How to track freelance expenses: a simple spreadsheet and receipt system

Knowing what you spent, on what, and where the receipt is, is the boring half of staying organised as a freelancer. Here is a plain day-to-day system: one Expenses tab, the columns to use, category labels that stay useful without pretending to be tax lines, a receipt naming and matching habit, a monthly review you can copy, and what the US IRS, UK GOV.UK and Canada CRA say about keeping records. It works in any country and any currency.

The columns, categories, receipt workflow and monthly review are our own suggestion, not a standard. Official record-keeping and expense-framing pages (IRS, GOV.UK and CRA) were checked on 2026-10-14.

The short answer

• One Expenses tab with date, vendor, category, amount, tax, payment method, receipt reference, project or client, and notes.
• One receipt file per row that needs proof, named so you can find it, with the same reference on the row.
• Review once a month: fill gaps, match receipts, note mixed-use splits, back up the sheet and the folder together.
• Use your own day-to-day categories; map to Schedule C, Form T2125 or UK Self Assessment boxes when you prepare the return (or ask someone who does).
• Keep the log with your records. The IRS says: "You may choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses." (IRS). GOV.UK and the CRA have their own how-long rules (see below).

1. What to track

Our suggestion, as general practice. One row per purchase (or per receipt when several items share one receipt and you do not need to split them for your own records):

Supporting documents matter as well as the row. The IRS says you should keep documents that show amounts and sources of gross receipts, and the same idea applies to expenses: "You should keep supporting documents that show the amounts and sources of your gross receipts." (IRS: What kind of records should I keep). The CRA describes records as organised documents that summarise transactions and include the documents that support them: "Records are organized accounting and financial documents that summarize your transactions and include the documents to support these transactions." (CRA).

2. Categories that stay useful

These labels are ours. They are for sorting your year so you can find things later. They are not the official expense lines on Schedule C, Form T2125 or the UK SA103 pages. When you prepare a return (or hand the file to someone who does), map each bucket to the form line that applies where you file — or leave that mapping to your adviser.

Official line lists (when you file): US Schedule C guide (Part II expense categories from the form); Canada T2125 guide (expenses part of the form / Guide T4002); UK Self Assessment guide (SA103 expense boxes and allowable expenses). Meals, home office and vehicle often have extra rules — see section eight and those guides; we do not re-derive meal percentages or home-office formulas here.

Full list to paste into a drop-down: Software and subscriptions, Hosting and domains, Advertising and marketing, Travel, Meals and entertainment, Office supplies, Professional fees, Insurance, Phone and internet, Education and training, Equipment (small) and Other.

3. Spreadsheet tabs and columns to copy

Make one tab named Expenses and put these headings on the first row (tab-separated; paste into the first cell, then split to columns if your app dumps them into one cell):

Expenses
Date	Vendor	Category	Amount	Tax	Payment method	Receipt ref	Project or client	Notes

Optional formulas (ours; English-locale commas — swap to semicolons if your spreadsheet language needs that). They do not invent tax rates; they only add amounts you typed:

Total of Amount column:
=SUM(D2:D)

Total for one category (replace [category] with the exact label):
=SUMIF(C:C,"[category]",D:D)

A second tab for a simple monthly total (label in one column, formula in the next) is enough for most freelancers. Keep money and invoices elsewhere (billing sheet or free invoice generator) so the expense log does not disagree with what you billed.

4. Receipt workflow

General practice (not a legal filing rule):

• Capture soon: photo or PDF the same day when you can. Paper fades; email receipts get lost in search.
• One folder per year (and optional month subfolders), backed up the same way you back up the spreadsheet.
• Name files so they sort: date first, then vendor, then a short ref. Put that same ref in the Receipt ref column.
• Match before you archive: every non-trivial row should point at a file, and every file should have a row (or a note why not).
• Statements help find gaps; they rarely replace an itemised receipt when a tax authority asks for supporting documents.

Filename pattern to copy:

[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_[vendor-short]_[amount-or-ref].[ext]
Examples of the idea (made-up names, not real files):
[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_acme-hosting_inv-[ref].pdf
[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_train-ticket_[ref].jpg

5. Monthly review checklist

General practice: a short fixed review keeps the log true. Email it to yourself on a repeating reminder, or keep it at the top of the sheet:

Subject: Expense review — [month and year]

- Every purchase this month has a row (Date, Vendor, Category, Amount).
- Each row that needs a receipt has a Receipt ref that matches a file.
- Tax column filled where the receipt shows tax separately; blank where it does not apply.
- Mixed-use items: Notes say how you split business vs personal (your method; check the rules where you file).
- Project or client filled when the cost belongs to one job.
- Categories still make sense; rename only if you also update any SUMIF labels.
- Export or back up the sheet and the receipt folder together.
- Flag anything you are unsure is a business cost for your accountant.

6. How long to keep records

Official how-long rules differ by country. None of these pages is about freelancers by name; they are about business records for tax.

Page dates on the check date: IRS how-long 2026-06-30; GOV.UK records 2015-01-23; CRA where/how-long 2026-08-03.

7. Business vs personal and mixed use

High-level official framing only. We do not invent split percentages here.

• United States: "To be deductible, a business expense must be both ordinary and necessary. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your field of business. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your business. An expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary." (IRS Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business). Note: "We have discontinued Publication 535, Business Expenses; the last revision was for 2022." The IRS now points readers to a guide to business expense resources instead (Guide to business expense resources).
• United Kingdom: "You can deduct these costs to work out your taxable profit before paying Income Tax as long as they’re allowable expenses." When something is mixed: "You can only claim allowable expenses for the business costs." (GOV.UK: Expenses if you're self-employed).
• Canada: "as a rule, you can deduct any reasonable current expense you incur to earn income." And: "since you cannot deduct personal expenses, enter only the business part of expenses on Form T2125, T2042 or T2121." (CRA: Business expenses). Guide T4002 Chapter 3 opens the same idea with: "You cannot claim expenses you incur to buy capital property. However, as a rule, you can deduct any reasonable current expense you incur to earn income." (Guide T4002, Chapter 3 – Expenses).

