How should a small trades or cleaning business keep its books?
By the job. A window cleaning round, a painting crew or a one-van handyman business earns money in small pieces, and the books only make sense if each payment can be traced back to the job it paid for. Add a mileage log, a weekly habit for receipts and a list of unpaid invoices, and you have most of it.
Each item below sits beside the record that backs it up. The IRS and city pages cited here were checked in October 2026.
| What to track | Record that backs it up | When to update it |
|---|---|---|
| Income from each job | A numbered invoice matched to its deposit | When the job is paid |
| Cash and check payments | Receipt book copy and deposit slip | The day you take the payment |
| Supplies such as cleaning solution | Receipt kept with the card statement | Weekly |
| Vehicle use | A mileage log with date, destination and purpose | Each trip or weekly |
| Larger equipment such as ladders | The purchase receipt | When you buy it |
| Money customers still owe | A list of open invoices by customer | Weekly |
How do you track income job by job?
Give every job an invoice with a number, even the small ones paid on the doorstep. When the money arrives, match the deposit to that invoice. A deposit with no invoice behind it is a question you'll have to answer later, usually when you can't remember the job.
The IRS page on what records to keep says to keep documents that show the amounts and sources of your gross receipts, and it lists deposit information, receipt books and invoices among them. For a trades business, that means the invoice, the payment record and the bank deposit should all point at the same job.
Cash is where this breaks. If a customer pays in cash and it goes straight into your pocket for fuel, the income and the expense both vanish from the books. Deposit it first, then pay for fuel from the business account.
What vehicle records does the IRS expect?
More than fuel receipts. IRS Topic 510 on business use of a car says that if you use a vehicle for both business and personal driving, only the cost of the business use counts, and that the law requires you to back up the expense with adequate records or sufficient evidence to support your own statement.
IRS Publication 463 spells out what that record holds for car expenses, including the mileage for each business use, the total miles for the year, the date, your business destination and the business purpose. It also says a log kept weekly that accounts for the week's use counts as a timely kept record, and that a round trip or one uninterrupted stretch of business driving can go down as a single record. Which deduction method to use is a question for your tax professional.
In practice, a notebook in the van or a mileage app works. Those are practical tools, not IRS requirements: what matters is that each entry carries the details above.
How should supplies and equipment go into the books?
Keep the receipt, every time. The IRS says documents for an expense should identify the payee, the amount, proof of payment, the date and a description showing it was a business expense. A card statement alone shows the store and the total. It doesn't show that you bought squeegee blades rather than groceries.
Bigger purchases, like a ladder, a water-fed pole or a pressure washer, belong on their own line, not mixed into supplies. How they're treated at tax time is up to your tax professional, and a clear receipt and a separate entry make that conversation short.
Books behind while the van stays busy?
Book a free call with Cara about where things stand, then get a quote.
How do you keep track of who still owes you?
Keep one list of open invoices and update it weekly. When a deposit lands, tick the invoice off. Send a reminder on anything still open after four weeks. Accounts payable and receivable is one of Inkdrop's services, if you'd rather not keep the list yourself.
What does West Valley City add for a trades business?
A license, even if you never work from a shop. The city's types of business licenses page says that if your business is based at your home address and you live in West Valley City, you need a Home Business License, and that this includes service providers who travel to the customer's site to do the work. So a window cleaner who lives in the city and runs the business from home needs one, even if every job happens at a customer's house.
The city's business licensing page also exempts a home business that grosses less than $2,000 a year, as long as the owner signs an affidavit and applies for a license if gross income rises. You can only know which side of that line you're on if job income is recorded as it comes in.
The city's licensing steps page covers what happens when you take on help. It lists an EIN for federal withholding, a state withholding number and state unemployment insurance, and says workers' compensation insurance is required of all employers. Inkdrop's West Valley City bookkeeping page has more on the city's name and license rules.
Getting the books off your plate
Inkdrop Bookkeeping is based in West Jordan, a short way south of West Valley City in Salt Lake County, and is available to owners anywhere in Utah by phone and email. Its services include monthly bookkeeping and catch-up bookkeeping for when the books have fallen behind.
Tax questions, including mileage deductions, stay with your tax professional. For the books, call (801) 448-3672 or use the contact page to set up a free call with Cara, and Inkdrop quotes once it's clear how many accounts and transactions are involved.
Talk to Cara about your trades business
Call (801) 448-3672 or email [email protected] to set up a free call.
