#Freelance bookkeeping spreadsheet software
#Freelance bookkeeping spreadsheet professional

Some are very “by the book”, where rules are black and white. There are a few different “types” of accountants. Gym memberships might fall under an “employee wellness program.”.Maybe your “software” purchases from iTunes include music purchases.While traveling for a conference, you take a few additional days to see more sights around the city you’re visiting. Mixing in personal travel with business travel.

This gets even more gray if you’re a remote worker and use a coffee shop as a workplace.

You’re not supposed to claim coffees while you work at a coffee shop unless you’re on an overnight business trip or you’re entertaining a vendor, client or client prospect.

Always check with your CPA, and let them do their job. Here are some possible ways to be very aggressive in your business expenses.

#Freelance bookkeeping spreadsheet professional

Health insurance, Professional Liability Insurance.Gifts sent to vendors, clients or prospects… or me ).

Merchant fees like PayPal, Stripe, etc.Furnishing for your home office, for example: your office chair, desk and lamp.Professional advice from lawyers, accountants, etc.Travel costs (taxis, Uber, flights, etc.) to client locations or educational events.Any educational resources, for example: eBooks, conference tickets, courses at CodeSchool, etc.Other Mobile Devices (such as iPad, Kindle).

#Freelance bookkeeping spreadsheet software

Software like GitHub, CodePen, Skype, etc.

Typical expenses for a freelance front end developer:

Clothes, unless you’re required to wear a uniform.

Things that are probably NOT business expenses: An expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary.īORING! Okay, that’s a long, vague way to say…ĭo all the other front-end developers buy this for their business, and is it necessary to run your business? If yes, it’s probably a business expense. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your business. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your field of business. When you spend money on related business needs it’s consider an “expense.” Our greatĪnd powerful IRS defines a business expense this way:Ī business expense must be both ordinary and necessary. Okay, let’s slow down… You’ve heard your accountant say, “Categorize your expenses,” but what the heck does that even mean?įirst, let’s talk about what a business expense actually is.

Did you categorize your expenses? This will probably the majority of bookkeeping work for freelance web devs.

Payroll taxes are so difficult to figure out you should just use.

If you have W-2 employees, did you withhold the taxes properly? Allan’s advice:.

Did you collect W-2 and W-9 forms from these people?.

Are they a W-2 employee or W-9 contractor? ( More info on the Less Accounting blog).

Did you pay anyone (including yourself)?.

Make sure you’re handling this properly, because it can bite you in the butt later. states, the IRS requires service-based businesses to charge sales tax.

Did you borrow money or take an investment? If so, how much and from who?.

What do accountants need? It Revenue Questions to Answer In fact, it’s rather easy once you realize what your accountant needs to prepare your taxes and advise you on tax planning. Let’s be honest, you’d rather be messing around with JavaScript libraries, CSS3 and HTML5 than doing bookkeeping. There are just some pretty straightforward questions you need to answer. Allan will explain that getting started on this isn’t that difficult. It’s a lot easier to see what needs to change when everything is organized. But my favorite thing is having an understanding of the ins and outs of the business. Not scrambling to do everything at the last minute. Not worrying about tax time and owing huge unknown amounts of money. (With a lot of help, of course, thanks Dee!) The advantages are significant. True story for me: it’s only been this last year where I’ve gotten my stuff together and taken accounting seriously. Allan runs Less Accounting, web software for accounting.

The following is a guest post by my friend Allan Branch.