Cancel Keeper Tax. Use This Excel Workbook Instead.

The bill that made me cancel

Last spring I was on Keeper Tax (formerly Keeper). $20/month. I'd subscribed because the onboarding promised AI would categorize my business expenses and surface deductions I'd miss. Two tax seasons later, I noticed something: I was paying $240/year for an app I opened roughly four times annually — once before each quarterly estimate, when I needed the dashboard to tell me what to wire to the IRS.

The other 361 days of the year, I was paying for bank-feed integration that I didn't trust enough to skip my own review anyway. So I cancelled, and built the quarterly tax tracker below in a single .xlsx file. Two quarters later I've paid exactly the same amount of tax — accurately, on time, with zero subscription rent.

What Keeper Tax actually does (the parts worth replacing)

Be fair to the product. Keeper does five things:

1. Auto-imports business transactions from connected bank accounts via Plaid.
2. AI-suggests categorization as deductible or not, with a confidence score.
3. Tracks year-to-date deductions by category (home office, mileage, software, meals, etc.).
4. Computes quarterly tax estimates using your YTD income and deductions.
5. (Add-on, $192–$489 extra) CPA-reviewed tax filing once a year.

Items 3 and 4 — the ones you actually use four times a year — are simple spreadsheet math. Items 1 and 2 (the bank-feed AI) are the subscription's main selling point, and they're also the parts most freelancers double-check manually anyway because misclassifying a personal expense as a business deduction is how you get audit-flagged.

Item 5 (CPA review) is a one-time service. You don't need a monthly subscription to access it — there are standalone CPAs who do quarterly check-ins for less than Keeper's annual subscription.

The three formulas that compute your quarterly estimate

The mystery around freelance taxes is a marketing artifact. The math is genuinely three lines.

1. Net self-employment income for the quarter:

Net SE Income = Gross Revenue − Deductible Expenses

2. Self-employment tax (this is what employees would call FICA — Social Security + Medicare. Employees pay 7.65% and their employer pays the other 7.65%. As a freelancer, you pay both):

SE Tax = Net SE Income × 0.9235 × 0.153

The 0.9235 multiplier exists because the IRS lets you deduct half of your SE tax from your taxable income before calculating SE tax — a quirk that's been in the code since 1990. The 0.153 is the combined SS (12.4%) + Medicare (2.9%) rate.

3. Income tax (federal + state):

Federal Income Tax = Net SE Income × Your Effective Federal Rate
State Income Tax    = Net SE Income × Your State Effective Rate
Total Quarterly     = (SE Tax + Federal + State) ÷ 4

Your effective federal rate depends on your total annual income bracket. For most solo freelancers grossing $60k–$150k, 22% is a defensible estimate (the actual marginal rate; effective rate is slightly lower after standard deduction). The spreadsheet lets you set it explicitly per year so you can adjust if your numbers change.

For state tax, your effective rate is whatever your state publishes. CA freelancers might use 9%, TX freelancers use 0%, NY freelancers use 6.5%. One cell.

And one more — the safe harbor floor the IRS uses to decide whether to fine you for underpayment:

Safe Harbor Min = Last Year's Total Tax × 1.10 ÷ 4

(The 1.10 multiplier applies if your AGI was over $150k last year. Below that threshold, it's 1.00.)

If you pay at least the safe harbor minimum each quarter, the IRS leaves you alone even if you under-estimated for the actual year. This is what the spreadsheet's "Quarterly Due" column resolves to: =MAX(actual_estimate/4, safe_harbor_min).

That's the entire quarterly tax universe. Five formulas. No subscription.

