Upload the CSVs Etsy already gives you. CottageLedger itemizes every fee, computes your true cost per product from material recipes, and hands you a Schedule C-ready report.
Your sales data never leaves your browser. No Etsy login. No sync to break.
"I miss the days when you buy a program and it's just yours."
— seller in r/EtsySellers, asking for a non-subscription alternative (the thread that started this company)"I'm now charged $39/mo and that is now limited to only 250 sales per month!"
— candle seller on the incumbent's pricing, 2023; that tool's entry price has since risen to $49/mo (source)The monthly statements and order exports your shop already generates. They parse right in your browser — we never see them.
"One 8 oz candle = 7 oz wax + a wick + a tin." When wax gets pricier in March, every product's cost updates itself.
Fees itemized into the right lines, cost of goods computed the way Part III actually asks for it. Hand it to your preparer — or your tax software.
Transaction fees, processing, listings, Etsy Ads, Offsite Ads, shipping labels — separated and summed, with your true take-rate. Free, forever, no signup: it answers the question makers ask every January.
Numbers shown from the built-in sample shop.
Materials share across products. Prices drift. Spreadsheets break in exactly those two places — recipes don't.
| Amber & Oak 8 oz | Cost |
|---|---|
| Soy wax · 7 oz | $0.98 |
| Fragrance oil · 0.7 oz | $0.74 |
| Wick, tin, label, box | $1.98 |
| COGS → sells at $24 | $3.70 · 85% margin |
per tax year · early-bird $59 at launch
2025 catch-up + 2026 bundle: $119
Unlimited sales. Unlimited products. Your reports export to PDF/CSV and your one-file backup belongs to you forever, even if you never pay again. Next year's price only buys next year's imports and whatever Etsy changes about its fees and files. Yes, that means paying yearly if you use it yearly — the difference from a subscription is nothing renews by itself and nothing gets taken away.
Why not a subscription? Because your books are not a service — they're yours. A tax year is a real thing that ends; your payment covers it, like buying tax software, not renting it.
What the anchors say: makers happily pay $97 for a manual bookkeeping spreadsheet. TurboTax charges $139 for federal filing alone. A CPA Schedule C typically runs $400+. The cheapest subscription that itemizes your fees is $100/yr and doesn't do maker recipes; the cheapest that does recipes is $228/yr and doesn't itemize fees.
Prices verified against live pages, July 2026 — full source list in the honest comparison below.
We do one thing: your maker taxes, once a year, done right. Different job? Use the right tool — genuinely.
| July 2026, verified | Etsy fee itemization | Material recipes → COGS | Schedule C output | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CottageLedger (pre-launch*) | yes* | yes* | yes* | $79 per tax year |
| Seller Ledger (great for multi-channel resellers) | yes | no — resale inventory only | yes | $100+/yr subscription |
| Inventora (great for live inventory sync) | no | yes | partial — COGS report, no Schedule C output | free (10 sales/mo cap) · $228+/yr |
| Stocksmith (ex-Craftybase) | yes | yes | yes (plan-gated) | $588–4,188/yr subscription |
| Ardent Seller (new 2026 entrant — claims untested, no independent reviews yet) | partial (claimed) | yes (claimed) | yes (claimed) | free (50 txns/mo) · $19+/mo |
| QuickBooks Solopreneur | partial | no | partial | $0–38/mo subscription |
| Paper + Spark spreadsheet | manual | separate $77 product | categories only | $97 one-time, lifetime access |
*CottageLedger's own cells describe the working pre-launch build: parsers are validated against Etsy's documented formats and synthetic fixtures, with real-shop beta validation as launch task one. Competitor claims checked against live pages on 2026-07-12: Seller Ledger · Inventora · Stocksmith · Ardent Seller · QuickBooks · Paper + Spark. Corrections welcome — honesty is the brand.
Probably, yes. The federal 1099-K threshold went back up to $20,000 and 200 transactions, so most makers won't receive one — but self-employment income is generally reportable from $400 of net earnings. Less paperwork arrives; the math is still yours to do. (Reports, not tax advice — confirm with a professional.)
Nowhere. The CSVs parse in your browser and live in your browser's local storage. There is no CottageLedger server holding your sales. The honest cost of that privacy: browser storage can be evicted (Safari deletes it after 7 days without a visit), so the app pushes you to download a one-file backup — that file, plus Etsy's re-downloadable CSVs, means you can always rebuild in minutes. Export or clear everything anytime.
That's exactly what your next tax year's $79 pays for: we keep the parsers current. Your already-generated reports stay readable forever either way.
Then Seller Ledger will serve you better than we will — multi-channel is their whole thing. We're built for makers whose shop is Etsy and whose costs are materials.
No. CottageLedger produces reports whose lines match the IRS Schedule C, so you or your preparer can move fast. What you file is between you and your tax professional.
Upload a year of CSVs, click through your recipes, print the report. The shoebox era is over.
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