Tracking our business expenses is as important as tracking our incomes. Uncontrolled expenses can quickly ruin our earnings.
When I became self-employed, I didn’t track my expenses. I didn’t know where my money was going. I was afraid of spending money and very insecure about investing money to grow my business.
After a while, I created a spreadsheet to track my business expenses, and I’ve been improving it since then.
Today I’m sharing this automated spreadsheet with you.
Why use a spreadsheet to track your business expenses?
- Be aware of how much your business expenses are
Track your annual, monthly or one-time expenses.
- Have a list of all your business expenses
Keep control of all your online subscriptions, studio rent, supplies, fees, promotion and any other expenses you might have.
- Track how your business expenses evolve every year
The spreadsheet contains a separate sheet for every year. It’s very easy to set a new sheet when a new year comes by duplicating the current sheet. Having different sheets makes it very easy to compare your business expenses between years.
What does the expenses spreadsheet include?
- A list for annual fixed expenses.
- A list for monthly fixed expenses.
- A list for one-time expenses.
- A list that sums all the totals.
How to use the spreadsheet
You can create a copy of my Google Spreadsheet and use if for yourself. Just follow the link and go to File > Make a copy.
Using this spreadsheet is very easy. Add the business expenses you pay once a year in the annual list, add those you pay once a month in the monthly list, and those that you pay just once in the variable list.
That’s all. Everything is automated.
When a new year comes, duplicate the sheet and erase the variable expenses. If you cancel or modify any of your fixed expenses, just update the spreadsheet.
Conclusions
Accounting can be boring but it is an essential part of business. The process becomes very easy using this spreadsheet. Just add the expenses immediately after you pay them.
Even if you work with an accountant or a bookkeeper, using this spreadsheet will help you to be in control of your expenses and know exactly where your money is going.
This spreadsheet is part of my Toolkit. The Toolkit contains tools and resources for freelancers and creatives. You can download it here.
What system do you use to track your expenses?
Let me know in the comments!
