Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 for 2024 to 2025 need to use MTD from 6 April 2026. The threshold moves to £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 from 6 April 2028.
Read GOV.UK guidanceFor UK freelancers and sole traders
A finance desk for people who work alone.
The IQ Suite helps freelancers reconcile paid work, find missing payments, code expenses and turn messy bank exports into records your accountant can actually use.
Cash
Know which invoices cleared, which deposits are unexplained and what still needs chasing.
Records
Keep expense coding, VAT review and attachments tidy before the year-end scramble.
Clarity
Use LedgerIQ to understand income, seasonality, runway and what changed month to month.
Solo finance desk
April control
MTD record prep
Matched client receipts
Invoices compared with bank activity
42 paid
Late or missing payments
Unmatched invoices and partial receipts
6 chase
Expenses needing review
Software, travel, subscriptions, merchant fees
18 code
Accountant pack
Reconciliation, coding and analysis exported
ready
Why this page is written this way
Freelance admin is now a cash and compliance problem.
The page is grounded in current UK guidance and sector evidence: late payment remains a real pressure point, and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now in its phased rollout.
HMRC describes quarterly MTD updates as light-touch income and expense updates, not extra tax returns. The practical burden is keeping digital records current enough to submit through recognised software.
Read HMRC updateIPSE reports that 60% of self-employed people have experienced delayed payment, while Xero reported in March 2026 that 50% of UK small-business payments were late.
Read IPSE reportThe workflow
One subscription, three jobs the solo business actually needs.
Freelancers do not need enterprise finance theater. They need the bank matched, the expenses coded, the records kept digitally and the numbers explained without losing billable time.
Prove what has been paid.
Upload bank data and invoice exports to match receipts, identify gaps and build a defensible reconciliation trail. It is built for the situations where the bank feed, invoice list and spreadsheet all disagree.
- CSV, Excel and PDF bank statement support
- Invoice-to-payment matching mode
- Unmatched payments and missing invoices surfaced for review
- PDF and CSV exports for your accountant or records
Turn spending into books.
CodeIQ suggests accounts, VAT treatment and invoice matches before anything is posted. You still review the work, but the repetitive coding no longer starts with a blank spreadsheet.
- AI-assisted transaction coding with confidence scoring
- VAT classification where relevant
- Receipt and invoice OCR for supporting documents
- Posting support for Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and Pandle
Understand the business you built.
Upload a general ledger or trial balance export and LedgerIQ turns it into plain-English analysis. Use it to see margin, cash flow, expense drift, seasonality and financial health before a decision becomes urgent.
- 40+ financial analysis modules
- Profit, cash-flow and balance sheet views
- Trend, anomaly and forecast analysis
- Board-style PDF reports for lenders, advisers or your own review
MTD without pretending
The suite helps prepare the record. It does not pretend to be your tax agent.
For freelancers, the dangerous part of MTD is not one quarterly button. It is months of uncleared receipts, mixed personal spending, unreviewed VAT treatment and invoice income that never got tied back to the bank.
Keep digital records current.
ReconcileIQ and CodeIQ help convert bank movement into a reviewed, categorised record instead of a year-end archaeology project.
Separate bookkeeping from filing.
Use The IQ Suite to clean and explain the underlying books. Use HMRC-compatible software or your accountant for the formal MTD submission.
Make quarterly reviews smaller.
When income, expenses and unmatched items are visible every month, each quarter is a review of known work rather than a scramble through downloads.
Where it helps
Built around the way freelance income really arrives.
Project deposits, retained clients, subscriptions, card fees, marketplace payouts and mixed receipts all create reconciliation work. The suite gives each problem a home.
Retainers, deposits and partial payments.
Match client receipts against invoice exports, isolate underpayments and keep evidence for the month-end conversation.
Project income without spreadsheet drift.
Keep irregular project payments tied to the bank, with expense categories visible before tax season.
Fees, refunds and payouts split properly.
Merchant parsing support for eBay, Amazon and PayPal helps separate sales, fees, shipping and refunds instead of treating every payout as simple income.
Review VAT treatment before it becomes a return problem.
CodeIQ can classify and surface VAT treatment for review, giving you and your accountant a cleaner starting point.
The practical promise
Less admin theatre. More controlled books.
The IQ Suite is not here to replace your accountant, invent tax advice or promise perfect automation. It is here to do the heavy lifting before review: match the bank, suggest coding, expose exceptions and explain the numbers.
Pricing for solo operators
Start small. Keep the full suite.
Every paid plan includes ReconcileIQ, CodeIQ and LedgerIQ. The main difference for freelancers is the monthly credit allowance.
Best starting point
5,000 credits
Starter
£5 / month
For freelancers who want bank reconciliation, transaction coding and financial analysis without a practice-sized allowance.
- Full access to all three products
- 5,000 monthly credits
- CSV, Excel and PDF workflows
- Annual option: £51
For heavier months
25,000 credits
Accountant
£15 / month
For freelancers with more transactions, multiple income streams, VAT work, marketplace data or regular client reporting.
- Full access to ReconcileIQ, CodeIQ and LedgerIQ
- 25,000 monthly credits
- Useful for VAT-registered freelancers and contractors
- Annual option: £153
Optional overage is available only when enabled on a paid tier. Formal tax submissions and advice remain with your accountant or HMRC-compatible software.
Questions freelancers ask
The boundaries matter.
Good freelancer finance software should be useful without making claims it cannot support. These are the important lines.
Do I need accounting software already?
No for file-based reconciliation and analysis. ReconcileIQ and LedgerIQ can work from exports. CodeIQ posting is designed for connected platforms such as Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and Pandle.
Will it submit my MTD updates?
No. It helps prepare cleaner digital records. Use HMRC-compatible software or your accountant to submit MTD updates and final declarations.
Can it handle one-person businesses?
Yes. The Starter plan is designed for smaller volumes while still including the full suite, so you do not need a practice plan just to get the useful tools.
Does it automate everything?
No. It assists the work by matching, suggesting, scoring and explaining. You review exceptions and judgement calls before relying on the numbers.
Next step
Give your freelance books a monthly close.
Upload the bank, reconcile paid work, code the spending and keep a clean record before the quarter or year-end deadline arrives.