Accounting as a freelancer with no experience: how to get started

“I don’t know anything about accounting.” We hear this a lot from freelancers – and it’s the reason many put off their bookkeeping for months. The good news: for a Swiss sole proprietorship under CHF 500,000 turnover, you genuinely don’t need an accounting background. Here’s what you actually need to know.

What you DON’T need to know

Forget terms like debits and credits, chart of accounts, or double-entry bookkeeping – you don’t need any of that as a sole proprietorship under the CHF 500,000 turnover threshold. Swiss law allows you simplified accounting: a plain income-and-expenditure record.

What you actually need to do

1. Collect your receipts – every invoice, every receipt, every bank statement with business relevance
2. Record your income – what came in, when, from which client
3. Record your expenses – what you spent, when, for your business
4. Watch your VAT threshold – if you cross CHF 100,000 turnover, you’ll need to file VAT returns
5. Summarise at year-end – for your tax return

That’s the whole list. No balance sheet date, no depreciation schedules, no provisions.

What a receipt actually has to contain

“Receipt” sounds like a formality, but it comes down to one question: could an outsider tell what this was about? That takes four details:

• The date – when the goods or service were received or supplied
• The amount – including the VAT rate and tax amount if the other party is VAT-liable
• Who – who you bought from, or who you sold to
• What for – the goods or service, specific enough to classify

A till slip without a named recipient is fine for small amounts. What is not fine: a bank statement on its own. It shows that money moved, not what for – and that is exactly the question that gets asked later.

Ten years of retention – digital is fine

Books and accounting records must be kept for ten years, counted from the end of the financial year (Art. 958f CO). This applies to a sole proprietorship exactly as it does to larger businesses.

Electronic retention is expressly permitted, as long as the records can be made readable at any time and changes remain detectable – the ordinance on keeping and retaining business records sets out the detail. In practice: a photo of the receipt inside accounting software, tied to its entry, meets the requirement. A loose folder of phone photos with nothing linking them does not.

The most common pitfalls for beginners

• Mixing private and business expenses – open a separate business account from day one
• Losing receipts – digitise receipts immediately instead of piling them in a drawer
• Missing the VAT threshold – keep an eye on your turnover as you approach CHF 100,000; when you have to register is covered in its own article
• Booking a private withdrawal as an expense – money you transfer to yourself is not a cost and does not reduce your profit
• Leaving everything until the last minute – small, regular entries are easier than a year’s backlog

What you should set aside alongside

Your books tell you how large your profit is. They do not tell you that part of it already belongs to somebody. Two items draw on the same profit:

• the AHV, roughly 10 per cent as a rule of thumb – the exact figures are in the article on AHV contributions for the self-employed
• income tax, which depends on where you live and on your total income

Setting both aside as you go, rather than hunting for them at year end, defuses the most unpleasant part of working for yourself.

How modern software makes the difference

The biggest difference between “accounting is a nightmare” and “accounting takes 20 minutes a week” usually comes down to having the right tool. Software like Effizo handles the parts that would otherwise require specialist knowledge:

• AI document capture – photograph the receipt, the software recognises the amount, date, and category
• Automatic VAT calculation – you don’t need to look up the rates yourself
• Plain language, no jargon – every input field explains what’s expected
• Ready-made reports – for your tax return or your accountant

You don’t need to learn how to “do” accounting – you just need to know which receipts matter, and feed the software regularly.

A realistic weekly routine

With the right software, most freelancers need no more than 15–20 minutes a week: photograph receipts, do a quick check, done. By the end of the quarter or year, everything is ready for VAT reporting or your tax return.

A second rhythm joins it as soon as invoices are involved: the monthly reconciliation of incoming payments. It answers the question of who has not paid yet – and it is the basis of any dunning worth the name. How it works is covered in the article on booking your bank statement.

What is actually needed at year end

The list is shorter than most people fear:

1. A statement of all income and expenses for the financial year
2. The matching receipts, findable and tied to their entry
3. The business account balance as at 31 December
4. A list of open invoices that have not been paid
5. If you are VAT-liable: the returns for the year’s periods

Neither the tax office nor an accountant preparing the year-end asks a sole proprietorship below the threshold for more than that.

When an accountant is worth it

Keeping the running books yourself and only having the year-end checked is the cheapest combination for many sole proprietorships: you know your business, the accountant knows the tax rules. It only works if both sides see the same data, though – Excel files by email are the worst route. How direct accountant access solves that is covered in its own article.

Conclusion

You don’t need an accounting background to keep correct books as a freelancer in Switzerland. You need discipline in collecting receipts – and a tool that handles the rest.

Effizo was built exactly for freelancers without an accounting background: simple bookkeeping with AI document capture, automatic VAT reporting, and plain language. Also check out our practical tips for organising your accounting.