Freelancer Bookkeeping Workbook

Most bookkeeping advice for freelancers stops at "track your expenses." The harder part is knowing which category each one belongs to, and what it all adds up to when the tax return is due.

This workbook is nine tabs that do that work as you go.

Expenses. Pick a category from the dropdown and the Schedule C line, the deductible percentage and the deductible amount fill themselves in. Twenty-three categories are mapped to their Schedule C lines — meals already set to 50%, car and truck separated from mileage so you never claim both. Add your own categories in the empty rows.

Income. One row per payment received, with invoice date and date paid, so the workbook tells you how long each client actually takes to pay.

Mileage Log. Date, destination, purpose and odometer readings — the four things the IRS asks for. The correct rate is applied automatically based on the date of the trip, including the 2026 mid-year rate change.

Profit and Loss. Twelve months and a year total, every Schedule C category, built from everything above. Nothing here needs typing.

Tax Estimator. What to set aside: self-employment tax with the Social Security wage base and the additional Medicare threshold for your filing status, the deductible half, your standard deduction, and estimated federal income tax. A planning figure, not a return.

Health Check. Nine checks to run before you file or hand anything to a preparer — expenses with no category, rows dated outside your tax year, negative amounts, anything over $75 with no receipt. It finds the gaps for you.

Set up in five minutes: fill the blue cells on the Setup tab and the rest of the workbook follows. 2026 figures are already entered and documented with their IRS source, so you can check them.

Works in Excel and Google Sheets. $49 once — not a subscription. 14-day refund, no questions asked.