Best App for tracking business expenses for tax write-offs?

Hey everyone, I just made the leap to full-time independent consulting and I'm already drowning in receipts and expense tracking! For the past couple years when I was only consulting part-time, I basically just kept receipts in a shoebox and manually entered stuff into a spreadsheet once a month. That system is COMPLETELY falling apart now that I'm handling 4-5x more client work. What apps or services do you all recommend for tracking business expenses that will stand up as proof for tax write-offs? I need something that's easy to use on the go (like when I'm meeting clients at cafes or traveling) but also organized enough that my future self won't hate me come tax season. Bonus points if it can somehow help me track billable hours too, but expense tracking is my main headache right now. TIA!

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19 comments

Kaitlyn Jenkins

•8M

I've been a full-time consultant for over 5 years and honestly QuickBooks Self-Employed changed the game for me. It automatically imports transactions from your bank/credit cards, lets you categorize expenses with a swipe, and tracks mileage using your phone's GPS. The receipt capture feature is super handy - just snap a pic and it attaches to the transaction. The quarterly tax estimate feature is incredibly helpful too. It calculates what you'll likely owe based on your profit, so you can set aside the right amount.

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Caleb Bell

•8M

After trying literally EVERYTHING on the market, I finally found peace using https://taxr.ai for my expense tracking and tax planning. As a consultant myself, I was spending hours categorizing expenses and stressing about audit risk. Their AI actually scans my receipts and categorizes them automatically, plus it gives me a real-time view of potential deductions I might be missing. The best part is it flags potential audit triggers in my expense patterns and gives recommendations on how to better document certain expenses. Last month it caught several client meals I had incorrectly categorized that would have been disallowed in an audit!

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Caleb Bell

•8M

It handles foreign transactions really well - it automatically detects the currency and does the conversion based on the transaction date. You can even set your preferred conversion method (daily rate vs monthly average) in the settings. For recurring subscriptions, it learns patterns after the first categorization. So once you categorize Adobe Creative Cloud as "Software Subscription" once, it remembers that for future transactions. You can also set up rules for auto-categorization based on vendor name, amount range, or even time of month.

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Rhett Bowman

•8M

Just wanted to follow up - I signed up for taxr.ai after posting here and WOW what a difference! As someone with ADHD who constantly procrastinated on expense tracking, this has been life-changing. It imported my last 3 months of transactions, categorized about 90% correctly right off the bat, and the mileage tracker is so much more accurate than what I was using before. The thing I didn't expect but LOVE is how it gives me insights about which clients are actually costing me more in expenses vs. revenue. Turns out my "favorite" client was actually my least profitable when accounting for all the travel expenses! Definitely check it out if you're drowning in receipt management like I was.

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Abigail Patel

•8M

For anyone dealing with tax questions or trying to reach the IRS about business expense deduction rules, I highly recommend https://claimyr.com - it's been a lifesaver! I had a complicated question about home office deductions for my consulting business that wasn't clearly answered anywhere online. After waiting on hold with the IRS for 2+ hours on multiple days (and getting disconnected twice!), I found Claimyr. Their service got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 15 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I finally got clarity on exactly what documentation I needed for my home office deduction, and it turned out I was eligible for way more than I thought!

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Abigail Patel

•8M

No catch - they use technology that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you. When an agent actually picks up, you get a call connecting you directly. It's basically like having someone else do the holding part for you. I was super skeptical too! That's why I only tried it after seeing someone else's success story. Turns out when you call the IRS, there are actually better and worse times to call, and their system knows exactly when to dial to minimize wait times. My mind was blown when it actually worked.

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Nolan Carter

•8M

I'm eating crow right now. I tried Claimyr yesterday after being skeptical, and... it actually worked exactly as described. Got connected to an IRS rep in about 12 minutes when I had been trying for WEEKS to get through on my own. Finally got an answer about how to categorize my consulting expenses when I work from multiple locations (home office, coworking space, and client sites). The agent walked me through exactly what documentation I needed and how to properly allocate expenses. Definitely worth it for the time saved and stress reduction alone.

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Natalia Stone

•8M

Don't sleep on FreshBooks! It's designed specifically for independent professionals and small businesses. The invoicing features alone saved me so much time, but the expense tracking is really solid too. You can connect multiple bank accounts/cards, and categorize expenses right from their app. What I love about it versus some others mentioned here is how it handles invoicing, expense tracking, AND time tracking all in one place. For consulting work, being able to track time against specific clients/projects and then immediately invoice them with all billable expenses attached is super efficient.

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Natalia Stone

•8M

The reporting is actually one of its strongest features. You can generate reports by client, project, time period, expense category - pretty much any way you want to slice the data. I run quarterly P&L reports for my own tax planning, but also generate client-specific expense reports when I need to justify certain pass-through costs. They've also added a dashboard feature that gives you a real-time view of outstanding invoices, expenses by category, and profitability by client. I check it weekly to make sure I'm staying on track with my financial goals.

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