Shoutout to the accountant who told me to stop mixing my personal and business money

I had a free checkup with a local tax person last month, and she looked at my bank statements for about ten seconds. She said, 'You're making this way too hard on yourself, and the IRS will think so too.' I opened a separate checking account just for my freelance income and bills the next day. It's only been a few weeks, but tracking everything for taxes is so much easier now. Has anyone else found a simple change that made their bookkeeping less of a headache?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_fiona5d ago

Oh man, that separate account thing is a total game changer. I did the same after my first year freelancing was a total mess. I was using one card for everything and trying to sort it out later was a nightmare. Now, all my work payments go into one account and all work buys come out of it. It makes it so clear what's a business cost. My stress level dropped big time.

joelh6415d ago

My own turning point was when my shoebox of receipts tipped over and I spent an hour sorting gas station snacks from printer ink. I got one of those accordion folders with months labeled on the tabs. Now I just drop paperwork in the right slot, and my tax guy doesn't look like he wants to cry anymore.

joseph_torres15d agoProlific Poster

That sounds like a huge relief.