An Expense-Monitoring App For Freelancers

Keeper is an app that helps impartial contractors, freelancers, and staff file their tax returns whereas conserving observe of work-related bills.

The corporate affords each an iOS and Android and Android app to make use of so you possibly can sustain with what you’re spending and the way that will relate to your taxes. 

See how Keeper compares with our list of the best tax software here.

Should you’re on the lookout for an app to assist maintain you organized and ready come tax time, Keeper may be barely expensive, however possibly value it for you. All of it will depend on your particular wants. Here is what to know.

What Is Keeper?

Keeper, previously known as Keeper Tax, is an app can do issues like scan your financial institution and bank card statements to search for methods to trace and write off bills, with the hope of decreasing your tax invoice. It additionally handles your tax submitting and affords tax professionals to offer solutions to questions associated to submitting.

The corporate, based in 2018 by Paul Koullick and David Kang, has rebranded from Keeper Tax to simply Keeper.  The app is extremely rated on each the App Retailer (4.8 out of 5) and Google Play (4.6 out of 5). 

How Does Keeper Work?

Keeper is an app that you want to obtain in your cellphone. You hyperlink your financial institution and bank card accounts to the app so it could begin mechanically scanning your purchases to see what sort of write offs you may be eligible for. 

Whenever you join Keeper, you’re requested a sequence of questions earlier than you possibly can transfer on to the  subsequent display. For instance, it asks should you’re freelance, an worker, or a enterprise proprietor. It additionally asks should you use your automobile or journey for work.

How A lot Does Keeper Price? 

There’s a free seven-day trial with Keeper. As soon as that ends listed below are your pricing choices: 

• Month-to-month subscription: $16
• Easy return: $99
• Tax return with enterprise earnings: $192

Their month-to-month plan is $16 per thirty days, which incorporates the expense-tracking options. For a one-time price of $39, you possibly can export your write-offs in your personal data so you possibly can have them available if you file your taxes. 

Keeper affords a yearly plan, which incorporates every thing on the month-to-month plan, plus the choice to file your taxes with them at no further value.

Notable Keeper Options

Let’s check out some key options from Keeper. 

Tax Professional Assist

Whenever you use a platform that will help you file your taxes, oftentimes, chances are you’ll not have entry to a live expert. Or should you do, you’re required to improve to the next tier. The good factor about Keeper is that you’ve got entry to a tax skilled who can reply questions for you. It will not be over the cellphone, however at the least you possibly can have somebody show you how to along with your particular problem. 

Keeper prides itself on being a prime academic content material producer for these with 1099 taxes, so they could additionally be capable of serve you with a video, article, or offer you a calculator. 

Audit Safety

Past an skilled to reply your questions, chances are you’ll need to know what would occur should you have been to be audited by the IRS. Keeper supplies audit safety, which implies their staff of tax assistants will assist collect any needed paperwork to ship to the IRS. They may even offer you entry to their CPAs and tax specialists who can reply your questions. 

Write-Off Detection

Keeper affords write-off detection, which scans your bank card and financial institution accounts and notify you if there’s something you possibly can write off. Keeper seems to be at as much as 18 months of transactions to mechanically present you which ones tax breaks you might have missed. Then, the entire deductions are categorized and mechanically added to your tax return. Keeper additionally double checks the deductions to ensure they received’t elevate pink flags. 

There are a couple of steps concerned earlier than you should utilize this characteristic, together with letting Keeper know what sort of work you do. Then you want to hyperlink your accounts to Keeper so it could begin checking. 

Tax Invoice Prediction

Nobody likes feeling shocked by a huge tax bill, which is why Keeper provides you year-round estimates on how a lot you’ll doubtless owe or lets you know the way a lot your refund can be. 

It’s essential to enter your standing, your state, W-2, and 1099 incomes to get an instantaneous calculation of this quantity. Their calculations embrace all federal and state, in addition to deduction and credit. 

