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Collective is an all-in-one financial solution for freelancers and solopreneurs making $100,000+ per 12 months. This Collective.com review will share my experience (the nice and the bad) as a Collective member since 2020.
I’ve been running my very own business full-time since 2017. But I used to be struggling to administer all of the financial and tax requirements alone. Like many self-employed entrepreneurs, I discovered myself spending more time on paperwork than working with clients and growing my business. That’s once I discovered Collective.com.
On this Collective.com review, I’ll share my first-hand experience using their services over the past couple years, including the signup process, tax savings, support received, and whether it ultimately improved my peace of mind running a solo business.
Short Answer: Should You Join Collective?
Collective offers a whole lot of appealing advantages, especially for overwhelmed solopreneurs who need to automate their funds.
The all-in-one platform, bundled services, tax savings, and education resources provide tremendous value. For many members, Collective delivers an “ok” experience.
The scattered negative reviews suggest consistency and repair quality could still be improved. And that aligns with my very own personal experience as well.
Ultimately, Collective makes essentially the most sense for solopreneurs who:
- Don’t enjoy finance tasks and need to automate them
- Will profit significantly from S-Corp tax savings
- Prefer having guidance from professionals
- Are willing to pay for convenience and fewer stress
If you happen to resolve Collective is true for you, use this 50% coupon code to offer it a try.
Discovering Collective and Signing Up
I first learned about Collective back after they were called Hyke. On the time, their major offering was helping sole proprietors form an LLC and elect S-Corp status to avoid wasting on self-employment taxes.
As a solopreneur running my very own business, this huge potential for tax savings really attracted me to Collective (then Hyke).
I had just gone full-time self-employed after losing my job and I had tried to alternatives:
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Bench, which I actually enjoyed for some time, but ultimately found the feature set to be a bit lacking.
and
Google Sheets, which I made do with some pretty sophisticated formulas.
But each were fairly time-intensive and, once I went full-time, I needed to devote as much time and a spotlight as I could on actually growing my business.
In the long run, the S-Corp election and estimated tax savings of $10k-20k per 12 months convinced me to enroll. Beyond taxes, Collective offered bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, and ongoing support – all the things I needed but didn’t need to handle myself.
Organizing My Business as an S-Corp
Among the best parts about Collective was how easy they made the technique of forming an LLC and S-Corp election. I just provided some basic business information, and their team handled the entire required paperwork and filings.
I used to be relieved I didn’t must work out every step myself since I actually don’t enjoy all of the tax and legal stuff on the subject of business. Inside a number of weeks, my business was officially organized as an S-Corp because of Collective.
The transition was smooth and surprisingly painless. I expected some headaches attempting to get all the things submitted properly, but Collective’s advisors were experts who made it easy.
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The one real learning curve was that they’d me join two software I had never used before: Gusto (for payroll—even simply to myself) and Quickbooks (for accounting). While the price of those tools is included in my monthly Collective fee, I still found it a bit odd that we weren’t using Collective technology. I believe it’s because they’re more of a service company than a tech company. More on that later.
Realizing Significant Tax Savings
Just as advertised, becoming an S-Corp led to major tax savings for my solo business. That first 12 months, I believe I saved around $10,000—$15,000 on my business income taxes because of Collective guiding me through the method.
The S-Corp election allowed me to make the most of tax rules that reward business owners like me. I used to be in a position to deduct way more and ultimately kept tens of 1000’s over time that I’d have otherwise paid in taxes.
As a freelancer, every dollar counts when attempting to grow your corporation and support yourself. The tax savings I noticed working with Collective gave me peace of mind and more cash to reinvest within the business.
Ongoing Bookkeeping & Payroll Support
Beyond the initial S-Corp formation and tax savings, Collective has provided immense value with ongoing bookkeeping, payroll, accounting, and taxes.
Every month, my dedicated bookkeeper categorizes all of my income and expenses, reviews all the things with me if needed, and provides detailed financial reports.
Having this skilled bookkeeping handled for me is an enormous time and sanity saver! I can just review the categorized reports as a substitute of spending hours sorting transactions and receipts myself.
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Collective has also fully handled payroll, including filings, forms, and integration with Gusto for simple, automated payroll runs. For now, I’m technically the one one which gets “payroll” and I wish there have been some higher solutions for my team of contractors since I plan to proceed with that for a very long time.
At tax time, they assist me file my personal and business returns using all the info they’ve collected and managed.
As a busy freelancer, I simply don’t have time to remain on top of all these financial details. With Collective’s ongoing accounting support, I can focus my limited time on serving my audience and my clients and growing my business.
Expert Tax & Accounting Support
Along with the bookkeeping and payroll help, I’ve received tremendous value from having direct access to Collective’s team of accounting and tax experts.
Every time I actually have a financial, tax, or accounting query related to my freelance business, I can get answers and advice from real professionals. It’s incredibly helpful having this experience available at any time when you wish it. My only criticism is all the things is completed through email which may get a bit messy. And sometimes it takes them some time to answer me.
During tax season especially, I’ve been grateful to have Collective’s CPAs guiding me to maximise deductions, avoid costly mistakes, and stay compliant with all IRS rules.
As much as I wish I may very well be an authority in taxes, accounting, and finance, that simply isn’t the case. Having Collective’s team as a resource provides immense peace of mind.
Not all the things is ideal, though. I actually have had a number of moments once I’ve needed to correct the Collective team on something related to my taxes. Something they need to have caught. Something which, if I hadn’t caught, probably would have cost me a number of thousand dollars. So in case you do switch to Collective, you’ll still need to watch and punctiliously review all the things they do. Which, ultimately, is a very good thing to do as you grow your corporation anyway.
