A business of one is not a small version of a company. It has no bookkeeper, no finance department and no payroll run on the 15th. It has one person who does the work, sends the invoice, chases the invoice, buys the supplies and, somewhere in all of that, is supposed to know how much of the bank balance belongs to the IRS.
Most finance software is built for the company. This page is about what a one-person business actually needs from its money tools, why we built BrassWell around exactly that, and — because it would be useless otherwise — the situations where something else will serve you better.
What a business of one actually needs
Strip away the features and a solo business needs its money tools to answer five questions, quickly, on any day of the year:
- How much of this balance is actually mine to spend? Not the balance. The balance minus tax, minus the bills already coming.
- How much do I owe the IRS so far, and when is it due? Self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of profit, before income tax, and it is paid four times a year.
- Who owes me money, and since when?
- Is every deductible expense recorded? An expense you forget is tax you pay twice.
- Can I hand my accountant everything in one go?
Notice what is not on the list: a chart of accounts, journal entries, payroll, inventory, purchase orders, multi-currency consolidation. Those matter enormously to a company with staff. To a business of one they are screens you have to walk past to reach the five answers.
Why accounting software feels wrong for one person
General accounting software is built for a bookkeeper. Its native language is double-entry: every dollar is a debit somewhere and a credit somewhere else, and the reports assume someone trained will reconcile it. That is the right design for a business with an accountant on staff. For one person doing their books at the kitchen table, it produces two familiar outcomes: the software gets abandoned in March, or it gets used as an expensive spreadsheet.
The deeper mismatch is income. A salaried budget starts from a monthly paycheck with tax already taken out. Self-employed money arrives in lumps, on nobody’s schedule, with the tax still inside it. A tool that asks “what’s your monthly income?” has already assumed the one thing you do not have.
How BrassWell is built for a business of one
Every design decision in BrassWell starts from that lumpy, tax-still-inside income. Six things follow from it.
1. Tax comes off the top of every payment. You set a set-aside rate once. Each time income is logged, BrassWell shows the share that belongs to the IRS before you can spend it, and keeps a running estimate with a suggested quarterly payment. It is an estimate to help you plan, not tax advice, and it does not file anything for you.
2. Percentages per payment, not a monthly budget. The rest of each payment splits into buckets — needs, wants, savings, investments — at percentages you choose, so a $300 month and a $9,000 month follow the same rule. The method is explained in budgeting on irregular income.
3. Four ways to get a number in. Type it, import your bank’s CSV export, photograph a receipt, or connect a bank on Pro. Receipt scanning is in Core, not held back for Pro: AI reads the vendor, date and amount and files it to a tax category, after asking before the first photo is processed.
4. Invoices that turn into income. Create an invoice, share the PDF, and add your own payment link so it shows as a “Pay this invoice” button. Money never passes through BrassWell. Mark it paid and it becomes income without being typed twice.
5. Your records leave whenever you do. One spreadsheet with a tab per record type, plus receipt photos as a zip. The export works from a locked account too, so your records are never held hostage to a subscription.
6. Left out on purpose. No double-entry ledger, no chart of accounts, no payroll, no inventory, no multi-company setup. Each one would make BrassWell more capable for a different customer and slower for this one.
It runs in any browser today, and the iOS app is on the App Store, so the receipt gets photographed at the counter instead of found in a jacket pocket in April.
The six jobs, and which plan covers each
| The job | How BrassWell does it | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Know what’s yours to spend | Buckets split each payment as it lands | Core |
| Track the tax you owe | Running estimate and suggested quarterly payment | Core |
| Record expenses | By hand, CSV, or receipt photo read by AI | Core |
| Get paid | Invoices with your own payment link; 5 a month on Core, unlimited on Pro | Core / Pro |
| Bill time and log miles | Time tracking that bills itself; IRS-ready mileage log | Pro |
| Hand it all to your accountant | Spreadsheet export plus receipt zip; quarterly P&L and tax statements on Pro | Core / Pro |
What it costs, and what it will never do to you
Core is $19.99 a month or $199 a year. Pro is $29.99 a month or $299 a year. Every account starts with 14 days of Core free, and the trial does not ask for a card, so it cannot quietly turn into a charge. On day 14 you pick a plan or export everything and leave. Paid plans come with a full refund within 14 days, and you can cancel any time and keep access to the end of the period you paid for. The details are on the pricing page.
We do not sell your data, and BrassWell does not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. The longer version of why those choices were made on purpose is in our mission.
When BrassWell is the wrong choice
A one-person business is a wide category, and for some of it we are simply not the right tool. Choose something else if:
- You have employees. BrassWell has no payroll. You need a payroll provider, and probably full accounting software.
- You sell physical stock. There is no inventory tracking or cost-of-goods module.
- Your accountant works in double-entry and wants the general ledger. They can work from our export, but if they want to log in to the books, use what they use.
- You file with TurboTax and want zero export steps. QuickBooks Solopreneur flows straight into it. Our QuickBooks Self-Employed comparison covers that honestly.
- All you need is free invoicing. Wave’s free plan still does unlimited invoices. The trade-offs are in our Wave alternative guide.
Where BrassWell earns its place is the person in between: too busy for a spreadsheet that never gets updated, nowhere near needing a bookkeeper, and tired of finding out in April what the year cost.
Starting without losing a weekend
- Set your tax rate first. 25–30% of profit is a common starting point; this guide works out yours.
- Import this year so far from your bank’s CSV export rather than typing it. Ten minutes, not ten hours.
- Photograph the receipts you still have.
- Send your next invoice from BrassWell with your payment link on it.
- Pick a weekly slot — fifteen minutes — to log, scan and move the tax set-aside to savings.
If after 14 days it is not saving you time, export everything and walk away. That is what the no-card trial is for.
Questions, answered
What is the best accounting software for a one-person business?
The one that answers your daily questions with the least effort. Most solo businesses need to know what is safe to spend, how much tax they owe, who owes them money and whether every expense is recorded. Double-entry accounting software does all of that but is built for bookkeepers; simpler tools like BrassWell, Wave or QuickBooks Solopreneur trade capability for speed. If you have employees or inventory, you need full accounting software.
Do I need double-entry bookkeeping as a sole proprietor?
No. A sole proprietor reports income and expenses on Schedule C, and single-entry records of income, expenses and receipts are enough for that. Some accountants prefer a double-entry ledger; if yours does, they can usually build one from a clean export.
How much does BrassWell cost?
Core is $19.99 a month or $199 a year, and Pro is $29.99 a month or $299 a year. Every account starts with 14 days of Core free without a card, and nothing charges automatically at the end of the trial.
Does BrassWell do payroll or inventory?
No. Both are left out on purpose, along with double-entry ledgers and multi-company setups. A business with employees or physical stock should use full accounting software.
Can I leave BrassWell and keep my records?
Yes. You can export everything as one spreadsheet with receipt photos in a separate zip at any time, including from a locked account after a trial or subscription ends.
Sources
- Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes) — IRS. The 15.3% rate on 92.35% of net earnings.
- Estimated taxes — IRS. Why self-employed people pay tax in four installments during the year.
- About Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss from Business — IRS. Where a sole proprietor reports business income and expenses.
