Written by Maryam Ajorloo, CPA · Reviewed by Behdad Karimi Dermeni, CPA
A small business bookkeeping template is a ready-made spreadsheet for recording every dollar your business earns and spends, sorted into categories, so you can see your profit each month and hand clean totals to your tax preparer at year-end. A good US one sorts expenses the way Schedule C does, so tax time is a copy job instead of a research project.
If your current system is a banking app, a camera roll full of receipts and a firm intention to "deal with it before April," you are in excellent company. (April has heard that one before.) This free bookkeeping template gives your numbers a proper home: an Excel spreadsheet built by CPAs for American small businesses, with expense categories that match IRS Schedule C line by line, an optional mileage log, and a Form 1099-NEC check for the contractors you pay.
No form, no email address, no sales call. Download it, fill in one setup tab, and start logging. And when typing in transactions starts to feel like a second job, you can connect your bank to ReInvestWealth and let the AI do the categorizing.
Download the free bookkeeping template
Download the bookkeeping template (Excel, free, no sign-up)
It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. Cream cells are for you to type in; grey cells calculate on their own. Inside you get eight tabs:
How to use: short instructions, so you can fill it in without this page open.
Setup: your business name, state, the first day of your tax year, and how you deduct your vehicle. You type in the IRS mileage rate and the 1099-NEC threshold yourself, so the template never relies on a number that has since changed.
Income: one row per sale or invoice, with a category for regular sales (Schedule C line 1) and other business income (line 6). Owner contributions and loans have their own categories, so they never get counted as income.
Expenses: one row per receipt, with a drop-down of categories that carry their Schedule C line numbers, a "Paid from" column, and a "Receipt saved?" check that turns red when the answer is no.
Mileage Log: optional. One row per business trip; the deduction calculates from the rate on your Setup tab, including a mid-year rate change.
Monthly Summary: income, expenses and profit for each month, plus contractor payments, equipment purchases and owner draws.
Year-End (Schedule C): every category totalled by Schedule C line, with meals already cut to 50% and a 1099-NEC check for each contractor. This is the tab your tax preparer will thank you for.
Example: nine common transactions for a Texas consultant, showing exactly how each one is recorded.
Each log has 500 rows. That is plenty for most small businesses, and if you fill them, that is a sign worth reading (more on that below).
What a bookkeeping spreadsheet actually needs to track
Here is the rule of thumb behind every bookkeeping system that works: record every dollar in and every dollar out, give each one a category, and keep the proof. That is the whole job. Everything else is formatting.
In practice, any income and expense spreadsheet needs four things for every transaction:
The date and who it was with. The customer you invoiced or the vendor you paid. For contractors, the name matters at year-end, because it decides who gets a 1099.
The amount. Record income at what you actually earned for the work, and expenses at what you actually paid.
The category. Advertising, rent, software, travel. Categories are what turn a list of payments into a profit and loss statement, and into the numbers on your tax return.
The receipt. A bank statement shows that you paid. The receipt shows what you bought, which is what proves it was a business expense.
A bookkeeping spreadsheet template is only useful if it does those four things consistently. Fancy dashboards are optional. Consistency is not.
How to use the bookkeeping template in 6 steps
Fill in the Setup tab. Enter your business name, pick your state, set the first day of your tax year (January 1 for most sole proprietors and single-member LLCs), and choose your vehicle method. If you drive for business, type in the IRS standard mileage rate for your year, and type the current 1099-NEC threshold. Check both on IRS.gov when you start and at the start of each year.
Log every sale on the Income tab. One row per invoice or sale. Enter the amount and pick a category. Include income that a client or platform reports to you on a Form 1099-NEC or 1099-K, and income nobody reports at all: the IRS wants all of it.
Log every purchase on the Expenses tab. Enter the amount you paid, choose a category from the drop-down (the line number in brackets is the matching Schedule C line), and note what you paid with. Type each contractor's name the same way every time, so the 1099 check can find them.
Mark whether you kept the receipt. Any "No" turns red, which gives you a to-do list before year-end instead of a surprise during it.
Review the Monthly Summary once a month. Check your profit, see how much went to contractors and equipment, and spot an owner draw habit before it spots you. Ten minutes a month beats a lost weekend in April.