This can be a useful characteristic as a result of you know the way a lot to save lots of or how a lot you’re getting again so you possibly can put together your funds forward of time. 

Tax Submitting

Since Keeper already scans your tax write-offs and will get you prepared for tax season, submitting your taxes with Keeper might make sense. It affords computerized tax type uploads, pre-fills paperwork for you, and typically, is a really user-friendly expertise for filers. 

You may even file your whole taxes over your cellphone. Keeper says on common, it takes customers 22 minutes to file their taxes. When you submit, a tax skilled opinions your paperwork earlier than you submit it to the IRS.

How Does Keeper Examine?

Despite the fact that Keeper is an easy-to-use platform that helps you with bookkeeping and submitting, it has restricted accounting options. In different phrases, you’d pay $192 for the 12 months for managing your bills however you wouldn’t be capable of faucet into in-depth stories and options you might get with Quickbooks, for instance. It’s additionally on the pricier aspect, at $16 a month. 

For a less expensive possibility, you might try Hurdlr, which is an identical accounting, bookkeeping, and earnings taxes app that’s completely free with the choice to improve to Premium at $8.34 per thirty days (billed yearly) or select to go along with their month-to-month possibility at $10 a month. Hurdlr has a similarly-priced tier, Professional, at $16.67 per thirty days (billed yearly). 

Everlance helps freelancers observe their enterprise bills and revenues. The app makes it simple to fill out a Schedule C for your taxes. Everlance affords a free 10-day Premium trial, however most of the options can be found of their free model. Everlance Premium options particular customer support entry, PDF stories, and computerized journey monitoring. Premium prices $8 per thirty days or $12 per thirty days for Premium Plus. 

In case your taxes aren’t that difficult, you might file fully at no cost. Try our favourite choices to file your taxes for free.

There are many different inexpensive choices that will let you export your knowledge with no $39 added value. Turbotax tops The School Investor’s listing as the most effective and best tax software program to make use of. You may import PDFs and spreadsheets straight out of your employer, monetary establishments, and funding corporations to obtain your tax knowledge. 

If you would like a human to assist information you thru the method, chances are you’ll contemplate H&R Block, which has a sturdy software program with the flexibility to import most tax PDFs, like Turbotax, but additionally has the additional benefit of hundreds of bodily places throughout the nation. Right here’s our evaluation of H&R Block. 

Go to The College Investor’s Tax Center to study extra about the most effective tax software program, assets, and instruments, plus what to grasp about your tax return.

To contact customer support, you possibly can electronic mail straight help@keepertax.com. There isn’t a cellphone quantity for customer support. 

How To Signal Up

You’re requested for an electronic mail handle and a cellphone quantity. Then, you’re given an possibility of whether or not you need to hyperlink your checking or bank card accounts to seek out eligible write-offs, should you freelance, for instance. 

After answering the questions and inputting your electronic mail handle, you’re requested to obtain the app by means of a QR code in your laptop, or you possibly can go on to the App Retailer or Google Play to obtain the app. 

Free Tax Sources And Buyer Service

Keeper is massive on educating you on what to find out about your taxes that will help you lower your expenses and scale back your taxable earnings. The best way they do that is by means of their Free Tax Resources web page, which homes data articles, free calculators, instruments, articles, and FAQ on their web site. 

For extra particular solutions to clients’ questions, go to their help site.

Is Keeper Really A Keeper?

Keeper is a powerful expense monitoring plus tax submitting combo. Should you freelance, have 1099 earnings, and your funds are comparatively easy (i.e., you file a Schedule C), chances are you’ll respect the app. Keeper is straightforward to make use of and the expense-tracking options could also be worthy of the $16 month-to-month price. 

Nonetheless, if in case you have a extra difficult work, earnings, and monetary state of affairs—for instance, should you personal rental real estate or buy and sell crypto regularly, chances are you’ll contemplate a extra sturdy software program like TurboTax or H&R Block.