New features, enhancements and bug fixes. We’re constantly working to improve Solo and empower self-employed kiwis. Here’s what we’ve been working on lately:
New = New feature
Enh = Enhancement
Fix = Bug fix
Mobile: Mobile app release
16/08/2023 – Enh: Support for all GST frequencies
Solo now supports all GST frequencies and periods; monthly, 2-monthly, 6-monthly etc. So no matter how you like to file your GST, Solo has you covered.
16/08/2023 – Fix: IRD feed refresh
There was an issue with the IRD feed automatically refreshing. This has now been fixed.
16/08/2023 – Fix: Bank feed sync if payment fails
There was an issue that caused the bank feed to stop syncing if a Solo subscription payment failed. We’ve added more flexibility to the system so that the bank feed will only stop if a subscription is cancelled.
18/07/2023 – Mobile: Transaction pagination
We’ve added pagination to transactions on the mobile app to increase the app speed, especially when you have a lot of transactions.
21/06/2023 – Enh: GST displayed in the IRD Feed
The GST amount for each schedular payment is now displayed in the IRD Feed. This is an enhancement on the IRD Feed updates we released the previous week to provide more transparency around how much GST is being calculated on each transaction.
15/06/2023 – Mobile: Improved help access
We’ve included better access to relevant help articles throughout the mobile app.
15/06/2023 – Mobile: Edit transactions
You can now edit the details of a bank transaction in the mobile app. Such as date, description or amount.
14/06/2023 – New: Automatic GST calculations for contractors
We’ve made significant improvements to the IRD feed. Solo now receives each individual payment from an employer, rather than only a running total for the income type. This means we can provide some great new features that have never been done before. Such as automatic GST calculations for schedular payment income. And real-time provisional tax calculations.
31/05/2023 – Mobile: Refresh fix
There was an issue that was causing the dashboard to not instantly updating when changes were made in the mobile app, such as changing a setting. This issue has now been fixed.
17/05/2023 – Mobile: Onboarding improvements
We’ve improved the onboarding in the mobile app to provide additional help and make it easier for new users to get started. It is also no longer essential to enter a BIC code in the mobile app.
15/05/2023 – Enh: BIC code no longer essential
Previously, entering a BIC code was essential when creating a new account. It’s now optional to enter a BIC code in your settings and calculate ACC. This makes it easier for new users to create an account and also, having a BIC code isn’t relevant to people who only have rental income.
15/05/2023 – Enh: Speed improvements
The Solo web app now loads faster. Especially the dashboard.
25/04/2023 – Mobile: IRD Feed
You can now sync any PAYE income sources directly from IRD in the mobile app. Such as salary, wages, schedular payments or bank interest. Your PAYE income (and any tax paid) will be automatically included in Solo’s calculations. Simple.
24/04/2023 – Enh: UI improvements
We’ve made a range of improvements to the user interface to improve the general readability of the web app. Such as adding more contrast to text and links. We’ve also improved the onboarding flow to make it easier for new users to get started.
06/04/2023 – Mobile: Attach receipts
We’ve included the ability to attach a receipt/file to a transaction in the mobile app. Easily take a photo of a receipt and attach it to a transaction or upload a file from your phone.
06/04/2023 – Mobile: Manually adding transactions
Manually adding an income or expense transaction in the mobile app is now more user friendly. We’ve also included the calculation details so you can see the GST amount on the transaction what percentage of an expense is being claimed.
29/03/2023 – New: Upload receipts
Upload a receipt or invoice and attach it directly to a transaction. This feature will soon be also available in the mobile app.
27/03/2023 – Mobile: Transaction search / filter /sort
You can now search your transactions in the app. Sort by date or amount and filter by date range, category or bank account.
20/03/2023 – Fix: Bank feed updates
There was an issue that was causing the bank feeds to update irregularly, this bug has now been fixed.
17/03/2023 – Ehn: Subscription system upgrade
We’ve simplified the subscription process so that signing up for Premium is now easier. When cancelling a premium subscription all features will now be available until the end of the billing period. References to the ‘Free’ plan have also been removed. The features that are available when a free trial runs out have not changed.
27/02/2023 – Ehn: Removed travel food & drink categories
The ‘Travel Food & Drink’ and ‘International Food & Drink’ expense categories have been removed. This is because the IRD have clarified that food and drink while travelling for work is not claimable. As a result we have removed the relevant expense categories.
24/01/2023 – New: Asset depreciation
Asset depreciation is now available in both the web and mobile apps! You can now add as many assets as you’d like to Solo and automatically depreciate them over time. The correct asset information will be automatically added to your income tax return, GST return, the Insights page and the export data.
24/01/2023 – Fix: ACC calculations
Solo’s ACC calculations have been updated to include the most recent Work levy, Earners levy and Work safer levy rates in preparation for the end of the financial year.
