Bank statement in.
Filed invoice out.
Ledgerline reads a month of transactions from your business account, matches each deposit to the invoice that earned it, and sorts everything else into the categories a Self Assessment asks for. Built for freelance designers, not finance departments.
See a sample month What it costs
The month below is invented — a made-up illustrator’s account with made-up amounts. There is nothing to sign up for.
A month, before and after.
On the left is what the bank hands you: cryptic merchant strings, a card payment with nobody’s name on it, money moved into your own joint account. On the right is what Ledgerline gives you back — invoices with numbers on them, expenses split into the categories the return asks for, and one line it refused to guess at.
| Date | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 04 Mar | BACS CREDIT NORTHWIND STUDIO INV 021 | +1,800.00 |
| 05 Mar | STRIPE PAYOUT 4 SALES | +640.00 |
| 06 Mar | ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD (IRELAND) LTD | −54.98 |
| 09 Mar | CARD PAYMENT …3417 | −23.40 |
| 11 Mar | PAYPAL *M.OKONKWO STUDIO | −320.00 |
| 14 Mar | TFL TRAVEL CHARGES | −46.20 |
| 17 Mar | ETSY EUROPE PAYOUT | +95.00 |
| 21 Mar | APPLE STORE R123 MACBOOK PRO 14 | −2,150.00 |
| 23 Mar | FIGMA SUBSCRIPTION | −38.00 |
| 26 Mar | TRANSFER TO JOINT ACCOUNT | −1,200.00 |
| income → invoices | |
|---|---|
| Invoice 021Northwind Studio · 04 Mar | £1,800.00 |
| Invoice 022marketplace sales · Stripe + Etsy | £735.00 |
| expenses by category | |
| Software & subscriptionsAdobe, Figma | £92.98 |
| SubcontractorsM. Okonkwo Studio | £320.00 |
| TravelTfL | £46.20 |
| EquipmentMacBook Pro 14 · capital allowance | £2,150.00 |
| not claimed | |
| Personal transferto your own joint account | £1,200.00 |
| Card payment …3417needs youbusiness or personal? | £23.40 |
| Income | £2,535.00 |
| Allowable expenses | £2,609.18 |
| — of which equipment, claimed separately | £2,150.00 |
Invented figures, a made-up illustrator’s month. The category names are the ones a UK Self Assessment actually asks for, and the equipment line is the kind of thing a return wants separated out.
It matches before it asks.
Every line is matched to something concrete before it gets filed. Ledgerline matches three ways: against the decisions you have already made, against the invoice numbers you have logged, and against merchant strings it has seen before. When none of them fit, it does not pick a plausible category and hope. The line goes onto a short “needs you” list with the question spelled out, and it stays out of your totals until you answer it.
You file PAYPAL *M.OKONKWO STUDIO as a subcontractor once. From then on that merchant string is a subcontractor on every statement it appears on — including the ones you have not imported yet.
A client deposit becomes an invoice record with the date, amount and reference already in it. Two marketplace payouts in one month become one invoice with two entries, not two invoices for a client you never had.
Each expense lands in one of the categories a return asks for — software, travel, equipment, subcontractors, office costs — with the statement date attached, so you can find the line again when someone asks about it.
Year end gives you a CSV your accountant can import and a PDF schedule they can read: a total per category, the invoice list, and a note of the lines you marked personal.
Ledgerline sorts, totals and exports. It does not submit anything to HMRC — the return stays yours to sign.
One desk, one account.
Ledgerline is built for a single freelancer with one business account, no stock and no staff. That is the shape it is good at, and it is why the price is what it is.
Good to go if…
- you invoice a handful of clients a month, usually the same ones
- your costs are subscriptions, kit, travel, stock and the odd subcontractor
- you file a Self Assessment and currently type bank lines into a spreadsheet
- you want the year-end total to be something you check, not something you build
Look elsewhere if…
- you run payroll for employees
- you hold and value stock, or you are VAT-registered with partial exemption
- you want someone to submit the return for you
- you need two people on one account — shared access is the thing we have not built
One plan, £14 a month.
£14a month · cancel whenever
no annual lock-in
- Unlimited invoices and expense lines
- Import by CSV or OFX, or a read-only bank connection
- The “needs you” list — only the lines that genuinely need a decision
- Year-end schedule as CSV to import and PDF to read
- Everything exportable, at any time, in one file
What it replaces: two hours of a bookkeeper at £35 an hour is £70 a month. Ledgerline is £14 — and it does not mind that you are three months behind.
Questions worth asking.
Does it log into my bank?
No. You upload a statement as CSV or OFX, or connect a read-only feed. A read-only feed can see transactions and nothing else — it cannot move money, and you can revoke it from your bank’s own settings without telling us.
What happens to a line it does not recognise?
It goes onto the “needs you” list with a plain question — business or personal? — instead of being guessed at, and stays out of your totals until you answer. Answer once and the merchant string is remembered.
Does Ledgerline file my tax return?
No. It sorts the year into the categories the return asks for and exports a schedule that you or your accountant submit. Nothing is ever sent to HMRC.
Where does my data live, and how do I get it out?
Statements and invoice records are stored encrypted. You can export everything as CSV whenever you like, and closing your account deletes the data within 30 days. Your transactions are not used to train anything.
What if my accountant wants a different layout?
The export is a plain CSV — date, description, category, amount — so it can be reshaped in whatever they already use. The PDF schedule is for reading; the CSV is for importing.
Can two people share one account?
Not yet, and it is the most-asked-for thing we have not built. Ledgerline is deliberately one person on one business account.