Hnry vs FlowFi: which one for a tradie earning $90k

Hnry and FlowFi both exist because sole traders hate tax admin, and both are used by tradies. They solve the problem in opposite ways. Hnry takes the tax off your hands entirely, at the price of your income flowing through its account. FlowFi does the bookkeeping from your bank statement and leaves the lodging to you or your accountant, at the price of a few minutes a month.

This post works through the choice for a specific person: a sole-trader tradie billing about $90,000 a year, registered for GST, buying materials, running a ute, taking deposits, and paying the occasional subbie. We are FlowFi, so read with that in mind. We have tried to be fair, and where Hnry is the better fit we say so.

What each one is, in a paragraph

Hnry is a registered tax agent with an app. Your clients pay into a Hnry-held account in your name. When money lands, Hnry calculates and holds income tax and GST (and super and student loan repayments if you want), pays them to the ATO, and transfers the rest to you. You raise expenses in the app with a receipt and they reduce what is withheld. Hnry lodges your BAS and your tax return. It costs 1% of income plus GST, capped at $1,500 plus GST a year, and the fee is deductible.

FlowFi is bookkeeping software for sole traders. Clients pay your own bank account. You upload a CSV or PDF statement each month and AI categorises every line, works out the GST, flags deductions and subcontractor payments, and prepares each BAS label with a copy-guide for ATO Online. Invoicing with reminders, receipts, mileage and a cash-flow forecast sit around that. It does not lodge for you and never holds your money. Pro is $29 a month or $290 a year, with a 14-day free trial and no card.

The numbers for a $90k tradie

Let us give him a shape. Income $90,000 ex GST, so $99,000 including the GST he collects. Materials and consumables $25,000 including GST. Tools, fuel, insurance, phone and the rest another $10,000. Profit around $55,000.

Cost of the service

• Hnry: 1% of $90,000 is $900, plus GST, so $990 a year. That includes lodging four BAS and the tax return.
• FlowFi: $290 a year on the annual plan. Add what your accountant charges for a sole trader return, or lodge yourself through myTax for nothing.

Whether Hnry costs more depends entirely on the accountant fee. For a tradie who already pays an accountant a few hundred dollars a year, the two land in the same region. For one who lodges himself, FlowFi is cheaper.

Tax on the profit

Roughly the same either way, because tax is tax: on $55,000 of taxable income, about $7,288 of income tax plus $1,100 of Medicare levy for 2025-26. The difference is who calculates it and when it leaves your account.

How money moves

This is the real fork.

With Hnry, every payment from a client goes to Hnry first. Hnry takes the tax and GST out and sends the remainder on. Our tradie never sees $9,900 land for a bathroom; he sees the after-tax amount. He also never has a BAS bill or a tax bill, because they have been paid as he went. For someone who has been burned by a July tax bill before, that is the whole appeal, and it works.

With FlowFi, the $9,900 lands in his own account. FlowFi shows him that $900 of it is GST and roughly what to move to his tax account, but moving it is his job. The upside is control and cash flow: he can use the materials money for materials now and pay the GST on the 28th. The downside is discipline. If he does not make the transfers, the BAS is a shock.

Materials and GST credits

A tradie's BAS has a big 1B. On $25,000 of materials there is about $2,270 of GST to claim back, plus the GST on tools and fuel. That has to be captured somewhere.

In Hnry, expenses are raised in the app: photograph the receipt, enter the details, and Hnry applies the deduction and the GST credit to what it withholds. Every Bunnings run, every supplier invoice, one at a time. It works, and Hnry has made it quick, but it depends on you doing it, and a missed receipt is a missed credit.

In FlowFi, the materials are already on the bank statement. Upload the month and the supplier account, the hardware runs and the fuel are categorised with the GST worked out. You attach receipts to the lines for the record, but the credit is captured whether or not you remembered the photo. For a business with a lot of small purchases, that is the difference between claiming most of your credits and claiming all of them.

Deposits, progress payments and subbies

Deposits and progress claims. Both handle them. With Hnry, a 30% deposit arrives at Hnry and is taxed as income when it lands, which is correct on a cash basis. With FlowFi, the deposit lands in your account on a date and goes in that quarter's G1; our guide to deposits and progress payments covers the rules. The practical difference is again cash flow: with Hnry the deposit is net of tax before you can buy the materials it was meant to fund.

Subcontractors. A building and construction sole trader who pays subbies generally has to lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report by 28 August. FlowFi flags subcontractor payments as they appear on the statement so the totals are ready; see TPAR explained. Check with Hnry how it handles TPAR for your situation; it is a business-specific obligation rather than a personal tax one.

The ute. Both let you claim vehicle costs. FlowFi categorises fuel, rego, insurance and servicing from the statement and logs trips for cents per kilometre; you apply the logbook percentage. Hnry takes the vehicle expenses you raise. If your ute is over one tonne it is not a car and the actual-cost method applies either way.

Choose Hnry if

• You want to never think about tax again and are happy for income to route through a Hnry account.
• Your expenses are relatively few and large, so raising them in an app is not a burden.
• You do not have an accountant and do not want one.
• A surprise tax bill has hurt you before and the after-tax view of every payment is worth the cash-flow trade.

Choose FlowFi if

• You want your money in your own account and the GST and tax visible but under your control.
• You have a lot of small purchases and want them captured from the statement rather than photographed one by one.
• You pay subbies and need TPAR flagged, or you take deposits and need them in the right quarter without thinking.
• You have, or want, an accountant for the return and advice, and want to hand them a clean export.
• You would rather pay $290 a year and spend twenty minutes a month than 1% of income and spend none.

The honest summary

For a $90k tradie with real materials costs, deposits and the odd subbie, we think the bookkeeping-from-the-statement approach captures more and costs less, and the twenty minutes a month is a fair price for keeping your own money. For a tradie who mostly sells labour, has few receipts, and wants tax to disappear, Hnry is a good product and the cash-flow trade may not bother you at all.

Try FlowFi on your last bank statement; it is free for 14 days with no card, and you will know within ten minutes whether the categorising is good enough to trust. Our neutral Hnry vs Xero and Hnry vs MYOB guides cover the other options, and the FlowFi vs Hnry page has the side-by-side table. Prices were checked in September 2026; confirm them on each site.

FlowFi builds a tradie's BAS from the bank statement: materials, tools, fuel and subbies categorised, GST worked out, labels ready to copy into ATO Online. 14-day free Pro trial, no card. Start at flowfi.com.au