Taxes are due this week, so I thought it would make a good post to tell you about all the tax programs for your photography business, that will ultimately make your life a heck of a lot easier come next tax season! When I first started my business, it was running on about 100 excel spreadsheets. Everything from inputting expenses, mileage, handling client management, you name it. In my organized brain I thought what I was doing was the best way, but man it was time consuming. How was I supposed to move the needle in my business when I was constantly playing catch-up by updating spreadsheets??
So today I’m going to talk about my top 4 tax programs for your photography business that I personally use and love when preparing for taxes.
Quickbooks
Quickbooks Online is my favorite program for categorizing all my business expenses. It’s linked up to my business bank account so that I can login and quickly see all the activity that has been going on. Every expense and client payment that went through my bank account is all there. Then at the end of every month, I go through and categorize everything from office expenses, client products, contracted labor, travel expenses, you name it. It honestly takes like 5 minutes. AAAND Quickbooks remembers these categories for the future. If the same expense happens multiple times throughout the year (like a subscription) it will automatically mark it with a category. Accountants also love quickbooks. I have mine added to my quickbooks so that they can login and grab any tax info they need for the year. Less work on my part.
Honeybook
Honeybook has been my client management software for about 5 years and it’s awesome. Each project/client has their own portal with their contract, invoice, questionnaires, payment schedule, everything you can think of. From my side of the program, I can see all my clients, workflows, what payments I have coming in, etc. From a taxes standpoint, I love Honeybooks because it tracks all my income and sale tax collected. It also provides monthly and annual reports so that its easy to pay sales tax and track my gross and net income.
If you are needed a client and payment management system, click HERE to get 50% off your first year at Honeybook! You will love me for it!
MileIQ
In the business of wedding photography, tracking mileage can be a huge pain in the butt. I drive around so much multiple times a week and sometimes even multiple times a day! And I don’t just travel to sessions and weddings. I have to track any business related drive, big or small. Even if it’s just running to the USPS to mail some film or a client welcome gift. That’s where MileIQ SAVES ME!! It’s an app that just runs on your phone and tracks everywhere you go. Then at the end of the month I login on my desktop and quickly categorize each trip as personal or business. It even has the option to do this on your app so that with a quick swipe left or right, your drives have been categorized (I just prefer to stay off my phone which is why I like that I can do the same thing on desktop ????). At the end of the year, I print off the annual mileage report for my business related drives and send it to my accountant. Easy-peasy.
YNAB
Last but not least, YNAB is where I do all my weekly budgeting for my business (and for my personal life!). YNAB stands for “You Need A Budget”, and a year ago I really did. In a business you have so many monthly and annual subscriptions to track, quarterly tax payments to save for, client products to budget for, that it’s impossible to be smart and profitable in a business without a budget. If you can’t afford a CFO to handle all your business finances, then you’ve got to get a budget so that you can start knowing where all your money is going. I started using YNAB a year ago and it has been eye-opening seeing exactly where all my money was going, and actually being able to see my retained earnings grow as I intentionally saved and invested my money instead of mindless spending money on this and that. From a tax standpoint, it’s helpful to have real numbers from my own budget tracking to give my accountant so that we can more accurately plan for the future.
I hope that these tax programs for your photography business will help you become a better and more profitable business owner this year! Here are a list of the quick links you can use to easily signup and receive discounts on any of these programs.
Quickbooks Online | Honeybook | MileIQ | YNAB
