Free Google Sheets Bookkeeping Template for UK Sole Traders and Small Businesses

What Is Inside the Template

Tab 1: Business Details
Enter your business name and the start and end dates of your accounting period. The rest of the template uses this information as a reference point for all date-based calculations.

Tab 2: Chart of Accounts
The master list of every income and expense category your business uses. Set this up before entering any transactions and every entry you make will be categorised consistently across the whole year. The categories are fully customisable to match your specific type of business.

Tab 3: Transactions
The working tab where every income receipt and expense payment is recorded. Date, category, amount and description. The category dropdown pulls from your Chart of Accounts automatically so every entry is consistent. Income displays in black, expenses in red.

Tab 4: Income Statement
The summary tab that pulls everything together. Income streams at the top, all expense categories below, and your trading profit at the bottom. This is the figure that goes on the self-employment pages of your Self Assessment return. It updates automatically every time you add a transaction.

What the Template Does

Calculates your profit automatically. The Income Statement tab updates in real time as you enter transactions. No manual calculations required.

Categorises every transaction consistently. Dropdown categories pulled from your Chart of Accounts ensure your records are consistent across the whole tax year, which matters if HMRC ever asks to see them.

Produces a real profit and loss statement. The Income Statement is the document your accountant or HMRC would recognise, built directly from your transaction entries rather than reconstructed at year end.

Built for the UK tax year. The template is structured around the 6 April to 5 April UK tax year so your records align naturally with your Self Assessment return.

Works in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Use it free in Google Sheets or open it in Excel. No software subscription required at any point.

Fully customisable. Add your own income and expense categories to match your specific business. The formulas in the Income Statement adjust automatically when you add or remove categories.

Who This Template Is For

This template is designed for anyone who is self-employed or running a small business and needs a simple, structured bookkeeping system without paying for monthly software.

It is particularly useful if you are a sole trader or freelancer who has recently gone self-employed and needs to start keeping records for Self Assessment. It is also the right starting point if you are a side hustler testing a business idea who wants to track income and expenses properly without committing to a paid tool. Small business owners in the early stages who need a clear profit and loss statement without paying an accountant monthly will find the Income Statement tab does that job immediately.

Online sellers on Vinted, eBay and Etsy are well served by this template because it is set up to record gross income correctly, which matters for HMRC reporting purposes. If you have been using your bank receipts to estimate your income, the template will show you the difference and help you record it correctly from the start.

If you have been told you need to keep records for Self Assessment but do not know where to start, this template gives you the structure from day one.

A Note for Online Sellers on Vinted, eBay and Etsy

If you sell on online platforms, recording your income correctly is one of the most important things your bookkeeping system needs to do. HMRC receives your gross sales figures from platform reporting under the DAC7 rules. If your own records only show the net amounts that arrived in your bank account after platform fees were deducted, they will not match what HMRC already holds.

On eBay, the platform deducts its Final Value Fee before paying you. On Etsy, transaction fees, listing fees and payment processing fees all come out before you receive payment. This template records the full gross sale price as income and the platform fee as a separate expense, which is the correct treatment and the one that will reconcile with HMRC's platform data.

Vinted works differently. Vinted charges sellers no fees at all. The buyer pays a protection fee on top of your listing price. Your income entry for a Vinted sale is simply the listing price, which is also exactly what arrives in your Vinted wallet. No adjustment needed.

Our post on why your bank balance is not your profit explains the gross income distinction in full and is worth reading before you start entering your first transactions.

When You Are Ready for the Next Step

This free template tracks your income, expenses and profit. It is the right starting point for most sole traders and early-stage businesses.

When your business grows and you need more than a profit figure, the UK Sole Trader Tax Template and the UK Online Seller Tax Template go further. They calculate your exact tax bill including income tax and Class 4 National Insurance. They account for PAYE income from a day job alongside self-employment profit, which changes the tax calculation significantly for anyone who also has employment income. They handle student loan repayments across all five UK plans, show exactly what to set aside from every payment you receive throughout the year, and compare the trading allowance versus actual expenses automatically for your specific numbers. Both templates are updated every April for the new tax year and work in Google Sheets and Excel.

See the full tax templates, £14.99 per year →

Start Tracking Your Income and Expenses Today

The template is free, takes about twenty minutes to set up, and gives you the bookkeeping structure HMRC expects from a self-employed person in the UK. Download it now and start with a clean record from day one rather than trying to reconstruct the year from bank statements in January.