Bookkeeping for Independent Contractors: A Guide Shoeboxed

The less-expensive Essential plan offers monthly bookkeeping and a dedicated bookkeeping team while the more expensive Premium plan also offers income tax support. Intuit’s QuickBooks is the best-known accounting app for good reason. While it’s not perfect, it is one of the best accounting programs on the market today and sets a high bar for what business money management apps can do.

• You and the contractor should agree on payment rates before they even start working.
• This includes understanding the types of taxes you are responsible for, such as income and self-employment taxes.
• But if it costs us to get the stuff done, that comes out of OUR pockets, not theirs.
• If the Client will not be obligated to pay a retainer, then mark the second checkbox.

We offer an accounting newsletter with timely tips for growing your business. “It makes all the sense in the world, they send a new rule back to the judge, who knows more about the independent contractor rule, the history, and its evolution than anybody else in the world,” Lotito said. An employer may incur liability for wrongful acts of a worker who it has mistakenly classified as an independent contractor. The paperwork previewed in the image will provide the structure and language for an Accountant/Bookkeeper to solidify a Client job. It may be downloaded by clicking any of the buttons in the preview image’s caption area or through the links above.

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The platform also allows you to store all your invoices in one secure place. You can easily access and retrieve the necessary financial information, simplifying the often daunting process of tax preparation for independent contractors. This not only keeps your financial record-keeping organized but also simplifies the invoicing process for repeat clients.

• When you’re an employee, your income is easily verified by things like your pay stubs and W-2 forms.
• Keeping track of taxable income is an important aspect of bookkeeping for independent contractors.
• Here’s how FreshBook’s four plans shake out in terms of cost and features.
• As an independent contractor, the law classifies you as a business.
• Zoho made our pick as best accounting software for part-time contractors because its basic, free version provides everything most contractors will need–all at no cost.

It’s easy to use, it can link up with your bank accounts and it’s designed to make it as easy as possible to figure out your expense categories. It costs less that Quickbooks Self Employed and has more flexibility for customizing income and expense categories. You can manually enter your mileage amounts but there’s not a GPS app. This guide will define the role of an independent contractor, why monthly bookkeeping is so important for independent contractors, and how independent contractors handle their bookkeeping and tax liabilities. You don’t pay independent contractors salaries, so you’ll need to determine their rates per project or hour and how often you both would like the payment to occur. Before making payments to an independent contractor or a 1099 worker, you must verify that a worker falls under the independent contractor category.

Set Payment Rate and Frequency

Just keep all your cell service expenses in its own category and your tax pro can help you figure it out later. What you (or your tax pro) will do is enter the total amount of income, and the total amount spent for each expense type. Some will tell you to claim your meals while delivering.

That lower court previously sided with the business groups’ Administrative Procedure Act claims against the 2021 independent contractor rule. Some states have laws and ethical rules regarding solicitation and advertisement practices by attorneys and/or other professionals. The National Law Review is not a law firm nor is  intended to be  a referral service for attorneys and/or other independent contractor bookkeeping professionals. The NLR does not wish, nor does it intend, to solicit the business of anyone or to refer anyone to an attorney or other professional. NLR does not answer legal questions nor will we refer you to an attorney or other professional if you request such information from us. After an extensive notice-and-comment period, on January 10, 2024, the DOL published the final rule.

Be Transparent with your Income and Expenses

Excel data entry requires manual effort, which increases the likelihood of human error. To manage your books, the software will automatically import your invoices, payments received, payments returned, and expenses. The next couple of articles will deal with the pay of the Accountant. We will begin with this report in the second article (“II. Fees”). You must mark one of the checkboxes in this section to describe the pay rate of the Accountant. Use the blank line that is provided to report precisely ow the Accountant’s pay will be calculated.

It’s an accountant and accounting app in one with two packages available. One important feature you’ll find with Bench is a human bookkeeper, something the other providers on our list don’t have. Zoho made our pick as best accounting software for part-time contractors because its basic, free version provides everything most contractors will need–all at no cost. If your part-time business generates more than 1,000 invoices a year, you’ll need to upgrade. But even the Standard version, priced at just $15 per month billed annually, which offers up to 5,000 invoices a year should be enough for most part-timers.

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Sign up for the Deel platform today to simplify your independent contractor bookkeeping. It also eliminates the need to manually create invoices for each project. This time-saving automation lets you focus on your core work rather than administrative tasks or creating new invoices every time you need to request payment from a client. In conclusion, bookkeeping is essential to running a successful business as an independent contractor.