What Can I Write Off? Stop Leaving Money on the Table - Your Texas Guide to Tracking Deductions
Last February, I watched a fellow business owner walk into their CPA's office with a plastic grocery bag full of crumpled receipts.
"I know I spent money on the business," they said. "Can you figure out what's deductible?"
The CPA sighed. Not because the receipts were a mess (though they were). But because half of them had faded to blank white paper. No date. No amount. No context.
"Was this lunch with a client or your mom?" the CPA asked, holding up one of the few readable receipts.
Silence.
Nobody remembers what they ate for lunch six weeks ago, much less six months.
That business owner probably left $3,000 on the table that year. Not because those expenses weren't deductible. Not because their CPA wasn't good at their job.
But because by tax time, there was no way to prove what was legitimately business and what wasn't.
Here's what most people don't realize: the deduction isn't lost when you file your taxes. It's lost in July when you don't write down why you bought that software subscription.
This is why the best bookkeeping system isn't some complicated tax software. It's a simple tracking habit paired with clean books. That's where peace of mind comes from.
I'm Not Your CPA (And That's Actually Good News)
Let's get something straight right up front.
I can't file your taxes. I can't give you tax advice. I can't tell you whether your specific situation qualifies for a specific deduction.
That's your CPA's job, and they're excellent at it.
My job? To make sure your CPA actually has something to work with when tax season rolls around.
At Serenity Clerking, my role is giving your CPA clean, accurate books and a clear paper trail. Tax season becomes a formality, not a fire drill.
Think of it this way: your CPA is a skilled chef who can turn quality ingredients into an amazing meal. But if you show up with a bag of mystery leftovers and no labels, even the best chef can't work miracles.
I'm the person who helps you gather the right ingredients, label them clearly, and organize them so your CPA can do what they do best.
When your books are clean and your expenses are properly tracked, tax season becomes boring.
And boring tax season? That's the dream.
This Is Money You Already Spent
Here's the mindset shift that changes everything.
Business deductions aren't about "getting away" with something. They're about keeping money you already spent on your business.
You bought that laptop to run your business. You drove to that client meeting. You paid for that professional liability insurance.
The IRS knows running a business costs money. They've built the tax code to account for that.
When you deduct legitimate business expenses, you're not gaming the system. You're using it exactly as intended.
The tragedy isn't business owners who claim too many deductions. It's business owners who pay taxes on money they never actually kept because they didn't track their expenses properly.
Your CPA can only deduct what you can document.
So let's talk about what you should be tracking.
I've created a free Texas Business Deduction Tracker (download at the end of this post) that organizes all of this into a simple monthly system. Nothing slips through the cracks.
The Categories Your CPA Needs You to Track
Home Office Expenses
If you have a dedicated space in your Granbury home that's used exclusively for business, the IRS lets you deduct a proportional share of your home expenses.
This is one of the most valuable deductions for small business owners. And one of the most underutilized because people are afraid they'll trigger an audit. (If done correctly they won't. Really.)
What your CPA needs: The square footage of your dedicated workspace, your total home square footage, and all home-related expenses (utilities, internet, insurance, rent or mortgage interest, property taxes, repairs).
Real example: You run a consulting business from a 150-square-foot room in your 1,500-square-foot house. That's 10% of your home. If your annual utilities, internet, insurance, and property taxes total $8,000, you can potentially deduct $800. Your CPA will calculate the exact amount based on the method that benefits you most.
How to track it: Measure your office space once and document it with photos. Then track your home expenses monthly in a separate category. Don't try to calculate the deduction yourself. Just give your CPA clean numbers and let them work their magic.
💡 Pro Tip: Take photos of your dedicated workspace at the beginning of the year. If it's truly used exclusively for business, that visual record supports your deduction if questions ever arise.
Texas note: Texas has no state income tax, so there's no state deduction here. But this still reduces your federal tax burden, which is where it counts.
Vehicle Expenses
If you drive for business in the DFW area (and let's be honest, you're driving), you have two options: track actual expenses or use the standard mileage rate.
Most small business owners benefit from the mileage rate because it's simpler.
