by Sandra Knight, Contributing Editor
As a professional writer you probably track the money you receive each month, but do you track your costs?
To be more successful you need to track your expenses as well as your income.
Here are a few reasons a professional writer should track their expenditures:
• Once an expense tracking tool is set up, you will have more free time to write, which is something a freelancer can always use.
• A tracking tool can help you understand your spending and purchasing habits and help you meet your financial goals.
• An expense tracking tool helps with organization and eliminating paper receipts.
• Storing your financial data in a tracking tool can simplify taxes (which everyone has to pay) and help you stay organized if you are ever audited.
There are many tools to help you get started tracking your expenses and below are a few you can try.
Mint – Intuit
Mint is a free personal finance application (app) you can access from your computer or mobile app and is one of the best overall picks for expense tracking apps by CNBC and Investopedia.
This expense tracker allows all your accounts to be in one place, categorize all transactions and do away with paper receipts.
You can sync all your accounts (i.e., bank, investment, etc.) to view your expenses in real time or as a monthly overview.
Mint’s security is a 256-bit encryption, multifactor authentication and Touch ID mobile access.
Some of the pros and cons of Mint are as follows:
Pros
o Totally free platform.
o Ease of use.
o Customizable categories to track spending.
o Verisign scanning.
Cons
o Syncing accounts can be an issue.
o Ads can be invasive.
o There is not an investment feature.
This expense tracker app is one of the most popular personal finance tools with high satisfaction ratings and is a great option for professional writers.
Microsoft Excel Expense Tracking Worksheet Templates
Excel templates for expense tracking are another free option to see what you are spending using various categories.
While there are premium templates you can purchase, the free templates are all you need to track your expenses.
Like Excel that many of us use today, there is some manual entry but the Excel templates already have many features and formulas built in including, but not limited to, the following:
• Calculations so you can start using them right away.
• Dashboards to show your expenses at a glance.
• Detail Charts if you want an all-in-one way to track costs.
• Multiple Sheets so you can see an overview of your categories.
Some of the pros and cons of Excel Templates are as follows:
Pros
o Ease of use.
o Accurate breakdown of expenses with customizable categories.
o No cost for premium services.
Cons
o More manual approach.
o Purchase Excel to use templates if you don’t already have it.
o Small learning curve if you have not used Excel before.
Check out this article ‘Free Expense Tracking Worksheet Templates (Excel)’ to get started tracking your money to help you make better financial decisions to keep you from overspending.
Personally, I have been using Excel and only found out about these templates when researching this article and even narrowed it down to a couple of options.
They are worth checking out.
QuickBooks – Intuit
Quickbooks is a paid personal finance application you can access from your computer or mobile app and is one of the top picks for tracking costs for small businesses by CNBC and Investopedia.
This expense tracker allows you to snap receipts with the mobile app instead of worrying about paper, attach these receipts to invoices you send out, and pulls all data together at tax time.
You can integrate Quickbooks with other products you already use such as bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal and more.
Quickbooks starts at $15 per month but offers a 30-day free trial option.
Quickbooks security has a password-protected login, firewall protected servers and 128 bit SSL used by the world’s top banks.
In addition, you can have multiple permission levels if you have additional users.
Some of the pros and cons of Quickbooks are as follows:
Pros
o Easy to track expenses as they happen (auto track).
o Account for every deduction utilizing categories.
o Create custom rules.
o Separate business and personal expenses.
o Verisign scanning.
Cons
o Fairly steep learning curve to get started.
o Limitation on invoice design.
o Syncing data in real-time.
This app will help you save time and make wiser decisions with instant access to financial information in one place.
Expensify
Expensify is a paid expense management system you can use to track and manage outgoing costs with an easy-to-use tracking app.
This well rated cost tracker allows you to capture receipts and manage expenses in one app and automates your receipts and provides an expense reporting system.
You can import credit card transactions and integrate with over 40 apps using Expensify.
It is free to individuals or self-employed and allows 25 SmartScans a month, which is a great deal for a professional writers.
If you need unlimited scans, there is a free 6-week trial and then $4.99 per month.
Expensify’s security allows your data to be protected by the best security standards and privacy requirements with two-factor authentication and a generated code when you log in.
Some of the pros and cons of Expensify are as follows:
Pros
o One-click receipt scanning.
o Sync tax rates from your accounting package.
o Generate client invoices.
o Separate business and freelance plans.
Cons
o Interface might not be as intuitive as other apps.
o Can take more time to upload that manually typing in the information.
o Better Business Bureau rating is poor.
This business expense tracker app has two free plans for freelancers and allows you to keep all your expenses in one place and make expense reports on the go.
To Sum it Up
With an influx of quality expense tracking apps, there is no shortage for professional writers to track expenses and once you start that is half the battle.
If you are just starting out as a professional writer or don’t want the expense right now, choose a free app, spreadsheet or good old-fashioned pen and paper.
Now it is time to find an app that you will use. Make sure you look at all options/tiers of a product that might start out as free, so you don’t have to change later.
Business News Daily says ‘An expense tracker app should import transactions from your accounts, mobile wallets and credit cards. It should give you a clear image of how much you are making and how much your expenses are. The app should help you determine if expenses are feasible with your income.’
Forbes Advisor states ‘These apps can help you keep track of receipts, organize all of your costs into categories and integrate with popular accounting software.’
Based on what you are looking for, here are some other items to ask yourself when selecting an app to track your expenses:
• What does it cost?
• If it’s free, do you get all the features you want?
• Are categories customizable?
• Does it integrate with my accounting software?
As professional writers, we make money doing what we love and might not think about some of the expenses of being a freelancer.
Organization and tracking all expenses are critical to success.
There is a great article, ‘Expense Tracking for Freelancers: How to Set up for Tax Season’, written by a freelancer, that talks about how professional writers can approach finances as ants, grasshoppers or everybody else.
It talks about rookie mistakes, tax tracking best practices, and whether the expense is legitimate.
Finally, only you can determine which expense tracking app is right for you.
It will depend on what kind of expense you pay out for your professional writing business, how you file your taxes and relying on yourself, not your clients, to keep an accurate record of expenses.
Read these related articles: Three Systems Your Business Should Have
More Goal Setting Tips and Free Resources to Help You Build Your Writing Business
About Sandra Knight
Sandra Knight is a professional writer who creates actionable content for freelancers, authors and speakers as it relates to finance. She covers topics from how to track expenses to what to include in an author speaker agreement to budgeting through in-depth guides, informative articles and engaging blog posts.
Learn more about her and her writing services at linkedin.com.
