Clearmargin

One app instead of ten.

Proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoicing, expenses, mileage, tax prep, client portal, inquiry form, and questionnaires — all connected. Click your way through, or just ask.

Pricing & feature data on this page is scraped directly from each competitor’s site. Last verified April 17, 2026.

A freelancer leaning back at a calm, uncluttered desk with one open laptop, sipping coffee in late-afternoon light
Click it. Ask it. Both work.

AI that does the work — not just the writing.

Every workflow has two ways in: a clean UI to click through, and an assistant to ask. Draft a proposal, scan a receipt, look up profit on a project — same data, same result. Use whichever is most natural for you.

  • Ask anything: "How profitable was the Smith wedding?", "Show overdue invoices over $1k" — answers come from your own data
  • Snap a receipt with your phone, forward an invoice from your inbox, or drop in a PDF — the assistant reads it and queues a categorized expense for you to approve
  • Send a questionnaire, then one-click draft a proposal from the response
  • The assistant can act anywhere in the app — drafting invoices, finding clients, looking up files, suggesting next steps
  • Optional onboarding helper: describe your business in plain English, get a configured workspace
  • Real-time web search for market rates and pricing benchmarks when you need them

Safety rail: The assistant drafts and proposes; it never sends, deletes, or charges. Every action waits for your click — so you can move fast without worrying about a runaway agent.

Fewer tools, more savings.

Clearmargin starts at $19/mo (billed annually) and replaces a stack of single-purpose tools that typically runs about $141/mo together at their best annual rates.

WorkflowClearmarginTypical separate tools (best annual rate)
ProposalsBuilt in
  • PandaDoc$19/mo · Essentials, paid annually
  • Better Proposals$19/mo · Starter, paid annually
  • Proposify$29/mo · Team, paid annually
Contracts & e-signaturesBuilt in
  • SignWell$8/mo · Personal, paid annually
  • Dropbox Sign$15/mo · Essentials, paid annually
  • DocuSign$10/mo · Personal, paid annually
Invoicing & paymentsBuilt in
  • Wave Pro$16/mo · paid annually
  • FreshBooks Lite$18/mo · paid annually, 5 client cap
  • Square Invoices Plus$20/mo · flat monthly
Time trackingBuilt in
  • Toggl Track Starter$9/mo · paid annually / user
  • Harvest$10.8/mo · paid annually / user
  • Clockify Standard$4.5/mo · paid annually / user
Expense & receipt trackingBuilt in
  • Expensify Collect$5/mo · flat per active user
  • Shoeboxed Lite$18/mo · paid annually
  • Dext Business$24/mo · paid annually
Mileage trackingBuilt in
  • MileIQ Unlimited$5/mo · paid annually ($59.99/yr)
  • Hurdlr Premium$8.34/mo · paid annually ($100/yr)
  • Stride$0/mo · free, ad-supported
Tax prep & quarterly estimatesBuilt in
  • FlyFin Premium$12/mo · paid annually ($144/yr)
  • Keeper Tax$16/mo · paid annually ($192/yr)
  • Stride Tax$0/mo · free, limited
Inquiry formBuilt in
  • Calendly Standard$10/mo · paid annually / seat
  • SimplyBook Standard$9.9/mo · paid annually
  • Acuity Emerging$16/mo · paid annually
Client portalBuilt in
  • SuiteDash Start$16/mo · paid annually
  • Plutio Solo$15/mo · paid annually
  • Copilot Starter$25/mo · paid annually
Questionnaires & formsBuilt in
  • Typeform Basic$28/mo · paid annually
  • Jotform Bronze$24/mo · paid annually
  • Google Forms$0/mo · free, basic
Total best annual rate$19/mo$228/year~$141/mo~$1692/year (median across each row)

Save ~$1,464/year and your data stops living in ten different places.

Comparison uses the lowest publicly advertised annualrate for each tool — the same basis as Clearmargin’s $19/mo. Verified against each vendor’s pricing page on April 17, 2026.

What’s in the box

Built for freelancers and small teams. Everything here is included on every plan unless otherwise noted.

An inquiry form that feeds a real pipeline

Share one link — your clients see your services, pick a date, and answer the questions you actually need. New inquiries land on a kanban pipeline you can move, qualify, and convert into a client and project in one click. No copy-paste between Calendly and a spreadsheet.

