Yoley vs QuickBooks

Different tools, different jobs

This isn’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison. QuickBooks is a general-purpose accounting system that a trade business can use. Yoley is a trade-business app that happens to produce clean accounting-ready exports. The question for most tradespeople is: what do I use day-to-day on my phone, and what do I (or my accountant) use at year-end?

For most sole traders, the answer is: Yoley for daily work, an accountant for the year-end. You avoid a £120–£192/year subscription on QuickBooks’ entry plans and you get a workflow built for how you actually work (on site, one-handed, with a receipt in the other hand).

The CIS question

QuickBooks does handle CIS, from the Simple Start plan at £16/month upwards — so this isn’t a feature you have to buy an expensive tier to reach. The difference is where CIS sits. In QuickBooks it lives in the bookkeeping ledger, which is where your accountant works. In Yoley it sits on the invoice you raise on site, which is where you work.

Yoley includes CIS deduction handling (20% / 30% / 0% rates), UTR numbers, automatic calculation on subcontractor invoices — all included free. For a main contractor hiring subbies, this is a meaningful win.

Where QuickBooks wins

• Full double-entry accounting. QuickBooks is built for proper accounting with a chart of accounts, profit & loss, balance sheet. Yoley is not an accounting system.
• Direct MTD VAT submissions. If you’re VAT-registered and submitting MTD returns, QuickBooks does it natively. Yoley exports VAT-ready data but doesn’t submit for you.
• Self-assessment submission. At Plus tier, QuickBooks can submit your SA return. Yoley produces SA103-ready exports for your accountant.
• Multi-currency, payroll, multi-user. All stronger in QuickBooks.
• Web and desktop. QuickBooks works in a browser as well as on phones. Yoley is phone-only — iPhone now, Android in beta.

Where Yoley wins

• £0 monthly. Free forever, no 30-day trial that switches to a bill.
• CIS included free, and applied on the invoice rather than in the ledger.
• Quote-to-invoice-to-paid workflow that’s built for iPhone use on site. QuickBooks’ mobile experience is an accounting app in a phone form factor.
• Receipt OCR on-device — no cloud, no monthly cap.
• HMRC SA103 mapping for every expense automatically.
• Card payments from 0.99% + 5p, with a payment link on every invoice. QuickBooks Payments in the UK is typically more expensive for card-present equivalents.
• Face ID, iCloud CloudKit sync, on-device privacy — Yoley is built for how iPhone users actually work.

Running both (what many tradespeople actually do)

A common setup: Yoley for the day-to-day (quotes, invoices, job diary, receipt scanning, card payments, CIS), then once a quarter or at year-end, export your data to CSV and hand it to your accountant — or import it into QuickBooks if you already use it. You save the subscription cost on daily tools and still get proper year-end accounting. For most UK sole traders on iPhone, this hybrid is the optimal setup.

Who should pick which

Pick QuickBooks if…

• You’re VAT-registered and need to submit MTD returns yourself.
• You run payroll, have multi-currency operations, or need double-entry accounting.
• You work primarily on a laptop and the on-site experience doesn’t matter.

Pick Yoley if…

• You’re a UK sole trader or small trade business on iPhone, or happy to join the Android beta.
• You want CIS handled where you raise the invoice, not where you do the books.
• Your admin needs to happen in the van, not at a desk.
• You use an accountant for year-end anyway.

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