Side Hustle Income & Tax Tracker

What you get

A six-sheet Excel workbook built around the real structure of IRS Form 1040 Schedule C, designed to carry a W-2 employee's side-hustle income from first payment to filed return. Every sheet feeds data into a Year-End Schedule C Summary, so the numbers you track during the year are the same numbers your accountant or tax software needs in April. The file opens in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets without modification.

Who it's for

This workbook is for US-based employees who earn 1099 income from freelance platforms or direct clients and have not formed an LLC. If you crossed the $600 threshold on one platform, took on a handful of clients alongside your day job, or started logging mileage and home-office costs but had nowhere organized to record them, this workbook is built for that situation.

What's inside

• Income Log — records each payment by gig, client or platform, and payment date, with a running 1099 income total.
• Expense Tracker — categorizes every deductible business expense against standard IRS Schedule C deduction categories.
• Mileage Log — tracks business miles per trip with date, purpose, and automatic calculation at the current IRS standard mileage rate.
• Quarterly Estimated Tax Planner — calculates self-employment tax at 15.3% and federal income tax estimates for each payment deadline, so you avoid IRS underpayment penalties.
• Year-End Schedule C Summary — aggregates all sheets into a line-item view that mirrors Schedule C on Form 1040, reducing the time spent on solo-filer tax prep.
• IRS Deduction Category Reference — a built-in sheet listing every common Schedule C deduction category with plain-language descriptions, so no legitimate deduction goes unclaimed.

How to use it

Download the .xlsx file and open it in Microsoft Excel, or upload it directly to Google Sheets. Start with the Income Log on the first payment you receive, then add expenses and mileage as they occur throughout the year. The Quarterly Estimated Tax Planner pulls from your running totals and gives you an accurate payment estimate before each IRS due date. By year-end, the Schedule C Summary is already populated from the data you entered, with nothing left to reconstruct from memory.