Introducing Halin AI: The Free AI Bookkeeper for Filipino Freelancers and Small Businesses

When we wrote about building 9 SaaS products in the Philippines, we said we weren’t done shipping. Today I get to introduce number ten — and it might be the most personal one yet: Halin AI, a free AI bookkeeper for freelancers, professionals, and DTI-registered sole proprietors in the Philippines.

The Problem Every Filipino Freelancer Knows

If you’ve ever freelanced or run a small business here, you know the drill. Receipts pile up in a shoebox. You have a vague feeling a BIR deadline is coming, but you’re not sure if it’s the 2551Q or the 1701Q. You’ve heard about the 8% income tax option but nobody can tell you plainly whether it actually saves you money. So bookkeeping becomes the thing you’ll “do later” — until later becomes a penalty.

As the finance officer of a company that started as a freelancing operation, I’ve lived every version of this problem. That’s exactly why we built Halin AI.

Bookkeeping That Works Like Texting a Friend

Here’s what makes Halin AI different: there are no spreadsheets to learn and no accounting jargon to decode. You just chat — in English, Tagalog, or Bisaya. Type “nakabenta ako ng 3,500 kay Aling Nena” and the sale is recorded, categorized, and confirmed. Snap a photo of a receipt or even a handwritten ledger, and the AI reads it and files it under the right category.

From there, everything else runs on autopilot: your entries become a clean, searchable ledger you can edit anytime and export to CSV; your reports show quarterly income, expenses, and net at a glance; and your estimated taxes are computed from your real numbers — including the 8% vs graduated comparison, answered instantly when you ask “how much is my tax this quarter?”

Never Miss a BIR Deadline Again

Halin AI tracks the deadlines that trip people up — 2551Q, 1701Q, and the annual ITR — and reminds you by email, SMS, and in-app alerts before every due date. When it’s time to file, pick a form and quarter and you’ll get a worksheet pre-filled with your actual figures, ready to print or copy straight into eBIRForms.

Why It Speaks Bisaya

This one matters to us. MalachiSoft is headquartered in Iligan City, and most tools built for “the Philippine market” really mean Metro Manila. Halin AI understands Bisaya from day one, because the sari-sari store owner in Mindanao deserves the same quality of tools as the startup founder in BGC.

100% Free During Early Access

Halin AI is completely free while in early access — no fees, no credit card, no catch. It currently supports freelancers, professionals, and DTI-registered sole proprietors, with support for SEC-registered corporations, OPCs, and partnerships on the roadmap. One honest note: Halin AI is a bookkeeping aid, not a replacement for professional tax advice — final filings should still be reviewed with a CPA.

Ready to get your books off the shoebox system? Try Halin AI free at halinai.ph — and if you want the story behind how we ship products like this, our SaaS Development section has the full playbook.