Is a spreadsheet good enough for freelance taxes?

It can be, if the formula applies self-employment tax to 92.35% of net profit, deducts half of that tax, applies the current year brackets and standard deduction, and handles the Social Security wage base. The free quarterly tax calculator on this site is a quick way to check a homemade sheet.

What is the biggest risk of tracking freelance money in a spreadsheet?

That it goes stale. A sheet does not remind you that a quarterly payment is due or that a client is 45 days late. The numbers are only as current as the last time you typed into it.

Can I import my spreadsheet into FreelanceCFO?

Yes. Save your transactions as a CSV file and import them. Clients and open invoices are quickest to add by hand.

FreelanceCFO vs a spreadsheet: honest version

By FreelanceCFO. Reviewed 24 September 2026.

Short answer

A spreadsheet costs nothing and can do everything FreelanceCFO does, if you build and maintain the formulas. The case for switching is not capability, it is upkeep: tax brackets change every year, and a spreadsheet only warns you about a late client or a thin month if you remember to open it and check.

Most freelancers start with a spreadsheet, and plenty should stay there. If you enjoy it and update it weekly, keep it. This page is for the other case: the sheet was accurate in March and nobody has touched it since.

What a freelance finance spreadsheet needs

An income log with date, client, amount, and date paid, so you can see who pays late.
An expense log with a deductible or not column.
A tax tab that applies self-employment tax (15.3% on 92.35% of net profit, with the 12.4% Social Security part capped at the $184,500 wage base for 2026), then federal brackets from Revenue Procedure 2025-32, then your state.
A runway cell: cash you can reach, plus invoices you would bet on, divided by monthly expenses.
A client tab with hours per client, so you can divide what they paid by the time they took.

That is a weekend to build properly. Most homemade versions skip the Social Security cap, the deduction for half of self-employment tax, or the qualified business income deduction, and each one moves the answer by hundreds of dollars.

Side by side

A spreadsheet and FreelanceCFO compared
	Spreadsheet	FreelanceCFO
Cost	Free in Google Sheets. Excel needs a Microsoft 365 plan or a copy of Office.	Free plan. Pro $10 a month for life for the first 100 customers, then $20.
Setup	Hours, and you own every formula.	A few minutes: add your balance, clients and recent income.
Tax rules	Updated by you each year.	Updated for each tax year by us, from the IRS revenue procedure.
Reminders	None unless you build them.	Quarterly deadlines and overdue invoices shown when you open it.
Flexibility	Total. Any column, any chart.	Fixed views built for freelancers.
Privacy	Wherever you keep the file.	Row-level security and encryption at rest for sensitive fields.
Answers in plain English	No.	Lance answers questions about your invoices and drafts follow-ups. It never sends anything by itself.

Which one to pick

Choose a spreadsheet if

You like building it and you update it at least weekly.
Your situation is unusual enough that no app models it well.
You have one or two clients and income that barely moves.
You want to own the file and the formulas outright.

Choose FreelanceCFO if

Your sheet has not been updated since the last quarterly deadline.
You are not sure your tax formula includes the Social Security cap or the QBI deduction.
You want a warning when runway drops or a client goes quiet, without opening a file.
You have enough clients that working out hourly profit by hand is a chore.

Not ready to switch? The free quarterly tax calculator and the runway calculator will check your spreadsheet's numbers without an account.

Try FreelanceCFO free: runway, quarterly tax estimates and client profitability in one place. No credit card.

Start free

Sources

Checked on 24 September 2026. Prices and features change, so follow the link before you rely on any of them.