RunwayDue vs QuickBooks Self-Employed

QuickBooks Self-Employed is closed to new customers but not shut down. In the US, Intuit's help tells current subscribers they can keep their subscription, and we found no end date on any Intuit page. In the UK, Intuit's help moves Self-Employed customers to QuickBooks Online or Sole Trader Plus, and in Canada Intuit calls Self-Employed still supported while recommending its new QuickBooks Lite plan (all checked 25 September 2026).

If you used Self-Employed to pull in your bank transactions, log your miles and see a quarterly tax estimate, stay with Intuit. RunwayDue does none of those three things. Intuit's Lite plan, which its US Solopreneur page sells today, connects a bank account and tracks miles, and Intuit's help article on tax estimates lists Lite too.

If you are looking because your work arrives as proposals and signed agreements, and the money arrives in lumps, RunwayDue is the QuickBooks Self-Employed alternative to pick: it is built for that half of the job, and Self-Employed never was. Intuit has since added proposal and contract signing to some QuickBooks plans, and this page covers that too. If you are on QuickBooks Online rather than Self-Employed, RunwayDue weighed against QuickBooks Online is the one to read.

What Intuit has actually said, checked 25 September 2026

Several pages that rank for this question say the product is already gone. Here is what Intuit's own pages say, with links so you can check.

• Its replacement launched on 21 February 2024. Intuit's press release introduced QuickBooks Solopreneur that day as built on what Intuit learned from QuickBooks Self-Employed, which launched in 2015.
• It was no longer sold to new customers by March 2024. On 12 March 2024 an Intuit moderator told a would-be customer that Intuit no longer offers it. Intuit's help says its mobile app is no longer available to download after 24 March 2024, though anyone who had already downloaded it keeps it.
• Existing subscribers can keep it. Intuit's help article, updated 5 August 2026, tells a current subscriber they "can still continue your subscription".
• No shutdown date that we could find. A reply on Intuit's community forum in September 2024 said the product "will be discontinued soon". Two years later we found no date on any Intuit page we checked. The same reply said Intuit cannot downgrade a customer back to Self-Employed.
• Intuit's switch moves most of your data, not all. Its switching guide, which names Solopreneur as the destination, moves customers, trips, products and services, bank connections, receipts, up to three years of transactions, and invoices if your account uses Intuit's new invoice experience. Tags, vendors and connections such as Etsy, Uber and Amazon do not move. Rules and quarterly tax estimates are listed as coming later. The guide also warns that after its in-product upgrade you cannot open the old account, so download your reports first.
• What a new customer is offered. Intuit's products page still sells a plan called Solopreneur at $20 a month, $10 for the first three months. Its Learn more link opens the Solopreneur page, which shows three plans, none called Solopreneur: Free at $0, Lite at $20 a month and Simple Start at $38 a month, the paid two at half price for three months. Lite is the one Intuit describes as automating solopreneur finances. Intuit's help articles list Solopreneur and Lite as separate products, and no US page we found says how the two relate, so this page does not guess.

So: not gone, not on sale to new customers, and no end date that we could find. A page that says it has already shut down is ahead of Intuit. Other countries are moving differently. In the UK, Intuit's newest help article on the switch, updated in late September 2026, moves Self-Employed customers to QuickBooks Online or Sole Trader Plus and says QuickBooks Sole Trader customers are moving too. In Canada, Intuit's July 2026 guide calls Self-Employed still supported, recommends QuickBooks Lite, which launched there that month, and says Solopreneur is not sold in Canada.

At a glance

Lite is in the middle because Intuit's Solopreneur page pitches it at solopreneur finances. Simple Start, the Intuit plan with proposal and contract signing, is covered further down.

Intuit's plans, prices and features checked 25 September 2026 on Intuit's own pages, and RunwayDue's the same day on its own.

Who each one is built for

QuickBooks Self-Employed is a tax tool. Intuit's own overview describes the loop: it downloads your bank transactions every day, you sort them into business and personal and into Schedule C categories, it tracks business miles, it estimates your federal quarterly tax payments, and at year end it sends the lot to TurboTax Self-Employed. Its centre of gravity is the tax return. For a driver, a tutor, or anyone whose clients never sign anything, that is the right shape, and it has been doing that job since 2015.

RunwayDue starts at the deal. A proposal, then a signed agreement, then invoices on the agreement's dates, then the books. It is for consultants, designers, studios and agencies whose revenue is lumpy, and whose hardest question is not what they owe the IRS in April but what is coming in during August. There is a longer piece on forecasting that kind of revenue.

If your self-employment looks like the first paragraph, this page should not change your mind.

The part of the job Self-Employed never covered

Intuit's 2024 comparison of Self-Employed and Solopreneur lists invoices for both and estimates as something Solopreneur added. It lists no proposal, no contract, and no way to send an agreement for signature at a distance, and Intuit's help articles on the proposal and contract builders it has added since do not list Self-Employed. For a lot of self-employed work that does not matter. For project work it is most of the job.

