How to prepare timesheets for your tax advisor

What your tax advisor actually needs

Your tax advisor does not need fancy tables. They need traceable numbers. I often see users sending lists that only show project name and total hours – missing days or breaks trigger immediate follow-up questions.

A solid timesheet lists per day: date, start time, end time, breaks, project or client, and a short description. Anything less leads to extra emails.

Which periods to cover?

The advisor usually wants the full billing period. For monthly bookkeeping that means the current month. For the annual financial statement you need all twelve months. I once saw a freelancer send only the last three months – it delayed the whole process by two weeks.

Exporting from your time tracking app

With Jomawo you can create a PDF or Excel export that already includes all required fields. Select the date range, filter by client or project, and download. The file contains columns for date, time, breaks and project. You avoid manual copy-pasting.

Our export feature is built exactly for this purpose. You only need to double-check that every entry looks plausible.

Concrete example: the cost of missing quarter hours

Suppose your hourly rate is 85 €. If you forget to log twelve quarter hours per month (three hours total), that equals 255 € of revenue that never appears in your books. Over a year this adds up to more than 3,000 €. Checking the data before export therefore pays off quickly.

Common pitfalls when preparing timesheets

Some people skip breaks entirely. Others only record billable project hours and omit internal work such as accounting or business development. Both create gaps that the tax advisor will notice later.

Another frequent issue is inconsistent client names. “Müller GmbH” and “Müller GmbH & Co. KG” end up as two separate projects. A quick consistency check before export saves time.

Special case: overtime and surcharges

If you charge overtime with surcharges, these must be shown separately. The tax advisor needs clear proof; otherwise they cannot book the amounts correctly. Use a consistent structure so surcharges stand out immediately.

Which file formats make sense?

Most advisors prefer PDF for filing and Excel when they still need to make adjustments. Jomawo lets you generate both with one click.

Do not forget internal tasks

Besides billable hours you should also record non-billable time. This includes training, administration or maintaining your website. Otherwise the advisor only sees part of your workload and cannot assess your real utilisation.

I have been tracking everything myself for years, including the half hour I spend on monthly VAT returns. It helps me a lot with my own calculations later.

Final check before sending

Before you upload the file, quickly scan the list: Are all days of the month covered? Are entries missing on public holidays or weekends? Do the totals match your invoices?

A short cross-check with the invoices you issued is usually enough. This prevents follow-up questions from your tax advisor.

In the end you save both yourself and your advisor time when the data is clean and complete. With a good free time tracking tool the export becomes a routine step instead of monthly stress.