It’s no secret that the way people work is changing.

Remote work, in particular, has been rapidly evolving as companies attempt to navigate the major shifts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although COVID has accelerated the shift to remote work, the combination of digitalization and globalization had already been driving more people to remote work, particularly freelance work, prior to the pandemic.

In the 2000s and 2010s, a small subset of workers were able to work from home in certain situations, but in 2022 freelancers make up over one-third of all workers, according to Zippia.

And as the population of freelancers grows, so too does the need for financial solutions just for them. Because working freelance just isn’t the same as getting a check every week from your employer, and your banking shouldn’t be either.

That’s what inspired Lili, the finance app for freelancers. Lili offers everything from tax help to money management tools for anyone without a traditional 9 to 5. Learn everything you need to know about Lili and whether it’s right for you here.

What Is Lili

First things first: Lili is an app, not a bank. It is provided by Choice Financial Group, member FDIC, as a banking solution and service.

More specifically, here are the highlights of what Lili offers.

Visa Business Debit Card
Expense management
Tax-saving tools
Fee-free overdraft
Invoice services
Automatic Savings with 1.0% APY

Some of these are free and some will cost you. Although Lili is marketed as a free app, you need to have the paid Lili Pro subscription for access to everything. More on what’s included with each plan later.

Lili Visa Business Debit Card

About the debit card. There are no service or transaction fees to use and you can earn cash back on almost every purchase. Note that you need the paid Lili Pro plan to unlock cash back.

And when you use the Lili Visa Business Debit Card to pay business expenses, you can instantly categorize transactions to keep your finances organized (as any freelancer knows, this is what surviving tax season is all about).

Plus, it’s compatible with Google Pay and Apple Pay. You can use your card at more than 38,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the MoneyPass network to deposit or withdraw cash.

How It Works

Lili offers many features you may be interested in as a freelancer or small business owner.

First, you can take advantage of early direct deposit to get paid up to two days earlier. You just have to link your bank and fill out a direct deposit form to be eligible. There is no guarantee that you’ll get the money two days early, but there’s a good chance it’ll be quicker. You’ll get a notification when you receive your direct deposit.

Lili also makes receiving and sending payments easier by allowing you to link your account with most major payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and more. You should have no trouble getting paid through your platform of choice or paying employees or vendors electronically. You can link to Uber, Lyft, and Shopify as well.

Here’s a breakdown of Lili’s other features including whether you need the Pro subscription.

Tax Optimizer

The Tax Optimizer is a feature that lets you track write-offs, set aside money for taxes, and more. You can easily track your tax write-offs by categorizing the business expenses you put on your Lili Visa Business Debit Card immediately after they post.

And if you use this card for personal expenses as well, you can separate these out and even split transactions. The Tax Bucket option allows you to set aside the money you will need to pay self-employment taxes. The Receipt Scanner lets you upload receipts for business-related purchases.

The app also gives you the option to pre-fill your Schedule C form and file/share it when you’re done. And finally, Lili automatically generates quarterly and annual expense reports by compiling all of the transactions you’ve tracked as business expenses into one exportable file. Visit the Tax Resources page for help using any of these features or to calculate your estimated taxes.

Automatic Savings

The option to create an emergency savings account or bucket in Lili is not exclusive to Pro subscriptions. Anyone can set aside money for savings by going to their account and selecting “Open an Emergency Bucket.” However, only Lili Pro users are eligible to use the Automatic Savings feature and earn interest on their money.

With Pro, you can earn 1.00% on any positive balance in your savings bucket and enable automatic transfers from a linked bank account into your Lili savings. You can have as little as $1 transferred automatically a day and change the amount at any time. You can also make manual transfers whenever you want. There is a limit of six withdrawals per statement period.

Lili will provide monthly savings updates to let you know how much you have in your bucket. You’re free to transfer money out of your savings bucket to make it available for spending or close the bucket entirely if you choose. The interest you earn will be automatically deposited into your savings.

BalanceUp

Another Pro exclusive feature, BalanceUp is Lili’s version of overdraft protection. When you overdraft your account using your Lili Visa Business Debit Card, Lili will just cover the transaction for you when you have BalanceUp enabled and withdraw the money from your next paycheck. There is no penalty fee for using this feature but just remember that it only covers debit card purchases. Overdrafts up to $200 are protected.

Cashback

Earning cashback on your Lili Visa Business Debit Card purchases is an option for Lili customers only. Basically, this is just like any other rewards card. All of the business and personal expenses that you charge to your Lili card qualify to earn cash back, which is deposited into your Lili main account. You do not need to enroll in the rewards program to start earning.

How much cashback you earn depends on the merchant. Check the offers page for a list of current promotions to maximize your earnings.

