Workbook — For Teens · Created October 5, 2026 · 1 min read

Teen Self-Employment Ledger

Your own money in, your own money out. Memory is not a record.

Mowing, babysitting, resale, tutoring — once the money is real, the record has to be too. This logs income and expenses as they happen, which is what makes the income provable at tax time and Roth-eligible.

Download: TeenSelfEmploymentLedger.xlsx — free, no email required, and it opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.

What This Workbook Does

Money in, with the date and who paid you, on every row.
Money out — what you spent to do the work, which is the half most people never track.
Two worked examples built in, so the format is obvious before you start.
A running profit figure, which is the number that actually matters.

How to Use It

Log every payment on the day you are paid. Reconstructing this in April does not work.
Record who paid you, not just how much. That is what makes it a record rather than a note.
Track expenses too — fuel, supplies, fees. They reduce what you owe tax on.
Look at the two example tabs if the format is unclear.
Keep the file with your tax records, and use it to support a Roth IRA contribution.

What It Will Not Do

This is a ledger, not a tax return. Self-employment tax has its own thresholds and quarterly rules — the ledger feeds that conversation, it does not replace it.

Every workbook on this site is free. The full set — budgeting, debt, career, real estate and the kids’ sheets — is on the Worksheets & Planners page.

Where to go next: Side Hustle Taxes for Teens — what you owe once the money is real; Self-Employment Records — what the record has to contain; Roth IRA for Kids — the account this income unlocks.