24/01/2023 – Fix: ‘ACC Levy’ expenses category
IRD has clarified that 100% of an ACC levy bill can be claimed for people who are self-employed. So we have updated the ‘ACC levy’ expense category to claim 100% of the expense. Yay, some extra savings!
24/01/2023 – Fix: Profit and loss periods
The Insights page was incorrectly showing ‘1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024’ as ‘This financial year’ by default. This has now been fixed on the desktop and mobile apps.
24/01/2023 – Enh: Hide GST columns when exporting data
The GST amount for transactions will no longer be displayed in the export data for users who are not GST registered. Previously the GST amount was always generated and this was causing some confusion for non GST registered users.
10/12/2022 – Fix: IRD connection refresh
The IRD connection refresh was failing when attempting to automatically sync income sources from IRD. This has now been resolved.
01/12/2022 – Mobile: Bank feeds
It’s now possible to connect and manage your bank connections directly from the mobile app, on both iOS and Android. We also included a link to the App/Play store so that customers can easily rate and review Solo.
28/11/2022 – Fix: Export data
Some users were unable to export their data using the ‘Export’ feature. This is now fixed.
21/11/2022 – New: Student allowance and pension income
Both student allowance and pension income can now be automatically synced directly to Solo via the IRD Feed. If you earn student allowance or pension income you can now connect your IRD account to Solo and and the income will be automatically included in Solo’s calculations.
17/10/2022 – New: BNZ bank feed
BNZ customers can now connect their bank account/s with Solo and automatically sync their transactions. Solo now supports all of New Zealand’s major banks.
17/10/2022 – Mobile: Insights page
In this new mobile release for Android and iOS we have restructured the main navigation to include a More section. We have also added the premium insights page which contains the profit and loss report and the income and expense chart for tracking monthly business performance.
17/10/2022 – Fix: Delete account
There was an issue with deleting a customer account in Solo. This has now been fixed.
14/09/2022 – Enh: Rental property interest changes
The Government’s interest deductibility changes have now been included in Solo’s calculations. From October 1, 2021 any transactions categorised as Rental Mortgage Interest will be automatically claimed at 75%. This drops to 50% from April 2023, then to 25% in April 2024. From April 2025 0% of rental mortgage interest will be claimable.
14/09/2022 – Fix: Upload Westpac credit card transaction file
There was an issue when uploading Westpac credit card transaction files, this has now been resolved.
03/09/2022 – Mobile: Access subscription screen on Android
Android release 0.0.21 includes a fix for accessing the subscription screen.
08/08/2022 – Mobile: Transaction details, tax previews and fixes
A new release of our mobile app was long overdue. Included in the new release is:
- Transaction details: You can now see how expenses/income are being calculated when you categorise a transaction. You can also view the additional description details for a transaction and the bank account that the transaction relates to.
- Preview tax periods: In the Taxes tab there is now a Preview button for active GST, Income Tax, Provisional Tax and ACC periods. So you can preview your tax return calculations at any moment.
- General bug fixes and improvements: We’re made a heap of bug fixes and general usability improvements to mobile app. Enjoy.
17/07/2022 – New: Insights page
With the new Insights page a profit and loss report is now available in Solo. View a full break-down of all your income and expenses by category for any time period. You can also track how your business is performing month-to-month with the new Income and Expenses bar chart.
29/06/2022 – New: Filter transactions by bank account
You can now filter and view your transactions for each individual bank account. You can also filter by your uploaded transactions or manually added transactions. To use this feature simply click on the ‘Filter’ button above your income or expense transactions.
29/06/2022 – New: Expense categories for ‘Vehicle Repayment Interest’ and ‘Payment Processing Fees’
Two new expense categories are now available; ‘Vehicle Repayment Interest’ and ‘Payment Processing Fees’. These categories have been requested by users and can now be selected via the categories dropdown menu. We have also changed the ‘Parking & Tolls’ category to claim 100% of the expense.
16/06/2022 – Enh: New bank feeds partner
The migration to Akahu, our new bank feed partner, is now complete. Akahu is a New Zealand based open finance platform who’s leading the way in providing the next generation of integration with New Zealand banks. The key reason for switching to Akahu is reliability. Akahu provide a vastly more reliable transaction feed service than what has previously been possible. Read more.
16/06/2022 – New: Select a transaction sync date
When connecting a bank to Solo you can now set a sync date for your transactions. By default Solo will either select the date of the last transaction added to Solo, or the start of the financial year – depending on if you have already added transactions to Solo or not.
16/06/2022 – New: View bank account details for transactions
You can now see bank account details for each transaction. Simply click on the down arrow at the end of a transaction.
16/06/2022 – Fix: Main menu scrolls on small screens
When using Solo on a small screen the main menu will now scroll rather than displaying the logout link over the other menu links.
05/04/2022 – Enh: 39% tax rate
The 39% tax rate has been included in Solo’s calculations for income over $180,000.
