Working for yourself means the money side is yours too: the tax nobody deducts, the expenses nobody claims for you, the week off that pays nothing. Start with the free set-aside calculator and see what last month actually left you.
It is Sunday night and the laptop is on the kitchen table, because that is when the paperwork happens. You are working out what came in this month and it is harder than it should be. The money sits in the same account as the groceries. Some of it was never yours. There are receipts in the van and a drawer you keep meaning to deal with. Underneath is a quieter question: is the rate you charge even right?
None of that is a personal failing. Nobody sets it up for you: no payroll takes the tax off, no expenses system, no sick pay, and nobody notices you have not had a rise in two years.
Tick anything true right now. Two or more and the problem is not that you are bad with money. Nothing is set up to do this for you.
That is the shape of being on your own, and each one has a dull fix that takes an evening. Start with the set-aside calculator, then the cash gap check for how far behind your money is running.
The number you remember is the one that landed. Six thousand came in, so it felt like a six thousand month. Part of it was never income: some is tax nobody deducted on the way past, some went back out on materials, fuel and tools. Employed, both come off before the money reaches you. On your own the whole amount arrives and the splitting is yours, so the balance tells a story that is too good and the tax bill is an ambush.
Illustrative figures, not our data. What you hold back depends on where you are and what you can claim, which is a question for an accountant. The shape is the point: what arrives is not what you earned.
Not industry estimates. Counted in aggregate from invoices raised by small businesses, most of them one or two people.
Source: Billbooks invoice data, 8,483 invoices from 112 small businesses, September 2024 to September 2026 (aggregate only, figures shown only where 25+ businesses contribute). See the study
Each one is an hour of your time rather than a purchase. Do them in this order.
Open a second current account and have every payment land there. On the same date each month, move a fixed amount to your own account and treat it as wages. The business account stops being a running total of your life, and you can see what the business is doing.
When a payment lands, move a percentage into a separate savings account and forget it exists. Per payment rather than per year is what makes it survive a bad month. How much depends on where you are and what you can claim, so agree it with an accountant once. The set-aside calculator shows what is left.
Only 22% of invoicing businesses record any expenses, and the reason is rarely dishonesty. The receipt is in the van and the paperwork is at home. Photograph it at the counter. If you drive for work, the mileage calculator covers the cost most sole traders forget.
Most small-business invoices are due on receipt, and 77% are paid after the day they go out. The clock starts when you send it. About 15% of invoices are dated on a weekend, which describes this work on its own. The free invoice generator does one from a phone.
Is the rate right, and what if the big customer goes? Run your numbers through what should I charge and the profit margin calculator, then the one client risk check. About 40% of customers are billed once and never return, so the ones who come back are worth pricing properly.
This happens to careful people every year and it is recoverable. File on time even if you cannot pay on time, because in most places those are two problems and the filing one is cheaper to get wrong. Find every expense you never put through, because they change what is owed. Talk to the tax office before they talk to you: payment plans are ordinary, and easier to arrange before a demand arrives. Do not take an expensive loan to meet a deadline you could have negotiated.
An accountant is the right person for your own numbers, country and thresholds. This page is general on purpose and gives no rates, because useful tax advice is specific to you.
Then check which problem you have. If it is timing, the late payment cost calculator shows what other people being slow has cost you, and the cash flow problems behind this is the wider picture. If the work does not pay enough, that is a different problem and a bigger one.
One record of what you billed
Invoices in one place instead of a folder, an inbox and a notebook.
Expenses against the job
Photograph the receipt, attach it to the job, and the cost counts whether or not you remember at year end.
Reminders that run themselves
Set the chase schedule once and the follow-up goes without you deciding to send it.
A number you can trust on the 1st
What came in, what went out and what is owed, ready to read rather than reconstruct.
That is the job Billbooks does for a one-person business: invoices, expenses with the receipt attached, reminders and reports you can hand to an accountant, on a flat price. It is invoicing software, not accounting software, and does not do your tax return. If a spreadsheet and a savings account already work, keep them.
The one that covers the whole money side, not only the invoice. A sole trader needs invoices, expenses with receipts attached, reminders that chase on their own, and a report an accountant can read. Billbooks does those four on one flat price.
There is no single right percentage for a self-employed person, because it depends on where you live, what you earn and what you can claim. The practical rule is to move a fixed share of every payment into a separate account the day it arrives, agreed once with an accountant.
A sole trader is usually not required to have one, but it is the single change that helps most. A second account keeps business money out of household money, so what you earned and what you owe stop being something you work out in your head.
Take what customers paid you, subtract what you spent doing the work, then subtract the tax you should be holding back. What is left is the real figure. It is only hard when business and household money share an account.
Almost everywhere the principle is that a cost has to be for the business, and you need the receipt. What that covers varies by country and trade, so set your list with an accountant once. The expensive mistake is not claiming rather than over-claiming.
Treat it as a cost of the business, not bad luck. Work out what a month of living costs, decide how many weeks you want to be able to lose, and build that buffer the way you build the tax set-aside.
Usually yes, and later than you should have. Costs move every year whether or not your rate does, so a rate unchanged for two years is quietly a pay cut. Work out the margin on a typical job first, then raise new customers before existing ones.
For most sole traders, invoicing software plus an accountant at year end is enough. Billbooks bills customers, records expenses and shows what is owed, but does no bookkeeping, payroll or tax filing. With employees or complex books you want accounting software as well.
Yes. The set-aside calculator, the mileage calculator, the cash gap check and the invoice generator are free, need no signup, and email you the result. An account is only needed to send a branded invoice and have reminders chase it.
Each one opens with sample lines for the trade already filled in. Edit them, add your logo and download a PDF. Free, no account needed.
A little kit of calculators and generators, on the house.
30-day free trial. No credit card required.
Try Billbooks freeFree, no account needed: the set-aside calculator, the mileage calculator and the one client risk check. Read next: invoicing as a sole trader, tracking business expenses, freelance or self employed and the bookkeeping you keep putting off. If your work is mostly client projects, see invoicing for freelancers.
Most people read this on a phone, in a van or at a kitchen table. Send an invoice, quote or proforma straight from Billbooks in one tap. It shares the same secure link the client would get by email, so they can view it and pay from the message, and you still see when it was opened.