Hurdlr Review: Pricing & Features
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
What We Recommend Hurdlr for
Hurdlr is a great mileage, expense, income, and tax tracker for self-employed individuals. With the Premium plan, self-employed individuals can streamline their income and expense tracking with Hurdlr’s automated tracking, custom rules, and payment channel integrations. Moreover, small companies with minor accounting and invoicing needs can choose the Pro plan, which includes a basic double-entry bookkeeping system.
We think that Hurdlr is best for:
- Part-timers and self-employed individuals who need mileage, expense, and income tracking: Hurdlr combines mileage, income, expense, and tax tracking into one app. It’s our best mileage tracker app for self-employed individuals.
- Individuals who are looking for tax tracking and reporting: Hurdlr’s tax tracking, estimating, and reporting features can help individuals efficiently budget their money for tax obligations. With Hurdlr’s Tax Engine, you can project estimated tax payments and set aside how much cash you need to pay.
- Companies that need a simple accounting system and mileage tracking: If your business doesn’t maintain inventories or has lots of bills to organize, Hurdlr Pro’s accounting and invoicing features can help in keeping your transactions organized. Hurdlr’s accounting features are basic and suitable if you don’t have complex transactions.
Hurdlr Alternatives
- QuickBooks Online: Hurdlr’s accounting features aren’t as comprehensive as those of QuickBooks Online, our best small business accounting software. QuickBooks is a full-fledged bookkeeping system that also includes a mobile app with mileage tracking. Choose QuickBooks if your business maintains inventory because Hurdlr doesn’t have inventory management features. QuickBooks Online starts at $30 per month.
- MileIQ: Hurdlr can be expensive if you want to track your mileage automatically. Instead, MileIQ offers an affordable alternative at just half the price of Hurdlr Premium. More so, if you have Office 365 Business subscriptions, you get MileIQ Unlimited for free. MileIQ Personal is free for 40 drives but you can get MileIQ Unlimited for $5.99 per month. MileIQ Teams start at $5 per user monthly but the pro plan charges $10 per user monthly
- TripLog: Hurdlr’s mileage tracking is straightforward but doesn’t offer many advanced options. You may find TripLog more attractive if you want approval workflow features. TripLog is our overall best mileage tracker app, and we recommend it if you have voluminous mileage expenses. TripLog Lite is free for a single user but you can upgrade to Premium for $4.99 per user, per month—a maximum of 10 users. If you have more than 10 users, TripLog Enterprise offers unlimited users but the pricing is quote-based.
Hurdlr Pros and Cons
PROS | CONS |
---|---|
Tax calculation feature under the free plan | No option to choose between actual expense over standard rates for mileage deductions |
Accounting and invoicing features in higher plans | Semi-automatic tracking classifies trips as business, and they can’t be tagged as personal |
Financial reporting features under Pro plan | Pro plan cannot be billed monthly |
Includes income, expense, and mileage tracking | |
Time and Task feature for computing billable hours | |
Helpful support site called Hurdlr University |
Hurdlr Pricing
Free | Premium | Pro | |
---|---|---|---|
Monthly Price If Billed Monthly | $0 | $10 | N/A |
Monthly Price If Billed Annually | $0 | $8.34 | $16.67 |
Track Income and Expenses Manually | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Summary of Tax Calculations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Mileage Semi-automatically | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Export Standard Financial Reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Mileage Automatically | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Expense Automatically Through Machine Learning (ML) | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Income Automatically | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Detail Tax Computations in Real-time | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Tag Speed | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Set Up Work Hours | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Create Custom Rules | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
Annual Tax filing, Including Federal & 1 State Filing | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Invoicing Capabilities1 | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Add Your Accountant | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Accounting Features2 | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Advanced Financial Reporting Features3 | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Advanced Transaction Search | N/A | N/A | ✓ |
Notes:
- Create and send invoices to clients. Accept credit card payments. Reconcile payments automatically.
- Includes full double-entry accounting, chart of accounts, and general ledger (GL).
- Generate balance sheet, trial balance, and client reports.