Cost of Collective vs. Value Received
Currently, I pay around $200 monthly for Collective’s services. With all they supply, including S-Corp formation, bookkeeping, accounting, taxes, Gusto, and unlimited advisor access, I feel that is pretty fairly priced.
Considering a non-public accountant and bookkeeper would likely charge me over $200 monthly each, Collective packs tremendous value.
For lower than hiring one person, you get support from a complete team of finance and accounting pros. Plus, the tax savings alone often return 10x the price or more.
With that in mind, they’re actually increasing my monthly fee from $200 to $300—a reasonably significant increase. So I’ll go from $2,400/12 months to $3,600/12 months which definitely has me looking in a number of other places simply to ensure I’m getting essentially the most out of my investment.
Suggestions for Recent Collective Members
For anyone considering joining Collective, I’d offer the following tips and insights based on my experience:
- Be prepared to have patience – their support can sometimes be slow to reply or hard to know. The expertise is there, but customer support isn’t their strength.
- Take full advantage of the S-Corp tax advantages – meet with their advisors to maximise deductions and savings. Don’t leave money on the table!
- Proactively reach out with questions – their advisors have been very helpful but often wait for me to initiate. Don’t be afraid to lean on their expertise.
Pros and Cons of Collective.com
Now let’s sum up a number of of the professionals and cons of using Collective to assist manage your corporation funds. These come from my isolated experience plus reading reviews and doing other research.
Pros of using Collective.com
- All-in-one platform for funds as a substitute of multiple services. As a substitute of switching between 4 or 5 different services simply to know what’s happening with your money, Collective keeps all of it tidy in a single place so you mostly have your finger on the financial pulse.
- S-Corp election provides significant tax savings for your corporation. Forming an S-Corp and handling the election paperwork can result in 1000’s in tax savings per 12 months for solopreneurs and freelancers.
- Ongoing bookkeeping and automatic expense tracking saves you time. No more manually categorizing every receipt and transaction – Collective handles it routinely and keeps clean books for you.
- Payroll is handled and integrated seamlessly with Gusto. Forget payroll headaches – Collective makes payroll a breeze through integration with Gusto and straightforward automation.
- Get advice from real CPA’s and accounting experts whenever you need it. Questions come up ceaselessly when running your individual business, and Collective’s team of advisors is there for you year-round.
- Educational resources assist you to learn finance skills. Collective provides useful content to assist you to develop into more financially savvy as a business owner.
Cons of using Collective.com
- Customer support and responsiveness needs improvement. Some members—including me—have experienced communication issues and lack of accountability from the Collective team.
- The tech platform still has some glitches that must be worked out. Like many startups, Collective’s dashboard and tools have a number of annoying bugs that seem to be needs to be a straightforward fix.
- Service is less customizable than working with a solo accountant. Collective offers more convenience but less tailored 1-on-1 support in comparison with a dedicated accountant. If you happen to fall inside their “ideal customer,” this is ideal. If not, it might probably be a little bit of a struggle.
What Others Are Saying About Collective (Good and Bad)
Based on over 60 reviews I discovered on TrustPilot and elsewhere, Collective has a mean rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars. The vast majority of reviews are very positive, with 77% giving 5 stars. Nonetheless, there are also some negative reviews that highlight areas for improvement.
On the positive side, many reviewers mention how Collective takes the stress out of managing funds and provides great value for the price. They just like the tax savings from the S-Corp status, the continuing bookkeeping support, and the access to accounting experts.
Nonetheless, a standard criticism among the many negative reviews is around communication issues and lack of responsiveness from Collective’s team. A number of reviewers said they experienced problems with late tax filings, unresolved questions, and unclear points of contact. Some felt the service was disorganized and never as “hands-on” as advertised. My experience has been similar.
Plainly while most members have a reasonably good experience with Collective, there are some inconsistencies with support and customer support that result in poor experiences for a few of us. Improving communication and accountability could help turn negative reviews into positive ones in my view.
So do you have to join Collective?
While not perfect, Collective provides immense value at an inexpensive price point for freelancers like myself. If you happen to’re making over $80k per 12 months solo, it could be a very good option for you.
Collective is a superb fit for solopreneurs and freelancers who:
- Make over $80k per 12 months: You’ll profit essentially the most from Collective’s S-Corp tax savings. Under this income, the monthly fee may not make sense.
- Are overwhelmed by finance and taxes: Collective shines by automating tasks like bookkeeping that many freelancers dread.
- Wish to scale their business: The all-in-one platform, education resources and support assist you to grow.
- Place high value on convenience over customization: Collective trades tailored 1-on-1 support for bundled ease of use.
- Prefer guidance from professionals: You’d quite lean on a team of experts than figure all the things out yourself.
You possibly can join for Collective and save 50% using this coupon link.
Collective is probably not the perfect solution in case you:
- Are very price sensitive or cash-strapped: You might find cheaper DIY options sufficient for now.
- Enjoy and don’t mind finance tasks: If you happen to prefer handling your individual books and don’t mind it, Collective is overkill.
- Have already got a longtime large business: You might profit more from highly customized services.
- Had issues with unresponsive support: Check reviews and proceed cautiously if responsiveness complaints are recent.
- Want maximum hands-on control: Collective automates rather a lot, so less ability to customize processes.
If Collective’s not a fit, I like to recommend you look into Bench or hiring a CPA.
The underside line – know what services you wish, what problems you wish solved, and what level of support you expect. This helps determine if Collective is well worth the investment on your freelance or solopreneur business.
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