How to Set Up a Side-Income Money Log in 10 Minutes
A money log is the simplest tool in side income and the one that changes the most decisions. Once every source is in one list, in real money and with the time it took, you can see at a glance which ones are worth keeping.
The columns
Open a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers and add these headings in the first row:
- Date — when you did the work
- Source — the site or app, written the same way every time
- Minutes — all the time it took, including waiting and screen-outs
- Earned — in money. Convert points or credits using the site's cash-out rate.
- Status — "Pending" or "Paid"
- Per hour — filled in by a formula
If a source has costs, such as fuel for deliveries or postage for things you sell, add a Costs column and subtract it from what you earned.
Two formulas that do the work
Hourly rate for each row
In the first row of the "Per hour" column (F2), paste this and copy it down:
=IF(C2>0, D2/C2*60, "")
Real hourly rate for a whole source
Somewhere to the side, type a source name, for example in cell H2, and put this next to it:
=SUMIF(B:B, H2, D:D) / SUMIF(B:B, H2, C:C) * 60
That divides everything you earned from that source by all the time you spent on it. It's the number that matters, because it includes the slow days as well as the good ones.
A filled-in example
| Date | Source | Minutes | Earned | Status | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct | Surveys | 30 | $1.50 | Paid | $3.00 |
| 4 Oct | Delivery app | 120 | $24.00 | Paid | $12.00 |
| 6 Oct | Online selling | 45 | $18.00 | Pending | $24.00 |
| 8 Oct | Surveys | 25 | $1.80 | Pending | $4.32 |
| 9 Oct | Delivery app | 90 | $15.00 | Paid | $10.00 |
Per source, that comes to about $3.60 an hour for surveys, $11.14 for the delivery app before fuel, and $24.00 for online selling before the cost of what was sold. Each tells a different story: surveys fill spare minutes, deliveries pay better but need a block of time, and selling depends on having things to sell.
Habits that keep it useful
- Log on the same day. Two minutes at the end of a session beats an hour of guessing at the end of the month.
- Update "Pending" to "Paid" when money actually reaches you. Rewards that stay pending for weeks are worth noticing. Our guide to pending and missing rewards explains what to do.
- Look once a month. Sort by source and compare hourly rates. Drop or cut back on the slowest.
- Keep it for the year. If your side income becomes taxable where you live, this is the record you'll want.
This is part of a 4-part guide on productivity tools for side income. The main article covers all three tools.