In RunwayDue:

• A proposal has written sections (summary, scope, deliverables, timeline, investment, terms), priced line items and a valid-until date. It carries a win probability and an expected close date, so every proposal you have sent counts as weighted pipeline in the forecast until its valid-until date passes. The forecast is on every plan, including Free. The client accepts or declines on a private link by giving their name. That is an acceptance, not a signature.
• An accepted proposal becomes a contract when you choose the billing type (one time, monthly retainer, quarterly, or milestones you enter yourself), the start date and the term, and press Create the contract. The contract starts as a draft with its billing schedule written, and for a one-time, monthly or quarterly contract the instalments add up exactly to the proposal's subtotal.
• Once signed, the schedule counts as committed revenue, kept apart from money already invoiced and money only proposed.
• When an instalment comes due, the contract page shows it as ready to bill, and Bill it opens a pre-filled invoice for you to check and send.

The limits matter as much as the chain. Nothing bills itself off a contract; a person presses the button. There is no template library: the editor starts from one editable agreement with eight headed sections and eleven merge fields, leaves governing law blank, and says it is a starting point, not legal advice. Clients cannot tick optional items on a proposal, and accepting one takes no deposit. And RunwayDue processes no payments on your invoices. The client's copy carries your bank details and, if you add one, a link to your own Stripe, Razorpay or Cashfree payment page, and you record the payment when it lands.

Signing: what Intuit has added, and RunwayDue's two kinds

Intuit's February 2024 introduction of Solopreneur mentions accepting mobile signatures, and Intuit's help describes what that means: your customer signs an estimate or invoice with a finger, on your device, in the QuickBooks mobile app.

Remote signing has arrived since. Two Intuit help articles, both updated 5 August 2026, describe a proposal builder, where the client signs by typing their full legal name, and a contract builder, which sends an uploaded PDF for a typed signature behind an access code, with reminders, an expiry date and an electronic signature certificate. They list the proposal builder for Solopreneur and the contract builder for Solopreneur Plus, and both for Simple Start and higher. Neither lists Lite, Free or Self-Employed.

RunwayDue has two ways to sign, and they are not equal. A PDF signature request takes several signers in order or all at once, asks each to agree to sign electronically, binds a certificate of completion with the SHA-256 fingerprint of the original into the PDF, and marks a RunwayDue contract signed when it completes; an agreement written in RunwayDue's own editor is instead signed on its share link by one person typing their name, with no certificate and no consent screen. Neither checks the signer's identity, and a signature request can add an access code only on RunwayDue's Business plan. Whether an electronic signature holds up is its own question, answered in is an electronic signature legally binding in the US.

What it costs

Checked 25 September 2026, on each company's own pages. We found no current price for QuickBooks Self-Employed, which is not sold; Intuit's current plans are listed above.

RunwayDue's prices: Free is $0, with signing bought outright, from $2 for one document to $25 for twenty-five. Pro is $17 a month, or $15 a month billed yearly, for two people, and adds e-signature, expenses and bills, the reports, automatic reminders and recurring invoices.

On monthly billing Lite and Pro are close: $20 against $17. They buy different things. Lite buys the bank feed, the mileage log and the filing help. Pro buys room for your proposals and contracts, the signature, and the books and reports; the forecast comes with every RunwayDue plan, Free included.

If you want both halves from one company, Intuit's Simple Start is $38 a month, or $19 for the first three months (checked 25 September 2026). Intuit's Solopreneur page says it includes everything in Lite, and Intuit's help lists its proposal and contract builders for it. What that help describes is a signed document: it does not describe a billing schedule coming out of the contract. So the question is whether you need the signature, or the signature plus a record of what it commits the client to pay, and when.

Moving your records

RunwayDue imports nothing, from QuickBooks or anywhere else. The practical approach is to start on a date and keep earlier years where they are: they support tax returns already filed, and RunwayDue cannot hold them for you. If you take Intuit's switch instead, download your reports first: its guide warns that after the in-product upgrade you cannot open the old account, and if you switch by hand it tells you to cancel Self-Employed so you are not charged for both.

Whichever you choose, ask what happens to your records if you stop paying. At RunwayDue the workspace drops to Free and nothing is deleted. That question is one of five that tell a tool you can leave from one you are stuck in.

When staying with Intuit is the better choice

For most people who searched their way here, this is the section that decides it.

• Your bank account is the record. Self-Employed downloads your transactions daily, and Lite connects your bank, though Intuit's help calls the connection limited on Lite. RunwayDue has no bank feed and no file import, so every expense is typed in. With more than a handful of transactions a month, that settles it.
• You drive for work. Both track business miles. RunwayDue does not.
• Quarterly estimated tax is the number you watch. Self-Employed estimates your federal quarterly payments, and Intuit's help article on tax estimates lists Lite too, though Intuit's own comparison table of Self-Employed and Solopreneur ticks the estimate for Self-Employed only. RunwayDue does not estimate income tax at all.
• You file a Schedule C with TurboTax. Self-Employed sends your categorised year to TurboTax Self-Employed, and Lite adds expert-assisted filing, paid when you file. RunwayDue hands a preparer only its reports and an export.
• You pay contractors. Intuit's Solopreneur page lets you manage contractors, sort their payments into 1099 categories and prepare and file 1099s from QuickBooks: one contractor on Free, three on Lite and any number on Simple Start (checked 25 September 2026). RunwayDue records vendors and bills on Pro but does not prepare or file 1099s.
• Clients pay by card on the invoice. Both take card payments through QuickBooks Payments. RunwayDue processes no payments.
• You want the books and the signed agreement on one bill. Intuit says Simple Start carries everything in Lite, and it lists its proposal and contract signing for it. If a signed document is all you need from the deal, that is one subscription instead of two.
• You work from your phone. RunwayDue has no mobile app.

