Why SoloTaxMate?

First a simple disclaimer: This is NOT tax filing software!

However, when tax time comes, this program will help you, providing all tax related data, like business expenses and income, medical expenses and charity for example, presented in spreadsheet style, showing all income and expense categories summarized per month, per quarter and for the year.

Yes, your data is safely stored on your computer, not in the cloud, not in some inaccessible database, but in a standard spreadsheet, that can still be opened five years from now, without needing our application even.

Who is our target audience?

Although designed for solo practitioners, who file their income on their individual tax returns (1040 with Schedules 1 and C), simple households can also use our software, just to see where the money went. How much money did you spend on groceries, gas, health, dining out, clothing and standard bills?

Where does data come from?

This is also NOT accounting software, although we provide many similar functions, just not so complicated. Your accountant/tax preparer will be very happy though with the data we provide.

We don't make links to your bank accounts. We have tried this ourselves with some accounting software and never had a good feeling about it. Could it be hacked?

So, just like we don't store data in the cloud, we don't attempt to get data from the cloud. We do it the "old-fashioned" way. You determine what accounts you want in SoloTaxmate, and only for those accounts you export the data for the year from your banking software into a file that gets downloaded to your computer. These files you can then import in our software and let the magic begin!

Where do we store? In computer language: Your data is saved in your browser storage. Some browsers like Google and Edge allow you to sync that information to CSV-files in a normal folder on your computer. With browsers that don't support that you want to regularly export that data to a folder on your hard drive. Why? Because when you clear your browser cache, on purpose or by accident, or switch to a new browser, your data will appear to be gone. Simply start the trial mode and use the Import CSV option to get your data back again. Or, in the browsers that allow you to sync your data, simply point back to the folder where your CSV-files are stored, and you're back in business.
Don't worry too much about this, because when is the last time you actually cleared your cache?

How are we different?

Okay, let's get a bit personal here. We are a family of four with one parent who is an experienced programmer, one parent with a solo practice, and two kids with interest in programming and web design, who believe every application should work in the cloud. This calls for interesting discussions, but it keeps us young.

Every accounting program we tried was way too complicated and mind boggling unfriendly to users like us. For example, a simple transfer from a checking to a savings account, or from the business to our personal account, provided highly complicated data, almost like we had twice the amount of money, but in reality, the same amount of money was counted twice. In SoloTaxMate we separate all these internal transactions out, they're not income and not an expense.

Also, providing a category on one record required to go in edit mode for that record, select a category from a drop-down, then click Save. Up to the next record and do the same thing. If you made a hundred visits to the post office for the year, this became a true chore, and because of that, mistakes were made because focus was lost.
In SoloTaxMate you sort by description, as provided by the bank, and guess what, all one hundred post office visits are now next to each other. Highlight them all and select the right category, and all are changed at once. Add to that a simple filter, showing only items without a category, and in a matter of hours you assigned thousands of line items, ready for your first report.

Reports? One simple summary of all income and expenses, each amount of money summed per category, per month, quarter and/or for the year that you can print or store as PDF. See some of the screenshots on the shopping page. This really helped during Covid when we had to prove that quarter to quarter, we had truly lost income and thus qualified for federal help.

We mentioned it a few times already, but yes, all your data is stored in text files with the CSV-extension, ready to open in any spreadsheet application, or even in Notepad. This means you don't need our software to open it, so you can share it with others that don't have SoloTaxmate and they can still see your data.
This openness needs to be treated carefully though. If you change the integrity of the data structure, then maybe our software can no longer open it. Or you change the amount on one of your line items and balances are suddenly not matching anymore. We have a little trick built in for that. Once all data for the year is in, you can lock in the beginning and ending balance for each account, and the program will warn if it detects that the calculated balance is no longer matching.
Please use the Export CSV option to store your data in a different folder for backup, or even on a shared drive, all up to you. The advantage is that you can import it for example on your cellphone and see your data on the go.

Well, you get the gist by now. We couldn't find any application that worked for us out there, so we made our own. And it works so well, why not share it with people like us? With all the options on the top of the program you may say it's a bit crowded. But you will like each and every option that you can filter on or perform actions with. And every year we are looking to make it even better, improve the look and feel, and add new features.
Now that we have opened this program up to more people, we welcome your input for improvements. Send us your questions or suggestions and we'll consider them all for a future release.

What are IOLTA and Business Ledger?

Forgive us the confusion!

The original SoloTaxMate started out as a stand-alone program that you would have to install on your PC. Let's call it the good old-fashioned way of doing. Then my wife wanted more, like a way to manage her IOLTA Trust account. And we designed a web application just for that. Not something that runs in the cloud, but in your own browser on your own PC. No data gets even out; nothing is needed outside your own safe environment. Exactly what she needed for her trust account!

She liked it so much, so she asked for more. Something to track all her own income and expenses and invoices, so she can run her day-to-day business. Sure, it's only coding right? But we had two modules now. And nothing needed to be installed on her PC, it ran in the same browser that she used to prepare her files etc.

And programming wise, I simply (many nights of no sleep) converted SoloTaxMate to also run in the web application, and we called it Accounts, simply because you could use it to track all your money and using it for tax purposes is just a side effect, that we still use each year. So, gone with the old-fashioned program that needed to be installed on your PC. Now it's a modern browser application that works the moment you go to our website: app.solotaxmate.com.

How much does it cost?

Here is where it gets even better. SoloTaxMate is free to use, each tax year which runs from January 1st to December 31st.

The only limitation we built in the free version is that it will only process data for the first six months. That should give you plenty of time to determine if you like the features, and if you want to continue the use for the remainder of the year. The program offers a simple way to obtain a license from us, after you made a $20 payment here on this website, just skip lunch one day and the program is paid for. Each tax year you will need a new license, but you can start collecting data each new year for six months before you need a license again.

When you're an attorney you most likely manage an IOLTA Trust account, which holds money that belongs to your clients, but you will use it disburse it at the right time to the target organization, e.g. Government fees, etc. Our IOLTA Ledger will help you to document how you collected this money, where it is, how much was disbursed or refunded, everything tied to a Case number and your client's name. Thirty-day free trial, after that $20 for a license good for a year from the moment of purchase.

My wife, the attorney, liked that so much that she asked if she could track her income and expenses as well like that, so this was added as well, with some invoice and reminder options, all linked to the same Case number as you used for the IOLTA Ledger. And thus, the Business Ledger was born. Also, thirty-day free trial, after that $20 for a license good for a year from the moment of purchase.

Why do you need that if you already collect all your banking information, using the Accounts section (the SoloTaxMate program)?
Because maybe you download your banking information perhaps two or three times per year, and will you still remember what that money was for? But guess what, using the Reconcile button the program will automatically link all bank transactions to the same Case number you used, closing the loop. So, bundle all three and only pay $50 for the combined license.

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