Hurdlr Features
Hurdlr features free and unlimited mileage tracking in its Free plan. However, it offers more interesting features for Premium and Pro. Let’s check out Hurdlr’s most notable features.
Through the mobile application, you can track your mileage manually, semi-automatically, or automatically:
- Manual tracking: Enter mileage driven and start/stop locations in the app manually.
- Semi-automatic tracking: Push a button in the app to start and stop business mileage tracking manually using your phone’s GPS. Trips will be tagged as business and can’t be changed to personal.
- Automatic tracking: The app runs in the background and records trips automatically using your phone’s GPS based on when your vehicle starts and stops moving. All trips will be recorded and then you tag them as business or personal. This isn’t available in the free plan.
The Free plan allows manual and semi-automatic tracking. For purely manual tracking, you need to enter all drive details, including the mileage driven and the start/stop locations. The semi-automatic tracking feature allows you to use GPS for location tracking.
Recording mileage manually on Hurdlr
In semi-automatic tracking, you can use your phone’s GPS services to track your mileage by starting and stopping the trip in the app. Meaning, you don’t have to input your miles traveled manually. If you use semi-automatic tracking, Hurdlr will tag the trip as business and it cannot be reclassified as personal. For Premium and Pro plans, automatic tracking is included. With automatic tracking, Hurdlr will start and stop detection automatically. You can also classify these trips as business or personal.
One of Hurdlr’s greatest features is its tax tracking and estimation. Hurdlr computes your tax obligations automatically based on IRS standard mileage rates. However, tax calculations are mere estimates. Self-employed individuals should comply with IRS requirements like making estimated quarterly tax payments. For Hurdlr to estimate your tax, you must provide basic tax information so that the software can determine the most likely amount of tax payable based on your income.
Under the Pro plan, you can invite your accountant to see your tax information on Hurdlr. If you’re filing for yourself, Hurdlr’s reports can help you fill out Form 1040, Schedule C. Another perk of the Pro plan is its advanced tax reporting capabilities. You can also include a home office deduction under the Pro plan to arrive at your taxable net income.
Income and expense tracking also come easy with Hurdlr. In the Free plan, you can record income and expenses manually. For paid plans, you’ll enjoy automatic tracking and recording once you receive the income or pay an expense. You can record income and expense manually as well if you don’t have a bank connection.
Recording income manually
Once you connect your bank cards (debit and credit) and other payment channels like PayPal, every charge and credit to your accounts will be sent to Hurdlr. In the app, you can classify this income or expense as either Business or Personal. A swipe to the right tags it as Business and to the left tags it as if Personal. Moreover, you set rules on Hurdlr to tag income or expense payments automatically as Business or Personal. In this way, you won’t spend much time tagging income and expenses.
With the Pro plan of Hurdlr, you can enjoy invoicing features that complement mileage and expense tracking.
Invoices Dashboard on Hurdlr (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
On Hurdlr, you can generate invoices to send to your client. You can even personalize your invoice by including your logo and brand color. Once you’re done filling in the invoice form, Hurdlr will generate your actual invoice that can be exported or sent via email.
Creating an Invoice on Hurdlr Pro (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
If your invoice is based on billable hours, Hurdlr’s Time and Task feature—included in the Pro plan—can assist you in billing your client. You can track your time automatically or enter it manually.
You can start and stop a timer in the background and then assign the time to a client. Hurdlr will record hours spent, which can be used in invoicing clients. Otherwise, you can enter work hours manually.
Adding Hours Worked in an Invoice (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
Aside from hours worked, you can add expenses you’ve incurred on behalf of the client. To include them in the invoice, you must first record these expenses in the expense tracker and then add them as an item on the invoice form. Once you’re done adding your time and expenses, you can generate an invoice with your logo. You can export the invoice immediately or save it to be sent at a later time.
Finalizing an Invoice on Hurdlr (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
After submitting invoices to clients, all open invoices will be listed in the Invoices dashboard. If clients submit a payment to your bank accounts connected to Hurdlr, you can reconcile open invoices easily by choosing a payment channel.
