Any small business owner can tell you: There are seemingly endless expenses when you're running a business. I'm not talking office basics like pens and paper, well not just that kinda stuff. There are also costs that may not immediately seem like expenses, but totally are. Everything in this photo is actually a business expense! And this is just from the last few days! A big thank you to Intuit QuickBooks for sponsoring this post!

There are also often overlooked costs like the mileage you put on your car when picking up supplies-- and for me this is a big one because my nearest clay supplier requires a 90+ mile round-trip journey. Until I joined QuickBooks Self-Employed I used to track my miles manually, which generally meant I forgot to record about half of my trips and I couldn't claim them come tax season. With reimbursement rates for 2018 at $0.545 per mile this adds up! For example, my 90 mile monthly supply trip is $49.05 deductible!! That's a lot of iced coffees.

Here's the part where I tell you this easy-to-use service is changing the game: The QuickBooks Self-Employed app has a built-in, absolutely genius mileage tracker. I downloaded the app right before a recent supply trip and once I confirmed permission for the app to track my mileage it tracked my entire trip without any effort on my part. I forgot it was even running until I arrived at my destination and took my phone out to check my texts and there right on the screen was a recap of my entire trip! The above image is a real screenshot from this very trip, as you can see the information is very directly displayed and I love that it shows me the possible deductible right away. That's enough $$ to make me pay attention!

The mileage tracking feature alone is enough to have me recommending QuickBooks Self-Employed to my self-employed friends and family members (plus it’s 50% for a year through this promotional link). Then I discovered the receipt snap feature that allows you to attach a photo of the receipt right when you add the transaction. When I was buying my supplies I instantly uploaded the receipt the moment I had it, even before leaving the supply shop. 

The glassware I designed is handblown right in the same compound as my ceramic supplier, so I always pop in to see what these talented glassblowers are working on whenever I’m in town. It's a hot, fast paced environment and I'm always left in awe how these artists manipulate the molten, moving glass!

This day they were working on a large piece that required a team! Please note all the fire. Impressive! The latest batch of our glassware was finished, so after quick hellos I bought that too (receipt snap!) and loaded everything back into the car to drive back to the studio. The mileage tracker followed my return trip too. Round-trip mileage and all my purchases were loaded into my QuickBooks Self-Employed account before I even got back to the studio. It couldn't be any easier!

As a small business owner my time is precious and I love that the QuickBooks Self-Employed app gets that. The features are easy to use, intuitively designed, and as my recent supply trip confirms it does an even better job keeping track of my expenses and deductions than I do!

Thank you Intuit Quickbooks for sponsoring this post! The opinions expressed here are my own from using this product. Here at Suite One Studio we only share products we've really tried and truly love!

xoxo Lindsay