Guides › A simple income and expense tracker for freelancers (Excel or Google Sheets) · Updated 30 Oct 2026

A simple income and expense tracker for freelancers (Excel or Google Sheets)

This is about organising your records, not tax advice. Rules differ by country; check with your accountant or tax office.

You don't need accounting software to know where you stand. Two tables and a few formulas do most of the work for a small freelance business.

Income

Columns: Invoice no., Date, Client, Net, VAT/GST, Total, Paid on. The "Paid on" column is what tells you who still owes you:

=SUMIFS(F:F, G:G, "")

Expenses

Columns: Date, Supplier, Category (dropdown), Net, VAT/GST, Total, Receipt (a file name or link). Keep the categories short: software, equipment, travel, phone, office, training, other.

Per month and per quarter

=SUMIFS(Income!D:D, Income!B:B, ">="&B1, Income!B:B, "<"&EDATE(B1,1))

With the first day of the month in B1. For a quarter, use EDATE(B1,3). Do the same for expenses and you have a simple profit view.

Receipts

Save each receipt as a PDF or photo in one folder, named 2026-11-03_supplier_amount. Put that name in the Receipt column. Your accountant will thank you.

Rather start with a ready-made file?

The Freelancer Bookkeeping Tracker has invoices, expenses, VAT/GST quarters and a live dashboard, in €, $ and £ editions. Your data stays in your own file.