Everything between getting paid and filing.
A calculator is a one-day product. This is the rest of the year: the split, the reserve, what is yours to spend, the books, the moves that cut the bill, and a file your accountant can work from. Each part below, in detail.
The number, computed the way a preparer would
Every constant cited to its Revenue Procedure or Notice. Every approximation surfaced. Nothing from memory.
2026 tables, sourced
Brackets from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the Social Security wage base, the additional Medicare threshold, the standard deduction. Each carries its citation in the code and in the export.
Self-employment tax done properly
92.35 percent of net profit, the 400 dollar floor treated as the cliff it is, the half-SE deduction fed back into AGI.
Section 199A, both directions
The 20 percent deduction with the SSTB phase-out, the wage and property limitation, and the OBBBA 400 dollar floor. The clawback is modelled when a retirement contribution reduces QBI.
Both safe-harbor tests
100 or 110 percent of last year, 90 percent of this year, whichever is lower, with the AGI threshold applied. The quarterly figure is the one that avoids the penalty, not the one that merely matches the liability.
Prior year, honoured
Enter last year's tax and AGI and the safe harbor switches basis automatically. Leave them blank and the app says so rather than guessing.
Quarters by the IRS calendar
Uneven periods, real due dates, weekend and holiday rolls, and the January payment that belongs to the prior year.
Every deposit split. Every gap closed.
The annual figure becomes a per-deposit rate. The reserve account is watched. The shortfall becomes a task.
A rate from your safe harbor
Not 30 percent. The share of gross income that funds this year's safe-harbor figure, recomputed as income, expenses and payments change. Or set your own.
Per deposit, to the cent
Each business deposit gets its reserve amount the moment it posts. The total is the sum of those exact figures, so following the instructions produces the number.
The reserve is watched, not assumed
Pick a reserve account. The balance is read on every sync, netted against a baseline for money that was already there, and compared with what should have accrued.
Nudged before the deadline
Fall more than a quarter's payment behind and the dashboard says so. The cross-check against deadlines already passed shows the penalty-relevant shortfall separately.
Approved reserve transfers
When the reserve is behind, one transfer is proposed for the gap. You approve it, move it at your bank, and the feed confirms it when the deposit lands. Nothing is initiated on your behalf.
Payments recorded, reserve drawn down
Record each 1040-ES payment and the required reserve drops by it, so the figure never keeps climbing after April.
Somewhere apart for the reserve
Most people are best served by a savings account at their own bank. For anyone who would rather keep it inside ExactSplit, there is a wallet.
Opened from the dashboard
One page, one checkbox confirming you have read the disclosures, and a button. No separate sign-up, no second login.
Verified by Whop
Identity verification runs inside the page and is carried out by Whop. ExactSplit never sees your documents.
A full account when you want one
Deposit from your bank and withdraw back to it. Beyond that: send money, convert to crypto, issue cards, take payments with links and invoices, and export reports. For the reserve itself, deposit and withdraw is all you need.
Held by partner banks
Whop is a technology platform; its partner banks hold the funds, which may be eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance within its limits. ExactSplit never holds your money.
Scoped, short-lived access
Each visit gets a token that works only on your wallet and expires within minutes. The permissions are fixed in code and checked by a test.
What is yours to move, today
The question between the deadlines, answered from your own balances and history.
Operating balance, correctly scoped
Business and mixed checking accounts, excluding the reserve. Personal accounts are not the business's to draw on.
Tax not yet set aside
Liability accrued to date, less withholding to date, less payments recorded, less what is already sitting in the reserve.
Recurring bills, detected
A merchant that has charged a stable amount at a steady cadence at least three times. Calendar cadences project by month. A bill more than one cycle overdue is presumed cancelled.
A buffer you choose
Fourteen days of typical spend by default, or a fixed amount. It is the one input that is a preference, so it is a setting.
Age shown, never hidden
Every input is a balance from the last sync. The panel says when that was and suggests a sync after a day and a half.
Books that keep themselves, judged against your trade
Read-only feed in, classified ledger out, with the provenance of every decision.
Four decisions, in order
A designated account settles it outright. Then your rule table. Then a batched model call for merchants no rule covers, judged against the trade you named. Then a trade-blind heuristic that prefers personal.
Rules that learn
One correction writes a rule for that merchant, scoped to you. The same merchant never costs a second model call.
Internal transfers found
Money moving between your own accounts appears twice and is forced to ignore, so a savings transfer is never income and never an expense.
Ask your books
"What did the Denver trip cost?" The assistant picks a tested query and narrates the result. It never does arithmetic itself and never gives advice. Off until the compliance prerequisites are met.
Provenance on every row
Account, rule, model, heuristic, transfer, or you. Visible in the ledger and in the export.
The deduction that survives an audit
Section 274(d) treats date, miles, destination and purpose as a set. So does the schema.
All four fields, or no trip
A trip missing any one is not a smaller deduction, it is none. The app refuses to store one.
Rated by trip date
72.5 cents through June 30, 76 cents from July 1, per Notice 2026-10 and Announcement 2026-11. Each trip carries its own rate and citation.
Optional distance lookup
A routing service can suggest miles from two addresses. The stored figure is always what you accepted or corrected.
No tracking, ever
No GPS, no background location. A trip exists because you typed it.
The moves that cut the bill, priced exactly
Not a suggestion to "consider a solo 401(k)". The dollar saving, after every interaction.
SEP and solo 401(k), each to its own limit
The 25 percent employer figure that is really 20 percent of net earnings, solved in closed form. The 415(c) and 401(a)(17) caps. Catch-ups by age from Notice 2025-67.