The Excel workbook that replaces Keeper Tax

The gridmoo Quarterly Tax Estimator wires those five formulas into a working workbook with the supporting structure to make it actually usable:

• Quarterly Estimate — one row per quarter. Columns: Gross Income, Deductions, Net SE Income, SE Tax (formula above), Federal Income Tax, State Tax, Total Est. Tax, Safe Harbor Min, Quarterly Due (max of the two), Paid Date, Status. Includes the prior 4 quarters with sample data so you can see the year-over-year shape.
• Deductions Log — append-only log. Columns: Date, Category, Description, Amount, Receipt?, Business %, Deductible (formula = Amount × Business %), Quarter, Account, Notes. Sample data includes the standard freelancer deduction categories: Software, Home Office, Hardware, Travel, Meals (with the 50% rule baked in), Phone, Insurance, Education, Mileage (at the 2026 IRS rate of 67¢/mi), Office Supplies.
• Tax Dashboard — YTD Estimated Tax, YTD Paid, Effective Tax Rate, YTD Deductions. Big numbers, traffic-light flags when you're behind on payments.
• Settings & Targets — your federal effective rate, state effective rate, SE tax rate (rarely changes), and safe harbor multiplier (1.00 or 1.10). Set once at year-start; the rest of the workbook reads from here.
• Plus a Print View for handing to your CPA at tax-filing time.

See the Quarterly Tax Estimator — $11 individually.
→ See the workbook

How it works in 30 seconds the first time

1. Open the file. Go to Settings & Targets. Set your federal effective rate (22% is a defensible default for $60k–$150k gross), state effective rate, and safe harbor multiplier (1.10 if you grossed over $150k last year, otherwise 1.00).
2. Go to Deductions Log. Each time you make a business purchase, append a row: Date, Category (dropdown), Description, Amount, Business % (typically 100% for pure business, 60–70% for home office utilities, 50% for client meals). Takes ~10 seconds per entry. Do it weekly, not transactionally.
3. At the end of each quarter, go to Quarterly Estimate. Enter your Gross Income for the quarter. The Deductions column auto-sums from the Deductions Log filtered to that quarter. Net SE Income, SE Tax, Fed/State Tax, Total Est., Safe Harbor Min, Quarterly Due all compute automatically.
4. Pay the Quarterly Due amount to the IRS via direct.pay.irs.gov (no fee for bank transfers).
5. Mark Paid Date and Status. Tax Dashboard updates.

That's the full quarterly loop. Estimated time per quarter: 5–10 minutes of data entry, all in one sit-down.

What you actually lose by switching (the honest part)

Keeper does some things this workbook does not. Naming them so you can decide:

• Automatic bank-feed import of transactions. In the spreadsheet, you log deductions manually. For most solo freelancers, this is ~5–15 business transactions a month — not bad to type. If you're doing 100+ business transactions a month, you're at a scale where you probably want a real bookkeeper anyway, not an AI categorization layer.
• AI categorization with confidence scores. The Deductions Log uses a dropdown of pre-defined categories — you pick the right one. Faster than reviewing AI suggestions and overriding the wrong ones, but less impressive.
• Mid-year tax projection. The workbook shows YTD math but doesn't extrapolate to year-end revenue. Build a simple "if I keep going at this pace" cell yourself if you want it — one formula.
• CPA-reviewed filing add-on. Keeper offers this for $192–$489 once a year. If you value it, hire a CPA directly — a standalone CPA who does quarterly check-ins for solo freelancers typically costs $150–$300/quarter and gives you actual conversation, not a chat-only review.
• State-by-state bracket automation. The workbook uses your effective rate. If you live somewhere with complex graduated brackets (CA, NY, IL) and you want full marginal-bracket math, you'd add a lookup tab. Most freelancers don't need this — an effective rate gets you within $50 of the right number, and any over/underpayment squares up at filing time.

If "bank-feed automation that I'll still double-check manually" is worth $240/year to you, Keeper is a defensible call. For most freelancers reading their own bank statements anyway, the spreadsheet wins.

