Welcome to Hnry! We’re stoked to have you on board.
Hnry is on a mission to make earning self-employed income easy and affordable – and you’re already well on your way to reaping the benefits (mind the pun)!
Now that you’re up and running, there are a few things we recommend doing to really get your 1% fee’s worth. The more you get out of our products, features, and service, the easier it’ll be for you to:
- get paid faster by your clients (by 8 days, on average!)
- claim all the tax deductions you’re eligible for
- automate your expenses, including tracking trips in your work vehicle
- and, of course, pay less tax (no, really!)
We’re completely biased, but we genuinely believe that Hnry is the easiest way for sole traders to stay on top of their financial and tax admin. That’s because we’ve built Hnry specifically around the needs of self-employed people — including creating new features our customers ask for.
All that sound good to you? Brilliant! Here are five simple tips to help you make the most of Hnry.
1. List your income outside Hnry
Let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start).
When you first join Hnry, we begin calculating your taxes based on the information you give us during onboarding – including any income you earn outside your sole trader business.
That’s because, as a sole trader, you and your business are considered one by the ATO. Any income you earn through your business counts towards your individual taxable income, alongside any salary, investment, or other personal income. We use all of this to calculate your effective tax rate.
💡 An effective tax rate is exactly what it says on the tin: the actual percentage of your total income that you pay in income tax.
If we don’t know about your earnings outside Hnry, we can’t include them in our tax calculations!
Don’t worry if you don’t have an exact figure – an estimate is enough to help us get started.
And remember, if your situation changes down the track, you can always let the Hnry team know! We can update your details for you.
2. Get paid into your Hnry Account
If you haven’t already, get paid into your Hnry Account – and watch the magic happen.
Every time you’re paid into your Hnry Account, we automatically calculate, deduct, and pay any income tax, Medicare levy, and student loan repayments you may owe on that amount. The rest we forward to your bank account straight away – yours to spend as you like!
(We also sort your GST if you’re registered – learn more.)
The beauty of this is that our tax calculations automatically adjust as you go, based on both your real-time earnings and any claimable expenses you raise. This means that we’re always deducting the right amount of tax, and we pass on any tax savings you’re eligible for as you go. No need to wait until the end of the financial year.
How to get paid into Hnry
The easiest way to get paid into Hnry is by invoicing your clients through the Hnry App. Every invoice automatically includes your Hnry Account details and is fully compliant with the ATO’s invoicing requirements.
As an added bonus, if you turn on the automatic invoice chasing feature, we’ll remind any late-paying clients that their payment is due on your behalf (politely, of course!). Our research shows that customers who use this feature get paid an average of eight days faster.
If you don’t need to invoice your clients, you can still manually send them your Hnry Account details. Easy!
The Hnry App will automatically generate a pay summary for each payment processed, including the amount deducted to cover your tax obligations. If you have any questions about how it all works, you can ask the friendly Hnry Team – we’re here to help!
3. Automate expense admin with the Hnry Business Mastercard
Here at Hnry, we know that the best way to (legally) save on your taxes as a sole trader is to claim all valid tax deductions.
Unfortunately, our research shows that nearly half of Australian sole traders aren’t claiming everything they’re entitled to. That’s money left on the table!
Enter the Hnry Business Mastercard.
When you make a purchase with your Hnry Business Mastercard, it automatically raises an expense in the Hnry App. From there, all you need to do is add a few extra details, upload a photo of your receipt, and hit “Submit”. That’s it! Expense raised!
Better still, we keep a record of your purchase for five years, as required by the ATO. You can go ahead and throw that receipt in the bin – we’ve got you sorted.
4. Raise expenses as you go
If, for whatever reason, the Hnry Business Mastercard is not for you, no worries! You can still raise expenses as you go in the Hnry App.
It’s as simple as:
- Creating a new expense under the “Expenses” tab
- Filling in a few details
- Uploading a photo of your receipt
- Hitting “Submit”.
Sorted!
Once you’ve submitted an eligible expense, we’ll factor it into your tax calculations. That means any tax savings you’re entitled to are passed on from your very next pay – you don’t have to wait until the end of the financial year for a refund. It’s extra cash in your pocket when you need it – how good!
The Hnry Dashboard also includes a graph of your monthly profit (sales made minus expenses purchased). As you can imagine, the best way to keep it accurate is to raise expenses at the point of purchase.
You’re also less likely to let anything fall through the cracks. It’s one habit that literally pays to have.
5. Track your mileage with Mileage by Hnry
If you use a vehicle for work, you’ll probably know that the ATO expects you to keep records of your work-related travel in order to claim vehicle expenses. The good news is that you don’t have to do this in a spreadsheet anymore.
To help keep things as easy as pie, we built Mileage by Hnry – an app designed to track your work trips so you can export and raise the relevant expenses in the Hnry App.
Mileage is the simplest possible way to keep a digital logbook, because it’s all automatic. Once you’ve enabled the right permissions, it whirs away in the background, logging your trips, ready for you to review.
If you’re not keen on automatic tracking, you also have the option to manually enter your trips into the app. Easy.
Then, when you’re ready, you can send a record of your work trips straight to the Hnry App to raise as an expense. One less admin job to think about – and one more way to make sure you’re claiming everything you’re eligible for.
About Hnry
Hnry is an award-winning app and tax service designed to help sole traders with their financial admin.
For just 1% +GST of your self-employed income, capped at $1,500 +GST a year, Hnry will calculate and pay all your taxes, levies and whatnot for you, including:
We also complete and lodge your tax return and BAS for you whenever they’re due, including claiming any tax relief you may be eligible for. It’s all part of the service!
More importantly, we free up thousands of hours for sole traders to focus more on what they do best – their jobs. Hnry is on a mission to make being a sole trader simple, affordable, and accessible for anyone.