Set up your business in AceMoney Studio

AceMoney Business is for a sole proprietor or freelancer who keeps a business’s books in Studio. Setting it up takes two steps: mark a portfolio as a business and fill in its details, then tell each category which line of the Schedule C tax form it belongs to. This page covers both, what is stored, what happens when a new tax year’s lines arrive, and what Business does not do. See the Business overview for the whole chapter.

AceMoney sorts your own entries by the lines you choose; it does not decide them for you. The tax pack says of itself: “This pack helps you or your tax preparer fill in Schedule C. It is not tax advice; check every figure before you file.”

Before you begin

A business is a portfolio. If household and business money share a document, give the business its own portfolio and switch to it. See Keep separate books with portfolios.
The Business section is shown only in a build of Studio that offers it.

Set up your business

Open the portfolio that is the business, so it is the one showing in the top bar.
Open Settings ▸ Document and scroll to AceMoney Business. A portfolio that is not a business yet reads “Mark this portfolio as a business. Your categories can then be given the line of the tax return they belong to.”
Select Set up my business. The Business details form opens.
Fill in the fields below and select Save. Cancel closes the form and keeps nothing.

Once saved, the section reads “This portfolio is set up as a business:” followed by the legal name, and offers Edit business details and Stop using this portfolio as a business.

The details form, field by field

Only the legal name is required. Everything else can be left empty and filled in later.

Legal name. The name of the business. If it is empty, the form says “Enter the name of the business.” and does not save.

Street, City, State / Province, ZIP / Postal code, Country. The business address, free text.

Tax ID. Choose one of three options. The default is Not given yet.

EIN: a field named EIN (like 12-3456789) appears. Type the nine digits, with or without the dash; AceMoney saves them as 12-3456789.
SSN on file with my preparer: for a person who files under a Social Security number. Nothing is stored. No number field appears.
Not given yet: nothing is stored.

See What is stored about your tax ID below.

More details opens the optional fields, closed at first.

Home office (square feet): whole square feet of the part of your home used only for the business. The helper reads “Schedule C line 30, simplified method. Leave empty if you have none.”
I use the standard mileage rate: a switch, off by default. The yearly pack reads it to decide whether to include the vehicle section from your mileage log.
Business year starts in: a month, January by default. The yearly pack covers the calendar year; when this is another month, the pack’s “Before you file” list says so.

Invoice defaults. These are the starting values for invoices (see Invoices).

Invoice number prefix: text put in front of the number, for example INV-. It can be empty.
Next invoice number: a whole number from 1 up, starting at 1.
Payment terms (days): a whole number from 0 to 3650, starting at 30.
Invoice currency (a code such as USD): up to three letters, changed to capitals as you type. Left empty, invoices use US dollars. The app does not check the code against a list, so type it carefully.
Text at the foot of an invoice: a few lines, for example how to pay you.

A number field that is empty where a number is required, or out of range, shows “Enter a whole number.”

What is stored about your tax ID

An EIN is stored, in the business details of your document, as 12-3456789. It is not masked on screen: the EIN (like 12-3456789) field shows what you typed.
A Social Security number is never stored. If you type something shaped like one (three digits, two digits, four digits, such as 123-45-6789) into the EIN field, the form refuses it and says “That looks like a Social Security number. AceMoney never keeps one: choose “SSN on file with my preparer” instead.”
A nine-digit number typed without dashes is accepted as an EIN, because it cannot be told apart from one, so never type your Social Security number there.
If the number is not nine digits, the form says “An EIN has nine digits, like 12-3456789.” If you choose EIN and leave the field empty, it says “Enter the EIN, or choose another option.”
Saving with Not given yet or SSN on file with my preparer removes any EIN stored before.

The business details are part of your document. If you use AceMoney Cloud sync, they sync like the rest of your ledger, and File ▸ Export Everything… includes them (see Export and print).

Give a category its tax line

Once any portfolio in the document is a business, the category editor gains a Tax line field.