Send the Year-End tab to your tax preparer. Your totals are already sorted by Schedule C line, meals are at 50%, your vehicle deduction is worked out, and equipment, home office and owner draws are kept separate. They can go straight to the tax work instead of untangling a bank export.
If you have fallen a few months behind, do not panic and do not start over. Work through the backlog one month at a time, oldest first. Our guide to catch-up bookkeeping walks through it.
US details most bookkeeping templates miss
Plenty of free bookkeeping spreadsheets online are generic: one "expenses" column, categories invented by whoever made the file, and no idea what a 1099 is. These are the details this template handles for you.
Expense categories that match Schedule C
If you are a sole proprietor or a single-member LLC, your business income and expenses go on Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business. Every expense category in the template carries its Schedule C line number, from advertising (line 8) and contract labor (line 11) to office expense (line 18), travel (line 24a) and other expenses (line 27b).
That matters more than it sounds. When your categories match the form, year-end is a copy-and-paste job rather than a guessing game. For what belongs in each bucket, see our guide to business expense categories, and for the write-offs worth chasing, our list of small business tax deductions.
Have an S corp, a partnership or a multi-member LLC? Those file their own returns (Form 1120-S or Form 1065) instead of Schedule C, but most of the same categories map across, so the template still works. Your tax preparer handles the translation.
Meals at 50%, equipment, and owner draws
Three kinds of spending trip up almost every homemade spreadsheet, so the template treats each one differently:
Business meals: generally only 50% is deductible. You log the full bill; the Year-End tab claims half on line 24b.
Equipment and other capital purchases: a laptop, a desk or a vehicle is usually claimed through depreciation, or written off in the first year with Section 179, on Form 4562 (Schedule C line 13). Either way, it is not a regular expense line. The template keeps these out of profit and lists them for your tax preparer.
Owner draws and personal purchases: money you take out of the business is not an expense. It has its own category so it never quietly lowers your profit. Our guide to owner's draws explains how to record one properly.
The mileage log (and the mid-year rate change)
If you drive for business, you can usually choose between the standard mileage rate (business miles times the IRS rate, plus parking and tolls) and actual expenses (the business share of gas, repairs, insurance and depreciation). Pick one on the Setup tab and the Year-End tab claims only that method, so you never accidentally claim both.
As of October 2026, the IRS business rate for 2026 is a split year: 72.5 cents per mile for trips before July 1, and 76 cents per mile from July 1, after a rare mid-year increase. That is exactly why the template asks you to type the rate yourself, with a second rate and start date for years like this one. The Mileage Log applies the right rate to each trip by date.
One caution while you are logging: driving from home to your regular workplace is commuting, and commuting miles do not count. (Sadly, that includes the drive to the coffee shop you have decided is your office.)
Contractors and Form 1099-NEC
If you pay a freelancer or independent contractor, you may need to send them a Form 1099-NEC. As of October 2026, the reporting threshold for payments made in 2026 is $2,000 per recipient, up from $600 for 2025 payments. The IRS will index it for inflation from 2027, so check the current figure each year.
The Year-End tab has a 1099-NEC check: type each contractor's name, and it totals what you paid them by check, bank transfer or cash and flags anyone at or over the threshold you entered on Setup. Card and payment-app payments are left out, because the card company or app reports those on Form 1099-K instead. Not sure whether someone is a contractor or an employee? Our 1099 vs W-2 guide covers the test.
How long to keep your records
The IRS generally expects you to keep records for 3 years from the date you file. That stretches to 6 years if you underreport income by more than 25%, 7 years if you claim a bad debt or a worthless securities loss, and at least 4 years for employment tax records if you have employees. Our CPA rule of thumb: keep 7 years and you cover every common case.
Digital copies are fine as long as they are clear and complete, so a phone photo saved to a dated folder works. The "Receipt saved?" column is there to make sure that folder is actually complete. (If the IRS ever asks, you will be glad it is. Our guide on how far back the IRS can audit a business explains why.)
Logging receipts and matching them to payments by hand is the slowest part of any spreadsheet. It is exactly what ReInvestWealth's Smart Shoebox does for you: forward or upload a receipt, and it reads the details and matches it to the bank transaction automatically.
