Track income, expenses, and taxes — built for creators and freelancers.
Start your 14-day free trial — no card required.
Track income, expenses, and taxes — built for creators and freelancers.
Start your 14-day free trial — no card required.
A few quick details so we can follow up if you have questions — and so you don't lose access to anything mid-setup.
This just shapes which categories we show you first — you can change anything later.
SteadyEveryone you've billed, with full history, terms, and balance alerts
Bill clients directly from the dashboard, with your own branding on every invoice
Check what's logged here against your real bank or platform statements
Quarterly set-asides, estimated payments, and year-end exports
Everyone who has ever subscribed
| Name | Phone | Business Type | Tier | Status | Trial Ends | Cancels |
|---|
Here's how things are looking
Every income and expense entry, in one place
Check 1-time for anything that isn't a normal, ongoing entry — a conference, a single project fee, a one-off brand deal. It keeps trend reports and Insights from mistaking a single unusual entry for a new normal.
| Date | Description | Category | Recur | 1-time | Amount | Receipt |
|---|
Every dollar coming in, by source
Add some income to see the breakdown.
No active subscriptions yet — check "Make this a subscription" when adding income below.
Check 1-time for a single brand deal, one-off consult, or bonus payout — it keeps that from getting mistaken for reliable recurring revenue.
| Date | Source | Category | Recur | 1-time | Amount | Receipt |
|---|
Bill clients and brands directly, and keep it in sync with your income
| Number | Client | Date | Due | Amount | Status |
|---|
Everyone you bill and everyone who bills you, with full history, terms, and balances
| Name | Account code | Type | Phone | Terms | Balance |
|---|
Everything going out, by category
Add some expenses to see the breakdown.
Check 1-time for a conference, a one-off purchase, or a single project fee — it keeps a single big expense from reading as a new normal in your reports.
| Date | Vendor | Category | Recur | 1-time | Amount | Receipt |
|---|
Organize how income and expenses get grouped, so your reports and P&L stay accurate
Check what's logged here against your real bank or platform statements — catches missed cancellations and anything that fell through the cracks
Enter the total deposits for the month shown on your statement — not the account's ending balance, since that includes money unrelated to this income (other deposits, withdrawals, personal spending). Choose "All income" if everything flows through one account, or a specific platform to check just that stream against its own payout report.
No reconciliations logged yet.
Your business performance, in the language a CPA expects
Due
These are estimates, not tax advice. Set-aside amounts are calculated from the rates and deductions you enter below and don't account for credits, phase-outs, or your full tax situation. Confirm your actual liability with a CPA or tax professional before relying on these numbers.
| Quarter | Income | Expenses | Profit | Deductions | Estimate | Paid | Remaining |
|---|
Combined nominal rate: 0% (federal + SE + state, before deductions). Your actual quarterly estimate below is lower — it's applied after the self-employment tax deduction, QBI deduction, and the additional deductions section further down. State auto-fills from your selection above and is exact for flat-tax and no-tax states, but only a rough guess for states with graduated brackets. Always adjust these to match your actual situation, or better, what your CPA tells you.
Enter your best annual estimate for each — Steady divides evenly across quarters.
| Date | Quarter | Note | Amount |
|---|
Your business profile
Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs are taxed the same way at the federal level (profit flows straight to your personal return), so Steady calculates them identically.
Add every state where you're registered to collect sales tax, with the filing frequency on your permit. Steady builds your filing calendar from this and reminds you before each return is due.
Sent to — — applies to every notification in your bell icon, including quarterly tax deadline reminders (30 days before each due date, then weekly until 2 days out), sales tax return reminders for each state you file in (14, 5 and 1 day before each due date), and 1099 reminders (W-9 check in December, then through January until 1099s are due). In-app notifications always appear regardless of this setting.
This appears at the top of every invoice you send — upload your own logo, or generate a clean text wordmark if you don't have one yet.
Generate a read-only link with your transactions and filing details — no login required on their end, no editing possible, and no receipts included. Revoke it anytime, and links expire automatically after 90 days.
Download everything — every transaction, category, tax payment, and reconciliation record — as one file. Useful as a backup, for switching tools, or for handing off to a CPA.
How to enter things, what each report means, and where everything lives
The dashboard is a metrics overview, not a place to enter anything — logging income, expenses, and bills all happen on their own pages.
It's fully customizable. Click ⚙ Customize at the top to choose which cards and charts show up — Net profit, AR/AP aging, this quarter's tax estimate, 1099 status, and more. Use the ▲▼ buttons to reorder what you keep.
Click + Add transaction in the top bar (works from any page), or the page-specific + Add income / + Add expense button at the top of those pages. All three open the same popup — nothing is entered by scrolling down a page anymore.
Every dollar coming in, by source. Use + Add income at the top, or link a saved client so it counts toward their history.
Checking "Make this a subscription?" requires a customer name, and creates this same income entry automatically every month from the start date onward — useful for retainers or recurring memberships. Manage active ones from the Subscriptions list on this page.
Create an invoice for a saved client (or type a new one), track its status, and mark it paid when it's settled.
Marking an invoice paid offers to also log it as an income transaction, linked to that client, with the client's default category pre-filled. Say no if you've already entered it by hand — doing both double-counts it.
The AR Aging subtab under Client & Vendor Management shows every unpaid invoice bucketed by how overdue it is.
Everything going out, by category. Use + Add expense at the top.
Attach a receipt or invoice photo/PDF right from the popup. Link a saved vendor so Steady can total what you've paid them over time — useful for vendor history and the 1099 $600 threshold check.
Bills are money you owe but haven't paid yet — create one under Client & Vendor Management → Bills to Pay, pick a saved vendor, and set a due date.
