For freelancers
Lumpy freelance income, finally easy to read.
Connect the accounts you use for client work and ask Sprout what came in, what went out, and what changed. Keep business and personal money apart by choosing which accounts each question covers.
The short answer
Sprout AI works as an expense and income tracker for freelancers and the self-employed. It reads the bank and card accounts you connect through Plaid, read-only, and answers questions about client payments, business expenses, software subscriptions, and cash flow. Choose which accounts a review covers to keep business and personal money separate.
Ask it like this
- “How much did clients pay me last quarter?”
- “What did my business card spend on software this year?”
- “Compare my income in the first and second half of the year.”
- “Which subscriptions on my business card renew next month?”
- “What were my biggest business expenses in September, by merchant?”
- “Show my net cash flow by month on Business Checking.”
Sproutsample answerHow much did clients pay me in Q3, by client?
Client payments into Business Checking totalled $24,600 from July through September. Northwind Studio paid the most. Juniper Labs' latest payment landed on 2 October, so it falls outside this range.
$24,600client payments, Q318% more than Q2
- Read from
- 14 deposits · 1 Jul–30 Sep 2026 · Business Checking
Make sense of irregular income
Freelance income arrives in lumps. A $9,000 month follows a $2,400 month, and averages hide what actually happened. Sprout reads every deposit in the accounts you connect, so you can ask what came in by week or month, which months ran short, and how this quarter compares with the last one.
Cash flow answers show inflows, outflows, and net cash flow, with transfers between your own accounts left out, so moving money to savings never looks like income. Net cash flow is not profit in the accounting sense. Our guide to cash flow vs profit explains the difference before tax season makes it urgent.
Keep business and personal apart by choosing accounts
The cleanest setup is a dedicated business checking account and card. Connect both alongside your personal accounts, then pick which accounts a question covers. Ask for business spending in September and Sprout reads only the business accounts. Ask about groceries and it reads only the personal ones. Account names don't decide that. You do.
If business and personal still share a card, search that card by merchant to pull out the work costs, like every charge from your coworking space. Our guide to separating business and personal expenses covers how to set up accounts so the split stays clean from here on.
See every client payment
Searching your bank feed is faster than digging through email to confirm a client paid. Ask whether a $3,700 deposit from Juniper Labs arrived in October, or list every payment from Northwind Studio this year. Sprout searches by name, amount, date, and account, and shows the matching transactions with their dates.
Sprout only sees what reaches your bank, so it can confirm a payment landed, but it doesn't send invoices or track who still owes you. Pair it with your invoicing tool: the invoicing tool says what you billed, and Sprout shows what actually arrived and when.
Catch the software subscriptions that pile up
Design tools, cloud storage, scheduling apps, and AI tools all bill monthly or yearly, and they rarely ask before renewing. Sprout detects repeating charges, estimates the next date, and shows the annualized cost, so a $29-a-month tool reads as $348 a year. It also flags price changes when a plan quietly goes up.
Detections are estimates for you to review. Sprout doesn't cancel subscriptions; it tells you what is renewing and what it costs, and you cancel with the provider. The subscription tracker shows the full set of questions you can ask about recurring charges.
Quarterly reviews for your accountant
A quarterly money review keeps tax season from turning into an archaeology dig. Sprout won't give tax advice or file anything, but it gets the numbers ready for the person who does. Run the review below on your business accounts once a quarter and bring the answers to your accountant.
Choose your business accounts
Pick the business checking account and card so personal spending stays out of the totals.
Pull income and spending totals
Ask for the quarter's inflows, outflows, and spending by category, with the exact change from last quarter.
Review the biggest expenses
List the largest purchases and any possible duplicates or unusually large charges, then check each one.
Check recurring costs
Ask which subscriptions renewed this quarter and what each one costs per year.
Write down your questions
Note what you want your accountant to weigh in on, such as which costs count as business expenses.
Use it where you work
Sprout runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the web. On iPhone, the daily Money Minute shows yesterday's spending next to your usual day, plus upcoming recurring charges, in about a minute. On the Mac or the web, a quarterly review is easier on a bigger screen with charts and tables.
If you spend your day in Claude, connect the Sprout plugin for Claude and ask about your business accounts without switching apps. Every answer names the accounts and dates it read, so you can check a number before you forward it to your accountant.
Common questions
Freelancers: your questions, answered.
What is the best expense tracker for freelancers?
The best one is the one you keep using, and manual trackers tend to fall behind. Sprout AI imports transactions automatically from the accounts you connect, read-only, and answers questions about income, expenses, and subscriptions, so there is nothing to keep up with.
Can Sprout separate business and personal expenses?
Yes, by account. Connect your business and personal accounts, then choose which ones a question or review covers. It works best when business runs through its own checking account and card. On a shared card, you can search by merchant to pull out business charges.
Does Sprout do my taxes or bookkeeping?
No. Sprout is informational and does not give tax advice, file returns, keep accounting books, or send invoices. It analyzes your bank and card transactions so you arrive at your accountant's office with clear totals, categories, and questions.
Can I track client payments with Sprout?
Yes. Client payments show up as deposits in the accounts you connect. Search by payer name, amount, or date to confirm a payment arrived, or ask for total income by month or quarter. Sprout sees what reached your bank, not what sits on an unpaid invoice.
Is it safe to connect my business bank account?
Access is read-only through Plaid, which runs the bank sign-in. Sprout never sees or stores your banking password and can't move money, pay bills, or change accounts. You choose which accounts to connect and can disconnect any of them at any time.
How much does Sprout cost for freelancers?
Sprout Plus costs US$99.99 per year or US$9.99 per week, or CA$129.99 and CA$12.99 in Canada. Eligible Apple accounts get a 3-day free trial on iPhone. See pricing for renewal terms and how to subscribe.
Does Sprout work with US and Canadian accounts at once?
Yes. Connect eligible accounts in both countries through Plaid. USD and CAD amounts stay in their own currencies and are never combined or converted, so a client paying in US dollars shows up as a separate US$ total.
Keep reading
Related on Sprout.
- Who it's forAsk your business accounts where the cash went.Ask about business cash flow, vendor payments, company card spend, and SaaS costs straight from your bank feeds.
- FeatureStop logging expenses. Start asking about them.Automatic expense tracking from your bank and card feeds, with vendor totals and records you can search.
- FeatureMore in than out? Know in one question.Money in, money out, and net cash flow by day, week, or month, with transfers between your accounts left out.
- GuideHow to separate business and personal financesSet up separate accounts, pay yourself on purpose, and untangle months of mixed spending.
- FeatureMeet every subscription you forgot you had.Find every recurring charge, what it costs per year, what renews next, and which ones quietly went up.
- GuideCash flow vs profit: why your bank balance and your books disagreeWhy a business can show a profit with an empty bank account, or plenty of cash and no profit.
Ask Sprout where your money went.
Connect your accounts read-only, ask in plain English, and get the number with the receipts. 3 days free on iPhone if eligible.
