TaxTidy vs QuickBooks Self-Employed: 2026 Comparison
If you have come looking for QuickBooks Self-Employed, the first thing worth knowing is that Intuit’s self-employed page now leads to QuickBooks Solopreneur, and Intuit publishes a guide for moving an existing Self-Employed account across. Solopreneur is a capable product with a free tier, direct bank connections, mileage tracking and a route into TurboTax filing. TaxTidy comes at the same year from the receipt end: photograph the pile, and each one comes back read, categorised, placed on a numbered Schedule C line and scored for whether you could prove it. Fewer moving parts, and the paper is the point.
What you get with TaxTidy
- Receipts are the whole product. Photograph one and it comes back with vendor, amount, date and category filled in, ready to confirm — and Shoebox Mode takes the entire camera roll in one pass, so a year of backlog clears in a sitting.
- Every expense lands on a numbered Schedule C line and carries it into the CSV export and the PDF report, so what you hand to a filer or an accountant needs no re-sorting.
- Your Audit Readiness Score is the piece nothing else here offers: a live number naming the expenses with no image, no category, no date or no vendor, so the gaps get closed while you still remember the purchase.
- On Pro and above, the PDF report puts the full-size receipt image next to the expense it supports, grouped by Schedule C line. That document is the point of the whole exercise.
- Setup is three questions and then you are scanning. There is no chart of accounts to design and no product lineup to choose between first.
- Fin answers in plain English against your own expenses — whether something counts, what you spent with a vendor, how the quarter looks — with three questions a day on the free plan.
Feature comparison
| Feature | TaxTidy | QuickBooks Self-Employed |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | First 25 scans free, no card | Solopreneur Free, no card |
| Photograph receipts from your phone | ✓ | ✓ |
| Clear a receipt backlog in one session | Shoebox Mode — the whole camera roll | One receipt at a time |
| Expenses on numbered Schedule C lines | ✓ | ✓ |
| A score showing what proof is missing | ✓ | – |
| Receipt image inside the tax report | Full-size image beside each expense (Pro) | Standard reports |
| Direct bank connection | Statement PDF or CSV (Pro) | ✓ |
| Mileage tracking with GPS | Free mileage calculator on the site | ✓ |
| Route into filing your return | Schedule C-ready report for any filer or CPA | ✓ |
| Quarterly tax estimates | CPA plan | ✓ |
| AI assistant for tax questions | Fin, reading your own expenses | Chat for insights, on the higher tier |
Pricing
TaxTidy
- TaxTidy Free$0 — first 25 scans
- TaxTidy Pro$12.99/month ($99.99/yr)
- TaxTidy CPA$19.99/month ($179.99/yr)
QuickBooks Self-Employed
- QuickBooks Solopreneur Free$0 — no card required
- QuickBooks Solopreneur Lite$20/month
- QuickBooks Simple Start$38/month
QuickBooks Self-Employed pricing is taken from its published plans and can change. Check their site for today's rate.
Choose TaxTidy if
Choose TaxTidy if your deductions live on paper rather than in a bank feed, and what you want back is proof rather than a dashboard. It suits the tradesperson or contractor with a glovebox full of receipts, and anyone who wants to start scanning today without picking a product tier or connecting an account first.
What QuickBooks Self-Employed does well
- Direct bank connections pull and sort transactions automatically, which is genuinely less work than uploading a statement when your spending goes through a card.
- Mileage tracking is built in with GPS detection, so trips are captured as you drive rather than reconstructed later.
- Solopreneur has a genuinely free tier that needs no card, and Intuit states the software is designed around Schedule C reporting.
- Filing runs through TurboTax with expert assistance available and payment taken at filing time, which keeps the whole year inside one company.
- Quarterly estimates are part of the product rather than a higher tier, which helps if paying the IRS four times a year is what you keep getting wrong.
Choose QuickBooks Self-Employed if
Choose QuickBooks Solopreneur if most of your spending runs through a bank card and you want it captured automatically, if you drive for work and want mileage tracked as it happens, or if you intend to file with TurboTax and would rather everything stayed inside Intuit. It is also the sensible answer if you are already in that ecosystem and moving is more trouble than it is worth.
The bottom line
A bank feed shows you what left your account. It does not show you the receipt, and a receipt is what an auditor asks for. TaxTidy is built the other way round: start from the paper, put every expense on its Schedule C line with the image attached, and keep a score of what is still missing. If your deductions are physical and your worry is proof, that is the tool for the job, and the first 25 scans cost nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Is QuickBooks Self-Employed still available?
Intuit’s self-employed page now leads to QuickBooks Solopreneur, and Intuit publishes a support guide for switching an existing Self-Employed account over to it, updated as recently as August 2026. If you are shopping today, Solopreneur is the product you will be offered: a free tier with no card, Lite at $20 a month and Simple Start at $38 a month. Check Intuit directly for the current state of any existing account.
How does TaxTidy compare on price?
Both have a free entry point. QuickBooks Solopreneur offers a free plan and paid tiers at $20 and $38 a month; TaxTidy gives you your first 25 scans free with no card, then $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year for Pro and $19.99 a month or $179.99 a year for CPA. Intuit runs promotional rates frequently, so check both sites for today’s figures.
Does TaxTidy track mileage the way QuickBooks does?
Not automatically. QuickBooks tracks trips with GPS as you drive, which TaxTidy does not do. TaxTidy publishes a free mileage calculator on the site, with no account needed, so you can work out the deduction from your own log — and many people pair TaxTidy with a dedicated mileage app while keeping receipts and Schedule C categorisation in TaxTidy.
Can I move my QuickBooks data into TaxTidy?
Yes. Export your transactions as a CSV and import them into TaxTidy on Pro or above. TaxTidy reads the rows, assigns each one a Schedule C line, and matches them against receipts you have scanned. Anything that arrives without a receipt image shows up in your Audit Readiness Score as a gap, which is usually the first useful thing a bank-fed history tells you.
TaxTidy provides expense organization tools based on the most current US tax law available to it. TaxTidy is not a CPA, Enrolled Agent, or licensed tax professional. All categorizations, deductions, and tax calculations are estimates. Please verify all data for accuracy and consult a certified tax professional before filing.
Start with your first 25 scans free
Photograph a receipt and watch it land on the right Schedule C line, with an Audit Readiness Score that shows you exactly what is still missing. No credit card.
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