Home office expenses are only partially deductible — you can only claim the portion of your home you use exclusively for business. ExpenseBot lets you set a single home office percentage once, then applies it automatically to every relevant expense.
🏠 How to calculate your home office %:
The standard method is square footage: (business sq ft ÷ total home sq ft) × 100. For example, a 200 sq ft office in a 2,000 sq ft home = 10%.
📂 Which categories typically use the home office %: ✅ Rent or mortgage interest ✅ Utilities (electricity, gas, water) ✅ Internet and phone (home line) ✅ Home insurance ✅ Property tax ✅ Home repairs and maintenance
⚙️ How to configure in ExpenseBot:
- Go to Settings → Expense Categories
- Find your home office categories (Utilities, Rent, Internet, etc.)
- Enter the business use percentage (e.g., 10%)
- ExpenseBot applies it automatically to every expense in those categories
📈 What your tax report shows: Your year-end report displays both the full expense amount AND the calculated business deduction. For US freelancers, totals feed into Form 8829 (Expenses for Business Use of Your Home) and flow to Schedule C. For Canadian freelancers, they feed into the business-use-of-home-expenses section of T2125.
💡 Tip: The IRS and CRA both require the space to be used regularly and exclusively for business to claim these deductions. Keep a simple note of your square footage calculation in case of audit.
For other partial-deduction categories (vehicle, cell phone, meals), see How do I set business use percentage for categories?.