What expense tracking is
It's the running record of what it costs you to do business — parts, gas, tools, supplies, fees. Instead of typing each one in, you snap a photo of the receipt and it reads the amount, the store, the date, and a category, and prefills the whole thing. You confirm and it's logged.
Those expenses don't just sit there. They roll into your Tax Wrap-Up at year-end — a clean total with a category breakdown, a CSV, and a printable summary you can hand to whoever does your taxes.
What you can use it for
Stop losing write-offs
Every receipt you can’t find at tax time is money you overpay the IRS. Snapping it on the spot means it’s captured while you’re standing at the counter.
Kill the shoebox
No more glovebox full of curling receipts to sort in April. They’re logged, categorized, and totaled as you go.
Know your true costs
When your real expenses are tracked, you see what a job actually costs to run — which is the difference between revenue and the profit you keep.
Hand your preparer one clean page
A category breakdown, a total, and a CSV mean your tax preparer isn’t billing you to sort a bag of receipts.
How to track expenses
- 1
Snap the receipt
In the app, take a photo of the receipt. Do it at the register while it’s in your hand — that’s the whole trick.
- 2
Let it fill itself in
The scan reads the amount, store, date, and a likely category and prefills the expense. You just glance and confirm.
- 3
Set the category
Adjust the category if you want — parts, fuel, tools, supplies, fees — so the year-end breakdown is accurate.
- 4
Watch it land on the Tax Wrap-Up
Every logged expense flows into the year-end summary automatically, with a running total and a breakdown by category.
- 5
Export at tax time
Pull a CSV or a printed preparer summary, or send it into QuickBooks, when it’s time to file.
Why it belongs in the app
A write-off you don't record is a write-off you don't take — and for a side-work operator that's real money handed back to the government every year. The reason it happens is friction: nobody wants to do bookkeeping at night. Scanning removes the friction, so the money stays yours.
It's included, and it's tied to the rest of your numbers. Costs feed profit, expenses feed the tax summary. One app, one set of numbers, no separate bookkeeping tool.
Expenses — common questions
How accurate is the receipt scanning?
The scan prefills the amount, store, date, and a category, and you confirm before it saves — so a bad read is a quick fix, not a wrong number in your books. You’re always the final check.
What categories can I use?
Common trade categories like parts, fuel, tools, supplies, and fees, so the year-end breakdown lines up with how a tax preparer thinks about your costs.
Does this file my taxes for me?
No. SideWRK organizes your income and expenses and hands you a clean summary and CSVs — it does the prep, not the filing. It’s not tax advice; your preparer or software does the return.
Can I get the numbers into QuickBooks?
Yes. The Tax Wrap-Up exports QuickBooks-ready CSVs, so your expenses and income move over without hand-entry.