Freelancers & sole traders
Accounting software for freelancers who do their own invoicing
Send an invoice in a minute, let reminders chase it, and photograph receipts as you go. Accounting software for freelancers who would rather be doing the work than writing it up afterwards.
- Built for one person
- Free plan, no setup fee
- Works from your phone
A one-person business still has clients, prices, receipts and tax. It just has one person to handle all four.
Invoice paid
₦180,000
Matched automatically
Is this the right page for you?
- You invoice clients in your own name, or in a business name you registered yourself.
- You are the one who sends the invoice, chases it, and files the receipt.
- Your records currently live across a notes app, a chat thread and a drawer.
- You want to know what you actually earned this month, not what merely arrived.
- You would rather not pay for software until it is doing something for you.
- You run salaries for staff every month.
- You are raising money and reporting numbers to investors.
- You are selling from a shop or more than one location.
What a one-person business actually struggles with
Not bookkeeping in the abstract. These six, roughly in this order, and usually all at once.
The invoice goes out late
Work finishes on Friday. The invoice goes out the following Wednesday, because writing it means opening a document, finding last month's, and changing the numbers.
Saved clients, saved prices and your own tax settings turn an invoice into three fields and a send. Repeat work copies itself from last month.
InvoicingChasing feels rude, so you do not do it
The money is late. You draft the message, delete it, and decide to give it one more week. That week becomes a month.
Reminders go out on the schedule you set, in wording you approved, and stop the moment the invoice is settled. Nobody has to decide whether today is the day to chase.
InvoicingYou cannot tell paid from unpaid
Transfers arrive with a narration that says nothing useful. Matching them back to invoices becomes a Sunday evening job.
Every invoice carries its own account number. A payment arrives already attached to the invoice it settles, and the invoice closes itself.
Account IssuingReceipts disappear
Transport, data, materials, a subscription you forgot had renewed. By the time you need the total, half the evidence is gone.
Photograph the receipt when you pay. It files itself under a category and against the job it belongs to, and lands in the month's total.
ExpensesTurnover gets mistaken for profit
Money came in and it felt like a good month. Some of it was never yours: materials, transport, and tax you will owe later.
Income minus what you spent, by month, by client and by job. The number you can plan around rather than the number that landed.
BookkeepingTax is a once-a-year panic
You rebuild a year of work from memory and a chat history, in about a week, usually the wrong week.
The record is written while the year happens, so filing is a report you run. Tax a client deducted at source is held against that invoice instead of leaving it stuck open.
BookkeepingA Tuesday, from the record's point of view
Nothing here is a task added to your day. Each entry is something you were going to do anyway, and the record is what falls out of it.
Quote accepted
A client replies yes on chat. You turn the quote into an invoice from your phone before you reach the office.
Payment lands
The transfer hits the account number attached to that invoice. The invoice marks itself paid. You checked nothing.
Materials bought
You photograph the receipt at the counter. It files under materials, against the job it was bought for.
The quiet client
An invoice from three weeks ago reaches its reminder date. A short, polite message goes out in your name.
Where the month stands
Earned, spent, owed to you, owed by you. Four numbers, and not one spreadsheet was opened.
₦0
to open your account and stay on the free plan. No setup fee and no minimum contract.
1 day
is the usual gap between signing up and sending an invoice somebody can pay.
1 record
behind invoices, receipts, clients and tax. Nothing gets typed in twice.
What a freelancer actually switches on
Not all of it. Three or four tools carry almost everything a business of one needs, and the rest sits quietly until the work grows into it.
Get paid
Bill the client, then let the payment find its own invoice.
Keep the record
The part that gives you your year-end week back.
When the work grows
Still one person, but more of it, and it needs watching.
A freelancer does not need less software. They need software that does not need staff to run it.
Most business tools assume somebody in the building is paid to keep them up to date. When that person is also the one doing the billable work, every field you have to fill in is time taken off the job. So the record here is a by-product: you send an invoice, you get paid, you photograph a receipt, and the books write themselves out of that.
Free
Five invoices a month, ten expenses, twenty customers and one login. For a freelancer with a handful of regular clients that is a full year at no cost.
Compare all plans- 5 invoices a month
- 10 expenses a month
- 20 customer records
- 50 products or services
- One store
- Two staff records
When you outgrow it: The sixth invoice in a month is the usual signal. Starter takes you to fifty a month and adds two more logins.
Questions about accounting software for freelancers
The ones that come up before anybody signs up. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
What is the best accounting software for freelancers?
The one you will actually open. For a business of one that means invoicing, receipts and a running profit figure in the same place, working on a phone, with a free tier so you are not paying before you are earning. Niimbu's free plan covers five invoices and ten expenses a month, which carries a lot of freelancers through a full year.
Can I use Niimbu as a sole trader without a registered company?
Yes. You can invoice in your own name and keep records from day one. Registering the business later does not mean starting again. Your history stays where it is and the business details update around it.
How do I get clients to pay on time?
Two things move the needle. Send the invoice the day the work ends rather than the week after, and let a scheduled reminder do the chasing so it never has to feel personal. Both happen automatically once the invoice is sent.
Does it handle tax deducted at source?
Yes. When a client deducts withholding tax the invoice would otherwise sit open forever, short by the deducted amount. Niimbu records the deduction against that invoice so the balance closes properly and you keep the evidence for your own filing.
Can I track expenses without a second app?
Yes. Photograph the receipt when you pay. It files under a category and, if you want, against a specific job, and it shows up in this month's totals immediately rather than at the end of the quarter.
What does it cost to start?
Nothing. The free plan has no setup fee and no minimum contract. You move up a tier when your volume forces it, not before, and moving up takes effect immediately.
Can I get my records out again if I leave?
Yes. Your records stay exportable, including if you cancel. Nothing about the free plan is a trap door.
Not quite the right size?
Businesses move along this scale, sometimes within a year. The page either side of this one may describe you better today.
The simpler way to scale your business!
Start free and see it working today, or talk to us about pricing for teams and higher volumes.