What your CPA needs: Total business miles driven, dates, destinations, and business purposes. If you're claiming actual expenses instead, they need gas receipts, maintenance records, insurance costs, and registration fees.
Real example: You drive from your Granbury office to meet a client in Fort Worth, then stop by your supplier in Weatherford on the way back. That's roughly 85 miles round trip. At the 2025 standard mileage rate (your CPA will use the current year's rate), that's a deduction of around $50 for one day of driving.
Make that trip twice a week? You're looking at over $5,000 in annual deductions.
How to track it: Use a mileage tracking app or keep a simple log in your car. Record the odometer reading, date, destination, and purpose.
"Met with Johnson re: marketing contract" is perfect.
"Drove to Fort Worth" isn't enough.
What counts: Driving to client meetings, the bank to make business deposits, the office supply store, networking events, conferences. Your commute from home to your regular office doesn't count. But driving from your home office to meet a client? Absolutely does.
What doesn't count: Your regular commute, personal errands, driving to the gym (even if you network there).
🧾 Save Time: Take a photo of your odometer on January 1st and December 31st to establish your total annual mileage. Your business percentage comes from your tracked business miles divided by total miles.
Business Meals
This category confuses everyone because the rules have changed multiple times in recent years.
As of 2025, most business meals are 50% deductible. But meals provided by restaurants during business meetings can be 100% deductible under certain circumstances.
Your CPA will navigate these rules. Your job is to document properly.
What your CPA needs: The receipt, the business purpose, and who was there.
"Lunch with Sarah Chen to discuss Q2 marketing strategy" is gold.
"Lunch meeting" isn't enough.
Real example: You take a potential client to Babe's Chicken in Granbury to discuss their bookkeeping needs. The meal costs $47. Write on the receipt: "Prospective client meeting - discussed bookkeeping services for their retail business."
That's a legitimate deduction.
How to track it: Write the business purpose and attendees on the receipt immediately. Take a photo with your phone and upload it to your bookkeeping system the same day.
By April, you will not remember who you had lunch with or why.
What counts: Meals with clients, potential clients, business partners, contractors, or employees where you discuss business. Coffee meetings absolutely count. That $4 latte with a prospective client is just as deductible as a $100 dinner.
What doesn't count: Meals alone (even if you're thinking about business), meals with your spouse unless they're a legitimate business partner, or that lunch where you talked about business for five minutes and caught up on personal life for an hour.
💡 Pro Tip: Write the business purpose on the receipt before you leave the restaurant. Many receipt scanning apps let you add notes. Use them. Future you will be grateful.
Texas note: Remember that Texas sales tax on the meal isn't separately deductible because you're already deducting the full meal cost (which includes the tax you paid).
📊 Ready to stop guessing what counts? The Texas Business Deduction Tracker includes a built-in meal documentation template so you never forget the details that matter. [Download it free at the end of this post.]
Professional Services
Every dollar you pay to your CPA, attorney, bookkeeper, business consultant, or web designer is deductible.
These are some of the easiest deductions to track because you usually get a nice, clear invoice.
What your CPA needs: Invoices that clearly state the service provided and the business purpose.
Real example: You pay me $350/month for bookkeeping services. That's $4,200 annually in deductions. You pay your CPA $800 to file your business taxes. Deductible too. You hire a lawyer to review a client contract for $500. Also deductible.
How to track it: File these invoices in a dedicated folder (digital or physical). They're typically already well-documented. This is the low-hanging fruit of deductions.
What counts: Accounting, legal, consulting, professional coaching related to your business, hiring a VA to handle administrative tasks.
What doesn't count: Personal financial planning (unless it's specifically for your business), personal legal matters.
🧾 Save Time: These invoices usually come with everything you need already on them. Just make sure you're saving them in an organized way.
Software & Subscriptions
QuickBooks, Canva Pro, your email marketing platform, your website hosting, that project management tool you use with clients.
If you're paying a monthly or annual fee for software that runs your business, it's deductible.
What your CPA needs: A list of your subscriptions with annual costs. Most subscription services send you an annual summary in January, which makes this beautifully easy.
