Freelance Virtual Assistant Income and Expense Spreadsheet
A virtual assistant sells hours and availability, often as a retainer that covers a block of time each month. Your sheet has to handle prepaid retainers, hourly overage and tools you pay for on behalf of clients and are later repaid for.
How a virtual assistant gets paid, and what that means for the sheet
Virtual assistants are paid in several shapes at once: a monthly retainer for a block of hours, hourly billing for ad hoc tasks, and fixed project fees. Retainers are often paid in advance for the month ahead, while hourly work is billed after the hours are done. Each shape needs a slightly different row in your tracker.
Log a retainer as Income on the day it arrives, with the month it covers in the Description, and do not split it into hourly pieces. Hours billed beyond the retainer are a second invoice and a second Income row. If you work through a freelance platform, log the payout it sends you and name the platform as the client.
One example month, logged
Invented numbers, to show the shape. Each row below is one line on the Transactions tab.
| Client | What it was | Income |
|---|---|---|
| Bluebell Realty | Monthly retainer, 20 hours | $1,600 |
| Coach Dana Whitfield | Inbox and calendar management, hourly | $640 |
| Alder Street Studio | Event scheduling project, final invoice | $950 |
| Hollis Podcast Network | Scheduling tool reimbursement, quarterly | $180 |
| Income total | $3,370 | |
| Category | What it was | Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Software & subscriptions | Password manager, team plan | $60 |
| Software & subscriptions | Project management app, annual | $132 |
| Software & subscriptions | Video meeting plan, annual | $150 |
| Equipment | Headset with microphone | $110 |
| Home office | Ergonomic office chair | $320 |
| Home office | Home internet, monthly bill | $65 |
| Contractors | Backup assistant, two weeks of cover | $480 |
| Professional fees | Virtual assistant association membership | $85 |
| Marketing | Website template and domain | $48 |
| Expense total | $1,450 | |
In this example the month ends with $3,370 in, $1,450 out and $1,920 left before you set anything aside for tax.
The P&L tab sorts the same rows by category:
| Expense category | Month total |
|---|---|
| Software & subscriptions | $342 |
| Equipment | $110 |
| Contractors | $480 |
| Marketing | $48 |
| Home office | $385 |
| Professional fees | $85 |
| Expense total | $1,450 |
Where a virtual assistant's purchases go
- Software & subscriptions: Schedulers, automation tools, password managers and project apps land here. When you add a seat or an add-on for one client, put that client's name in the Description so you can see which tools each client needs.
- Contractors: A backup assistant who covers your holiday, or a specialist such as a designer you bring in for one client, goes under Contractors. Add the client name in the Description so a job that needed outside help is easy to spot later.
- Home office: A chair, a desk and your internet plan belong under Home office. If the internet bill covers the whole household, log the full bill and note the work share in the Description, or log only that share. Pick one method and keep it.
Four tracking tips for a virtual assistant
- Write the included hours in the Description of each retainer row, for example 20 hours, April. When a client goes over, the overage is easy to price and bill as a separate Income row.
- Log a tool you paid for on a client's behalf under Software & subscriptions, and log the repayment as Income with the word reimbursement in the Description. Use that word every time, so you can filter these pass-through rows from your fees.
- Clients pay on different days: some on the first of the month, others only after an invoice. Keep each due date visible in the Invoices tab and review it every Monday, before the week's work begins.
- Spell each client's name the same way on every row. If it is Bluebell Realty on one row and Bluebell on another, sorting the Transactions tab by client will split one client into two.
Two formulas worth a cell of their own
These use the kit's Transactions tab (Type in column B, Category in C, Client / Vendor in E, Amount in F). Excel and Google Sheets both support SUMIFS.
- Spend in your biggest category, here Contractors:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!F:F,Transactions!B:B,"Expense",Transactions!C:C,"Contractors")returns $480 on the example month. - Income from one client:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!F:F,Transactions!B:B,"Income",Transactions!E:E,"Bluebell Realty")returns $1,600 on the example month.
Questions
How do I track a retainer that a client pays in advance?
Log it as Income on the day the money arrives, with the month it covers in the Description. If you later refund part of it, add the refund as an Other expense row naming the client, and leave the original Income row as it was.
Can I use one sheet for clients on retainer and clients on hourly rates?
Yes. Both go through the same Transactions tab. A retainer is one Income row per payment, and an hourly client gets one row per invoice. Put the billing type in the Description, such as retainer or hourly, so you can filter for each later.
Already built
The Freelancer Finance Spreadsheet Kit has the Transactions, Invoices, P&L, Cash Flow and Tax Set-Aside tabs wired together, with this kind of example data on every tab. One Excel file, $29.
Free: the Tax Set-Aside tab as a standalone Excel file
One working tab: type your quarterly income, expenses and the rate you choose, and it shows what is still to put aside. Confirm your email and the file arrives right away, plus an occasional note (at most one a week) on tracking freelance money. Unsubscribe in one click. Privacy.
The same sheet for other freelancers
- All freelancer spreadsheet guides by profession
- Freelance Consultant Income and Expense Spreadsheet Template
- Freelance Graphic Designer Income and Expense Spreadsheet
- Income and Expense Spreadsheet for Freelance Photographers
- Freelance Social Media Manager Income and Expense Spreadsheet
- Freelance Translator Spreadsheet for Per-Word Income and Costs
- Freelance UX Designer Income and Expense Spreadsheet
- Freelance Video Editor Spreadsheet for Income and Expenses
- Freelance Voice-Over Artist Income and Expense Spreadsheet
- Income and Expense Spreadsheet for Freelance Web Developers
- Freelance Writer Income and Expense Spreadsheet for Articles
- Online Tutor Income and Expense Spreadsheet for Lesson Payouts
More freelancer finance guides
- Excel or Google Sheets for freelancer finances? What actually differs
- Freelance expense categories for a spreadsheet: a starter list that stays short
- How to build a freelance income and expense tracker in a spreadsheet
- A simple 12-month cash flow forecast for freelancers
- Freelancer profit and loss (P&L) in a spreadsheet: a one-page layout
- Freelancer runway: three spreadsheet formulas for how long your cash lasts
- Freelancer tax set-aside: what goes into the number, and how to track it
- Invoice tracker spreadsheet: formulas for paid, due and overdue
- Budgeting on irregular freelance income: the baseline-pay method
- How to track freelance income by client in a spreadsheet
General information about using spreadsheets, not financial, tax or accounting advice. Example numbers are invented. Categories are for tracking and do not say what is deductible.