Income and Expense Spreadsheet for Small Business in Australia [Free Download]

Keeping track of what comes in and what goes out is one of those tasks every small business owner knows they should be doing — but it's easy to put off until the end of the financial year, when receipts are scattered, bank statements are months old, and you can't remember what half the transactions were for.

If you're a sole trader, freelancer, or small business owner in Australia, staying on top of your income and expenses matters more than just for peace of mind. Between GST, Business Activity Statement (BAS) lodgements, and the ATO's record-keeping rules, your financial records do real work at tax time. The good news: we’ve made it easier to stay organised. 

Download our free income and expense spreadsheet template below, available in Google Sheets and Excel, no sign-up needed. Then read on for a straightforward guide to what you need to track, how the ATO wants you to keep records, and what Australian small businesses can and can't claim.

Download the free small business income and expense spreadsheet

Our small business spreadsheet for income and expenses is ready to use straight away. It's available in Google Sheets (easy to access from any device), PDF and Excel (great for working offline). If you'd rather keep paper records, you can print it out and fill it in by hand.

The template includes pre-built columns for date, account type, category, description, and transaction amount. The balance column calculates automatically as you go, so you always have a running total of where your business stands.

Once you've downloaded your preferred version, delete the example entries and start adding your own transactions. You can copy the sheet for each month, or use it as a rolling record across the quarter or year — whatever suits how you work.

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How to fill out your income and expense worksheet

What to record

For each transaction, enter the date, what type of account it came from (business bank account, credit card, cash), the category, a short description, and the amount.

The more consistently you categorise transactions, the easier it'll be to spot patterns in your spending — and to pull together what you need for your tax return or BAS.

When to update it

The easiest habit is updating your income and expense worksheet weekly, or immediately after larger transactions. If that's not realistic, aim to do it before each BAS lodgement (most small businesses lodge quarterly) and well before 31 October, which is the standard deadline for individual and sole trader tax returns.

ATO 5-year recordkeeping rule

Keep your receipts and tax invoices as supporting documents. Under ATO rules, businesses need to hold onto records for a minimum of 5 years. For purchases over $82.50, a valid tax invoice must show the supplier's ABN, the date, a description of the goods or services, the GST amount, and the total price. Without this, you may not be able to claim the GST credit.

What expenses can Australian small businesses claim?

The ATO allows you to deduct most expenses you genuinely incur while running your business. They must be directly related to earning assessable income, and you must have records to back them up. Here's a rundown of the most common deductible categories for small businesses.

Commonly deductible business expenses

Motor vehicle costs are one of the biggest deductions for sole traders and small business owners. If you use your car for work, you can choose between two methods: the cents per kilometre method (simpler, capped at 5,000 business kilometres per year) or the logbook method (more work upfront, but more accurate if you drive a lot for business). 

See our full ATO mileage guide for a breakdown of both.

Home office costs can be claimed using the ATO's fixed rate method, currently at 70 cents per hour (from 1 July 2024). This covers electricity, gas, phone, internet, stationery, and computer consumables. You'll need to keep a record of the hours you worked from home, such as a timesheet or diary.

Also read: Small Business Home Office Tax Deductions

Instant asset write-off allows eligible small businesses (with an aggregated turnover under $10 million) to immediately deduct the full cost of eligible assets costing less than $20,000, rather than depreciating them over time. This applies to assets first used or installed ready for use from 1 July 2026.

Other deductible expenses include: advertising, bank charges, business insurance, contractor and employee wages, professional development, subscriptions, and superannuation contributions you make for employees.

You can find a full breakdown in our guide to small business tax deductions in Australia.

What's generally not deductible

It's worth knowing the common non-deductibles upfront, so you don't track expenses that won't reduce your tax bill:

Meals and entertainment are generally not deductible for Australian businesses — this is a meaningful difference from some other markets. There are narrow exceptions (certain fringe benefits), but as a rule, client dinners and team lunches don't qualify.

Private or personal expenses can't be claimed, even if you paid from a business account. If an expense is partly personal and partly business (like your mobile phone), you can only claim the business portion.

The GST component of an expense is not a deduction — you recover it as an input tax credit through your BAS instead (more on this below).

For more detail on what you can and can't claim, see our guide on sole trader deductions in Australia.

Does your spreadsheet need to track GST?

If your business is registered for GST, which is required once your annual turnover exceeds $75,000, your income and expense tracking needs to account for the GST component of each transaction.

Here's why: you collect GST on your sales (currently 10%), and you can claim back the GST you've paid on business purchases as input tax credits. The difference is what you report and pay (or receive as a refund) when you lodge your BAS.

To make BAS time straightforward, it helps to add a GST column to your income and expense worksheet. For each transaction, note whether it includes GST, and what the GST amount is. That way, when you're filling out your BAS (typically due quarterly on the 28th of the month following the end of each quarter), you've already done the maths.

If you're not registered for GST (turnover below $75,000 and you haven't chosen to register voluntarily), you don't need to track GST separately. But if your business is growing, it's worth keeping an eye on your turnover and registering before you hit the threshold.

How long do you need to keep financial records in Australia?

The ATO requires you to keep most business records for a minimum of five years from when you prepared or obtained them. This applies to tax invoices, bank statements, BAS lodgements, payroll records, and your income and expense spreadsheets.

Digital records are perfectly acceptable; you don't need to keep physical paper copies. Scanned receipts, exported spreadsheets, and downloaded bank statements all count, as long as they're legible and accessible if the ATO ever asks to see them.

If you're ever unsure whether an expense is deductible or what records to keep, our guide on claiming on tax without receipts covers the ATO's rules in plain terms.

Automate your vehicle expense tracking 

Vehicle costs are one of the most commonly claimed deductions for Australian small business owners and sole traders, and one of the easiest to under-claim if you're not keeping accurate records. 

The ATO expects you to have evidence: either a logbook showing your business use over a representative 12-week period, or a record of all business kilometres if you're using the cents per km method.

Keeping a paper logbook is easy to let slide. One Australian Driversnote user put it well: They were "absolute rubbish at paper logbooks" and found the app helpful in handling the records automatically: "I hop in the car and my phone does the rest,” they said. 

Driversnote vehicle logbook app automatically tracks your trips and generates ATO-compliant reports you can export at any time. Whether you're using the logbook method or just need to substantiate your kilometres, it removes the manual work and makes sure you don't miss out on any deductions.

This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice from Driversnote. You should consider seeking independent legal, taxation, or financial advice from a professional to check how this information relates to your own circumstances. Relevant laws also change from time to time.

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