The case for owning your tax data

Once you live with this through one full tax year, the rest of the case writes itself:

• The file is yours. Keeper could pivot, get acquired, lose your data in a breach, or sunset their free tier. Your spreadsheet sits on your machine and continues working regardless.
• Every formula is readable. Want to know exactly how SE Tax is computed? Click the cell. =D2*0.9235*0.153. No black box, no "trust our tax engine" disclaimer.
• Auditable. If the IRS ever asks how you arrived at your quarterly estimate, you can show them the file — with the inputs, the formulas, and the running totals. That's a stronger evidence trail than "the app told me."
• Year-over-year continuity. The workbook's prior-year quarters are right there in the same file. No re-onboarding, no "let me reconnect my bank," no "your historical data was archived."
• Works for any income shape. 1099 from one client. W-2 + side gig. Sole prop + S-corp K-1. Multi-state. Foreign income with the FEIE. Add columns, change formulas. The math is the same.
• You stop paying $240/yr forever. A decade of Keeper is $2,400, assuming flat pricing.

What this workbook is not

Honesty earns trust:

• It is not tax advice. The formulas reflect current IRS rules (2026 SE tax rates, mileage rates, safe harbor thresholds). Your specific tax situation may need a CPA.
• It is not a tax-filing tool. It estimates your quarterly payment. Filing your return is a separate process — TurboTax, FreeTaxUSA, or a CPA handles that.
• It does not auto-import from your bank. You enter deductions manually or paste from a CSV.
• It does not handle complex entity structures like multi-member LLCs with partnership returns. Sole proprietor and single-member LLC (which file Schedule C) only.
• It does not file payments to the IRS for you. Use the IRS Direct Pay portal (free) or EFTPS once you know the amount.

If you have a multi-state, multi-entity tax life, you probably already have a CPA — keep them. For the standard "I'm a solo freelancer who files a Schedule C" case, this workbook covers 95% of what Keeper does, for the cost of one month's Keeper subscription, paid once.

One workbook, then a whole back-office

The Quarterly Tax Estimator is one of nine workbooks in the gridmoo freelancer catalog. The full set covers the rest of solo-business operations:

• Cash Flow Tracker — week-by-week runway and receivable aging (replaces Float, ~$59/mo)
• Invoice & Expenses Tracker — invoice aging, deductible expense control (replaces FreshBooks Plus, ~$30/mo)
• Rate Calculator & Project Profitability — reverse-solve your target hourly rate, track actual realized rate per project (replaces the pricing module in Bonsai, ~$19/mo)
• Solo Practice OS — pipeline + engagement P&L for consultants/coaches/advisors (replaces Practice + HoneyBook, ~$78/mo)
• Bookkeeper Practice OS — monthly close + MRR roll-up for solo bookkeepers (replaces Karbon, ~$79/mo)
• Solo Lawyer OS — matter pipeline + time/billing log for solo/small-firm legal (replaces Clio Manage, ~$39/mo)
• Financial Advisor OS — client household roster + AUM tracking (replaces Wealthbox, ~$59/mo)
• Designer Retainer OS — retainer tier ladder + over-scope detection (replaces Notion + FreshBooks, ~$45/mo)

All nine workbooks together replace roughly $428/mo — that's $5,136/yr — of solo-business software. Each workbook is $7–$19, paid once.

The decision

Keeper Tax is competent software. If you value automatic bank-feed categorization, the AI suggestions, and the option to bolt on CPA review at filing time, $240/year is defensible.

But if you're a solo freelancer who already glances at every business expense as it hits your bank — and you'd rather understand the quarterly tax formulas than trust them to an app — try the spreadsheet for two quarters. The math is in front of you, the file is yours, and the IRS rules don't change often enough to need a subscription to track them.

You can get the Quarterly Tax Estimator for $11. Or browse the full catalog for other Excel workbooks that replace specific SaaS subscriptions.

Want to feel what these workbooks are like before you buy? Download the free Daily Budget Planner — same architecture, same approach, no card required.

And if you'd like to see the dollar impact of every freelancer SaaS subscription you're currently paying for, run the SaaS Tax Calculator — tick Keeper, Bonsai, FreshBooks, HoneyBook, and watch the annual total grow.