A year-end checklist for freelancers

This guide explains how tax for the self-employed generally works. It is not tax advice. Rules, rates and dates change every year and differ by country, so check with your tax authority or an accountant.

Money in

✓Send any invoices for work you have finished but not billed.
✓Chase every overdue invoice, starting with the oldest.
✓Check that every payment you received matches an invoice.
✓Decide what to do about any invoice you are unlikely to be paid.

Money out

✓Match every business expense to a receipt.
✓Cancel subscriptions you no longer use.
✓Note business mileage and working-from-home costs if your country lets you claim them.
✓Separate any personal spending that slipped into the business account.

Tax records

Total your income and expenses for the year, and gather everything your return will need: income records, expense categories, any forms clients sent you, and the tax you have already paid during the year. Compare your set-aside with what you now expect to owe, so a shortfall is a planning problem, not a surprise.

Files and clients

✓Archive finished projects and back them up somewhere other than your laptop.
✓Remove access you no longer need to client accounts and tools, and hand back any you were given.
✓Ask happy clients for a testimonial or a referral while the work is fresh.

Next year

✓Review your rates, and give existing clients notice of any increase.
✓Renew or update contracts that are ending.
✓Look at which clients and projects were most profitable, and which you would not take again.
✓Put next year's tax deadlines in your calendar now.

A free checklist with next year's tax dates. The Year End Checklist for Freelancers 2027 is a free 4-page PDF covering invoices, payments, files, contracts and rates, with the main 2027 tax dates for the self-employed in the US, UK, Canada and Australia on the last pages.

View in the Store

From the Stelaah Store

✓Year End Checklist for Freelancers 2027. A free four-page year-end checklist for freelancers covering invoices, payments, files, contracts and 2027 rates, with 2027 tax dates.
✓Small Business Finance Dashboard. An Excel and Google Sheets finance dashboard for a small business: income, expenses, budget, profit and loss, budget vs actual, a 12-month cash flow forecast and break-even.
✓Multi-Currency Freelancer Tax Tracker 2027. An Excel and Google Sheets tax tracker for freelancers in any country, with income in 21 currencies converted to your home currency, VAT or GST and quarterly tax set-aside.

The Stelaah team

We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.