My accountant told me to stop tracking every penny and I fought him for months

I kept a detailed spreadsheet of every coffee and parking meter for two years. My accountant said I was wasting time on small stuff that didn't matter for taxes. I argued with him about it until I added up the hours I spent tracking. It came to over 40 hours a year for maybe $200 in deductions. Does anyone else get stuck on being too detailed with their finances?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicecooper1mo ago

oh man i am totally on your accountants side here. i used to do the same thing with my small business and it drove me nuts. like yeah those little expenses add up but 40 hours of my time is worth way more than a couple hundred bucks in deductions. your accountant probably sees this all the time and is trying to save you from yourself. if you are spending hours on coffee receipts youre probably missing the bigger picture stuff like retirement contributions or health insurance premiums. trust me just set a limit like anything under $10 doesnt get tracked and youll be fine.

kimr101mo ago

$10 limit is genius, doing that next year.

lilykelly28d ago

Maybe it's just me but I feel like the $10 limit kind of depends on how much coffee you drink in a year. If you're grabbing a $5 coffee every day that adds up to like $1,200 a year, not nothing. But yeah I get the accountants point about time being money too.