How to track business expenses and income: a simple month-end habit

Short answer: if you are self-employed or run a small business, take a photo of each work receipt on the day you pay. Note the date, what it was and the amount. Add every client payment to a second list when it arrives. At the end of the month, add up each list and take the money spent from the money received. That number is what your work left you this month.

How to keep track of business expenses

Take a photo of the receipt before you leave the shop, or save the email receipt in one folder. Then write one line:

Date	What	Category	Amount	Paid with
3 Nov 2026	Canva yearly plan	Software	USD 120	Card
8 Nov 2026	Taxi to client meeting	Travel	PKR 1,450	Cash

Doing it the same day is the whole trick. Shop receipts printed on thermal paper fade, small cash costs are forgotten by the weekend, and a month of receipts in a drawer takes an evening to sort. One line at the time of paying takes under a minute.

Keep personal spending out of this list, even when you paid with the same card. If you mix them, your month-end number tells you nothing.

Count money in when it arrives

The second list is money received: the date, the client, the invoice number and the amount that reached your account. Write it on the day the money arrives. An invoice for USD 1,000 that the client pays in two parts is two lines, USD 600 and USD 400, on the days each part came in.

If you are paid in more than one currency, keep each line in the currency it came in. Convert to your home currency only for the month-end total, and note the rate you used. Your accountant may ask for a different rate for tax, so keep the original amounts.

The month-end sum

On the last day of the month, add up both lists.

• Received in November: USD 2,400
• Spent on work in November: USD 310
• Left after expenses: USD 2,090

That number is the one to watch from month to month. If income rises but the left-over figure stays flat, your costs are rising as fast as your income. For tax, profit has its own rules on what counts. This sum is a quick, honest picture of how the month went.

A spreadsheet with two tabs, one per list, is enough to start. Google Sheets or Excel both work, with a SUM at the bottom of each amount column.

How long to keep business receipts

Each tax office sets its own period. These are the general rules, read at the official sources on 10 November 2026. Longer periods apply in some cases, so check your situation with an accountant.

Country	Keep records for at least	Source
United Kingdom (self-employed)	5 years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year	GOV.UK
United States	3 years from filing the return, in the general case	IRS
Pakistan	6 years after the end of the tax year	Income Tax Ordinance 2001, s.174

GOV.UK gives an example: if you sent your 2022 to 2023 tax return online by 31 January 2024, keep the records "until at least the end of January 2029". The IRS lists longer periods too, such as 7 years for a bad debt deduction. A clear photo of a receipt is easier to keep for that long than the paper.

Tracking it in Inbill

Inbill is an invoice and expense app, so both lists live in one place. On the Expenses page, take a photo of a receipt: the amount, date, shop and category are filled in for you to check before you save, and the photo is kept privately with the expense. Tick "Personal, not for the business" for anything that isn't work.

Payments from clients are already there, because you record them on their invoices. Once you have an expense, the dashboard shows this month's running total in your home currency: received, spent, and left after expenses. Free includes 5 receipt scans a month, and typing an expense in by hand is free on every plan. More on the expense tracker page.