QuickBooks Self-Employed has been retired. Intuit replaced it with QuickBooks Solopreneur, and existing users were moved across. If you’re using the migration as a prompt to look around, this page is an honest comparison — including the cases where BrassWell is the wrong choice.
What actually happened to QuickBooks Self‑Employed
Intuit stopped selling QuickBooks Self-Employed in 2024 and pulled the mobile app from the stores in March of that year. Solopreneur is the replacement, and existing accounts have been moved across in waves through 2025 and into 2026 rather than all at once.
Worth knowing if you are reading this in a panic: a legacy QBSE account that still works has not been switched off. Intuit has been migrating people on its own schedule rather than forcing everyone over on a deadline, so if yours is still running you have time to make a decision rather than a two weeks. Verify your own account status with Intuit — this is the pattern reported publicly, not a promise anyone else can make on their behalf.
First: you may not need to move at all
QuickBooks Solopreneur is Intuit’s own successor, and it’s a reasonable product. If you file your taxes with TurboTax, staying inside the Intuit ecosystem is genuinely the path of least resistance — your books flow into your return without an export step. That’s a real advantage and we’re not going to pretend otherwise.
Switching costs you something. Only do it if there’s a reason.
The reason people leave: the software assumes a steady month
Most tools in this category — Solopreneur, and the general small-business packages — are built for a business with reasonably predictable revenue. They’ll track income and expenses accurately. What they generally don’t do is treat irregularity itself as the problem to solve.
If you earn roughly the same each month, that’s fine and you should probably pick on price. If you make most of your year in three months, you have a different problem: knowing what’s actually yours to spend after tax, in a month where a big payment just landed and the next one is unscheduled.
The other alternatives, honestly
This page is on a BrassWell domain, so treat the recommendation with the skepticism it deserves — but a comparison that only mentions one product is not a comparison. These are the tools people actually move to, and several of them will suit you better than we will.
- QuickBooks Solopreneur — Intuit’s own successor, and the default for a reason. If you file with TurboTax it is the least friction available. Worth knowing that Intuit also launched QuickBooks Free, a permanent $0 plan with an automatic bank feed, capped at two invoices, two receipt uploads, five business trips and one contractor a month. It is single-user, so your accountant cannot get in, but it is a real free tier rather than a trial.
- Wave — still the strongest free option for invoicing. Note that on June 1, 2026 automatic bank feeds moved behind its $19 Pro plan with no grandfathering, and receipt scanning is an $11/month add-on on the free tier, so “free Wave” covers less than it did. We wrote that change up in full.
- FreshBooks — built around billing clients for time and projects. If invoicing is most of your admin, it is better at that than we are. Check the client limits on the entry plan before committing.
- Found — a business bank account with tax set-aside built in. Closest in philosophy to what we do, approached from the banking side.
- Keeper — narrow and good at it: finding deductions. If your only real pain is write-offs, a whole bookkeeping suite is more than you need.
- Zoho Books — the one to look at if you expect to grow past a business of one and want somewhere to grow into.
Prices in this category move constantly. Where we quote one it is the regular price, read off the vendor’s own page on the date given, never the introductory rate — but check each one directly rather than trusting a number on somebody else’s website, including this one. We compare the current lineup in more detail in best expense tracking for the self-employed.
QuickBooks Solopreneur vs BrassWell, side by side
| BrassWell | QuickBooks Solopreneur | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Income that varies month to month | General one-person business bookkeeping |
| Tax handling | Running estimate, and a share of every payment set aside as it arrives | Estimated quarterly tax figures |
| Percentage buckets | Yes — income splits by ratio, so big and thin months use the same rule | Not a feature |
| Tax filing | No — exports for your CPA, doesn’t file | Integrates with TurboTax |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card taken | 30-day trial of the paid plans, plus a permanent free tier |
| Price | $19.99/mo, or $199/yr | $20/mo. Intuit also has a $0 tier (QuickBooks Free) and Simple Start at $38 |
| Data export | Full CSV + receipt archive, any time, even from a locked account | Export available |
| Support | A person replies, 9–5 Pacific, Mon–Fri | Large-company support organization |
If you want your books to flow straight into your tax return, we don’t file taxes and you’ll be doing an export and handing it to someone. If you have employees and need payroll, we don’t do payroll. If you need double-entry accounting or an accountant needs to work inside your books, use a full accounting package. And if you want free, Wave has a genuinely free tier and we don’t.
What you’d actually get here
- Tax carved off before you can spend it. Not a quarterly estimate you look up — a share of each payment moved aside the day it arrives.
- Buckets instead of a budget. Set percentages once; a $12,000 month and a $900 month are handled by the same rule.
- A business-health view. Three dials — are you earning enough this month, are you keeping it, will April hurt — instead of a wall of transactions.
- An honest exit. Full export any time, including after you stop paying. Your records are yours whether or not you’re still a customer.
