Bookkeeping for Independent Contractors: A Guide Shoeboxed

This ensures the template will calculate your tax deductions correctly. Once you’ve created a record of your receipts, it’s time to track the expenses in a spreadsheet. Everyone who earns income as an independent contractor must file a 1099 form with the IRS. This process involves calculating your self-employment tax, federal income tax, and (depending on where you live) your state income tax. Tax deductions are expenses, often for business, that can be subtracted from your gross taxable income—helping you lower your tax payments and invest in your work. Independent contractors should track all business-related expenses, including office supplies, travel expenses, equipment expenses, and professional services.

Complete the module and you’re ready to send out 1099-MISCs to your independent contractors. You can report your expenses as an independent contractor by completing the IRS‘s Schedule C form. The form details your gains or losses throughout the year while reporting your total costs under https://www.bookstime.com/ Part II, the Expenses section. After filling it out, attach it with other accompanying forms like Schedule 1, Schedule SE, and Form 1099 when filing your taxes. Most people think that due to the relatively unstable income of freelancers, it’s hard to build a good credit score.

Scan and Manage Receipts and Invoices

The manual labor of entering data into Excel is likely to bring mistakes. The software will automatically take your invoices, payments received, payments bookkeeping for independent contractors returned, and expenses to organize your books. As a business owner, your level of financial and legal responsibility toward contractors is low.

For example, you can sort your expenses by date to see how much you spent each month or filter by category column to see how much you spent on travel versus office supplies. For example, you can use the SUM function to add up the total expenses for each category or the AVERAGE function to calculate the average cost per expense. Common categories include office supplies, travel expenses, and professional development.

Wave Accounting

They should also track expenses related to marketing, advertising, and website development. A tax professional can provide valuable insight into bookkeeping as an independent contractor, managing your expenses, and ensuring that you comply with IRS rules and regulations. By following these steps, freelancers and independent contractors can create an effective expense spreadsheet to help them manage their finances and stay on top of their expenses. By keeping track of their expenses, independent contractors can accurately calculate their net income. One way to do this is by using an independent contractor expenses spreadsheet. It is always helpful to track 1099 work expenses even if you are working part-time.

• Hiring a professional to take care of your bookkeeping services will allow you the freedom you need to grow your business as an independent contractor.
• Your spreadsheet can also include the cost of repairs or upgrades to existing equipment.
• People who work routine 8-5 jobs for a company are classified as an employee.
• As an employer, you must report these taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
• Managing independent contractor expenses is necessary for several reasons.
• Keeper Tax also offers a paid service that automatically categorizes and tracks expenses for users, making it an excellent option for those who want to save time.