How Solo sounds, and what it says

Valla's brief, 150 subbies' own words, and one missing document

How to read the statuses: Ready to test a product fact in low-risk words, which still gets a quick register check before it goes live. Needs register fine in principle, but the wording sits near a red line. Blocked not until something changes (a product fact, HMRC recognition, a ruling). Parked belongs to a name we're not using.

The product is called "Solo" throughout, because that's what the brief uses. The team has been using "Zebra / Z Solo", and the name isn't settled. The voice and the lines don't depend on it; the store title and sign-offs do.

The money side of the trade, on the phone in your pocket

That's the internal positioning, the sentence everything else has to fit. It isn't a public line: "unlike general accounting apps" stays internal because we don't compare publicly.

One-liners to test

Who we're up against, and who we're not

A site foreman, not a fintech

Valla's brief sets it: "Plain trade English, dry humour welcome, zero fintech buzzwords." Here's what that means in practice, with the same idea said both ways.

1 · Plain and short

2 · Dry, never jokey

The humour is in the observation, never at the subbie's expense and never at HMRC's.

3 · On their side, calm about the rules

4 · Straight about money

One price table, shown once, "+VAT" every time. Say what's free and what isn't, and what happens after the trial.

5 · Honest about what we are

Theirs first, the correct term second

From 150 sourced quotes on forums, app reviews and accountants' Q&As. Accountant terms like "CIS suffered", "verification" and "gross up" never appeared in subbies' own words.

Words we don't use

Fintech: seamless, streamline, empower, solution, platform (in consumer copy), workflow, effortless, revolutionise, compliance as a benefit. Red-line words: refund, rebate, reclaim, overpaying, "save you money", guaranteed, HMRC-approved, HMRC-recognised, MTD-compatible, "we file for you", "never worry about tax".

What they fear, and what we can honestly say back

One promise, four pillars, each with its proof

The money side of the trade, sorted, and free to start.

Pillars 1 and 3 carry the launch. Pillar 2 grows as more contractors join Hub. Pillar 4 is seasonal.

Same voice, a different first sentence

Worked examples, channel by channel

Drafts to show the voice at work, not approved copy. Every one goes through the register before use.

Talk about the record, never the outcome

The line library

Every candidate line from the brief, the plans and the naming work, in one list. Filter by status.

Five places where our sources pull in different directions

1. The brief's own words against its red lines. The brief describes the 30% group as "overpaying every single week" and the 20% group's pain as "year-end reclaim". Both are true descriptions of the pain, but in an ad they read as outcome promises. We've kept them out of copy. Is that the right reading of the register?
2. Right to work. The product does a passport-based check at sign-up; the brief says it can't appear in ads yet. The PR plan's 1 October story explains the new rule without claiming the product does it. Can PR go further once the check is live?
3. "Quarterly reports" and "submission receipts". The brief's product description mentions submissions; the Terms say no filing to HMRC. Which is current? Until we know, copy says "MTD-ready records".
4. The price anchor. The brief says subbies pay an accountant £40–80 a month; our research found £100–300 a year, and "under a tenner" a month as the ceiling. It matters for how £25 +VAT lands, and for whether we lead with Free (we do).
5. The name. The brief says Solo as a standalone brand with a sunrise theme; the team uses "Zebra / Z Solo". The store title, handles and sign-off line wait on it, and "Solo" is already used by three apps in the same space.

Four documents and two answers

1. The Solo Claims Register v0.2. Every status on this page is provisional without it.
2. Lena's research on real wrong invoices (Confluence). The best source of true, specific hooks.
3. The "Hubs & Subs — MTD for builders only" creative the brief names as the tone reference.
4. The pricing PDF (CIS_Portal_Pricing_EN.pdf), to check every price line.
5. Does the app ever ask for a Government Gateway login? If not, "we never ask for it" is one of our strongest trust lines.
6. Can Solo hold statements from contractors who aren't on Hub? That decides whether "every payslip in one place" is usable.

Once the register arrives, every line gets a final status and the approved set becomes the copy bank for ads, the store listings, the landing page and creator briefs.