Check "Make this a recurring bill?" for things like rent or a monthly retainer — set a due day of month (1–28) instead of a one-time due date, and Steady creates a new bill automatically each month. Cancel from the Recurring bills list; bills already created stay as-is.
Marking a bill paid offers to also log it as an expense, linked to that vendor, with their default category pre-filled.
The AP Aging subtab shows every unpaid bill bucketed by how overdue it is.
Receivable = someone who owes you money (a client you bill). Payable = someone you owe money to (a vendor or contractor). One master list holds both — filter by type with the chips at the top, or search by name, email, or account code.
Every client and vendor gets an account code — type your own, or leave it blank and Steady generates one (AR-1001, AP-1001, sequential). Type a known code into the Account code field when adding a transaction and it auto-fills and links the whole entry to that record — faster than searching by name.
Set a default category on any client or vendor (e.g. RG&E → Utilities), and any time that client or vendor gets linked to a transaction — by picking them, typing an exact name match, or looking them up by account code — the category fills in automatically. You can always change it before saving.
When you add a vendor, Steady asks whether they get a 1099 — check the box for anyone you pay for services who isn't a corporation (freelancers, contractors, an individual landlord). Existing vendors can be changed any time from their detail page under 1099 settings, where you can also note their legal name, form type (1099-NEC or 1099-MISC), and whether you have their W-9.
Link the vendor when you log an expense and Steady keeps a running total. The reporting threshold is $2,000 for payments made in 2026 (it was $600 through 2025). If you paid by credit card or a payment app, check "Paid by card or a payment app" on that expense — those payments are reported by the processor on a 1099-K, so they're left off your 1099.
At year-end, Reports → 1099s lists every 1099 vendor with what's reportable, and downloads as one Excel file. You'll get reminders in December (collect W-9s) and through January until 1099s are due on January 31 (moved to the next business day on a weekend).
Every client and vendor has a Documents section. Attach files when you first add the contact, or any time later from their page. Pick the document type (W-9, credit application, certificate of insurance, resale/tax-exemption certificate, contract, or other), and add an expiration date for anything that expires. PDFs, photos, Word and Excel files up to 3MB each are supported.
Uploading a W-9 to a vendor automatically marks "W-9 on file" for your 1099 report. Documents with an expiration date show a reminder in the notification bell starting 30 days before they expire, so you know to ask for an updated copy. Deleting a contact deletes their documents too.
Every client and vendor has a running notes log, not a single field — each note is timestamped and nothing gets overwritten by a later entry. Add notes from their detail page.
Every income and expense entry in one place — filter, search, and export. Also where CSV imports land after uploading a bank or platform export.
Checks what's logged in Steady against your real bank or platform statement — catches anything that fell through the cracks (a missed entry, a cancelled subscription that kept generating income).
Enter the total deposits for the month shown on your statement — not the account's ending balance, which includes unrelated money. Choose "All income" if everything flows through one account, or a specific platform to check just that stream against its own payout report.
The date-range tabs (This month / Last 3 months / Year to date / All time) apply to P&L and Detail. Sales Tax and 1099s have their own period and year pickers. Export any of them to Excel.
When you add a transaction, enter the full amount charged or received, then open "Break out sales tax or shipping." Type the sales tax (or just the rate — Steady backs the tax out of the total for you) and any shipping. Receipts you photograph fill these in automatically when they're printed on the receipt.
Steady saves the entry as separate lines: the net amount in your category, the tax in Sales Tax Collected (income) or Sales Tax Paid (expenses), and shipping in Shipping. Those three categories are built in. Deleting any line of a split entry deletes the whole entry, so nothing gets left behind.
Invoices can charge sales tax too. Pick the state, and the rate fills in from your settings. Uncheck "Taxable" on any line your state doesn't tax. When you mark the invoice paid, the tax is logged to Sales Tax Collected.
In Settings → Sales tax, add each state you're registered in and the filing frequency your state assigned you (monthly, quarterly, or annual). Steady uses each state's standard due date and moves weekend dates to Monday. If your state notice gives a different day, set a custom due day.
Reports → Sales Tax shows every return you owe. Click View for the numbers that go on that return, download them to Excel, and click Mark filed once it's submitted. Steady can also log your payment to the state as a Sales Tax Paid expense. Reminders go out 14, 5, and 1 day before each due date and stop once you mark the return filed.
Profit for the quarter, minus your Additional Deductions (home office, mileage, health insurance, retirement, equipment, startup costs — entered annually, divided evenly across quarters), minus the deductible half of self-employment tax, minus the QBI deduction if enabled — then federal, state, and self-employment tax rates are applied to what's left.
These are estimates, not tax advice — confirm with a CPA before relying on them.
Set your business structure in Settings. Sole Proprietor and Single-Member LLC are taxed identically at the federal level, so Steady calculates them the same way. S-corp quarterly amounts are entered manually.
Multi-Member LLC unlocks a Partners panel — add each partner's name and ownership %, and the Tax Center shows a per-partner split of profit, deductions, and estimated tax for the current quarter.
If you've already logged home office, mileage, insurance, or retirement costs as regular expense transactions, leave the matching field in Additional Deductions blank — it's already counted through your expenses. Only fill in a deduction field for costs that aren't logged as transactions anywhere else.
Combines two kinds of alerts: live-computed ones (overdue invoices, reconciliation mismatches, a client over their balance alert — these resolve themselves once fixed) and persisted reminders (currently, quarterly tax deadlines — 30 days out, then weekly until 2 days before) that you can mark read or dismiss.
Turn on "Email me when I get a new notification" in Settings to also get these by email.
Settings has a full data export (JSON or Excel) covering everything in your account. Most individual pages also have their own "Export to Excel" button scoped to just that page's data.