Your Dashboard is the first thing you see when you log in to Solo. It's a summary of where you're at right now, what tax is building up, how much you should be putting aside, what you've earned and claimed so far this financial year, and anything that needs your attention.

Everything on the Dashboard is calculated from the income and expenses you've categorised, plus any income shown in your pre-taxed income feed if you've connected it. The more you categorise, the more accurate these figures become.

In this article:

When you first sign up, your Dashboard will guide you through the steps to get Solo up and running. You'll see one step at a time in the 'Tax snapshot' area:
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1. Complete your settings: Your settings determine which taxes Solo calculates and which income and expense categories are enabled, so this needs to be done first.

2. Connect your bank account: This is the easiest way to keep your transactions flowing into Solo automatically. You can also upload a transaction file from your bank or enter transactions manually.

3. Wait for your transactions: Once your bank is connected, Solo fetches your transactions. This usually takes a minute or two.

4. Categorise your income: Categorise your income transactions and/or connect your IRD account to sync your pre-taxed income.
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Once you've categorised your first transaction (or connected your IRD account), your Dashboard switches on and your tax snapshot appears.
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Note: If you'd like to walk through the whole setup process step-by-step, see our Getting started with Solo guide, or watch the getting started video.

At the very top of the Dashboard you may see one or more small chips/buttons showing things that need action. Each one is clickable and takes you straight to the right page:

Chips only appear when there's something to do, so an empty space here means you're all caught up.

The tax snapshot shows all of your currently active tax periods and a running total for each one — the tax you owe for that period so far.

The running totals are based on the income and expenses you've categorised, along with any income and tax already paid from your IRD Feed. They update every time you categorise something, so keep on top of your categorising to keep these figures accurate.

Depending on your tax settings, you might see:

Under each tax type you'll see its current status:

Hover over the status to see the exact due date. Click any row to go to the 'Taxes' page, where you'll find your full schedule of tax obligations for the financial year and the prompts to file and/or pay.

Note: If an amount shows as a 'refund', Solo is calculating that you've paid more tax than you owe for that period.

This figure is the total amount of money you should have set aside right now to cover all of your upcoming tax payments in the snapshot.
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We recommend opening a separate bank account and transferring this money across as you get paid, so you're less tempted to spend it. That way there are no nasty surprises when a tax bill falls due.
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Note: Where a financial year has both provisional tax and income tax showing, Solo only counts it once so you're not asked to put aside the same money twice.

This figure is the total of your invoices that are ready to send, or sent but not yet paid.

If an invoice passes its due date before it's paid, it also appears in the Overdue amount underneath.
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Once you've been paid, mark the invoice as 'Paid' on the 'Invoices' page to remove it from this total.
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Note: Marking an invoice as 'Paid' doesn't add it to your income or your tax return. To do that, categorise the matching bank transaction on the 'Income' page.

This figure shows your total income for the financial year (after GST, if you're GST registered). It includes:

Underneath, Profit shows your taxable income — your total income less your claimable expenses. This is the figure your income tax is calculated on.

To see everything that makes up these totals, visit the 'Income' page and click the 'Income' tab, and check the 'Pre-taxed income' page if you have your IRD account connected. You can also check the 'Profit and loss' report on the 'Reports' page.

Claiming expenses reduces the amount of tax you pay, and this block shows how much you're claiming.

The main figure is your total claimable expenses for the financial year. Solo has already done all the working out for you here — GST (if relevant), your home office settings, and any category-specific tax rules are all applied, so this is the amount actually being deducted.

Underneath, Your tax savings so far shows how much money you've put back in your own pocket this financial year by claiming those expenses. It's the difference between the income tax you'd pay on your income with no expenses claimed, and the income tax you'll actually pay.
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The more of your business-related expenses you categorise, the lower your tax bill will be.

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The Income and Expenses blocks each have a financial year dropdown in the top right. By default they show the current financial year to date, but you can switch to any previous year that you have data in Solo for.

​The two dropdowns work independently, so you can compare one year's income against another year's expenses if you want to.

Note: The 'Tax snapshot', 'Put aside for tax' and 'Invoices' blocks always show your current position, so they aren't affected by the financial year dropdowns.

A greyed out figure means there's nothing to show yet:

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There are a few reasons the two won't line up:

Your Dashboard figures are calculated fresh each time the page loads, so try refreshing the page. If a figure still looks wrong, double-check that the transaction is dated within the financial year you have selected, and that it hasn't been archived.

Note: If you're an accountant viewing a client's account and see "This account has not yet been set up", your client still needs to complete their settings and categorise their first transaction before their Dashboard will display.

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Still not sure about something on your Dashboard? Click the message icon in the bottom right corner of Solo and we'll be happy to help. 💬