Saving measured by re-running the engine
One more dollar in the 401(k) changes SE tax, AGI, the QBI deduction and the bracket. The optimiser re-runs the whole calculation rather than multiplying by a marginal rate.
Health insurance, limited correctly
The self-employed health deduction capped at net earnings less the retirement deduction, in the order the form requires.
S-corp crossover, both ways
Employment tax saved at your salary ratio, payroll and preparation costs subtracted, the state franchise fee, and the 199A effect modelled whichever way it cuts. Always flagged for a CPA.
A whole workflow for commission income
The first profession pack. Income recognised at net, the trade's merchants already known, and a closings pipeline.
Net, not gross
The brokerage split never reaches you. The deposit is the income; the 1099 will match.
The merchants, pre-taught
MLS and board dues, E&O, Supra and SentriLock, ShowingTime, transaction software, staging, signage, lead generation. Brokerages, title and escrow on the income side.
Closings pipeline
Each pending closing becomes a probability-weighted net commission. The in-year total raises the projection and the set-aside rate before the check arrives.
Closed means closed
Mark it closed when the deposit posts and it leaves the forecast the same day. A slipped closing lands in the current quarter rather than vanishing.
A four-step guide
Shown once the pack is chosen: what the check is, which account to mark, what to put in the pipeline, and why the mileage log matters more here than anywhere.
Give them the file, not the shoebox
Invite by email. They get a private link, no account. They see the numbers, ask about rows, and sign off quarters.
A bounded view
Estimate, quarterly figures, reserve status, payments, mileage, pipeline, and business transactions from the last 120 days. Never balances, personal rows, bank logins or prior-year entries.
Questions where the row is
Ask about a transaction and the question arrives pinned to it, with merchant, date and amount. You answer under it. Resolved items stay on record.
Document requests
Specific, visible to both of you, impossible to lose. The file itself travels the way it already does.
Quarterly sign-off
Approval records the figure as it stood. If the number moves afterwards, the card turns amber and shows both figures.
Revocable in one click
The link's hash rotates; the old link is dead. Everything they asked and approved stays on your account.
Schedule C working papers
The file a CPA can work from, with the caveats written in for the one who never saw the app.
Part II, line by line
Every deductible transaction assigned to its line, subtotals per line, and line 27a itemised so a large figure is a list rather than a question.
Mileage log attached
Every substantiated trip with its date, miles, destination, purpose, rate and amount.
Caveats in the file
What was not covered: home office, depreciation, inventory, the things the feed cannot see. Written into the export so nobody has to remember.
CSV and printable
For the accountant's software and for the accountant's desk.
Offered inside the tools people already use
A brokerage, contractor platform or payroll provider can embed the split, refer users, and receive signed events.
Stateless estimate and split
A bearer-key API returns the full-year estimate and the share of each deposit to hold back from figures the partner already holds.
Signed onboarding links
The partner's own reference rides the link; the resulting user is attributed on first sign-in. Never blocks sign-in.
Embeddable widget
One script tag drops the deposit-split calculator into any page and re-emits results as a browser event.
Coarse status and webhooks
Signed up, bank connected, plan changed. Never a transaction, never a balance.
Why this is not bookkeeping software number one hundred and one.
Bookkeeping apps are built around the ledger. Deduction finders are built around the filing. Business banks are built around holding your deposits. All three can show you a tax figure, and for all three it is a side effect. ExactSplit is built around that figure, and everything else follows from it.
| Bookkeeping appsQuickBooks, Wave, FreshBooks | Deduction findersKeeper, FlyFin | Business bankingFound, Lili | ExactSplit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built around | The ledger | Deductions and the filing | Your deposits | The tax number |
| Quarterly figure | Rough, or a separate product | Estimated, method unpublished | A percentage set aside | Safe-harbor computed, every constant cited |
| Per-deposit set-aside | No | No | Yes, into their account | Yes, into your own account |
| Reserve actually watched | No | No | Implicit; they hold it | Yes, with a nudge and a proposed transfer |
| Who holds the money | You | You | They do | You, at your own bank; or Whop's partner banks, if you open the optional wallet |
| Safe to pay yourself | No | No | Sometimes, as a balance view | Yes, from balances, bills and tax |
| Retirement and S-corp, priced | No | Rarely | No | Exact, by re-running the engine |
| Trade-aware classification | Categories you maintain | Generic merchant database | Basic | Judged against your trade, provenance shown |
| Mileage substantiation enforced | Optional fields | Optional fields | No | All four fields or no trip |
| Accountant access | Full ledger access | They file for you | Statements | Bounded view, questions on rows, quarterly sign-off |
| Files your return | Some | Yes | No | No, by design |
| Vertical workflows | Templates | No | No | Real estate agents; more where the workflow differs |
Competitor descriptions are our reading of their public materials at the time of writing; check their sites. Four longer comparisons are on the blog.
Three things that follow from building around the number.
number.first()The ledger serves the estimate
Classification exists so the tax figure is right, not so a report looks tidy. That is why it is judged against your trade, prefers personal when unsure, and shows where every decision came from.
money.stays()Your bank stays your bank
ExactSplit never holds your money and has no payment rail of its own. The app proposes, you approve, you move. The optional wallet is Whop's, held by its partner banks, and money moves there only when you start it.
cpa.signs()The accountant is a user, not an export
Filing is theirs. Sign-off is theirs. What they get from us is a finished file, the questions answered in place, and a record of what they approved and when.
See your own numbers.
Get started →Read-only bank connection · Money moves only when you say so · Not tax advice