The best QuickBooks Self-Employed alternative now that it's discontinued
Gig income records · 1099 tools · mileage tracking · tax set-aside
Kronos is an iOS money app for gig workers and freelancers. KronosPay LLC is a financial technology company, not a bank or lender. This guide is built from the negative reviews people leave about QuickBooks Self-Employed — the exact phrasing they use when they start searching for a replacement. Quotes below are verbatim from public app-store and forum reviews.
Why people look for QuickBooks Self-Employed alternatives
Intuit discontinued QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE) and pushed users to QuickBooks Solopreneur. The migration is where the pain concentrated — this is the single richest seam of switch-intent in the whole complaint dataset, because the product people relied on no longer exists:
- ““After over an hour of Googling… I can't locate Quickbooks Self Employed sign up page anywhere!”” — Intuit Community, Mar 2024
- ““a dashboard that only contains data from the last 12 months… without any receipts I attached to” — “All other data including receipts scanned are lost”” — Intuit Community, Feb 2025
- ““It appears that the automatic transfer from Self-Employed to Solopreneur has failed”” — Intuit Community thread title
- “Migration “carried only one year of transactions”” — migration-guide report
Income records, mileage tracking, 1099 tools, and tax set-aside in one app.
Real alternatives to QuickBooks Self-Employed
- Kronos: iOS money app for 1099 work: income records per gig platform, mileage and receipts, 1099 organization, tax set-aside — the records layer QBSE users lost, without the bookkeeping sprawl.
- QuickBooks Solopreneur: Intuit's official successor; the complaints above are exactly about the migration to it. Verify your historical data actually arrived.
- FreshBooks: Invoicing-first with solid expense tracking; priced per user and built more for solo businesses than gig workers.
- Wave: Free accounting software with invoicing and receipt scanning; the trade-off is bank-sync reliability and upsells.
- Spreadsheet + folder: Full control, zero subscription; you become the bookkeeper.
Side by side
| What matters | QuickBooks Self-Employed | Kronos |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Discontinued by Intuit; forced migration to Solopreneur | Live on the App Store |
| History | Migration reports losing receipts and capping at 12 months | Your records, exportable |
| Built for | Solo businesses/contractors | Gig workers and 1099 earners with multiple platforms |
| Tax side | Estimated-tax calc (when it worked) | Tax set-aside percentage + 1099 organization + records |
Who should stay with QuickBooks Self-Employed
Move to Solopreneur only if you checked your data survived: open the migrated account and confirm receipts, categorized transactions, and more than 12 months of history are present before you trust it for filing.
Where Kronos fits
Kronos fits the QBSE refugee who used it to know three things — what I earned, what I can deduct, and what I owe — and wants those answers rebuilt around gig work: per-platform income records, mileage and receipts, organized 1099s, and a set-aside percentage instead of April surprises.
Gig income records · 1099 tools · mileage tracking · tax set-aside
Frequently asked questions
What happened to QuickBooks Self-Employed?
Intuit discontinued it for new customers in 2024 and moved existing users to QuickBooks Solopreneur. The Intuit Community threads document sign-up confusion, failed transfers, and receipt/history loss during migration.
Did the Solopreneur migration lose my receipts?
Multiple users report exactly that — dashboards limited to the last 12 months and scanned receipts missing. Export whatever remains (reports + attachments) and keep local copies before doing anything else.
What's the best QBSE alternative for gig workers?
For 1099/gig earners, Kronos covers income records, mileage, receipts, 1099 organization, and tax set-aside in one iOS app. For classic bookkeeping (double-entry, accountant handoff), QuickBooks Online or Wave fit better.
Can I still export my QBSE data?
Export options narrow after sunset. Prioritize: transaction CSVs, attached receipts, and mileage logs — then store them outside Intuit.
General educational information only; not financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Competitor details and pricing change — verify on the official product page before deciding. No provider paid for inclusion.