Real example: QuickBooks Online ($30/month), Canva Pro ($13/month), Microsoft 365 Business ($12/month), website hosting ($15/month), Calendly ($10/month). That's $80/month or $960/year in deductions just from software you're probably already using.
How to track it: Create a simple spreadsheet listing each subscription, its monthly cost, and its annual total. Review it quarterly to catch any subscriptions you've added or cancelled.
What counts: Any software or online service used primarily for business. Even that $10/month meditation app counts if you use it to manage business stress (though your CPA might want documentation of the business purpose for smaller personal-adjacent items).
What doesn't count: Netflix, even if you "sometimes watch business documentaries." Be honest with yourself about what's truly for business.
🧾 Save Time: Most services email you receipts. Create a folder in your email called "Business Subscriptions" and filter these receipts there automatically.
Education & Training
Business books, online courses, conferences, industry certifications, professional development.
If it makes you better at your business, it's likely deductible.
What your CPA needs: Receipts and a clear connection to your current business (not a potential future business in a different field).
Real example: You attend a small business conference in Dallas. The $400 ticket is deductible. The hotel room for the two nights you're there is deductible. Your meals during the conference follow the business meals rules. Even the parking at the conference center counts.
You buy three business books on Amazon for $75 total. Deductible.
How to track it: Save receipts and note what the course/book/conference was and how it relates to your business.
"Social Media Marketing for Small Business - course to improve client acquisition" is perfect.
What counts: Anything that improves your skills in your current business, industry conferences, professional association memberships, trade publications.
What doesn't count: Education to enter a completely new field (that's a personal expense, even if you plan to eventually make money from it).
💡 Pro Tip: Conference registrations often come with detailed agendas. Save those. They demonstrate the business purpose clearly.
Marketing & Advertising
Your website, business cards, Facebook ads, sponsoring a local event, that banner at the Granbury Chamber of Commerce event.
Anything you spend to get your name in front of potential customers is deductible.
What your CPA needs: Receipts and a brief note about what the marketing was for.
Real example: You pay a local designer $800 for a new website, run $50/month in Facebook ads targeting Granbury small business owners, spend $150 on business cards, and pay $300 to sponsor a table at a local networking event. That's $1,750 in annual marketing deductions.
How to track it: Create a "Marketing" category in QuickBooks and route everything there. Digital ads usually have built-in reporting, so you can pull annual totals easily.
What counts: Website costs, social media advertising, print advertising, promotional materials, sponsorships, even that branded pen set you give to clients.
What doesn't count: Personal social media accounts, even if you occasionally mention your business.
Office Supplies & Equipment
Pens, printer paper, sticky notes, that ergonomic keyboard that saved your wrists.
If you use it in your office for business, it's deductible.
What your CPA needs: Receipts. These are usually small purchases, so don't overthink it.
Real example: You make a quarterly run to Office Depot and spend $150 on paper, ink, folders, and basic supplies. That's $600/year. You buy a new desk chair for $300. Also deductible.
How to track it: Batch these purchases if possible so you have fewer receipts to track. Save receipts for larger items (furniture, equipment) separately since those might be depreciated rather than deducted immediately.
💡 Pro Tip: Larger purchases like computers or office furniture may be depreciated over time instead of deducted all at once. Your CPA will guide you on the best approach based on the cost and your tax situation.
What counts: Pretty much anything you'd find in an office supply store that you use for business.
What doesn't count: Supplies you use partly for personal and partly for business (unless you track the percentage used for business, which is usually more trouble than it's worth for small items).
Utilities & Internet
If you have a separate business location, your utilities are fully deductible.
If you work from home, these expenses connect to your home office deduction.
What your CPA needs: Monthly bills showing your utility and internet costs.
Real example: You pay for upgraded business-class internet at $120/month because you do video calls with clients and need reliable bandwidth. That's $1,440/year that's directly tied to your business needs.
How to track it: If you work from home, these expenses fold into your home office calculation (that 10% we talked about earlier applies here too). If you have a dedicated business location, track them separately as fully deductible expenses.
What counts: Electricity, water, gas, internet, phone lines used for business. If you pay for a dedicated business phone line, that's 100% deductible even if you work from home.
