Boostrap

What is Bootstrap? Why was it created?

Bootstrap is a very simple-to-use web service that helps you track income and expenses, pay estimated taxes on time, and see how your business is doing. It's perfect for self employed people.

What does it cost to use Bootstrap?

Bootstrap is currently free to all users and will most likely remain so throughout the Beta period. However, we do plan to charge for certain features in the future. But we believe every user should be able to try the service for free.

How accurate are the estimated tax calculations?

Because every person's tax situation is different, we cannot provide an estimated tax calculation that is guaranteed to be accurate. Instead, we provide a conservative guidance based on the following:

• We calculate your businesses profit through the end of the IRS quarter (or through today's date if the quarter hasn't ended.) For example, if you were to look at the taxes page on June 10, you would see profit - or loss - through May 31, which is the end of the second quarter for IRS purposes.
• We then calculate the self employment tax (which consists of social security and medicare contributions) using the latest IRS rates.
• To the self-employment tax, we add your business income tax. For this, we simply use the marginal tax rate based on the profit to date. For businesses earning higher income, this may result in a higher tax payment than using the average rate, but we figure it's better to be safe than sorry.

If you would like to know how to accurately calculate estimated taxes, simply view the IRS estimated tax worksheet.

Can I add my own categories?

Because Bootstrap is designed for people who have to file a Schedule C (for business taxes) at year end, we have set the categories to be exactly what you would have to fill out on a Schedule C (though using some easier to understand language.) As such, we do not currently support the ability to add custom categories. However, we may allow sub-categories in the future.

Can I get my data back out of Bootstrap?

Absolutely - it's your information. Just go to the reports screen and choose the time period you wish to export. Then, you may click either the "Export Report" or "Export Trnsactions" link at the bottom of the appropriate column to export your income and expenses in comma-separated format. The "Export Report" link provides summarized information by category, while the "Export Transactions" link provides all of the individual transactions.

Can I track invoices?

Bootstrap now integrates closely with Freshbooks, a leading online invoicing application to let you track invoices from Freshbooks within Bootstrap. Simply go to the Freshbooks settings page to learn more about syncing your Freshbooks invoice and payment data with Bootstrap.

How do I get the most recent invoices and payments from Freshbooks?

Bootstrap will automatically get the latest invoices and payments from Freshbooks each night. If you would like to update the transactions more frequently than that, simply click on the "Update now" link under Outstanding Invoices.