23/03/2022 – Fix: Better handling of bank feed transactions
Transaction handling has been improved to prevent some transactions from not being retrieved when connected a previously disconnected account.
23/03/2022 – Fix: Invoice customer note
Invoices were showing a default message if the customer note was left blank. This message has been removed.
04/03/2022 – Enh: Invoice item quantities now accept two decimal places
The quantity field for invoice line items has been changed to accept two decimal places. This is so users who bill in 15 minute increments can better invoice for their services.
02/02/2022 – Fix: Transaction search
The transaction search was only recognising whole words. This has now been fixed.
02/02/2022 – New: Bulk delete/categorise transactions
It’s now possible to select multiple transactions and easily bulk delete or categorise those transactions.
02/02/2022 – New: Filter transactions by date
If you want to view transactions for a specific date range, now you can with the new date range filter.
02/02/2022 – New: Additional transaction information
Many bank transactions have a memo/reference information that wasn’t being displayed in Solo. Now when editing a transaction it’s possible to see the additional memo info for a transaction. We have also added additional information regarding the GST, income and expense amounts that are being applied to an individual transaction when a category is selected. This provides much more transparency into how Solo is calculating income, expenses and GST.
02/02/2022 – Enh: Drop down arrow to access transaction details
Having to click on a transaction row to edit the transaction was causing some confusion. So we’ve added a drop down arrow at the end of a transaction row and removed the ability to click on a transaction.
02/02/2022 – Enh: Support articles for Income and Expenses
Popular support articles regarding Income and Expenses have now been added to the top of the Income and Expenses pages for easier access.
02/02/2022 – Fix: Duplicate bank feed transactions
Yodlee, our bank feed provider, made a change to how account numbers are displayed in transactions. This caused some duplicates to occur. We have updated how dedicates are handled to consider this situation.
02/02/2022 – Fix: Unable to access Settings on small screens
There was an issue on small screens where the ‘Logout’ menu link was overlapping the ‘Settings’ menu link and making the settings page not accessible. This has now been fixed.
14/12/2021 – Enh: Renamed transaction GST switch
The transaction switch ‘This expense has no GST’ was causing some confusion. So we’ve renamed it to ‘Calculate GST’ and flipped the switch so it’s clearer when GST is being calculated on a transaction and when it’s not.
13/12/2021 – Enh: Support articles for IRD Feed and Bank Feeds
There is now detailed support articles to help with connecting your IRD feed or bank feeds. Links to these articles have also been added to the top of the IRD feed and bank feed pages so they are much easier to find when you need them.
13/12/2021 – Enh: Dashboard updates
A range of text changes have been made to the dashboard to better support the IRD feed and invoicing. These changes include adding a tooltip for invoices, updating the other tooltips to include information about the IRD feed and improved onboarding information.
03/12/2021 – New: Sync PAYE income from IRD
This is a biggie, Solo now supports taxed income sources! You can sync any income from Salary & Wages, Schedular payments, NZ Interest or Benefits directly from your IRD account. This income is then automatically included in Solo’s income tax and ACC calculations. No data entry is required and users can’t get it wrong. We’ve been working on this feature for a long time and it’s only possible thanks to the awesome team at IRD who helped us make this innovation a reality.
03/12/2021 – Fix: Tooltips now mobile compatible
You might have noticed all the helpful hints throughout Solo. These now work for touch events on mobile.
03/12/2021 – Fix: Rental income excluded from ACC calculation
Rental income was incorrectly being included when calculating ACC. This has now been fixed.
03/12/2021 – New: Review section for IR3 return
When generating the data for an IR3 return Solo now includes a ‘Review’ section. This is to match IRD’s online IR3 return process more accurately and make it easier for users to fill out their IR3 return and be confident they are doing it correctly.
19/10/2021 – New: Invoicing
Create, customise and manage professional tax invoices. Invoicing has been our most requested feature and I’m really stoked to finally roll it out. Upload a business logo, preview invoices and download invoice PDF’s. Users can also change the status of an invoice (Draft, Unpaid, Paid, Void) and track the total of unpaid or overdue invoices directly from the dashboard.
19/10/2021 – New: Manage clients
Now you can keep track of all your client details within Solo, such as name, address and email. Easily create, edit or delete a client. You can also quickly assign a client to an invoice.
19/10/2021 – New: Delete an account
Users can now delete their Solo account from within the app if they no longer wish to use Solo. Deleting an account will permanently remove all of a users data. You’re welcome to come back anytime of course.
27/09/2021 – New: Solo Mobile App
That’s right, Solo now has a mobile app for both iOS and Android. Track income and expenses on the go directly from your phone. You can also manually add income and expenses into the app and keep up to date with your latest tax calculations. We’ve got plenty of great features planned for the mobile app that will make life much easier for sole-traders.
Download for iOS
Download for Android
Solo began back in 2018, however it hadn’t occurred to us to start publishing changes until now.
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