If the idea of keeping up with your photography expenses stresses you out, you don't know if you need to file something as an asset or a supply, and you don't know how to keep track of the money you're making in an efficient way .. I GOT YOU!

 If you've read my about me (here) you've learned that this is a part of owning a small business that I actually LOVE! I love crunching numbers, I love doing taxes, I love seeing and improving profitability, I love this back end of photography where so many important things happen that no one really sees.One way I manage to actually enjoy and be able to keep track of everything is by staying organized, and building systems that actually do the math and the work for me. Literally. If you're not familiar with Excel formulas, they are my favorite thing in the world. I build a sheet, I tell it what I want it to do, and it will do math for me all day long in multiple places for multiple scenarios. It's as simple as jotting "$5 coffee" and boom- it's in the right category, boom- it's in my expenses for the month, boom- it's subtracted from my profit for the month, it's all automatically happening in front of me. And now it's going to automatically happen for you too because I am SELLING my EXPENSE SPREADSHEET FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS!First, let's talk about WHY you need to keep up with everything this spreadsheet will require of you.

1. Preparing for tax time. Whether you do them yourself or you hire someone else, they're going to need your expenses. If you are paying an accountant an hourly rate and handing them a fishbowl of post-it notes, you're killing yourself here. If you're doing this yourself, you're setting yourself up for MISERY in January. We can't write off what we don't know we spent, and we can't understand what we spent if we don't keep a good record. Let this live in your Google Drive or whatever app you have on your phone and computer system, so that you can access and update it anywhere.
2. Improving profitability. Once you start seeing how many times a month you are spending money in certain categories, you may start to realize you need to make an expense change. There's no bigger realization than actually seeing where every penny of your business profit went in a year, month by month, category by category.  When you see it all in front of you, you get to analyze what you can do better. If we don't sit down and have it all in front of us, we don't see many mistakes we're making.
3. Managing income. In addition to managing expenses, this spreadsheet manages your money coming into the business. In one section you have a year's summary, and you can quickly see where you started in January, what you've spent, and where you are. I enter all of my future wedding payments to be able to see how much I will bring in for the future months. Being able to look forward to what I call "money milestones" in business, or knowing to prepare for the slower months is essential if you're living on your income.

 I have entered a key for you on the spreadsheet with as many common photographer expenses as I could think of. This spreadsheet tells you where to put camera maintenance, bridal consult coffee, gas, hotel, Facebook ads, second shooter payments, print sales, sales tax, new equipment, a desk, insurance, even printer ink. Not all of your expenses will be in the key, but the categories are set up for you to be able to figure out your best spot for you, and I've written down examples for January. Be specific when you enter, stating which wedding/client the expense was for. If you're ever audited, it's going to be a tremendous help rather than a list of "gas, gas, ship a box, gas, Chick Fil A" for your expenses. This spreadsheet in addition to receipts will be the most useful thing in the world if that scenario comes. If you're doing your business taxes on your own this year for the first time, you will see when it's time to enter your business expenses, they are THESE categories! Hi easy life! I didn't make them up, I made this FROM tax time experience!

I am not a tax professional, and this spreadsheet is giving no tax advice. This is just a really simple and easy way to keep up with your expenses that formulate by month.

Look around the key, read the notes, enter your starting profit if you have it, and start getting yourself organized!

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