Your accountant doesn't want a stack of bank statements with recurring charges highlighted in yellow. They want a clean list: merchant name, amount, frequency, and whether it's a business expense.
Most freelancers and small business owners hand over one of two things at tax time: either a mess of raw bank data that the accountant has to sort through (billable hours add up), or a vague estimate ("I think I spend about $200/month on software"). Neither is ideal.
Here's what a clean subscription report looks like, and three ways to produce one.
What your accountant needs
At minimum, a subscription report should include:
- Merchant name (the service, not the billing name)
- Monthly amount (normalised, even if it bills annually)
- Annual total (monthly amount x 12, or the actual annual charge)
- Category (software, streaming, communication, storage, etc.)
- Business/personal tag (or business-use percentage for mixed-use tools)
If you're claiming software subscriptions as business deductions (which you should, if they're for work), the ATO expects you to demonstrate the business-use percentage. A clean report with the tag already applied saves your accountant the guesswork. For more on the deductibility rules, see our SaaS tax deduction guide.
Method 1: Manual spreadsheet
Create a Google Sheet or Excel file with columns for the fields above. Go through your bank statements, identify every recurring charge, and enter them one by one.
Pros: Free, fully customisable, your accountant can open it directly.
Cons: Takes 1-2 hours to populate properly. Easy to miss subscriptions (especially annual ones or those billed under unfamiliar names). Needs updating every quarter to stay accurate.
Method 2: Accounting software categories
If you use Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks, create a dedicated expense category called "Software Subscriptions" (or similar). Categorise every SaaS charge as it comes through your bank feed throughout the year.
Pros: Builds the report automatically as you go. Your accountant probably already uses the same software.
Cons: Requires discipline all year. Miss one charge and it gets categorised as "General Expenses" or left uncategorised. Doesn't differentiate between business and personal subscriptions unless you tag them manually.
For a detailed walkthrough of this approach, see our SaaS spending tracking guide for freelancers.
Method 3: Upload a statement, tag, and export
Upload your bank statement to a tool that identifies recurring charges automatically, tag each as business or personal, then export as CSV. Hand the CSV to your accountant.
This is what SubTracker's business export does. Upload a PDF, CSV, or image of your bank statement. The AI identifies every recurring charge. You tag each subscription as business or personal. Export a clean CSV with merchant names, amounts, frequencies, and tags. The whole process takes about five minutes.
Pros: Catches subscriptions you forgot about. Fast. Export format is accountant-ready.
Cons: You need to re-upload each quarter or when subscriptions change.
The format your accountant prefers
Ask, but most accountants prefer CSV or Excel. Not a screenshot. Not a PDF of your bank statement with circles drawn on it.
The ideal format:
| Merchant | Monthly (AUD) | Annual (AUD) | Category | Business Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Creative Cloud | $55.00 | $660.00 | Software | 80% |
| Xero | $29.00 | $348.00 | Accounting | 100% |
| Canva Pro | $20.00 | $240.00 | Design | 60% |
| Zoom | $21.00 | $252.00 | Communication | 100% |
| Spotify | $15.99 | $191.88 | Entertainment | 0% |
Your accountant can work with this in minutes. The business-use percentage lets them calculate the deductible portion without calling you to ask "do you use Canva for work or personal?"
When to produce it
Don't wait until October. Produce the report at the end of each quarter (September, December, March, June). It takes five minutes each time, versus two hours in a panicked rush the night before your tax appointment.
Your accountant will thank you. SubTracker exports a clean CSV in one click.
Most people find 3-5 subscriptions they forgot about when they actually look. Upload a bank statement to Subtracker and see every recurring charge in 2 minutes. No bank login. No manual entry. $12.99 once.
See what you're paying forChris Raad
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.