Select Categories in the navigation rail and open a category with Edit. (The field is in the edit dialog, not in Add category.)
Find Tax line. It reads “Personal (not on the tax return)” until you choose a line. The helper under it reads “The Schedule C line this category belongs to, for 2026.” with the tax year of the lines in use.
Select the field. Choose a tax line opens.
Pick a row. The list is:
- Personal (not on the tax return), for a category that does not belong on the tax return. It is always first.
- Suggested, when AceMoney recognises the category’s name. It shows up to four lines, best match first, compared with the name as you have typed it in the editor now. Names are matched against each line’s name and everyday words for it, so “Phone” puts 25 Utilities first and “Software” puts 27b Other expenses (from line 48) first. Looser matches can follow. Nothing is chosen for you.
- Income and Expenses, every line of the year. A line reads like 8 Advertising: the form’s line number, then the name as the form prints it. The names are the form’s own and are not translated.
Select Save in the category editor. Cancel on the picker closes it and changes nothing.

The line is saved together with the tax year of the lines it was chosen from. Choosing Personal clears both.

If a category holds a line that the current year’s lines do not have, the field shows it as the line id followed by “(not in the 2026 lines)”. Pick a line again to fix it.

What a tax line means for the yearly pack

A category with a tax line is reported on that line of the yearly tax pack. A category with none, or Personal, is not on the return.
A subcategory with no line of its own takes its parent’s line. The field in the editor still shows Personal for it.
A category you used during the year with no line is listed in the pack’s Before you file list, so you can decide whether it should have one.
Line 30, business use of your home, is worked out from the square feet in your profile, not from your categories. A category pointed at line 30 is left out of the totals and shows up in Before you file.

When a new year’s lines arrive

The lines come with the app, one set for each tax year. When Studio has a newer year’s lines than your categories were last matched against, Reports shows a banner: “The Schedule C lines for 2026 are ready. Look over the tax lines of your categories.” (naming the year in question). It appears only if a portfolio is set up as a business and a category has a tax line from an earlier year.

Select Review categories to open Categories and check each tax line against the new year.
Select Not now to dismiss the banner. It stays dismissed for that year and comes back for the next one. The dismissal is kept in this document on this computer and is not synced.

Saving a category with a different line stamps it with the new year. If you open a category and leave its line as it is, nothing is saved, so the stamp stays old; Not now is how you clear the banner in that case.

Edit the profile later

Open the business portfolio and go to Settings ▸ Document ▸ AceMoney Business.
Select Edit business details. The form opens with your saved values.
Change what you need and select Save. The same profile is updated.

Stop using a portfolio as a business

In Settings ▸ Document ▸ AceMoney Business, select Stop using this portfolio as a business.
Stop using this portfolio as a business? reads “The business details are removed. Your transactions and categories stay as they are.” Select Remove, or Cancel.

The profile is removed on your other computers too if you sync. Invoices you already made stay in the document, and a category’s tax line is kept, so setting the business up again picks up where you left off. While no portfolio is a business, the Tax line field is hidden.

What Business does not do

It does not file anything for you. It produces a summary by Schedule C line for you or your preparer, and the pack says that it is not tax advice (see Tax pack).
It does not guess. A category has no tax line until you choose one.
It covers the United States Schedule C. Another country’s form or a business that files differently is not covered.
It does not send e-mail for you, take payments or hold your data on our servers. Your books stay in your document.

Common questions

No. Choose SSN on file with my preparer and nothing is stored. A number shaped like a Social Security number typed into the EIN field is refused.

Can I change the tax line later?

Yes. Open the category with Edit, change Tax line, and save. The pack reads each category’s line as it is when the pack is made, so a change applies to the entries already in that category.

Why is there no Tax line in my category editor?

It appears only in a build that offers Business, and only once some portfolio of the document is set up as a business. It is in the edit dialog of an existing category, not in Add category.

Troubleshooting

The Business section is not in Settings. It is in Settings ▸ Document; if it is not there, your build of Studio does not offer Business.
“That looks like a Social Security number.” Choose SSN on file with my preparer, or type the EIN instead. For “An EIN has nine digits”, check for a missing or extra digit.
“Enter a whole number.” A number field holds letters, is empty where a number is required, or is out of range. Next invoice number starts at 1; payment terms go up to 3650 days.
There is no Suggested heading. The category’s name matches nothing. Choose from Income or Expenses, or leave it Personal.
The Reports banner stays after I reviewed my categories. A category left on its old line is not re-saved. Select Not now to dismiss it for the year.
A category shows “(not in the 2026 lines)”. The line it holds is not in this year’s list. Choose a line again.