Log every receipt and every business mile
Under HMRC's flat rate, each of your first 10,000 business miles in the 2026 to 2027 tax year is claimed at 55p, and the IRS puts a business mile at 76 cents from 1 July 2026. Neither helps with a trip you never wrote down. I built one workbook where you log every receipt and every journey once, and see the claim for each month and for the whole tax year.
The question
this build answers
How do I keep track of my Etsy shop's expenses and business mileage and see the claim for the tax year?
From the first trigger
to the finished job.
The working version, step by step.
Pick UK or US
On Settings you choose UK or US, and the tax year starts itself: 6 April in the UK, 1 January in the US. I filled the mileage rates in as blue cells with the ones I read on GOV.UK and irs.gov, and a new rate goes on the next empty row when it is published.
One line per receipt
I gave each receipt one line on Expenses: date, supplier, what it was, one of eleven categories, the amount, any VAT or sales tax in it, who paid, whether you kept the receipt and the business share. A blank share counts as 100%.
One line per journey
On Mileage you type the date, where from and to, the purpose, the miles one way and whether you came back. Business miles, the rate and the claim fill themselves in, and I made each journey take the rate in force on its date.
Cross 10,000 miles mid-journey
In the UK the rate drops from 55p to 25p once you pass 10,000 business miles in the tax year, and a journey that crosses the line is split between the two. In my sample year a July delivery round of 2,390 miles went over it, and the sheet put 2,340 miles at 55p and 50 at 25p.
See each month
Monthly lays out claimable expenses by category for each month of the tax year, and puts the business miles and the mileage claim beside them.
Close the year with a count
Year summary totals each category, the business miles, the mileage claim and the total claim. It counts the receipts you still need to find, and any line I had to leave out because a date, amount, category or rate is missing.
The expense and mileage tracker, instant download
Etsy seller expense tracker and mileage log: HMRC and IRS rates, receipts by category and a tax-year summary
You get one Excel workbook that also imports into Google Sheets, plus a README and a sources file. It is an instant download with nothing to install. If a rate or a total looks wrong, message me from your order and I will check it against the source page.
Open the expense and mileage tracker on EtsyChecked on four filled-in copies
Before listing it, I recalculated all 4,707 formulas with a formula engine outside Excel on four filled-in copies: a UK year, the same lines as a US year, a UK year before the April 2026 change, and HMRC's own worked example. All 341 values matched what I worked out by hand, with no error cells.
On HMRC's own example of 11,000 business miles the sheet came to 5,750 pounds, the same figure GOV.UK gives. In the US copy I checked that a journey on 30 June took 72.5 cents a mile and one on 15 July took 76 cents.
Where the rates come from
For the UK I used HMRC's flat rates for cars and vans: 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the 2026 to 2027 tax year and 25p after, with 45p before 6 April 2026. For the US I used the IRS standard mileage rate for business, 72.5 cents a mile to 30 June 2026 and 76 cents from 1 July.
I read each rate on GOV.UK or irs.gov on 18 September 2026, and the Sources tab names the page and its date. Settings warns you when your tax year starts after the newest rate on file, which is your signal to add the next one.
What it leaves out
I built it to keep records, and it gives no tax advice. HMRC, the IRS or an accountant can tell you what is allowable for your business.
I left out sales, deposits, stock and the tax-year return pages, because my Etsy bookkeeping and inventory bundle covers them. The fees Etsy takes on each order are in my Etsy pricing and profit calculator.
Before you spend anything
The fit matters.
Who should not buy this
If you claim your car's actual running costs, the Expenses tab still works for you, but I built the Mileage tab for the flat rate and it will not fit.
If you file your taxes outside the UK and the US, the only rates I put in the file are HMRC's and the IRS's, so the mileage side will not match your rules.
Yours to keep
What lands
on your desk.
- A seven-tab Excel workbook that opens in Numbers and LibreOffice and imports into Google Sheets
- Expenses in eleven categories with the business share, and a mileage log at HMRC or IRS rates
- Monthly totals and a tax-year summary that counts missing receipts
- A README and a sources file naming every rate and the day I read it
See the work
Open the proof.
Published case studies of running systems. Each links to the thing itself.
A few useful
answers.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Import it through File, Import, Upload. Every formula in it uses a function Google Sheets supports, and I checked the results on a filled sample copy before I listed it.
Which tax year does it use?
Settings starts the current tax year by itself, 6 April in the UK and 1 January in the US. To record a different year, type its start date over the formula.
What happens when HMRC or the IRS changes the rate?
You add the new rate on the next empty row of Settings with the date it starts, and each journey picks up the rate in force on its own date. I also made Settings warn you when your tax year starts after the newest rate you have.
Can I claim a phone I also use at home?
I added a business share column for the percentage you use for the shop, so a phone used 40% for the shop claims 40% of the bill. What share is fair for your business is a question for HMRC, the IRS or an accountant.
A little further down
the same path.
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Your working version.
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