Step-by-step guide
From signing up to understanding your tax estimate — here's everything you need to get Beancountr working for your freelance finances.
Sign up with your email address at beancountr.co.uk/signup. No credit card required — the free plan covers up to 3 clients with unlimited time and expense tracking. Your account is ready to use immediately after email verification.
Use a dedicated email address for your business if you have one
The free plan is genuinely free forever — no trial period
You can upgrade to Pro at any time without losing data
Head to Settings to enter your business details and configure your default tax reserve and pension rates. Beancountr uses these to calculate how much of each payment to set aside. The defaults (25% tax, 10% pension) are sensible starting points for most UK sole traders.
Sole traders earning under £50,000: 25% tax reserve is usually sufficient
Higher earners: increase the tax reserve to 30–35%
Your pension rate is separate — consider at least 5% as a minimum
Go to Clients and add each of your clients with their name, email, and address. Client details are used on invoices and to organise your time entries and reports. You can edit client information at any time.
Add clients before logging time so entries are correctly attributed
Include the client's billing address — you'll need it on invoices
Free accounts support up to 3 clients; upgrade for unlimited
Go to Time Tracking to add time entries. Select a client, enter the date, hours worked, your hourly rate, and a description. Beancountr calculates the value of each entry and tracks your unbilled hours per client so you always know what's due to be invoiced.
Log time daily rather than reconstructing it at week-end
Add a specific description — it appears on your invoice line items
You can log time in decimal hours (e.g., 1.5 hours for 90 minutes)
Add business expenses as they occur under Expenses. Enter the date, category, description, and amount, and mark whether the expense is tax-deductible. These expenses reduce your taxable profit and feed into your tax estimate on the dashboard.
Photograph receipts immediately — you'll thank yourself at year end
Mark expenses as deductible only if they're wholly for business use
Common categories: software, equipment, travel, professional fees
Go to Invoices and create a new invoice. Select a client, add a due date, and either add line items manually or import logged time entries. Beancountr generates a professional PDF invoice with your business details. Download it and send to your client, or copy the link to share directly.
Invoice on the day you complete work — don't wait until end of month
Use Import Time Entries to convert logged hours into invoice lines instantly
Include your bank details on every invoice so payment is frictionless
The dashboard shows your financial position at a glance: total income, outstanding invoices, expenses, and your safe-to-spend figure. It updates in real time as you log entries and mark invoices paid. Check it weekly to stay on top of your finances without any manual calculation.
Mark invoices as Paid when payment arrives to keep your figures accurate
The income chart shows revenue trends across the year
Outstanding invoices are highlighted so you can chase promptly
The tax estimate on your dashboard shows the amount you should have set aside based on your income, expenses, and the tax reserve rate you configured. This is a planning estimate — not formal tax advice — but it gives you a reliable guide to how much belongs to HMRC and how much is genuinely yours to spend or save.
The estimate accounts for your Personal Allowance automatically
Always consult an accountant before submitting your Self Assessment
The pension set-aside is shown separately from the tax reserve
Join thousands of UK freelancers who use Beancountr to know exactly where they stand financially — every month.
No credit card required · Free forever for up to 3 clients