Put the method you used for any split in the Notes column (for example, business share of a phone bill). Whether that method is accepted where you file is between you and the rules / your adviser — we have not checked US state rules or every local wrinkle.

8. Vehicle, mileage and home office

Do not duplicate a full calculator here. Use the dedicated tools and tax guides:

• Mileage / vehicle: US mileage log, UK mileage log, Canada mileage logbook — then the vehicle sections of the Schedule C, T2125 and UK Self Assessment guides.
• Home office: covered in those same tax guides (and the forms they cite). We have not re-derived home-office formulas or meal-percentage rules on this page.
• Projects: if you also track hours and budgets, see how to track multiple client projects.

9. Copy blocks

Headings, monthly review and receipt names again in one place:

Expenses
Date	Vendor	Category	Amount	Tax	Payment method	Receipt ref	Project or client	Notes

Subject: Expense review — [month and year]

- Every purchase this month has a row (Date, Vendor, Category, Amount).
- Each row that needs a receipt has a Receipt ref that matches a file.
- Tax column filled where the receipt shows tax separately; blank where it does not apply.
- Mixed-use items: Notes say how you split business vs personal (your method; check the rules where you file).
- Project or client filled when the cost belongs to one job.
- Categories still make sense; rename only if you also update any SUMIF labels.
- Export or back up the sheet and the receipt folder together.
- Flag anything you are unsure is a business cost for your accountant.

[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_[vendor-short]_[amount-or-ref].[ext]
Examples of the idea (made-up names, not real files):
[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_acme-hosting_inv-[ref].pdf
[yyyy]-[mm]-[dd]_train-ticket_[ref].jpg

10. The checklist

• Expenses tab with the columns above (or the same ideas under your own names).
• Category list you actually use; drop-down if your app allows it.
• Receipt folder for the year, named files, Receipt ref filled on the row.
• Monthly review on a fixed day; gaps closed before the month is cold.
• Mixed-use notes written down while you still remember the split.
• Year-end copy of the sheet and the receipt folder kept with your other business records for the how-long period where you file.
• Tax-form mapping left to filing time (or to your adviser), using the Schedule C / T2125 / UK SA guides — not invented in this log.

Free tools and kits

• Free expense and receipt log (Canada): interactive log with GST/HST paid, month filter and PDF — Canada-focused; this guide is the worldwide process around any spreadsheet.
• Free receipt generator: receipts you issue to clients (paid in full or part payment), not the purchase receipts you file for your own expenses.
• How to write a freelance invoice: the income side of the same record-keeping habit.
• US / UK / Canada mileage logs.
• Schedule C, Form T2125 and UK Self Assessment guides for official expense categories when you file.
• Our paid Freelance Billing Kit by Small Rows (US$12, one-time) includes an Expenses tab: your own category list, or US Schedule C / UK SA103F-style boxes, with yearly totals by category. It does not store receipt photos or walk through a receipt-filing system — this guide is that day-to-day process.
• All our kits together: the All-Kits Bundle by Small Rows (US$24, one-time).

Where the sources differ

We read the pages under Sources on 2026-10-14. A few details to watch:

• Different clocks for how long. The IRS ties retention to the period of limitations (often 3 years); GOV.UK counts at least five years after the 31 January deadline; the CRA counts six years from the end of the last tax year the records relate to.
• Deductibility is not the same as bookkeeping. Publication 334's ordinary-and-necessary test, GOV.UK allowable expenses and the CRA's reasonable-current-expense rule are about what may be deducted — not about which columns your spreadsheet must have.
• Publication 535 is gone. Use Publication 334 and the IRS business-expense resources guide; do not treat the old 2022 Publication 535 PDF as current instruction.
• Our categories are not tax lines. Official line lists live on the Schedule C / T2125 / UK SA guides.
• What we have not checked: US state rules; which specific costs are deductible in each country beyond pointing at those guides; meal-percentage detail; home-office formulas; other countries' record-keeping rules.

When to get advice

• you are unsure whether a cost is a business expense where you are taxed;
• you need to apply meal, entertainment, vehicle or home-office limits;
• you keep records in a cloud service and you are taxed in Canada (see the CRA where-to-keep quotes above);
• you are deleting old receipts and are not sure the retention period has passed;
• a tax authority has asked for supporting documents and you are not sure what counts.

Related free resources

• Free expense and receipt log (Canada)
• Free receipt generator
• How to write a freelance invoice
• Schedule C for US freelancers
• Form T2125 for Canadian freelancers
• UK Self Assessment for freelancers
• How to track multiple client projects
• All free tools

Sources

Official pages read on 2026-10-14. Check the live page before you rely on it.

• United States: IRS: What kind of records should I keep · IRS: How long should I keep records? · Publication 334 · Guide to business expense resources
• United Kingdom: GOV.UK: What records to keep · GOV.UK: How long to keep your records · GOV.UK: Expenses if you're self-employed
• Canada: CRA: What are records · CRA: Where to keep your records, for how long · CRA: Business expenses · Guide T4002, Chapter 3 – Expenses

Expense-page dates on the check date: Publication 334 2026-04-30; business-expense resources 2026-06-27; GOV.UK expenses 2024-11-08; CRA business expenses 2026-08-31; Guide T4002 Chapter 3 2026-04-16.

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