Although the gig economy has been around for quite a while now, it is only in recent years that it’s seen a real explosion explosion of interest, due to the rapid rise in both the number and popularity of mobile applications that help people track, manage and make the most of their side gigs. A lot of people who make most of their money from gigs, such as ridesharing, food delivery, or any other activity that would fit the (very) wide definition of what a “gig” is, work as independent contractors.
It’s a very good solution for any freelancer, regardless of their field of expertise, as it allows them to operate as a business, and therefore be eligible for things like tax deductions and other clever accounting methods that can help them make and save more money. However, keeping track of all of the different income streams that freelancers often rely on, can be a real pain. Enter Hurdlr — an app that automates many of the tedious, but essential processes that self-employed gig economy workers have to go through every day, like tracking expenses or mileage.
In this Hurdlr review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the application and its mechanisms. This includes the various ways in which it helps you track your income and expenses, as well as the process of automating tax calculations. Of course, given that a lot of side hustlers are drivers, we won’t dare to omit the auto mileage tracking function of Hurdlr that is incremental to the expense reports of ridesharing and delivery drivers.
What is Hurdlr?
To put it in the simplest possible terms, Hurdlr is a mobile application for freelancers from all walks of life that helps them track their income and expenses. From Uber drivers to freelance writers, any person making money independently and outside of the 9-5 framework will find a viable use-case for Hurdlr. It can be particularly helpful when it comes to dealing with your taxes — thanks to the business expense and income tracking functionality, you’ll be able to save more money than you ever thought possible!
Those who work in the gig economy— from rideshare drivers to couriers to pet sitters to truck drivers— know that while their anti-9-5 lifestyle is undeniably freeing, the tax burden that comes with that freedom makes for a pretty frustrating ordeal. But, the truth is, taxes don’t have to be such a headache for gig economy workers. In fact, by taking the right deductions, you can actually save thousands of dollars each year, and reduce your tax burden to a completely manageable amount.
If you’re new to the world of deductions and aren’t sure where to start, don’t worry. Using Hurdlr can help gig economy workers maximize their deductions to save thousands on their taxes each year. Interested in learning how Hurdlr can help you save thousands on your taxes?
The People Behind the App
Hurdlr was created by two brothers who’ve got years of experience under their belt when it comes to software solutions for major business problems. Before founding Hurdlr, Raj and Anu Bhaskar both worked at VisualHOMES, a revolutionary real estate platform that managed to connect 1 million residents with residential and subsidized housing units all over North America.
After VisualHOMES was sold to Yardi Systems, Raj and Anu have gone on to take the experience gained in the area of digital real estate solutions and implement it to help another group of people efficiently save and manage their money: self-employed entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Hurdlr has the potential to free hundreds of thousands of individuals from spending long hours of their tax season on filling out spreadsheets and manually calculating their business expenses and income tax. Automated tax estimates and business income aggregation are the future of freelance work, and Hurdlr is the first app of its kind to truly embrace it and give it into the hands of side hustlers.
Mileage Tracker
If you’re a self-employed ridesharing or delivery driver, then you know the importance of mileage tracking and the role it plays in your annual tax calculations. A well-documented mileage log can save you up to thousands of dollars in tax deductions and reimbursements every single year! For 2021, you are eligible for a $0.56 deduction per business mile driven. That’s 56 dollars worth of deductions per 100 business miles! A full-time Uber driver traverses that kind of distance in a single workday. How much does that amount to in deductions for an entire fiscal year? You do the math. Or let Hurdlr do it for you!
The application’s automatic mileage tracker will ensure that you never miss a deductible mile ever again! No more second-guessing the tax estimates you’ve made, no more doubting your manual mileage log. The mileage tracking feature of Hurdlr is fully integrated with its module for tax calculations, allowing you to seamlessly translate miles driven into the dollar value of your tax deductions.
Of course, delivery and ridesharing drivers aren’t the only types of side hustlers who track mileage. You can use Hurdlr to track and deduct the miles you’ve driven for all sorts of business purposes, regardless of whether you’re a traveling salesman, realtor, courier, or any other person whose job requires them to drive on a regular basis.\
Here are some of the most important features of the mileage tracker in Hurdlr:
- Automatic mileage tracking,
- AI-based rules to auto-tag repeated drives,
- Easy differentiation between personal, business, medical, and charity drives,
- Auto-compiled, neat, monthly reports.
Expense Tracker
Small business owners and self-employed side hustlers need to pay special attention to their expense tracking. Every single expenditure can be a deductible one, provided that you’ve got the receipt or invoice, as well as a legitimate business purpose for making the purchase. Some of the most common business expenses include commissions paid out, hiring contractors, advertising costs, cost of the goods sold, purchases of office supplies and heavy-duty equipment, office maintenance, and travel. There are also plenty more expenses that can be pulled into that category, all dependent on your line of work and accounting “creativity”.