If the automatic migration lost some of your data
This comes up often enough to be worth its own section, and it is the part nobody warns you about. The automatic move is supposed to carry customers, invoices, trips, bank connections, transactions and receipts. Users have publicly reported it going wrong in two specific ways: landing in a Solopreneur account that is simply empty, and bank connections that reconnect but only backfill about 90 days of history, leaving everything older to be re-entered by hand.
If that has happened to you, three things are worth doing in order:
- Do not start re-typing yet. Contact Intuit support first and ask them to re-run or repair the migration. Re-entering a year by hand and then having the data arrive is the worst of both.
- Pull a full export from the old account while you still can. Whatever you decide to use afterwards, a CSV of your own history in your own files is the thing you will regret not having. Do this before you cancel anything.
- Download your receipt images separately. They are usually the part that does not survive, and they are the part the IRS actually wants to see if anyone ever asks.
None of this is specific to switching to us. It is what to do the moment a migration looks wrong, and it applies whether your next stop is Solopreneur, Wave or nothing at all.
How to switch from QuickBooks Self-Employed
Export your history from QuickBooks as CSV and import it — income and expenses both take CSV. Nothing is deleted on the way in, and if you decide against it, the export door works the same way going out. Fourteen days is enough to run a real month through it.
Try it against your own numbers
14 days of full Core access. No card, so nothing can charge you at the end — you either pick a plan or you don’t.
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Related guides
- How much to set aside for taxes when self-employedThe estimate and the arithmetic behind it.
- How to budget on an irregular incomeThe method the buckets are built on.
- Why we built BrassWellWritten by someone who switched tools first.
Elsewhere on BrassWell
- All guidesEverything we’ve written, in one place.
- Support CenterAnswers written the way these guides are.
- How BrassWell worksIncome, buckets, tax set-aside and invoicing.
- Ask us directlyA person replies, 9 AM–5 PM Pacific, Mon–Fri.
Questions, answered
Is QuickBooks Self-Employed discontinued?
Yes. Intuit stopped selling QuickBooks Self-Employed in 2024 and removed the mobile app in March of that year. QuickBooks Solopreneur is the successor for one-person businesses. Existing accounts have been migrated in waves through 2025 and 2026 rather than all at once, and legacy accounts that still work have not been switched off, so check your own account status with Intuit rather than assuming a deadline.
What should I do if my QuickBooks migration lost my data?
Contact Intuit support first and ask them to re-run or repair the migration before you re-enter anything by hand. Then pull a full CSV export from the old account while you still have access, and download your receipt images separately — receipts are usually the part that does not survive, and they are what you need if your deductions are ever questioned. Do all of this before canceling anything.
What are the alternatives to QuickBooks Self-Employed?
QuickBooks Solopreneur is Intuit’s own successor and the least friction if you file with TurboTax. Wave is still free for unlimited invoicing, though automatic bank feeds moved to its $19 Pro plan on June 1, 2026 and receipt scanning is an $11 add-on. Intuit also now has QuickBooks Free, a permanent $0 tier with an automatic bank feed but caps of two invoices and two receipts a month. FreshBooks is built around billing clients for time and projects. Found is a business bank account with tax set-aside built in. Keeper focuses narrowly on finding deductions. Zoho Books suits someone expecting to grow past a business of one. BrassWell is built around income that varies month to month.
What is the best alternative to QuickBooks Self-Employed?
It depends what you need. QuickBooks Solopreneur is Intuit’s own successor and is the smoothest path if you file with TurboTax. Wave is free for unlimited invoicing but no longer includes an automatic bank feed below its $19 Pro plan. QuickBooks Free is a genuine $0 tier if your volumes are low. BrassWell is built specifically around irregular income — tax set aside per payment, percentage-based buckets, and a business-health view — which matters if your earnings vary month to month.
Can I export my data out of BrassWell?
Yes, at any time, including from a locked account after a subscription ends. The export is a CSV of income, expenses, invoices and clients plus a zip of receipt images with a manifest. It is not behind a paid plan.
Sources
- Introduction to QuickBooks Solopreneur — Intuit. Intuit’s own description of the successor product and what it includes.
- Is QuickBooks free? Plans, features, limits — Intuit. The QuickBooks Free tier and its monthly caps, and the 30-day trial of the paid plans.
- QuickBooks plans and pricing — Intuit. Solopreneur at $20 and Simple Start at $38, regular price rather than the introductory rate.
- Recordkeeping — IRS. What you are required to keep, and for how long — the reason the export matters before you cancel anything.
Comparison written from publicly available information about competing products; competitor prices were re-checked against Intuit’s own pricing pages on September 10, 2026 and are US regular prices, excluding introductory discounts. Competitors change pricing and features frequently — check their own sites before deciding, and don’t take our word for what someone else’s product does. We have an obvious interest here; the table above is our honest read, not a neutral third-party review.