Adding Invoice Payments on Hurdlr (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
By clicking Add Cash Payment or Add Bank Transaction, Hurdlr will show you a list of transactions. Then, you can choose the transaction that matches the invoice, and Hurdlr will mark the invoice as fully paid.
Hurdlr Pro offers basic accounting features like a chart of accounts, journal entries, and financial reporting. If you’re familiar with double-entry bookkeeping, Hurdlr’s simple accounting system will be easy to use.
Chart of Accounts
Your chart of accounts will show the account name, account number, and running balance. If you click each financial statement element, such as Assets, it’ll show you the breakdown of accounts within that element. If you click further, you’ll see specific accounts like Cash and Cash Equivalents or Accounts Receivable.
Chart of Accounts on Hurdlr Pro (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
General Ledger
To see the transactions in every account, you can access the general ledger. It’ll show you the debits and credits in each account and its running balance. In this section, you can also add a journal entry by clicking Add Entry in the top right corner of the screen.
General Ledger on Hurdlr Pro (Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
With the Pro plan, you have additional options to consider in recording a disbursement. You can associate disbursements with specific general ledger accounts based on the nature of the disbursement. If you click Expense Type, Hurdlr will ask you to choose how you want to account for the disbursement:
- Expense: Account for the disbursement as a normal expense line item on the income statement under operations like salaries and wages
- COGS: Account for the disbursement as part of the cost of goods sold (COGS) for direct costs of manufacturing goods or performing services like direct materials
- Asset: Account for the disbursement as an acquisition of an asset like furniture and equipment
- Equity: Account for the disbursement as a reduction to equity accounts like drawings
- Other Expense: Residual type in case the expense can’t be attributed to any of the following above
After including its type, you can categorize the expense further. The category drop-down menu will vary depending on the expense type you choose. If you choose Expense, it’ll show all expense accounts in your ledger. If you choose Asset, you’ll see all asset accounts instead.
Choosing an Expense Type when recording a disbursement
(Source: Hurdlr Tutorial Videos)
What Users Say in Hurdlr Reviews
Hurdlr’s offerings aim to help small businesses and freelancers with a convenient way of tracking their income, expenses, and taxes. Based on user reviews from popular review sites, Hurdle got the following scores:
- Google Play: 4.4 stars based on nearly 8,000 reviews
- App Store: 4.7 stars based on about 16,000 reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 stars based on eight reviews
- Capterra: 4.1 out of 5 stars based on eight reviews
The low number of Hurdlr reviews on user review sites like G2 and Capterra makes the scores unreliable. We don’t recommend fully trusting the scores because only a few people reviewed the software. However, Hurdlr received high scores on Google Play and App Store.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your job involves driving your personal vehicle for business purposes, then you probably need a mileage tracker. However, driving to and from work is commuting and doesn’t count as a business purpose. Also, employees cannot deduct employee business expenses, so mileage is only deductible if you’re a freelancer or self-employed.
The best mileage tracker apps use GPS tracking to accurately track miles. The best apps can run in the background and detect the beginning and ending of a trip automatically, without any input from the user. Of course, a good mileage tracking app should also include manual tracking features so that you can add trips where the app wasn’t running or you didn’t have your device.
The IRS doesn’t allow mileage to and from work as a deductible expense. The IRS considers this as “commuting” and it cannot be claimed as mileage deductions.
Provided you are a freelancer or self-employed and not an employee, you can deduct expenses for the following mileage:
- Traveling from a regular work location to a temporary work location is deductible.
- Traveling from your home to a temporary work location is deductible only if you have a regular work location at another location.
- Traveling from a regular or temporary work location to a second job is deductible.
- Traveling from home to a regular work location or directly to a second job is considered commuting and is not deductible.
Bottom Line
Along with its mileage tracking capabilities, we like Hurdlr’s tax reporting features because it helps self-employed individuals manage their tax payments and claim tax deductions when recording a business expense. Users can also track income and expenses and manage receipts. Overall, Hurdlr is a worthy investment if the app’s features fit your needs as a small business or freelancer.