Complicated accounting software, expensive accountants’ fees and trying to lodge your own tax returns have plagued sole traders for too long. Now, there’s a much simpler – and cheaper – solution.
If you’re like most sole traders, the best part of your job is the work itself.
It’s figuring out and coming up with solutions to your clients’ problems. It’s wowing them with your expertise or creativity. And ultimately, it’s delighting in them rehiring you and recommending your services or products to others.
The worst part of being a sole trader is wasting hours on admin. We’re talking spreadsheets, accounts, tax, GST and all of the things that eat into your hard-earned income and time.
Enter Hnry – an affordable, pay-as-you-go managed tax accounting app and financial admin service specifically for self-employed contractors and freelancers that takes care of all your tax issues.
Here are four key benefits of using Hnry:
1. Automatic tax lodgements, filings and allocations
Hnry takes the pain out of your paperwork. Once you sign up, you get a Hnry bank account (provided by NAB) that’s held in trust in your name.
Whenever you get paid by clients, Hnry automatically calculates, deducts, and pays exactly the right amount of all your taxes. This includes income tax, GST, Medicare and student loans.
Immediately, Hnry sends the rest to your own regular bank account – that money is yours to keep so you don’t have to worry about a nasty surprise tax bill at the end of the financial year.
Hnry not only calculates and deducts all your taxes immediately, its team of expert tax agents and accountants also lodge your tax and GST returns. This means you never have to speak to the ATO directly and can be confident that everything has been calculated correctly.
2. Only pay when you’re earning
Traditional accounting software packages charge a set monthly fee to users, regardless of how much – or even if – you’ve got income coming through.
As a self-employed contractor, you may have periods when you’re not earning due to illness or taking a holiday, so why pay for a product you’re not using?
Hnry’s pricing structure recognises this. You only pay when income hits your Hnry bank account.
Here’s how it works: from your earnings, Hnry takes just one per cent +GST. This fee gives you access to all Hnry’s offerings – including end of year tax filings.
So, if you earn $500 in a month, you only pay $5+GST. If you earn $5000 in a month, you pay just $50+GST.
There’s even a cap for sole traders earning more than $150,000 in a financial year – you’ll never pay more than $1500+GST a year.
3. Invoicing and claiming expenses is a game changer
If you’re still stuffing receipts for your business expenses into a shoebox, get ready to let that go.
With Hnry, you simply take a photo of your receipt, upload it to your dashboard or the app with a brief description of what it is and what it’s for. A team of expert local accountants review it to make sure it’s claimable and that you get the correct tax relief on it. This is done immediately, rather than the end of the year as most accountants do.
That’s good news for all of those reimbursements and materials you may struggle to keep track of during the year.
Invoicing in Hnry is also a cinch – Hnry makes it easy for you to turn your quotes into invoices with a press of a button and send automatically to the client. Their team will even chase up outstanding invoices for you – a move that the company says helps to get its clients paid five times faster than usual.
You can keep track of all your quotes and invoices in one place, and if you already have an invoicing setup, Hnry can integrate seamlessly with it.
4. Unlimited support from expert accountants when you need it
As a sole trader, you’re not an expert in tax or accounting so you’ll need advice from to time. Traditional accountants typically charge (sometimes exorbitantly) by the minute or hour, putting them out of reach of most independent contractors.
Hnry provides unlimited support from its team of accountants, all of whom are experts in tax for sole traders. You can call, send an email or do a live chat whenever you have a question and get tailored advice for your situation.
Ready to get back to focusing on what you love about your work?
Find out more about Hnry, the smart accounting app for self-employed Australians here.
This article is brought to you by Flying Solo in partnership with Hnry.
Feature image: AdobeStock
