Skip to Content

How to organize your blog bookkeeping

Taking your blog to the next level by monetizing is very exciting.  There are so many opportunities!  But with these new chances to add to your family’s income come additional requirements.  A big one? You have to pay taxes on that newfound income.  That means you are going to need to keep track of your income and expenses.  In order to do that, you need a system of just gathering and keeping that information.  It’s time to face what most people want to ignore- your bookkeeping.  How do you organize your blog income and expenses?  What information do you need to track for your blog taxes?  I know it sounds daunting, but I have a simple system that can get your blog bookkeeping in order in no time. (And a handy cheat sheet to print out!)

How to organize your blog's bookkeeping information.

Why do I need to do this?

First of all, you might be wondering why you even need to worry about this.  If you are blogging for fun and as a hobby, it might not be too big a deal.  There are a lot of free tools to use and you might not be looking to make any money.  But if you do spend money on your blog it is a good idea to keep track of it, just like with any hobby.  It comes down to being smart with your household budget.  And you never know, you might decide to look into money making options at some point.  Then you will already have a system in place to keep track of your blog finances.


SimpleBlogTaxes.com  Where to go to get all the blogging tax help you need.  Easy to understand explanations and best practices for running your money making blog.

Good News!  I know that bloggers have a ton of questions about the tax and business side of running a blog.  It’s a small business after all.

To help out I have a new resource for all things blogging and taxes: SimpleBlogTaxes.com

This site has everything you need to know about filing your taxes as a blogger.  It has easy to understand explanations along with best practices for running your small business.  


If you are trying to make some money off of your blog, this is definitely something you need to do.  A lot of bloggers follow the idea that they need to treat their blog like a business.  Well, no good business can succeed without acknowledging the financial tracking aspect.  Come tax time you will be happy that you have this information organized and ready to go, confident you have what you need to report.  (And if you are thinking you don’t need to report that info, well, remember it was the IRS that finally brought down Capone.)

My qualifications

You might be wondering how I know what to do with blog bookkeeping.  I have been working as an accountant and bookkeeper for over seven years now.  I run my own bookkeeping business that specializes in helping small businesses, mainly those run by a sole proprietor.  This means my clients are usually a single person running their own business but needing someone to keep track of the financial aspect for them.  Bloggers that are just starting to monetize fall perfectly into that category.  Before I did this bookkeeping work I worked as a chemist.  What does that have to do with anything?  Well just like in accounting, in chemistry if you don’t document it, it didn’t happen.  I have over thirteen years of experience in properly documenting and maintaining information in accordance with government guidelines.  I’ve been doing this for awhile.  (And a legal note: I am a bookkeeper, but I am not your bookkeeper.  All financial decisions should be discussed with your legal and/or financial professional.  This is simply an organization system, not tax advice.)

Basic Bookkeeping Organization

Receipts and Income Tracking

This is seriously the easiest system ever.  Get 12 large envelopes.  I use the big brown ones you can fit a whole sheet of paper into without folding it.  Write the months of the year on them, one per envelope.  Every time you make a purchase for your blog- buy a theme, take a course, use a paid scheduler, etc- print out the receipt or write it down.  Then pop it in the envelope.  Anytime you receive payment for anything, such as from AdSense or an affiliate link, print out the receipt and pop it in the envelope.  Make sure it is actual, received income, as in you have received a payout you put into your bank account.  If you receive a product for free, you need to write that down along with the retail value of it.  Yep, that free product is income.

What information do you need to document?

  1. Date.  When did this transaction take place?
  2. Who. Who did you make a payment to or who did you receive a payment from?
  3. Method of payment. Did you use your credit card (note which one), a check, or cash? How did the payment come to you (PayPal, check, free product)?
  4. What. What did you spend the money on?  What exactly did you receive payment for?
  5. Amount. How much did you spend?  How much did you make?

I know it seems like these are very basic, but the more detail you include the better.  When you look back on this info at tax time you don’t want to be left wondering what a payment was for and having to search for the information.

How to organize your blog bookkeeping information.

If you prefer not to use a physical paper system, you can create email folders for each month of the year and simply email yourself copies of what you need to know.  As a bookkeeper, I prefer the paper system.  With envelopes, you have your packets to give to your bookkeeper if you are using one, and you don’t need to send a ton of emails.  It makes it easy to organize and move things around if needed.  (It’s easy to fix if you put a receipt in the wrong place for example.) When you are actually entering your information into your books it is much easier to have pages to go off of instead of flipping between browser tabs on the computer.  And just in case something happens to your email, like accidentally deleting a folder, you have what you need to know.

Once you have all this information together it is so much easier to track your monthly expenses and income.  Once a month (or however frequently you review your blog finances) you can pull out your envelopes and you are good to go.  As your business grows this system makes it easy to hand over your data to your bookkeeper.  It’s what I use and what I  encourage all my clients to use.

Additional info needed

If you are just starting out as a blogger you are probably just using your personal bank and credit card accounts.  If you have business accounts or cards you will want to add a copy of those monthly statements into your envelopes so you can reconcile them monthly.  Yes, I said the ‘r’ word- reconcile.  Reconciling doesn’t have to be a scary thing.  But as I said, if you are just starting out and only have a few payments and income sources it isn’t something you need to stress over.

Cheat Sheet

I give my clients a cheat sheet with all the info I am going to need to do their bookkeeping.  You can print this out and tape it to your envelopes to reference when you are adding receipts.

How to organize your blog bookkeeping info cheat sheet.

So now I have to ask.  What issues are you facing when it comes to handling the bookkeeping on your blog?  Is this organization system helpful? What do you want to know about this topic?  I want to help out, so let me know!

 

Want to learn more about keeping track of your blog’s finances?

Is My Blog a Business or a Hobby?

15 Tax Deductions for Bloggers

Home Office Deductions for Bloggers

 

Are you trying to make some money off your blog? Just spending money on it right now? Either way you will need an organization system to keep track of your blog income and expenses for tax time. Here is the easiest system to organize your blog bookkeeping. Small Business Taxes | Blog Taxes | Bookkeeping for Small Business | Income and Expense Tracking #blog #bookkeeping #taxes #income #expenses Team-Cartwright.com

 

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

The Picky Eating Chronicles: Regaining Peace and Taking Notes
← Read Last Post
The Picky Eating Chronicles: Adding Variety and Creating Structure
Read Next Post →

* Checkbox GDPR is required

*

I agree

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Daire

Friday 8th of September 2017

I am just starting to monetize my blog, so this info couldn't come at a better time. And even though I spend all day on the computer, I'm still a paper kinda gal when it comes to finances. I can't wait to utilize these tips!

kimcartwright

Saturday 9th of September 2017

Having the actual paper to go through is actually easier in my opinion. You can pull out what you need and not have to switch from tab to tab online. Start as you mean to go, it's way easier to get good habits going from the beginning! :)

Staci Beth

Thursday 7th of September 2017

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing! I need to do this now before it gets too out of control. And thanks for the freebie! It will help me with each expense!

Dr. Tiffany McKinnon-Russell

Thursday 7th of September 2017

This post was very helpful! Although I'm just getting started with my blog, having my bookkeeping processes in order from the start will prove to be extremely beneficial. Also, thanks for the great cheat sheet!

Ashley

Thursday 7th of September 2017

This is perfect timing! I just launched my blog and was beginning to think about tax implications. Thank you!

Amy at cooking1handed.com

Thursday 7th of September 2017

This is incredibly helpful information for me as I'm just starting out. Thank you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.