# How do I separate personal and business expenses when I use one card?

Go through the card statement every week, mark each charge as business or personal, record only the business charges as expenses, and keep a receipt or note showing the business reason for each. IRS Publication 583 (December 2024) says to keep business and personal accounts separate, and the personal part of a mixed expense is not deductible. ProfitDrawer's bookkeeping spreadsheet has a Business? Yes or No setting per category that keeps personal spending out of profit and tax.

A routine that works with one card:

1. **Download the statement** each week or month.
2. **Mark every line** B (business) or P (personal). Do it while you still remember what each charge was.
3. **Record the business lines** with date, payee, category and amount, and save the receipt.
4. **Split mixed items.** If a phone plan is 60% business use, record 60% of the bill as the expense. The personal 40% is not deductible.
5. **Ignore or tag the personal lines.** In a ProfitDrawer workbook, use a category set to Business? No, such as Personal, so it never reaches profit or tax.

If you pay a business cost with a personal card, record it as a business expense and note "paid personally". If the business card pays a personal bill, record it as an owner draw, not an expense.

The long-term fix is a separate business account and card, which turns your statement into a first draft of your books.

General information, not tax advice.

- Source: [IRS Publication 583: Starting a Business and Keeping Records](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p583)
- Updated: 2026-10-29
- Published: 2026-10-29
- Category: Bookkeeping basics
- Canonical: https://profitdrawer.com/answers/how-do-i-separate-personal-and-business-expenses-when-i-use-one-card.html
- Publisher: ProfitDrawer (https://profitdrawer.com)