A Schedule C tax summary your accountant will actually love

Updated: May 11, 2026 · For solo tradespeople filing Schedule C as a sole proprietor.

Year-end ritual for most solo tradespeople: dump a shoebox of receipts and a stack of bank statements on the CPA's desk, then sit through 4 hours of $150/hour billing while they categorize everything. That's $600 — and they're guessing, because you didn't categorize the receipts.

Daily Invoice Maker v5.10's Schedule C summary PDF flips that workflow. Your CPA opens the PDF, sees every Schedule C line pre-filled with totals and source counts, and types numbers into the return in 30 minutes. $150 vs $600. The app pays for itself in the first filing.

What the report contains

One PDF, US Letter, 1-2 pages. The structure mirrors IRS Schedule C exactly.

Part I — Income

• Line 1 — Gross receipts: Sum of all paid invoices + income-typed transactions for the tax year. Source count shown ("47 paid invoices + income transactions").

Part II — Expenses

The report ends with:

• Line 28 — Total expenses (bold, on a dark bar)
• Line 31 — Net profit (loss) (huge green bar, or red if a loss)

The methodology notes

The PDF ends with a "Notes & Methodology" section explaining in plain English:

• The IRS standard mileage rate used and the tax year it applies to
• That meals are halved automatically (50% deductibility rule)
• Categories that don't map directly flow to Line 27a
• Which income source was used (paid invoices, bank transactions, or both) so your accountant can verify no double-counting
• A reminder that this is a summary report, not a tax return — always have a CPA review before filing

This last point matters. The PDF is a worksheet, not a return. We're not generating Form 1040, not signing anything, not advising you on tax strategy. It's a categorized totals worksheet — exactly what your CPA would build for you, just done in 1 second instead of 4 hours.

The double-counting protection

If you mark invoices Paid in the app AND import your bank statements, the same money shows up in both places. Without protection, your gross receipts would inflate ~2× — a flagged-return issue.

The exports include an Income Source radio selector with three options:

• Paid invoices only (default, safest)
• Bank transactions only (use if you exclusively rely on imports)
• Both — advanced (with explicit double-count warning + confirm dialog)

The Schedule C PDF's Notes section documents which source was used so your accountant sees it.

Where it lives

Dashboard → tap Tax Summary → pick the year → click the blue Schedule C PDF button. PDF opens in a new tab. Print, save, or email — whatever you want.

While you're there, you can also export the same year's data to QuickBooks IIF or Xero CSV for your accountant's preferred software.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a tax return I can file directly?

No. The Schedule C PDF is a summary report that helps your accountant prepare your actual return. It's not signed, not filed, not a substitute for IRS Form 1040 with Schedule C attached.

Will this work if I haven't categorized my expenses well?

Partially. Uncategorized expenses flow to Line 27a "Other expenses." If most of your data is in that bucket, your CPA will still need to re-classify. The cleaner your categories, the more useful the report.

Does the report include my mileage?

Yes — if you logged mileage with the GPS mileage tracker, it shows up on Line 9 with a detail line that calculates miles × rate.