Questionnaires that draft your proposals

Send a customizable intake form — wedding details, project scope, dietary needs, whatever you ask. When the response comes back, one click sends it to the AI to draft a full proposal from their answers. Edit, send, done.

Proposals pre-filled from your past work

Add a service to a proposal and see what it actually took last time — hours, materials, markup. Quote with data, not gut feel. Save templates so the next one takes minutes, not afternoons.

Contracts and e-signatures, built in

Reusable contract templates with merge fields and a clause library. Bundle a proposal and contract as one signed agreement — your client sees the work and the terms, signs both at once. No DocuSign tab, no chasing.

Every client conversation in one place

From the first inquiry to the last receipt, every message, proposal, invoice, and signed contract sits on the client's timeline. Reply from the app or your inbox — both land in the same thread, so nothing gets lost.

A client portal with no passwords

A branded link your clients open to see their proposals, invoices, contracts, questionnaires, and receipts. No accounts to make, no logins to forget — they just click and act.

Invoicing and payments without the markup

Stripe Connect with direct charges — your clients pay you directly at Stripe's standard rates. No platform fee, no per-invoice charge, no revenue share. Recurring billing, deposits, payment schedules, and saved cards all included.

Profit per client, in real time

Every hour, expense, and invoice feeds into a live margin view. Revenue minus labor minus expenses, per client and per project — always current. Not just “how much did I bill” but how much did I actually keep.

Tax Center built for Schedule C, not bookkeepers

Schedule C reports, mileage tracking, quarterly estimates, home office deduction, 1099 prep for vendors. Hand your accountant a full tax package in one click — CSV, QuickBooks Online, or QuickBooks Desktop IIF format.

Click it. Ask it. Both work.

Every workflow has two ways in: a clean UI to click through, and an assistant to ask. Draft a proposal, look up profit on a project, find an overdue invoice — same data, same result. Use whichever is most natural for you.

Snap-and-file receipts and documents

Snap a photo of a receipt with your phone, forward an invoice from your inbox, or drop in a PDF. Clearmargin reads it, categorizes it to the right Schedule C line, and queues an expense for you to approve. No typing.

Recipe and BOM costing with markup cascade

For florists, balloon artists, bakers, makers, and anyone who builds things: maintain materials lists with category-level markup. Update one stem cost or one foam-board price and every open quote refreshes. Snapshots lock in the cost at quote time so you can trust historical margin.

Rate cascading and minimum billing

Set rates per member, override per client, override per project. Add overtime, rush, or weekend multipliers. Configure minimum billable hours per rate type and billing increments — the way real consulting and on-site work actually bills.

Real REST API and signed webhooks

Scoped API keys, HMAC-signed webhooks for 30+ events, and a Zapier app with 8 triggers and 4 actions. Make, n8n, Slack, Discord, and Telegram already supported. Build on top of Clearmargin — actually.

How we stack up, at a glance

Eight competitors, the features that matter, all on one screen. Every cell verified against the competitor’s public pricing & feature pages.

FeatureClear­marginHoneyBookDubsadoQuickBooksFreshBooksBonsaiMoxieWave17hats
Starting price / mobest annual rate$19$29$27.92$20$23$9/u$10Free$33.33
AI assistantlimited
Receipt & document scanningexpense receipts onlyexpense receipts onlyreceipts only
Per-client profitabilityproject-level onlyPlus tier and abovebudget tracking only
ProposalsPlus tier and above
Contracts & e-signatures
Invoicing
Time trackingseparate add-on (QuickBooks Time)
Mileage tracking
Recipe / BOM costing
Schedule C tax exportsSolopreneur tier onlygeneric tax reports
Client portalbasic
Inquiry formcontact formlead capture forms
Workflow automationvia ZapierPremier onlylimitedPro+
REST APIlimited
Webhooks
Unlimited clientsPremium tier only
includednot includedpartialtext = tier or caveat

Payments without the markup

Clearmargin uses Stripe Connect with direct charges — your clients pay you directly. Just Stripe’s standard processing rates.

No platform fees. No per-invoice charges. No revenue sharing.

Already have data in QuickBooks?

Import your clients, invoices, and history in minutes. Read-only access — we never modify your QuickBooks data.

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