It’s not unusual for business owners to pay for expenses out of a personal account – especially before a separate business account is set up. When this happens, those costs can generally still be deducted, but they require a bit more hands-on accounting to make sure your books and tax filings stay accurate.

If business transactions are paid through personal accounts and not recorded properly, your financial reports won’t reflect your true profit. The good news: this is a common situation and easy to correct with the right documentation.

Why this matters

Your business financials should show every dollar your company earns and spends. When personal and business transactions are mixed together, it becomes harder to track profitability, deduct eligible expenses, or prepare an accurate tax return.

That’s why it’s important to separate business and personal finances going forward. Still, if you’ve already made purchases from a personal account, there’s an easy way to capture them properly.

 Understanding Out-of-Pocket and Mixed-Use Expenses

• Out-of-pocket expenses are business costs you pay from personal funds rather than your business account
• Mixed-use purchases are items used for both business and personal purposes, like a cell phone plan, home internet, or a laptop

Here are common examples:

• Out-of-Pocket expenses
  • Software subscriptions or domain renewals paid from a personal card
  • Business meals or travel booked before a business account was opened
  • Office supplies, small equipment, or marketing materials
• Mixed-Use Purchases
  • Home utilities or phone bills where a percentage applies to business use
  • Driving expenses for a vehicle that is used for both business and personal purposes

Pro Tip: Once your business checking account is active, use it exclusively for business income and expenses. This keeps your books clean and simplifies compliance.

Note for LLC-tier members:
If you’re taxed as a single-member LLC (not an S Corp), mixed-use expenses like home office, phone, or internet are generally reported on your individual tax return, not through your Collective bookkeeping.

We still recommend keeping detailed records of these expenses—including dates, amounts, and supporting receipts—so you can share them with your individual tax preparer at year-end.

Recording out-of-pocket expense during onboarding:

If you used a personal account for business expenses, don’t connect it to your Collective dashboard. Instead, upload a spreadsheet containing only business transactions from those accounts.

Your spreadsheet should include:

• Date
• Amount
• Description (as shown on your bank activity or statement)

If you’re unsure whether something qualifies, include it anyway. Your Collective team will help review and confirm.

For S Corp Members

Start your spreadsheet from the Box E date on your Form 2553 (the effective date of your S Corp election). Delete all personal transactions — we only need the business-related ones from that date forward.

It’s common to have used a personal account before your business checking was opened, but going forward, all business income and expenses should be processed through your business account only.

You can use Option 1 (Spreadsheet from Template) or Option 2 (Spreadsheet from Personal Bank) — whichever works best for you.

For LLC Members

If you’re taxed as a single-member LLC (not an S Corp), you don’t need to reference Form 2553. Simply include all business-related transactions from your personal account(s), covering your active business period in the spreadsheet. Remove personal charges before uploading.

For LLC members, mixed-use expenses (home office, business use of vehicle, etc.) are generally reported on your individual tax return but maintaining detailed records ensures your tax preparer can capture all allowable deductions.

How to record out-of-pocket expenses with Collective

There are two slightly different ways to capture these transactions.

 For Members Using Collective Accounting

You’ll record each expense directly into your Collective Dashboard instead of uploading a spreadsheet.

• Go to your Collective Dashboard
  • Accounting > Reimbursements > Record Out-of-Pocket Expense
    
    
• Enter the details
  • Include the date, amount, vendor, and a short description of the purchase.
  • You can also attach a receipt or add notes for context.
    
    
• Submit and pay yourself back
  • These expenses will be added to your books
  • You can reimburse yourself from your business account

Reminder:

Out-of-pocket expenses should be the exception, not the rule. Each out-of-pocket expense is recorded manually by you so the Collective Accounting team can add it to your books and ensure it’s properly captured as a business deduction. Whenever possible, make purchases directly from your business bank account or card to streamline your bookkeeping.

For Members on Legacy Accounting Platforms (Xero)

If you joined Collective before the launch of our internal accounting software, you were onboarded using a different accounting solution. You’ll upload a spreadsheet with your business transactions. There are two main ways to build this spreadsheet, depending on how your personal bank allows you to export data.

Option 1: Spreadsheet from Template (most common)

1. If you have less than 25 transactions, or are unable to export data from your bank, or have many different personal accounts with a few business transactions, this method might work best for you
    
2. Fill out this spreadsheet.
    
3. You can fill out it by typing transactions manually, or copy pasting them directly from the activity screen of your personal bank account, or copy pasting from a pdf bank statement of your personal bank account, or copy pasting then from an export of activity from your personal bank account.
    
4. Collect all the business transactions from all the personal accounts and copy paste them onto this spreadsheet.
    
5. Upload the completed spreadsheet to your Collective Dashboard.
    

Our team will then organize and import them into your first set of financials.

Option 2: Spreadsheet Downloaded from Personal Bank

1. Set the date range to start from the first of the month of your Box E 2553 date.
   • This appears slightly different on each bank or credit cards website. Some will want you to choose a date range first and then download the activity.
   • If you have a hard time pulling the csv. file, we can support you during your onboarding call to pull the data.
     
2. Once you have the file, delete all lines with personal data. We only want to import business income and expenses. The end sheet should only include business data you want to add.
3. Business expenses should contain, at least, the following information:
   • Date
   • Amount
   • Description - description from the bank or your own description
   • Customer/vendor​
4. If you are unsure if something qualifies as a business expense, please leave it and you can review with your OA during your training call.
5. Upload the completed spreadsheet to your Collective Dashboard.
6. Repeat this for each personal account that has business transactions

Remember

• If you had a previous accounting software you used, we won't be taking over your old account. We will build back your books with raw data from the bank. What Happens to my Old Bookkeeping Software
• We only want you to connect business accounts to Collective. Click here for instructions to connect business accounts in your accounting dashboard.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or tax advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for obtaining legal, accounting, or other financial advice from an appropriate and/or licensed  adviser, or for the purpose of avoiding U.S. Federal, state or local tax payments and penalties.