Announcing my first app, Little Ledger (now available on the App Store!)
My first iOS app is now available for download, for free.
If the thought of doing your taxes as a freelancer makes your stomach turn, you’re not alone. Studies show that half of small business owners feel doubtful they’re paying taxes correctly1, and taxes are often cited as one of the top five anxiety-inducing struggles for the self-employed2 (alongside getting paid on time, self-motivation, finding work, and marketing).
I can attest to this personally: 2025 marks my 7th year running my freelance design business. For many of those years, I feared the annual tradition of tax season more than anything.
When I was just starting out, I was clueless about what I needed to do for taxes as a freelancer. My first client didn’t pay me very much, and I had to make a lot of purchases to get my business going: design software, supplies for art and my home office (my bedroom), hardware for digital drawing. Not only was my business operating at a loss, but to make matters worse, all of these business expenses were jumbled up with my personal expenses in the same accounts that I used for both.
Over time, as I won more clients, experience, and competency, I went from cluelessness to — well, perpetual uncertainty. I still didn’t feel like I was doing enough to set myself up for tax season; I was unsure if I was doing bookkeeping the “right” way or, at times, what the point of it was.
As the years went on, I began to cobble together learnings about how I can better approach my business’ finances. The most important piece is, as you’ve probably been told, to find a tax professional you can work with. But whether you’re a freelancer who is just starting out — maybe my earlier anecdote sounds familiar to you — or you’ve been running your business for years, the best action you can take is first getting a handle on what’s leaving your wallet. That means keeping track of your expenses.
“The first rule of managing your taxes as a freelancer is to get organized. Meticulous records and deep knowledge of your business finances can make a big difference on your tax bill.”
— Freelancer’s Union, “First-Time Freelancer’s Guide to Taxes”
How expense tracking saves you money during tax season
“When asked what areas of taxes they’d like to know more about, self-employed workers named ‘anything and everything tax-related’ as their number one response. This was followed by deductions, write-offs and tax breaks, then why they pay so much in taxes, industry specifics, and how to get better at estimating and saving for taxes.”
You’ve likely heard of expense tracking when it comes to budgeting and personal finances. When it comes to business finances, tracking your expenses can actually help you keep more of your earnings.
Keeping track of what you spend (on business-related purchases) is the first step toward lowering your taxable income. For someone who’s self-employed, that means that many of those purchases you make for your business (e.g. the software, art supplies, hardware, and more) can be deducted, or subtracted from, your taxable income, per the IRS. As a result, you’re reducing the amount of money that gets taxed by local, state, and federal governments, which often translates to paying less in taxes.
When I was just starting out as a freelancer, I knew expense tracking was important. But I was at a loss in terms of how to do it — and realistically, the available options are infinite. In my own trial and error, I ran into a few problems:
Automated platforms like QuickBooks offer too many features for my needs and can be expensive. My business operations are straightforward; I don’t need detailed analyses of my spending trends. Permissions and security are also concerns: I prefer to avoid syncing all my sensitive bank account information just to see what expenses I’m making.
Manual methods, like a spreadsheet on Google Drive or Notion, offer too much flexibility. When I was getting my business off the ground, I wanted to focus on building the skills I needed to find and work with clients, not finding the perfect Notion template or trying out a bunch of budgeting spreadsheets.
So, after years of getting by with my own crudely designed spreadsheets, I decided to instead make something I’d use, and enjoy using, every day. And, I figured that other people in the same boat would benefit as well, which is why I wanted to make Little Ledger available for anyone to use (… on iOS devices, that is 😅).
What Little Ledger offers
At the time of launch, the app focuses on a few key workflows:
Adding a new expense. With a few easy taps, this can happen as the transaction occurs, at the end of the day, or at the end of each week.
Viewing all expenses, organized by date. This allows for easy review of your historical expenses, which can then be used as you develop out your bookkeeping regimen over time.
You can also view more details about each expense by tapping on the row. From there, make any changes needed, like updating details or deleting it altogether.
These features don’t require an internet connection. Your data isn’t stored anywhere else but on your own device. (Still, it’s a good practice to avoid saving any sensitive information in the app.)
For the future, I have many more feature ideas for Little Ledger: exporting expenses, custom categories, sorting, and filtering, just to name a few. If there’s anything specific you’d like to see, reach out to me via email below!
Try out Little Ledger today
Little Ledger is available for free on iOS through the App Store.
🌐 Visit Little Ledger’s website
✉️ Questions, comments, and feedback are all appreciated. You can email me at hello@wontonface.com
If you try out Little Ledger and enjoy using it, please consider leaving a review! Reviews help other people determine if the app is right for them, and they’re extremely valuable for me as a developer :)
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Sources mentioned:
1 20 Small Business Financial Literacy Statistics for 2025 | QuickBooks
2 Self-employed workers admit to tax challenges | Intuit Accountants
Note that the information mentioned in this article is relevant for freelancers based in the United States. For tax information relevant to your country, consult your government’s public resources.
I’m so excited to check this out! The way you explain is reminds me of YNAB but for biz, which is much needed lol. Downloading it now!
Hi there! Congrats on the app. Will you be sharing this on the Google Play store?