5 common bookkeeping spreadsheet mistakes
Mixing business and personal spending. One shared account turns every month into a sorting exercise. Open a separate business account, even as a sole proprietor, and the template stays clean. Our guide to LLC bookkeeping explains why this matters even more once you form an LLC.
Counting money that is not income. A loan, or cash you move in from your personal savings, lands in your bank account like a sale, but it is not taxable income. Give it the owner contribution or loan category and your profit stays honest.
Expensing a big purchase all at once. A $1,900 laptop is not automatically a $1,900 office expense. Use the capital purchase category and let your tax preparer decide between depreciation and Section 179.
Skipping months. A spreadsheet updated in April is a spreadsheet reconstructed from memory. A fixed monthly slot (the first Friday, say) keeps it accurate and keeps it short.
Losing track of what you paid contractors. January has a classic scramble: working out what each freelancer was paid all year, and how. Recording the payee name and payment method as you go turns the 1099 question into a glance at one tab. If you freelance yourself, our guide to bookkeeping for freelancers covers the other side of the 1099.
When you have outgrown the spreadsheet
A bookkeeping template is a great way to start. It is not always a great way to continue. These are the signs it is time for something that does the typing for you:
You have more than one bank account or card feeding the business, and copying transactions across is eating your evenings.
You need reports a lender or investor will ask for: a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, not just a profit number.
Your receipts live in four places (email, your camera roll, a glovebox and a drawer), and matching them to payments has become its own project.
Someone else needs access, like your tax preparer or a bookkeeper, and emailing spreadsheet versions back and forth has started to produce files called "FINAL_v3_actual."
That is where ReInvestWealth comes in. Connect your bank and the AI Bookkeeper categorizes every transaction properly, the Smart Shoebox matches your receipts, and your financial reports are ready whenever you or your tax preparer need them. Built by CPAs, so you do not have to be one. See how it works and start free for 30 days.
Planning ahead as well as looking back? Pair this template with our free cash flow projection template, and use the profit margin calculator once your first few months are in.
Frequently asked questions
Is this bookkeeping template really free?
Yes. It is a free Excel download with no sign-up, no form and no email address required. You can edit it, copy it and share it. It also opens in Google Sheets and Numbers.
Does the bookkeeping template work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. The drop-downs, formulas and red receipt flags all carry over. Numbers on a Mac opens it too.
Can an LLC use this bookkeeping template?
Yes. A single-member LLC usually reports on Schedule C, so the line numbers apply directly. A multi-member LLC or an S corp files its own return, but its income and expenses fall into the same groups, and your tax preparer maps the totals across.
Do I have to send a 1099 to every contractor?
No. As of October 2026, you generally file Form 1099-NEC for a contractor you paid $2,000 or more during 2026 for business services, and payments made by card or through a payment app are reported on Form 1099-K instead. Collect a Form W-9 when you hire them, so you have their details if you need it.
Is a spreadsheet good enough for the IRS?
A spreadsheet can be a perfectly acceptable record, as long as it is complete, kept up to date, and backed by receipts and bank statements you keep for as long as the IRS can ask about that year. The IRS cares about the quality of your records, not the software they live in.
Your bookkeeping should take minutes, not weekends. Connect your bank account and let the AI Bookkeeper categorize your transactions for you, with CPA-level clean books ready for your tax preparer at year-end. Start free for 30 days →
A note from our CPAs: This guide and template are educational and cover the general rules for US small businesses and sole proprietors. Tax situations vary, so for advice on your specific circumstances, talk to your accountant. (If they use ReInvestWealth, they will already have clean books to work from.)
Written by Maryam Ajorloo, CPA
Maryam Ajorloo is the co-founder of ReInvestWealth and a CPA who specializes in small business tax, sales tax, and everyday bookkeeping. She helps entrepreneurs keep clean, audit-ready books and make sense of write-offs, filing deadlines, and the numbers behind their business. Read more · Connect on LinkedIn
Reviewed by Behdad Karimi Dermeni, CPA
Co-founder of ReInvestWealth and a founding community builder at Stripe. Behdad built ReInvestWealth to give smart, busy entrepreneurs CPA-level accounting without the CPA-level price tag. Read more · Connect on LinkedIn
