flonancial vs QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) for Making Tax Digital
By the selector's own rules, flonancial and QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) both work for landlords and sole traders, so the choice comes down to the seven points where they differ. QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) offers bank feeds, receipt capture, phone apps and access for an accountant, which flonancial does not. QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) does not offer a free plan or support for more than one property, which flonancial does. Their cheapest plans are listed as free for flonancial and £10 plus VAT a month (Sole Trader Plus) for QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start).
flonancial suits sole traders with turnover under £90,000 who keep their records in a spreadsheet and want to file for free, landlords with no mortgage or other finance costs on their rental, who keep simple totals in a spreadsheet and people who would rather their spreadsheet stayed on their own computer. QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) suits sole traders or single-property landlords, landlords who want a lower-priced mainstream option and people who do most of their bookkeeping on a phone.
The facts on this page come from each provider’s own pages and from HMRC’s software list, and how we compare products explains how we check them.
If you are thinking of moving from one to the other, the guide to changing your MTD software explains what GOV.UK says about when you can move and what happens to your records.
Where they differ
These are the points where our checks of the two products came out differently. A “No” means we did not find that feature on the provider’s own pages when we last checked them. Where we had nothing to go on for one of the two, we leave the point out here rather than guess.
| Point | flonancial | QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Free | £10 plus VAT a month (Sole Trader Plus) |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| More than one property | Yes | No |
| Bank feeds | No | Yes |
| Receipt capture | No | Yes |
| Phone apps | No | Yes (iOS and Android) |
| Accountant access | No | Yes |
On the other points we compare (jointly owned property, holiday lets and former FHL, self-employment income and MTD for VAT returns), they give the same answer, or at least one provider does not say. The full list is under each product’s own page.
What HMRC’s software list says about both
HMRC’s list marks each feature as available now or intended for later. This is what HMRC’s list says, not something we have tested ourselves. Where HMRC lists a product under more than one name, we show the strongest answer and the listing it comes from.
| Feature | flonancial | QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) |
|---|---|---|
| Your tax return and other income | ||
| Sending your tax return | Availablesince 31 July 2026 | Available |
| Foreign property | Not stated | Not stated |
| Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) | Intended | Available |
| Employment (PAYE) | Intended | Available |
| UK dividends | Intended | Available |
| UK interest | Intended | Available |
| Capital gains | Not stated | Availablesince 24 July 2026 |
| How it works | ||
| Bridging software that connects to your records | Available | Not stated |
| Calendar update periods (1 April to 31 March) | Not stated | Available |
| A free version | Available | Not stated |
| Welsh language | Not stated | Not stated |
| Accessibility | ||
| Blindness or impaired vision | Available | Not stated |
| Deafness or impaired hearing | Available | Not stated |
| Motor or physical difficulties | Available | Not stated |
| Cognitive impairments | Available | Not stated |
This is HMRC’s list as it stood on 30 October 2026, at HMRC’s commit 201b34e. A date beside a feature is when HMRC’s list changed it from intended to available. HMRC’s software finder shows the current answers. How we read HMRC’s list
Does HMRC’s software list show flonancial and QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start) as available for sending your tax return?
For sending your tax return, HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 marks it “Available” for flonancial, since 31 July 2026 and marks it “Available” for QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start).
Does HMRC’s software list show a free version of flonancial or QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start)?
For a free version, HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 marks it “Available” for flonancial and says nothing either way for QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start).
How many features does HMRC’s software list mark as available for flonancial and QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start)?
HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 covers 15 features, and it marks 7 “Available” for flonancial and 7 “Available” for QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start). For flonancial, it marks 4 “Intended” and gives no answer on 4. For QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start), it marks 0 “Intended” and gives no answer on 8.
The cheapest plan for your situation
A product’s cheapest plan is not always one you can use, because some plans are only for landlords or only for sole traders. These are the lowest prices the selector would show each reader, as each provider states them. Where a price grows with the number of properties, it is shown as a starting price. The figure over 12 months is the same plan at its regular price, worked out the way the software cost calculator does it.
flonancial
- For landlords
- Free
- For sole traders
- Free
- Cheapest plan over 12 months
- Free
We checked flonancial’s prices on 25 October 2026.
flonancial also works for people with rental and self-employment income.
QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start)
- For landlords
- £10 plus VAT a month
- For sole traders
- £10 plus VAT a month
- Cheapest plan over 12 months
- £120 plus VAT
We checked QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start)’s prices on 3 November 2026.
Notes from our checks
flonancial
flonancial is free bridging software: you keep your records in your own spreadsheet, pick the cells with your turnover and expenses, and it sends those totals to HMRC. Its home page and terms say the quarterly updates and the year-end tax return are free, and that any paid features added later would be optional. The year-end return covers the supported sole-trader and UK property cases, with some extra income, losses and adjustments. There are limits worth knowing about. Each business or property source needs income below £90,000, because flonancial sends one income total and one expenses total. For a let property, it asks for your mortgage interest and other residential finance costs from a separate cell and sends them to HMRC on their own, but it cannot yet carry forward unused finance costs from an earlier year. flonancial also points people with lease premiums, tax deducted from rent, rent-a-room income or foreign property elsewhere. Its demonstration includes a landlord filing her 50% share of four jointly owned rentals from one spreadsheet, where she enters her own share. We did not find bank feeds, receipt capture, mileage, accountant access, a way to split jointly owned property or furnished holiday lets, and it runs in a web browser. We checked this on 25 October 2026.
QuickBooks (Sole Trader Plus / Simple Start)
Regular monthly prices are shown excluding VAT. When we checked the pricing page on 3 November 2026, the price list it loads showed Intuit's offer of 90% off for six months for new customers, running until 20 November 2026, so the pricing page is the place to see any offer running now. Its setup guidance requires a separate account for each business or property income source. Combined subscription costs were not confirmed, so the selector does not recommend QuickBooks for mixed income. Joint-property support also remains unconfirmed.
Neither product is ranked above the other here: the page sets out what each provider says so you can weigh it against your own situation. How we compare products
More on these two products
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