Freelancing for a while now, and honestly, my bookkeeping is spiraling out of control each quarter. I’ve got clients who are over 60 days late on their payments, yet I need to keep everything in order for tax purposes.
Using a basic spreadsheet right now, but reconciling paid versus outstanding invoices feels like an uphill battle. Those unpaid invoices are really messing with my revenue tracking and complicating tax prep more than I’d like.
Been there. Unpaid invoices made it impossible to know my real earnings.
I split tracking into two parts - cash basis for taxes (only count money that actually comes in) and accrual for business decisions (count everything I’ve billed).
For overdue payments, I send reminders at 30, 45, and 60 days. Got sick of chasing people, so now I require 50% upfront on new projects.
Your spreadsheet works fine if you add a “date paid” column and sort by it. Empty cells = money you’re still waiting for. But once you’re doing 20-30+ invoices per quarter, software’s worth it.
Stop overcomplicating this. Add a status column to your spreadsheet - mark invoices as sent, paid, or dead. Done. For taxes, only report what actually hit your account. The IRS doesn’t care about IOUs, just real money you received. Those 60-day late invoices? Write them off and change your payment terms so this doesn’t keep happening.
I just mark stuff paid when money shows up.
Spreadsheets can be tough without proper tracking. Consider using accounting software to streamline your invoices and keep better records.
That spiral feeling hits hard. I’ve been doing my own books for years - unpaid invoices are brutal.
What keeps me sane:
For taxes, I only count what’s actually in my bank account. Way simpler than calculating what people owe me.
Hardest part? Accepting some invoices won’t get paid. I write them off after 90 days and move on. Not worth tracking dead money forever.
Once you find your rhythm, even a basic spreadsheet handles this stuff fine.