Best Expense Apps for Self-Employed UK Sole Traders

For a UK sole trader, "best expense app" splits into two different jobs: capturing what you spent, and, if your income clears the Making Tax Digital threshold, submitting quarterly updates to HMRC through recognised software. Conflating them is how people end up either overpaying for filing features they don't need yet, or under-prepared when the threshold catches up with them. The three apps below handle the second job; a fourth, Expensorr, deliberately only does the first.

Which app fits your situation

Making Tax Digital changes what "good enough" means

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is being phased in by HMRC's own guidance, based on gross qualifying income from self-employment and property, before expenses:

As of this run, the first phase has already applied for six months. If your gross self-employment or property income was over £50,000 on the return you filed for 2024–25, you're required to keep digital records and send quarterly updates through HMRC-recognised software now, not just at year-end. Below the current threshold, the traditional Self Assessment process still works, but the threshold keeps falling, so it's worth checking your own numbers against it every year rather than assuming it doesn't apply yet. This is general information from HMRC's published guidance, not advice for your specific situation — check with your own accountant.

Separately, HMRC's guidance on record-keeping requires sole traders to keep business records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year, regardless of which software captured them.

FreeAgent, if you want it free forever

FreeAgent's own pricing page confirms the free route: hold a business current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank, or Mettle, keep at least one transaction moving through it a month, and FreeAgent is free for as long as that account stays open. Without one, the standard price is £19 a month plus VAT, with an introductory £9.50 a month for the first six months as of this run. Every plan includes invoicing, expense tracking, a tax timeline, VAT support, Self Assessment filing, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax submissions, and cashflow forecasting.

For a sole trader already banking with one of those four institutions, this is the strongest deal on this page by a wide margin — a full accounting platform with MTD filing, at no ongoing cost beyond the bank account you likely already need.

QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus, if you want dedicated MTD software with capture built in

Intuit's Sole Trader Plus page lists the plan at £10 a month plus VAT, with a limited-time 90%-off introductory offer for the first six months. It's built specifically for non-VAT-registered sole traders and single-property landlords, and includes Making Tax Digital submission checks, receipt capture, mileage tracking, invoicing, automated bank feeds, and Self Assessment preparation. VAT-registered traders need QuickBooks' Simple Start plan instead, since Sole Trader Plus doesn't support VAT returns.

If your accountant already works in QuickBooks, or you want receipt scanning and mileage bundled into the same subscription that handles the MTD submission, this is a direct, purpose-built answer rather than a general accounting platform stretched to fit.

Coconut, if you want a business account and filing in one place

Coconut's pricing page lists four tiers: an MTD Bridging plan at £49.99 a year for keeping a spreadsheet while staying MTD compliant, MTD Filing at £12.99 a month or £129.99 a year (its most popular plan, adding automatic income and expense tracking, bank connection, invoicing, and quarterly HMRC updates), a +Self Assessment add-on at £129.99 a year that adds direct Self Assessment submission, and a Full plan at £159.99 a year combining both. Coconut is built around its own FCA-authorised business account rather than connecting to an existing one.

If you'd rather open a dedicated business account than retrofit MTD software onto an existing bank, Coconut's bundled pricing is easier to reason about than stacking a separate business account and accounting subscription.

Where Expensorr fits instead

None of the three apps above is what Expensorr is for, and Expensorr isn't a substitute for any of them once you're above the MTD threshold. Photograph a receipt and the merchant, date, total, and a suggested category come back as a draft you confirm; say what you spent and it parses the sentence the same way. Labels tag a transaction by client or project, wallets separate business and personal balances, and existing history imports from CSV, XLSX, or XLS. Every feature is free, with the paid tier only lifting the 20-scan monthly AI allowance.

What Expensorr does not do: it has no Making Tax Digital submission feature, doesn't connect to a bank at any tier, and doesn't calculate or file anything with HMRC. For a sole trader below the current £50,000 threshold, that's often enough — clean, receipt-backed records handed to an accountant at year-end. Above the threshold, you need one of the three apps above (or similar HMRC-recognised software) for the actual submission, and Expensorr can still be where the receipts get captured day to day if its narrower job fits better than doing that inside a full accounting platform. QuickBooks Self-Employed alternatives covers the wider migration picture if you're moving off a discontinued product, and expense tracking for freelancers covers the daily routine.

This page describes what each product does, not what you should file or when — check your own MTD status and any deadline against HMRC's guidance and your own accountant, not against this article.

What to check before trusting "MTD-ready"

Choosing in one line

Pick FreeAgent if you already bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank, or Mettle and want MTD filing for free; pick QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus if you want receipt capture, mileage, and MTD submission in one £10-a-month subscription; pick Coconut if you'd rather have a dedicated business account with filing built in than retrofit software onto an existing one; and pick Expensorr if what you actually need day to day is fast, accurate receipt and voice capture with no bank feed, leaving the MTD submission itself to whichever of the other three — or your accountant — handles it. Best expense apps without a bank connection and best receipt scanner apps cover the wider field if HMRC filing isn't the deciding factor for you yet.

Sources, all checked on 18 September 2026: FreeAgent's pricing page; QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus; Coconut's pricing page; HMRC's Making Tax Digital for Income Tax guidance; and HMRC's guidance on how long to keep records. Prices, thresholds, and HMRC's recognised-software list change — verify on GOV.UK and the vendor's own page before relying on any of this for a filing deadline.