Invoice

Finally, there’s the Lili Invoicing Tool. Unfortunately, this too is a Lili Pro exclusive. This feature allows you to do your business bookkeeping in the Lili app at no added cost. You can create and send invoices, track business expenses, record payments (whether to vendors or employees), and upload your business receipts. Lili will store all of this information for you for easy downloading when you need it. There is no limit to how many invoices you can create and send.

When you send an invoice from Lili to a customer, it includes your Lili account and routing number so they can pay you directly into your account.

Account Terms

There is no minimum balance requirement for this account, so you can get started with as little as $0.01. And to earn interest on your savings, if you have the Pro plan, you only need to maintain a positive balance.

You may find the spending and funding limits to be somewhat restrictive if you have the Lili Standard subscription, but Lili Pro offers a lot more flexibility. Here are the account limits for Lili Standard and Lili Pro.

Lili Standard

Daily Spending Limits:

Card purchases: $3,000
ATM withdrawals: $500
ACH outbound transfers: $500

Daily and Monthly Funding Limits:

Debit card funding: $100/mo
ACH inbound transfers: $500/day and $2,000/month
Cash deposits: $1,000/day and $9,000/month
Direct deposits: $25,000/day and $50,000/month
Mobile check deposits: $2,000/check and $2,000/day and $6,000/month

Lili Pro

Daily Spending Limits:

Card purchases: $5,000
ATM withdrawals: $500
ACH outbound transfers: $2,000

Daily and Monthly Funding Limits:

Debit card funding: $100/mo
ACH inbound transfers: $1,000/day and $5,000/month
Cash deposits: $1,000/day and $9,000/month
Direct deposits: $25,000/day and $50,000/month
Mobile check deposits: $5,000/check and day and $50,000/month

Lili is provided by Choice Financial Group, member FDIC. Your funds are insured up to the federally permitted limit of $250,000.

Who it’s For

You might benefit from a Lili account if you work for yourself, especially if you have a lot of business expenses to track. This app is ideal for keeping your business spending and saving in one place, and it makes doing taxes and sending invoices as a freelancer a whole lot easier. Anyone 18 years old or older can open an account.

You can use this app whether freelancing is your primary source of income or more of a side hustle. It doesn’t matter if you’re an independent contractor working on your own or you own a small business made of freelancers and temporary workers. The features and pricing are the same.

This is also a good choice if you’re looking for help navigating life as a freelancer, as Lili offers a number of free resources on its site. These include a Tax Resources page, a Freelancer’s Guide that helps you get started freelancing by detailing everything from taxes to balancing work with your desired lifestyle, a robust help center, a blog, and an FAQ page. There are even COVID resources and career tips on the site.

Fees

That’s the best part: Lili doesn’t charge fees…almost.

There are no monthly maintenance fees, low balance fees, overdraft fees, card fees, or foreign transaction fees. And when you choose from one of over 38,000 in-network ATMs to make deposits and withdrawals with your Lili debit card, there are no ATM fees either.

But if you want to unlock everything, you need to pay for the Pro plan. Lili Pro costs just $4.99 a month and does not come with any additional fees besides the subscription charge.

Account Types

There are two types of Lili plans: Lili Standard and Lili Pro. Lili Standard is the basic plan that is free to open and use. It includes the optional Visa Business Debit Card, early direct deposit feature, basic expense tracking, tax tools, and ATM access.

But if you want to take advantage of everything Lili has to offer, you need to pay for Lili Pro. This subscription includes overdraft, saving, expense management features, and more. You can cancel Lili Pro or change your plan at any time.

Here are the features that are exclusive to Lili Pro:

BalanceUp overdraft protection up to $200 on debit card purchases
Emergency savings account with 1.00% annual interest
In-app invoicing tool that allows you to create and send unlimited invoices
Cashback rewards with your Business Visa Debit Card (Standard users can use the card but do not earn rewards)
More expense management capabilities such as the option to sort business transactions in real-time to maximize your tax deductions
Higher spending and funding limits (see “How It Works” for details)

Sign-Up Bonus

Lili has a referral program that allows you to earn $100 per friend you successfully refer, for both you and your friend. Everyone gets a unique referral link to share. To qualify for the bonus, your friend must enroll in Direct Deposit using your unique link and receive at least $250 in a single transaction within the first 45 days of opening their account.

Rumor is that this referral/sign-up bonus might change soon or go away, so hurry to take advantage.

Final Thoughts

As a freelancer, the last thing you need is to make banking any harder on yourself than it needs to be.

Lili might be right for you if you’re a freelancer looking for a fee-free banking solution that goes beyond the basics and helps keep track of your finances as a self-employed person.