Freelancer spreadsheets for the work side and the money side

Freelance life has two sides. The work side is clients, projects, invoices and hours. The money side is a budget for months that pay differently from each other. This page explains what each side needs from a spreadsheet, how the two fit together and what a simple pair of workbooks can and cannot do, with a short worked example using invented numbers.

The work side: clients, invoices and hours

A freelancer sells time and results, and gets paid later. The work side of the books answers four questions.

• Who owes me money, and since when? One row per invoice with an issue date and payment terms gives a due date.
• What is paid, open, due soon or overdue? A status per invoice, measured against a report date.
• How old is my unpaid money? Ageing buckets, such as 0 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days and older, show whether a few late clients are the problem.
• What did an hour of work bring in? Money received divided by billable hours.

Add a log for time entries and a log for business expenses, and you can see profit by month on a cash basis: money received in the month minus expenses in the month.

The money side: a budget for changing income

A normal budget assumes the same amount arrives every month. Freelance income rarely does. An irregular income budget uses four pieces.

1. Baseline income. The amount you aim for in a normal month. It is your own number.
2. Set-aside. A share of every payment you keep apart. The percentage is your own choice, and a spreadsheet only does the arithmetic.
3. Buffer. Money you already hold that carries you through lean months. Divide it by planned monthly spending to see months of cover.
4. Plan versus actual. Planned spending per category and month, compared with what you spent.

A lean month is a month where income received is below your baseline. Counting them over the year shows how often the buffer did the work.

How the two sides connect

The invoice sheet tells you when money should arrive. The budget sheet tells you what to do when it does or does not. In practice you read the work side first, see which payments are overdue or due soon, and then enter the payments you actually received into the income log of the budget. Keeping two separate files means a manual step, and it also keeps each file simple.

What to record on each side

Work side:

• Client, project, invoice number, issue date, amount and payment terms
• Paid date and amount received, with a smaller amount for a part payment
• Credit notes as negative amounts
• Hours with a billable flag, and expenses by category

Money side:

• Income log with date, source and amount
• Expense log with date, category and amount
• A plan per category and month, marked fixed or flexible

The formulas

• Due date = issue date + payment terms in days.
• Days overdue = report date minus due date.
• Received per billable hour = money received / billable hours.
• Set-aside = payment received x your own percentage.
• Months of cover = buffer / planned monthly spending.

Worked example (invented numbers)

These figures are made up. An invoice of 800 is issued on 1 September with 30 days terms, so the due date is 1 October. On 15 November it is 45 days overdue and sits in the 31 to 60 days bucket.

In a different month you receive 3,000, log 40 billable hours and have expenses of 400. Cash profit is 2,600 and received per billable hour is 75. With an editable set-aside of 25 percent on the 3,000, you keep 750 apart. If your buffer is 6,000 and planned monthly spending is 2,000, the buffer covers 3 months.

The Size Run Studio Freelancer Money Bundle

The bundle is one download with two separate Excel workbooks and a one-page Quick Start PDF.

Freelancer Dashboard (the work side). Nine tabs: Instructions, Settings, Clients, Projects, Invoices, Time_Log, Expenses, Monthly and Dashboard. It handles part payments and credit notes and has room for 400 invoices, 1,000 time entries, 20 clients and 100 projects.

Budget Planner for Irregular Income (the money side). Seven tabs: Instructions, Settings, Plan, Income, Expenses, Monthly and Dashboard. It shows the buffer and months of cover, counts lean months and compares plan with actual for 12 categories.

The two workbooks are the same files that are also sold separately, so if you already own both you do not need the bundle. Both include made-up example data to delete before real use. They are built for Excel, use no macros and open in LibreOffice. They have not been tested in Google Sheets.

What the workbooks leave out

Taxes and VAT of any kind are not modelled. The Dashboard does not create invoice documents. Multiple currencies, payroll, recurring invoices, bank import and debts with interest are also outside the scope.

Where to start

Begin with the work side. Enter your open invoices and set a report date. Once you see what is due and what is late, move to the budget and set a baseline, a buffer target and a set-aside percentage of your own.

*Planning and record-keeping aids only. This page is general information, not financial, tax, accounting or legal advice. Check your figures and your local rules.*

Built for Excel (.xlsx), no macros. Not tested in Google Sheets.

See the Freelancer Money Bundle Freelancer Money Bundle on Etsy

Frequently asked questions

What spreadsheets does a freelancer need?

Two jobs come up again and again. One is a work log that holds clients, projects, invoices, hours and expenses and shows which invoices are paid, open or overdue. The other is a budget that copes with income that changes every month, using a baseline, a buffer and a set-aside.

Why separate the work side from the money side?

Invoices describe what you billed and when it is due. A budget describes what you plan to spend and how many months your buffer covers. Keeping them in two workbooks keeps each sheet short and easy to read.

Do the two workbooks in the bundle link to each other?

No. You enter your data in each workbook. Each one has made-up example data, marked as example, to delete before real use.

Is this financial or tax advice?

No. This page describes planning and record-keeping tools. Taxes and VAT are not modelled, and the set-aside is only your own percentage. Ask a qualified adviser about your own situation.