Back in the day, tracking your business income and expenses meant having to stockpile hundreds upon thousands of receipts and invoices from stores, contractors, hotels, gas stations, and everything else in between. With Hurdlr, your income and expense tracking become much easier, as the app tracks all of your expenditures for you, and automatically tags the business expenses as deductible.
Much like in the case of the automatic mileage tracker, Hurdlr can also auto-tag your repeated expenses as business expenditures and accumulate them into one deductible pile when tax season rolls around.
Moreover, with the use of AI and machine learning, Hurdlr will come up with its own suggestions regarding what you can tag as a business expense. That way, you’ll be able to save even more money by having the app point out expenditures you would have otherwise omitted as an obvious personal expense.
Tax Calculations
Being self-employed comes with a lot of privileges, such as setting your own work schedule, choosing your clients and assignments, as well as the freedom to set your own rules, from where you work to how you work. As long as you get the job done on time, no one will be able to criticize your methodology, attitude, or any other aspect of your work that’s not related to the final quality of your product or service.
Unfortunately, this great freedom also comes with a lot of responsibility. Self-employed freelancers need to fill out their own tax forms — no employer will do them for you, nor will your taxes be automatically deducted from your income. You’re the only person responsible for your self-employment tax, and if you notoriously fail to do them in the right way, you might end up in a whole heap of financial trouble.
Thankfully, the Hurdlr app is here to help you with that, too. With income tracking, mileage tracking, as well as business expense tracking, Hurdlr is equipped with all of the tools it needs to automatically crunch the numbers you’d otherwise spend hours working on. After connecting your account, the app will let you know how much money you’re making and how much income tax you’ll have to pay on it. Then, it will calculate that tax rate automatically, after taking into account the tax-deductible expenses it has accumulated with its expense tracker, thus lowering your taxable income.
That’s not all! Having all of your income and expense information, as well as getting the numbers down is only half the work — after all, you still need to file the tax report, which often means having to spend a lot of time filling out piles of paperwork. Well, if you have the Hurdlr app, it will take care of all that for you, presenting you with an already-filled tax report, ready to be filed with your local tax authorities.
Hurdlr Pro – Is It Worth It?
All of the awesome functions outlined above are part of the Hurdlr Premium subscription. As a freelancer or small business owner, having such a tool at your disposal at a reasonable cost is quite a big deal.
However, Hurdlr also offers a Pro subscription . The fee you need to pay for the Pro treatment is only $16.67/month (billed annually), which is a far cry from what accountants and financial advisors will charge you for a fraction of the services included in this package.
So, what exactly can you get with Hurdlr Pro? The two main functions are invoicing and full double-entry accounting. The invoicing part allows you to create invoices with customizable line-items and the option to include your own branding, as well as the option to accept and carry out credit card payments, all through the invoice. It makes providing freelancer services and getting paid for them much, much easier, regardless of what it is that you do for a living.
The accounting module of Hurdlr Pro is a true gamechanger. Not only does it aggregate all of your financial and fiscal information in one place (and does all the calculations), but it also compiles them into neat reports that do not require an economics degree to understand. Effectively, paying for Hurdlr Pro will result in saving you a lot of money in the long run, as you would otherwise have to spend it on an accountant.
So, is the Pro subscription worth it for every freelancer out there? It all depends on the number of invoices you produce and how much money you make from freelancing work per year. If you are a full-time self-employed worker and it’s your primary income stream, then you should definitely invest in Hurdlr Pro. However, if it is only a side hustle for you, you should be fine using the cheaper Premium version.
The Bottom Line
The Hurdlr app is a revolutionary tool for freelancers of all kinds. As it pretty much handles your business income and expenses tracking, as well as mileage tracking for you, it frees up more time for you to focus on your work, instead of stressing over spreadsheets and fiscal calculations. It is particularly beachyspharmacy.com useful for those who drive for a living, be it ridesharing or delivery drivers. The free version includes semi-automatic mileage tracking that makes tracking your miles for tax deductions a whole lot simpler. If you’re a full-time driver, invest in Hurdlr Premium to get a fully automated version of the same tracker so you can sit back, relax, and keep driving without worrying about missing some miles.
All in all, Hurdlr is quickly becoming a must-have app for freelancers and side hustlers from all walks of life, especially drivers. If you’re a gig economy worker and haven’t tried it yet, you should definitely give it a shot. If you like it enough to purchase the Premium or Pro subscription, it will count as a tax-deductible, essential business expense!
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