And one that is simply true: Self-Employed has been around since 2015, and RunwayDue launched in August 2026. Wanting the proven thing is a fair reason.

The honest summary

QuickBooks Self-Employed was built to get one person from bank statement to tax return, and Intuit's newer plans carry that on. RunwayDue was built for the other end of self-employment: the proposal you are waiting on, the agreement that needs signing, the instalments it promises, and whether August will be thin.

If your work is the first kind, take Intuit's switch when you are ready; we found no US date on Intuit's pages by which you must. If it is the second, RunwayDue does that half in one place, and you may still want Intuit alongside it for the bank and the tax return.

Frequently asked questions

Is QuickBooks Self-Employed discontinued?

It is closed to new customers but not shut down. Intuit launched QuickBooks Solopreneur on 21 February 2024, an Intuit moderator told a would-be customer on 12 March 2024 that Self-Employed was no longer offered, and Intuit's help article, updated 5 August 2026, says existing US subscribers can continue their subscription. As of 25 September 2026 we found no shutdown date on any Intuit page we checked. Outside the US it differs: Intuit's UK help moves Self-Employed customers to QuickBooks Online or Sole Trader Plus, and Intuit Canada calls it still supported while recommending QuickBooks Lite.

What replaced QuickBooks Self-Employed?

In the US, QuickBooks Solopreneur, which Intuit launched on 21 February 2024 and still names in its switching guide for Self-Employed subscribers. Intuit's products page still sells Solopreneur at $20 a month, while its Solopreneur page offers QuickBooks Free at $0, Lite at $20 a month and Simple Start at $38 a month, with Lite described as automating solopreneur finances (all checked 25 September 2026). No US Intuit page we found says how Solopreneur and Lite relate, though Intuit Canada, where Solopreneur is not sold, calls Lite its Canadian equivalent. In Canada, Intuit recommends QuickBooks Lite, and in the UK it points Self-Employed customers to QuickBooks Online or Sole Trader Plus.

Do I have to move off QuickBooks Self-Employed now?

Not in the US, according to Intuit, which says current subscribers can keep their subscription, and we found no end date on its pages (checked 25 September 2026). If you do move, a reply on Intuit's community forum in September 2024 said Intuit cannot downgrade a customer back to Self-Employed, and Intuit's switching guide lists rules and quarterly tax estimates as not moving across yet.

Is there a cheaper alternative to QuickBooks Self-Employed?

Intuit itself now has a $0 plan, QuickBooks Free, with two receipt uploads and five trips a month, and two invoices a month unless you qualify for and turn on QuickBooks Payments (checked 25 September 2026). RunwayDue Free is also $0 but tracks no bank, miles or tax: it covers 3 clients, 5 invoices and 3 proposals or contracts a month. On paid plans, RunwayDue Pro is $17 a month, or $15 billed yearly, against QuickBooks Lite at $20 (checked 25 September 2026).

Does QuickBooks Solopreneur include e-signature?

Partly. Intuit's help article on proposals, updated 5 August 2026, lists QuickBooks Solopreneur among the products with its proposal builder, where the client signs a proposal holding one estimate by typing their full legal name. Its contract builder article, updated the same day, lists Solopreneur Plus but not Solopreneur, and we found no Intuit page that describes or prices Solopreneur Plus. Neither article lists Lite or Free. Lite includes the QuickBooks mobile app, where Intuit's help describes a customer signing an estimate or invoice with a finger on your device (checked 25 September 2026). RunwayDue sends a PDF for signature, with a certificate of completion, on Pro or on Free with a bought pack.

What happens to my data if I leave QuickBooks Self-Employed?

Intuit's own switch to Solopreneur moves customers, trips, products and services, bank connections, receipts, up to three years of transactions, and invoices on accounts with Intuit's new invoice experience. Tags, vendors and third-party connections such as Etsy, Uber and Amazon do not move, and rules and quarterly tax estimates are listed as coming later. Intuit's guide says to download your reports first, because after the in-product upgrade you cannot open the old account (checked 25 September 2026). RunwayDue has no import from QuickBooks or any other tool, and no spreadsheet upload, so clients and open invoices are entered by hand; the practical approach is to start on a date and keep earlier years where they are.

Does RunwayDue track mileage or estimate quarterly taxes?

No, neither. It also has no bank feed and does not prepare or file 1099s. If those are why you used QuickBooks Self-Employed, an Intuit plan fits better, or you can run RunwayDue for proposals, contracts and invoices alongside a QuickBooks plan for the bank and the tax return.