12-Month Freelance Income & Expense Tracker: printable, US Schedule C

A printable bookkeeping pack for US freelancers. Print it in US Letter or A4, write each payment in by hand, and every line is already sorted into the categories of IRS Schedule C (Form 1040) 2025.

$5, paid once. You download the files, and they are yours to keep. There is no account, no subscription, and nothing that renews.

Who it is for

- US sole proprietors and single-member LLCs who do their own books.

- Freelancers who would rather keep a paper record than set up software.

- Anyone who files Schedule C and wants the year's totals already sorted by form line when tax time comes.

What you get

A 31-page printable tracker, as two PDFs: one in US Letter and one in A4. Both have the same pages:

- Page 1: cover and "How to use it." Five steps: write payments in as they happen, total each month by line number, copy the totals onto the quarter's page, copy the quarters onto the year summary, and keep your receipts.

- Page 2: "Which line does it go on?" Every category on the sheets, in the IRS's own words, with a short example of what belongs there. For example, line 10 "Commissions and fees" says "Platform and marketplace fees, payment processing fees." Every one of those examples is a sentence quoted from the IRS's own Instructions for Schedule C for that line - a build script checks that the quote is really there before the pack ships, so the note can't drift from the form. The page also names the Schedule C lines left off the sheets, and why.

- 12 months, two pages each:

 - An Income log with columns for Date, Client or source, Invoice #, Description, Line, and Amount, plus total boxes for lines 1, 2, and 6.

 - An Expenses log with columns for Date, Paid to, What for, Line, Amount, and a Receipt tick box. It has a month total box and the line-number key printed at the foot of the page.

 - The month and year are left blank for you to fill in, so you can start in any month.

- 4 quarter totals pages. Each one has a row per Schedule C line, running from line 1 "Gross receipts or sales" through line 29 "Tentative profit or (loss)", with a column for each month and a quarter total. Profit so far is in one place when a quarterly estimated tax payment is due.

- Page 31: year summary. It has Q1 to Q4 and Year columns for every line, and a box for line 30, expenses for business use of your home.

One fillable spreadsheet (.xlsx), for those who would rather type:

- There are Income and Expenses sheets with 1,000 rows each. You pick the Schedule C line from a drop-down on each row.

- A Summary sheet adds everything up by line and by month for the tax year you enter. It shows line 7 gross income, line 28 total expenses, and line 29 tentative profit or (loss).

- It also counts any row that was left out of the totals, either because it has no line picked or because its date is outside the tax year. That way a missing entry doesn't quietly drop out of a total.

- A Categories sheet gives each line's full IRS wording and what goes there.

The expense categories tracked are lines 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16b, 17, 18, 20a, 20b, 21, 22, 23, 24a, 24b, 25, and 28b. The income lines are 1, 2, and 6.

Try a page first

A free sample page from the tracker (the monthly Expenses log) is available in Letter and A4, no email needed: https://ledger.shoalworks.com/#free-sample

Good to know

- This is for the US only. The categories follow IRS Schedule C (Form 1040) 2025. It is not laid out for UK, Canadian, Australian, or any other country's tax forms.

- This is not tax advice. It is a record-keeping tool. It doesn't file anything, work out your tax, or promise any deduction. Line numbers and names come from the 2025 form, and the IRS can renumber lines between years, so check the current form and its instructions before you file. If you are unsure where an expense belongs, ask a tax professional.

- Refunds: No refunds on digital downloads, but if it does not work for you, tell us, and we will make it right.