Tax-time website prep (1099s, financial archives, receipts)
How to gather website-related financial records, payment reports, and receipts before tax season.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
Tax season arrives every year, and if your website is part of how you do business — selling products, booking services, collecting payments — it generates financial records your accountant will need. This guide helps you find, gather, and organize those records before you sit down with your bookkeeper or tax preparer.
Quick summary
Before tax season, download your annual transaction reports from Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce, or whichever payment tools your site uses. Collect invoices for hosting, plugins, and any web services you paid for. Archive old financial pages or promotional content that no longer applies. Hand everything to your accountant in a clean folder. This is not tax advice — always consult a qualified tax professional.
Not tax advice
This guide covers how to find and gather records from your website and payment tools. It is not tax advice. Every business situation is different. Always work with a qualified accountant or tax professional for the actual filing.
What "tax-time website prep" means
Your website may touch your finances in two main ways.
You collect money through your site — from an online store, a booking system, a payment link, or a service inquiry that results in an invoice. Payment processors like Stripe and PayPal generate transaction records you will need.
You spend money to run your site — hosting fees, plugin subscriptions, domain renewals, design and development invoices from Chykalophia. These are often deductible business expenses, and you need the receipts.
4–6 weeks before your filing deadline
Locate your payment processor accounts
Start here because a whole year's worth of data is rarely ready instantly. Several of these tools process a large export in the background and email you when the file is done, rather than downloading it on the spot. Give yourself time.
- Log in to Stripe at stripe.com and find the reports area of the Dashboard — Balance and Payout reconciliation are the two reports you'll want
- Log in to PayPal at paypal.com and find where your account lets you download activity and statements. If you can't see it, PayPal's own Help Center has the current path
- If you use another payment processor (Square, Braintree, Shopify Payments, etc.), locate the equivalent reporting section
- Confirm you can access accounts for the full tax year — if you changed accounts or processors mid-year, find both
Collect hosting and service invoices
- Log in to your hosting account (Flywheel, WP Engine, Kinsta, or another provider) and download all invoices for the tax year
- If you pay for a domain, find those invoices from your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.)
- Find invoices for any premium plugins or themes you pay for annually (WooCommerce extensions, Elementor Pro, Gravity Forms, etc.)
- Locate Chykalophia invoices for the tax year — these should be in your email or in ClickUp
- Check for any other web-related subscriptions: email marketing tools (Mailchimp, Klaviyo), analytics tools, booking systems, stock photo subscriptions
2–3 weeks before your filing deadline
Download your payment reports
Log in to Stripe. Open the Balance report for a bank-statement-style view of the year, or Payout reconciliation to see which transactions made up each payout to your bank. Use the controls at the top of the report to set the date range to the full tax year, then use the export or download control in the top corner of the section you need. The Balance report comes out as CSV or PDF; your accountant can work from either.
Find your 1099-K (U.S. businesses). If your customers pay you directly by credit, debit or gift card, the IRS says your card processor sends you a Form 1099-K no matter how many payments you took or how much they came to, and the copy must reach you by January 31. Stripe makes yours available inside your Stripe account; if you can't find it, Stripe's support pages have the current location, or ask us. The figure on the form is your gross total, before fees and refunds, so your accountant will use it alongside your other records.
Log in to PayPal. Download your activity for the tax year from your account's reports or statements area, setting a custom date range. If PayPal issued you a 1099-K, it is available in your PayPal account too — PayPal's Help Center has the current path.
If you use WooCommerce, Shopify, or another store platform, export your orders for the tax year from the store admin. In WooCommerce, that's Analytics, then Orders, then the Download link above the table. In Shopify, it's the Orders page, then Export. A full year is normally too big to download on the spot, so both tools email you when the file is ready instead. This is separate from the payment processor report — it shows order details and any refunds processed through the platform.
What is a 1099-K?
A 1099-K is a U.S. tax form that reports the payments you received for goods or services during the year through payment cards, payment apps or online marketplaces. The amount is the gross total: the IRS says it is not adjusted for fees, refunds, shipping or discounts. If your customers pay you by card, your card processor sends you one whatever the amounts were. Payment apps and online marketplaces only have to send one once you pass the IRS reporting threshold for the year, though they may send one below it. Stripe, PayPal and Square all issue these forms. Your accountant needs it, and the IRS explains the form on Understanding your Form 1099-K.
Reconcile refunds and chargebacks
- Download any refund reports separately, or confirm that refunds are included in your main transaction export
- Note any chargebacks (disputed transactions) that were resolved during the year — your processor's dashboard will list these
- If you have outstanding disputes from the tax year that were not resolved, flag these separately for your accountant
1 week before your meeting with your accountant
Build your "tax folder"
Organize everything into a simple folder — on your computer, in Google Drive, or on paper. Your accountant will thank you.
| What to include | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Stripe annual report or 1099-K | Stripe Dashboard → Balance or Payout reconciliation report; the 1099-K is in your Stripe account |
| PayPal activity report or 1099-K | PayPal account → activity download and statements; the 1099-K is in your PayPal account |
| WooCommerce / Shopify order export | WooCommerce → Analytics → Orders → Download, or Shopify → Orders → Export |
| Hosting invoices (all months) | Hosting account → Billing |
| Domain renewal receipts | Domain registrar → Billing |
| Plugin & theme subscription receipts | Each vendor's billing portal or email inbox |
| Chykalophia invoices | Email or ClickUp |
| Other web service receipts | Email inbox (search for receipts from each tool) |
Archive or update financial content on your website
- If you display prices on your website, confirm they are current and correct
- Remove or archive any promotional pages from the prior tax year that are no longer relevant (e.g. an old sales page with prices from two years ago)
- If you had a limited-time discount or offer running during the tax year, note the dates — your accountant may ask about revenue fluctuations
Common questions
Where exactly do I find my Stripe annual report?
Log in at stripe.com and open the reports area of the Dashboard. From there, choose Balance for a bank-statement-style summary that also lists your payouts, or Payout reconciliation to see which transactions made up each payout to your bank. Use the controls at the top of the report to set a custom range from January 1 to December 31 of the relevant year, then use the export or download control in the top corner of the section you need. Two things to expect: Payout reconciliation is only available if your payouts are automatic, and Dashboard reports always cover complete days. If you can't see the reports at all, your Stripe user role may not include access to them. Ask the account owner, or ask us to walk you through it.
My Stripe report and my bank deposits don't match. Is that a problem?
A small difference is normal — Stripe deducts its processing fees before transferring funds to your bank, and timing differences (month-end transactions settling in the next month) can add to the gap. Your accountant is familiar with this. Share both your Stripe report and your bank statements, and they will reconcile them.
Do I really need to give my accountant WooCommerce reports AND Stripe reports?
Often yes, because they show different things. Stripe shows the money that moved through the payment processor. WooCommerce shows your orders, and refunded orders are always included. Its Analytics reports leave out pending payment, cancelled and failed orders by default, and you can change that under Analytics, then Settings. Together they give a complete picture of your store's activity. Your accountant will tell you exactly what they need.
What if I can't find old invoices for hosting or plugins?
Check your email inbox first — search for the company name or 'receipt' or 'invoice'. Most hosting providers and plugin vendors also keep a billing history in your account portal. If you genuinely cannot find a receipt, contact the vendor — they can usually reissue it.
Related guides
- How online payments work
- Stripe basics for business owners
- PayPal basics for business owners
- Seasonal website checks
- Your year-end website checklist
- Payments aren't working on my store
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