In short: The Paid Hour earns from affiliate commission on some software and banking links, and from display advertising. As of 26 August 2026 no affiliate programme is live, so every recommendation on the site so far was made with nothing riding on it. Commission never decides a verdict.
You are reading about money, so you are entitled to know how the person writing gets paid before you weigh up what he says. This page is the full answer. The affiliate disclosure carries the legal wording and the dated list of partners; this page explains how it actually works.
The plan, in numbers
The intention is roughly seventy per cent of income from affiliate commission and thirty per cent from advertising. Today the real figure is zero from both: the site has run since August 2026 with no commission paid and advertising only just applied for. I would rather publish the plan than pretend the site is already a business.
What an affiliate link is, and how you can tell
Some links to accounting software and business bank accounts will, once the programmes are live, pay a commission if you sign up after clicking. Those links run through an address beginning /go/, for example /go/xero, and carry a sponsored tag that search engines read. Every page containing one says so at the top, before the link appears. Wherever a /go/ link exists, the provider’s plain web address is also given, so you never have to use the commission link.
Links used as evidence, meaning the HMRC pages and provider pricing pages listed under Sources, are never affiliate links. They go straight to the original.
Who pays what
This is the part most sites leave vague. As of 26 August 2026:
- FreeAgent pays nothing in cash. Its referral scheme pays account credit to its own paying subscribers, and I am not one. FreeAgent is nonetheless the pick that leads several comparisons here, because for a sole trader with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle account it is free. That is the clearest evidence available that commission does not set the order.
- Tide pays a fixed fee per new member who completes onboarding, and requires written approval of any content that carries its link before it goes live. An application is open. When it is accepted, the approval condition will be stated on every page that carries a Tide link, and the disclosure page will name the date.
- Xero and QuickBooks: applications open, nothing live.
- Starling, Monzo, Mettle: no relationship, and none sought at present.
What commission cannot do
It cannot decide which product leads a comparison; the article’s own verdict does that, and the commercial check happens afterwards. It cannot buy a place in a ranking, remove criticism, or get a product covered at all. It makes no difference to my income whether a review is favourable or not, because nobody pays for reviews. Some of the tools rated most highly here will never pay a penny.
Where there are no affiliate links at all
Insurance, mortgages, pensions, investments, cryptoasset exchanges, brokers and trading platforms. Recommending or promoting those is regulated activity in the UK, this site is not authorised for it, and no commission changes that. Pages on those subjects explain the rules and the tax treatment, carry no product links, and point you to FCA-regulated advice or MoneyHelper.
Advertising
The site carries, or intends to carry, display advertising served by Google AdSense. Adverts are chosen by the network, not by me, and an advert next to an article is not a recommendation. Ads and analytics load only after you have made a choice on the cookie banner; how that affects your data is in the privacy policy.
What the money is for
Hosting, tools, and the time it takes to check every figure against HMRC before it goes live. If the site ever earns more than that, the plan is to spend it on more verification, not less.
Last reviewed 26 August 2026.