What doesn't count: Personal streaming services bundled with your internet, even if your internet itself is deductible.
🧾 Save Time: Set up autopay for utilities and download annual statements at year-end. Most providers let you export a summary of the year's charges.
Business Insurance
Professional liability insurance, general liability, cyber insurance, business property insurance.
Any insurance you carry to protect your business is fully deductible.
What your CPA needs: Your annual insurance premium statements.
Real example: You carry professional liability insurance for $800/year and general liability for $500/year. That's $1,300 in deductions with zero ambiguity.
How to track it: Insurance companies send you annual statements. File them in your tax documents folder.
What counts: Any insurance specifically for your business.
What doesn't count: Personal health insurance (that has different rules), life insurance, disability insurance (unless it's a business overhead expense policy).
Texas note: Texas business property taxes on equipment or inventory are deductible business expenses, separate from your insurance. In Texas, where we don't deal with state income tax, keeping federal deductions tight is how local business owners keep more in their pocket.
Contract Labor
If you hire 1099 contractors (not W-2 employees), what you pay them is deductible.
This includes freelancers, subcontractors, or anyone you hire on a contract basis.
What your CPA needs: A record of what you paid each contractor. You'll also need to file 1099-NEC forms for anyone you paid $600 or more during the year.
Real example: You hire a graphic designer for $1,200 to create your brand materials, and you pay a VA $500 to handle administrative tasks for a busy month. That's $1,700 in deductions, plus you'll need to file 1099s for the designer.
How to track it: Keep a spreadsheet of contractor payments with names, addresses, and amounts. This doubles as your 1099 prep work.
What counts: Any work you pay someone else to do for your business on a contract basis.
What doesn't count: Paying employees (that goes through payroll with different rules).
💡 Pro Tip: Get a W-9 from contractors before you pay them. It has all the information you'll need for the 1099.
Common Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Things people are afraid to deduct but shouldn't be:
The home office deduction doesn't automatically trigger an audit. If you have a legitimate dedicated workspace, claim it. The "audit trigger" fear has cost business owners millions in unclaimed deductions.
That coffee meeting absolutely counts as a business meal. The IRS doesn't require a minimum dollar amount. If it's a legitimate business discussion, the $4 latte is just as deductible as the $40 lunch.
Books and courses count even if you bought them on Amazon or Udemy. Education doesn't have to be formal or expensive to be deductible.
Watch out for these common pitfalls:
• You can't deduct the full cost of clothing unless it's truly a uniform that can't be worn outside work. That "business casual" blazer doesn't count, even if you only wear it to client meetings.
• Personal expenses with occasional business use are tricky. Your personal cell phone that you sometimes use for business calls probably isn't worth the documentation headache unless business use is substantial and you can clearly separate it.
• Mixing personal and business on the same receipt makes both harder to defend. If you're at Costco buying toilet paper for home and printer paper for the office, pay separately or be prepared to calculate percentages.
Your CPA Wants You to Track This Stuff
Here's something most business owners don't realize.
CPAs would rather you over-document than under-document.
They can always tell you "we can't deduct that" if something doesn't qualify. What they can't do is travel back in time to figure out whether that mystery charge was business or personal.
When you show up to tax season with clean books, categorized expenses, and documentation for unusual items, you become your CPA's favorite client.
And favorite clients? They get more attention, better advice, and often lower bills because the CPA isn't spending hours reconstructing your financial year.
The tracker your CPA wishes every client used: Download the Texas Business Deduction Tracker and start documenting expenses the way tax professionals actually need to see them. It's a simple system for capturing everything throughout the year so nothing falls through the cracks.
Your February self will thank you.
Your CPA will definitely thank you.
And your bank account will thank you when you're keeping more of the money you already spent on building your business.
Ready to stop leaving money on the table?
Download the free Texas Business Deduction Tracker and start tracking what you're actually spending.
The best tax strategy isn't finding clever loopholes. It's claiming the money you already spent before you forget it existed.
Prefer to download directly? [Click here for immediate access] This can help you get clarity on the type of deductions you could be utilizing and could save you stress.
Have questions about organizing your business finances? Let's talk about how bookkeeping can give you peace of mind year-round.