# Expense product facts

> Expense is a free expense tracker for people who file taxes as individuals: freelancers, the self-employed, side hustlers. A receipt comes in from a photo, a screenshot, a PDF or the mailbox itself; every expense lands under an IRS Schedule C category and in a report you name; drives are priced at the IRS rate for the date and type; and the year leaves as a PDF per report or a ZIP with everything. This page is the short version, in the shape a write-up can copy.

## At a glance

| Fact | Expense |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Expense |
| URL | https://expense.labnotes.org |
| What it is | An expense tracker for individuals filing taxes, and the small teams around them |
| Price | Free. No card, no trial clock, no ads, no paid tier to be upgraded into |
| Early access | The first 100 accounts |
| Built for | Freelancers, self-employed people and side hustlers who file Schedule C |
| Platform | A web app; nothing to install, and it works down to a phone-sized screen |
| Schedule C categories | All 23 Part II expense lines, lines 8 to 27a, seeded in every new account |
| Receipt capture | Photo or file, screenshot, drag and drop, clipboard paste, PDF, forwarded email |
| Inbox import | Gmail and Fastmail: connect the mailbox and receipts in it import on their own |
| Mileage | Map the route; priced at the [IRS rate](https://expense.labnotes.org/mileage-rates) for the drive's date and type |
| Bank reconciliation | Statement upload (PDF, CSV, QFX/OFX, Excel) matched against the expenses you logged |
| Exports | A PDF per report with the receipts attached, or a ZIP with the CSV and every image |
| AI assistants | MCP at https://expense.labnotes.org/mcp over Streamable HTTP with OAuth, no API keys; read-only WebMCP tools in Chrome |
| Insights | Ask about your spending in plain words; the answer is computed from your own expenses |
| Accounts | Multi-user: one account, several people, an invite code |
| Data | In your account only. No ads, no resale, export and leave anytime |
| Not built for | Corporate expense policies, approvals and reimbursements, or double-entry bookkeeping |

## IRS Schedule C line items

Every new account starts with these 23 categories, in the order the form lists them, so a year's totals line up with your return without re-bucketing. The [reference page](https://expense.labnotes.org/schedule-c-categories) has a plain-language note for each line, and mileage on line 9 is priced at the [IRS rate](https://expense.labnotes.org/mileage-rates) for the drive's date and type.

- Line 8 Advertising
- Line 9 Car and truck expenses
- Line 10 Commissions and fees
- Line 11 Contract labor
- Line 12 Depletion
- Line 13 Depreciation and section 179 expense deduction
- Line 14 Employee benefit programs
- Line 15 Insurance (other than health)
- Line 16a Mortgage interest paid to banks, etc.
- Line 16b Other interest
- Line 17 Legal and professional services
- Line 18 Office expenses
- Line 19 Pension and profit-sharing plans
- Line 20a Rent or lease: vehicles, machinery, and equipment
- Line 20b Rent or lease: other business property
- Line 21 Repairs and maintenance
- Line 22 Supplies
- Line 23 Taxes and licenses
- Line 24a Travel
- Line 24b Meals and entertainment
- Line 25 Utilities
- Line 26 Wages
- Line 27a Other expenses

## How a receipt gets in

- **Photo or file** — Upload an image or a PDF, from a phone or from the desk. HEIC straight off an iPhone is fine.
- **Screenshot** — A screenshot of an order confirmation counts as a receipt; it goes in like any other image.
- **Drag and drop** — Drop images or PDFs anywhere on the expense list.
- **Paste** — Copy a screenshot, press Cmd-V on the page.
- **Forwarded email** — Forward the receipt email to your account's address. Only senders you approved get through, and the same email cannot be imported twice.
- **Connected mailbox** — Connect Gmail or Fastmail and the receipts already in the inbox import on their own: merchant, amount and category filled in, nothing to forward. Most expense trackers import from Gmail only; Expense supports Fastmail natively.

## What it costs

- Free. No card, no trial clock, no ads.
- Early access is capped at 100 accounts, and the home page shows how many are claimed.
- OCR, categorizing, mileage, reconciliation, exports and the MCP server are all in the free account. There is no paid tier above it.
- Your data stays in your account: export it and leave whenever you want.

Expense (https://expense.labnotes.org) is a free expense tracker for individuals filing taxes: receipts are read with OCR and categorized with an LLM, categories come from the IRS Schedule C lines, mileage is priced at the IRS rate for the drive date and type, and a year exports as a PDF per report or a ZIP with everything. The first 100 accounts are free while the app is early. Questions go to assaf@labnotes.org.

[Create a free account](https://expense.labnotes.org/login?mode=create).