Notion · finance · 2026-10-23

Notion Expense Tracker for Solo Founders (Free Template)

Get Solo Founder OS Lite: free (pay what you want)

Lite is designed to track projects, tasks, and tool subscriptions. Expense, revenue, and profit tracking are in Pro.

If you'd rather not build this yourself, Solo Founder OS Pro includes an Expenses database with categories, VAT, receipt uploads, and a tax-deductible flag, linked to each product.

This guide pairs with Solo Founder OS, and if you want the next step, read How to Track Subscriptions in Notion (Free Template).

Most free Notion expense trackers are personal budget templates: groceries, rent, a savings goal. A solo founder needs something different. You want to know what each product costs you, how much of each receipt was VAT, and which tools renew every month whether you use them or not. This guide builds a Notion business expense tracker that does that with relations, formulas, and rollups. It works on Notion's free plan.

Why a business expense tracker is different from a budget template

A budget template answers "did I overspend this month?" A business expense tracker needs to answer three other questions:

• Which product is this cost for? Hosting for one app shouldn't hide inside a single "software" total.
• How much was VAT? If you can reclaim VAT, the net cost is the number that matters.
• What repeats? Recurring tools are the costs that quietly grow, so they deserve their own list.

The structure (Expenses, Categories, Products, Subscriptions)

You need three databases plus one select property:

Expenses database properties (Date, Amount, VAT, Category, Product, Receipt, Recurring)

• Date (date): when you paid.
• Amount (number): the total you paid, including any VAT.
• VAT (number): the VAT shown on the receipt. Leave it at 0 if there wasn't any.
• Category (select): see below.
• Product (relation to Products).
• Receipt (files & media): the PDF or photo.
• Recurring (checkbox): ticked for anything that bills on a schedule.

Category select (hosting, tools, ads, contractors, fees)

Keep the list short so every expense has an obvious home: Hosting, Tools, Ads, Contractors, and Fees (payment and platform fees). Add more only when one category starts hiding something you want to see separately.

Step 1: Create the Expenses database

Create a full-page database called Expenses and add the properties above. Add a few real rows from last month's receipts so you can check the formulas as you go.

Step 2: Formulas for net cost, VAT, and month key (copy-paste)

Add these three formula properties to Expenses:

Net cost = prop("Amount") - prop("VAT")

Month = formatDate(prop("Date"), "YYYY-MM")

Net this month = if(
  formatDate(prop("Date"), "YYYY-MM") == formatDate(today(), "YYYY-MM"),
  prop("Net cost"), 0)

Month gives every row a sortable key such as 2026-10, which is handy for grouping a table view by month. Net this month is 0 for anything outside the current calendar month, so a rollup can add it up safely.

If you can't reclaim VAT, use Amount instead of Net cost in your totals. This is a tracking tool, not tax advice, so check with your accountant which figure you should use.

Step 3: Link expenses to products with relations and rollups

Create a Products database with one row per product, side project, or client. Make the Product relation on Expenses two-way, so Products gets an Expenses column. Then add rollups on Products (all Sum):

• Expenses this month ← Expenses → Net this month
• VAT paid ← Expenses → VAT

Each product page now shows what it cost you this month.

Step 4: Pull recurring tools from Subscriptions (monthly equivalent of yearly plans)

Recurring tools are easier to manage in their own database, because you care about the renewal date as much as the amount. Our Notion subscription tracker guide covers renewal dates, trials, and a keep-or-cancel review in full; here's the short version that feeds your expense totals. Create Subscriptions with Cost, a Billing select (Monthly, Yearly), a Status select (Active, Cancelled), Next renewal, and a Product relation. Then normalise every plan to a monthly figure:

Cost per month = if(prop("Status") == "Cancelled", 0,
  if(prop("Billing") == "Yearly", round(prop("Cost") / 12 * 100) / 100, prop("Cost")))

On Products, add one more rollup, Tool costs / month ← Subscriptions → Cost per month (Sum), and a formula that adds both:

Total cost this month = prop("Expenses this month") + prop("Tool costs / month")

If you also log each subscription payment as an expense, leave the Tool costs / month rollup out of the total so you don't count it twice.

Want the subscription side ready-made? Solo Founder OS Lite includes a Subscriptions database with cost per month, days to renewal, and a renewing-soon flag, free (pay what you want).

Step 5: Monthly view, filters, and a "this month" total

• Add a table view on Expenses called This month, filtered to Net this month is not 0 (or Month equals the current month).
• Group it by Category to see where the money went.
• Turn on the column Sum at the bottom of Net cost and VAT for the month's totals.
• Add a second view grouped by Month for a running history.

Add revenue and you can see profit per product too. This guide shows how to track MRR and monthly profit per product in Notion, using the same Products database.

Receipts and year-end export (CSV)

Attach each receipt to its row in the Receipt property, so you aren't hunting through email at year end. On the free plan, Notion limits uploads to 5 MB per file. When you need the data elsewhere, open the Expenses database, choose ••• → Export → Markdown & CSV, and you get a CSV you can open in a spreadsheet or send to your accountant. Notion exports the current view or the default view, so pick the view you want first.

In the UK? Our UK sole trader tracker is a spreadsheet for income, expenses, and self-assessment estimates.

Limitations to know

• No currency conversion. Notion adds up numbers as entered. Pick a home currency and convert before entering.
• Manual entry. Notion doesn't pull from your bank or card natively. Log weekly, or use your own automation.
• It's tracking, not accounting. It shows what you enter. Your accountant still needs proper records.

Before you add a new tool to Subscriptions, it's worth checking whether you need it at all. Here's how to run a subscription audit as an indie developer.

Get the template or skip the build

Running more than one product? See our Notion template guide for indie hackers.

FAQ

Is there a free Notion expense tracker template?

Notion's own template gallery has free expense trackers, mostly aimed at personal budgets. Solo Founder OS Lite is free (pay what you want) but doesn't include expense tracking; it covers projects, tasks, and subscriptions. The build above gives you a free business expense tracker, and Solo Founder OS Pro has one ready-made.

Can Notion track business expenses with VAT?

Yes, as numbers you enter. Add a VAT number property and a Net cost formula as in step 2. Notion doesn't calculate VAT for you or tell you what you can reclaim.

How do I track recurring subscriptions in Notion?

Use a separate Subscriptions database with a Billing select and the Cost per month formula from step 4, so yearly plans show as a monthly equivalent.

Can I export Notion expenses to a spreadsheet?

Yes. Export the database as Markdown & CSV and open the CSV in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.

Does this work on the Notion free plan?

Yes. Relations, rollups, and formulas all work on the free plan. File uploads are limited to 5 MB per file on Free.

Notion is a trademark of Notion Labs, Inc. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. We aren't affiliated with or endorsed by Notion; names are used here only to identify products.