Author Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping for self-published authors in one Google Sheet. Log what you earn and spend during the year, and at tax time the totals are already sorted by Schedule C line for you or your tax preparer.

What's inside

• Dashboard: what you earned, spent and drove this year, month by month, with totals by income source and by expense category
• Income: one row per payment, with where it came from, the book, the format and units sold. Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, events, speaking and 11 more sources are listed already
• Expenses: 28 author categories like editing, cover design, ISBNs and ads. Pick one and its Schedule C line fills in. A checkbox shows whether you saved the receipt
• Miles: drives to signings, bookstores and the post office, multiplied by the mileage rate you set
• Books: what each title has earned and cost across every year, and whether it has paid for itself yet
• Copies: author copies in and out, so you know how many of each book you have left
• Taxes: a total for each Schedule C line, and a 1099 check that shows where a platform's form and your records don't match
• Lists: change any category, its Schedule C line or the income sources

Type the year on the Dashboard and everything shows that year, so the same copy works year after year.

This sheet keeps your records in order. It isn't tax advice, so check the categories with your tax preparer.

How you get it

After you buy, download the PDF. It has one link. Click it and Google makes you your own copy of the sheet, ready to fill in.

Good to know

• You need a free Google account.
• Works on a computer, and in the Google Sheets app on phones and tablets.
• Made for Google Sheets. It isn't built for Excel or Numbers.
• This is a digital item. Nothing will be shipped.