar | QuickBooks Solopreneur | FreshBooks | Wave | Xero | Zoho Books |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full double-entry with a balance sheet | ✓Yes | ✕No | Higher plans | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Every transaction from one screen | ✓Yes | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No |
| One contact for client, vendor, contractor | ✓Yes | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | Customer and supplier only | ✕No |
| Bank feeds on the entry plan | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | Paid only | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Budgets included | ✓Yes | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | Basic | Higher plans |
| Built-in time tracking | ✕No | ✕No | ✓Yes | ✕No | Add-on | ✓Yes |
Scroll sideways to see all columns.
Vendors move these lines around constantly, so check each pricing page before you decide.
Staying tax-ready all year
The short version: categorize every transaction as it happens, not in March. A bank feed does most of that work, and consistent categories are what turn a shoebox into a Schedule C. Tags for client or project let you see which work is actually profitable once you count the subcontractor you paid to help.
If you pay subcontractors, record those payments inside the accounting software. When January arrives you want every payment, name, and total in one place, not reconstructed from email threads and bank statements. In GlassJar, you record contractor payments against one contact, so the year’s totals are easy to hand to whoever prepares your 1099s.
Choosing
QuickBooks Solopreneur makes sense if you want the simplest possible Schedule C tracker and never expect to need a balance sheet. FreshBooks is the call when time tracking and the client portal are the center of how you bill. Wave still works for a handful of transactions a month and no software budget, and Xero or Zoho Books earn their place if you invoice internationally or already live inside Zoho.
GlassJar is for the freelancer who wants real books that will carry over cleanly when they incorporate or bring on help, entered from one screen, with one record per relationship and help from the GlassJar team when a question comes up. Early access opens in November 2026, with a 14-day free trial, and plan details are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Do freelancers really need accounting software?
If you send invoices and want to know whether you’re profitable, yes. Bank feeds, categorized expenses, and records that are ready in January save more hours than the subscription costs, and missed deductions are expensive.
Can I use free accounting software as a freelancer?
Wave works for very small volumes, though bank connections require the paid plan. GlassJar is not free, but the 14-day trial lets you test the full product before committing.
How does GlassJar help at tax time?
Income, expenses, and contractor payments are recorded and categorized all year, so the reports your accountant needs, or the numbers you need for your own return, are already there.
What is the difference between invoicing software and accounting software?
Invoicing software creates and sends bills. Accounting software does that plus bank reconciliation, expense tracking, financial statements, and budgets. GlassJar is the second kind, with the invoice connected directly to the books.
When can I start?
Early access opens in November 2026, with a 14-day free trial on every plan.
