Cuéntamo Blog

Accounting tips for freelancers and households

Why I Stopped Using Excel for My Finances (And What I Actually Needed)

April 15, 2026

For several years, I managed my finances in Excel. It wasn’t just any spreadsheet: I’d invested time building it, it had formulas that worked, neatly organized categories, color coding. At the time, it was exactly what I needed.

Until it wasn’t.

It wasn’t a dramatic moment. It was an accumulation of small frictions that, over time, turned the spreadsheet from a useful tool into something I avoided opening.

The first problem: recurring expenses

The specific point where I started noticing things weren’t working was with recurring expenses and future projections.

personal finance Excel tools organization

Recurring household expenses: how to find out what you really spend each month

April 11, 2026

If I asked you how much you spend each month, you’d probably give me a reasonably close figure. Rent or mortgage, groceries, utilities, maybe the car. You know those costs well because they’re visible and frequent.

But there’s another category of expenses that most people consistently underestimate: the less visible recurring ones. Home insurance that gets charged once a year. School fees that only apply in September. The car service. The antivirus subscription that renews automatically. The streaming service you no longer use but keep paying for.

personal finance recurring expenses budgeting household

The Mandatory Record Books for Autónomos in Estimación Directa Simplificada (and How to Stay Sane With Them)

April 8, 2026

If you’re an autónomo (self-employed worker) under the estimación directa simplificada regime (simplified direct assessment), the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) requires you to keep four record books of your economic activity. They’re not optional, and they’re not meant to be tucked away in a drawer. They’re documents that the Agencia Tributaria can request at any time, and they have to be filled in correctly.

That said: keeping them doesn’t have to be complicated. The usual problem isn’t technical complexity but not knowing what goes into each one, or letting months pile up without updating them. That’s what turns something manageable into chaos.

self-employed record books estimación directa Spanish tax authority bookkeeping

Personal finances and freelance work in the same bank account: the mistake that costs you money and time

April 4, 2026

When someone starts freelancing for the first time, there’s a decision almost nobody makes consciously: whether to open a separate bank account for business, or just use the one they already have.

Most people go with the second option. It’s the easiest thing to do. Just to get started, to try things out, to keep it simple. And for the first few months, it works well enough.

The problem comes later. When it’s time to file your quarterly taxes, when your accountant asks for invoices, when you try to figure out how much money you’re actually making as a freelancer. That’s when having everything mixed together turns into a financial archaeology project nobody enjoys.

freelancers bank accounts bookkeeping organization

How Much Money Will I Have in Three Months? How to Build a Cash Flow Forecast as a Freelancer

April 1, 2026

There’s one question every freelancer should be able to answer in under thirty seconds: how much money will I have in my account three months from now?

If it takes you longer, or if the answer is “I have no idea,” you have a visibility problem. Not necessarily a money problem, but an information problem. And that distinction matters a lot.

A cash flow forecast isn’t accounting. It’s not for the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria). It’s for you: to know whether you can afford that expense, whether you’ll sail comfortably through the end of the quarter, or whether there’s a rough month on the horizon you’d better prepare for.

freelancers cash flow forecasting personal finance