CentSense vs Tiller (2026): Spreadsheet Automation vs a Freelancer Schedule C Tracker

Published: June 27, 2026 · Reading time: 7 min

TL;DR: Tiller pipes your bank and card transactions into Google Sheets or Excel every day and hands you templates — great if you love building your own spreadsheets, but it's a personal-finance feed: no receipt scanning, no Schedule C line categorization out of the box, and no mileage log. CentSense Solo ($5/month) does the freelancer job: AI receipt scanning tagged to the exact tax line, $0.725/mile mileage logging, and a CPA-ready CSV. Tiller gives you raw data to structure yourself; CentSense gives you a finished, tax-categorized record. Pair them if you want a full personal budget and clean business books — or use CentSense alone for the tax half.

If you're a spreadsheet person, Tiller is genuinely appealing: your transactions show up in a Google Sheet automatically, and you can slice them any way you like. But "any way you like" is also the catch for a freelancer — you have to build the Schedule C structure, you have to capture the receipts Tiller never sees, and you have to track mileage it doesn't touch. Here's the honest comparison.

What Tiller Is Built For

Tiller is a transaction-to-spreadsheet automation service. Its strengths:

• Daily transaction import — bank, credit-card, and loan activity flows into a Google Sheets or Excel workbook automatically
• Full spreadsheet control — your own categories, formulas, charts, and templates
• Budgeting and net-worth templates maintained by Tiller and its community
• No ads, no selling your data — a paid subscription, not an ad-supported free app

Tiller answers, "Can I have all my transactions in a spreadsheet I fully control?" That's a great question for a DIY budgeter. It is not, by itself, "What's my deductible business expense on each Schedule C line?"

What CentSense Is Built For

CentSense does one narrow thing well: turn business spending into a tax-ready Schedule C record.

• AI receipt scanning — photograph a receipt; AI reads the merchant, date, amount, and line items
• Schedule C line tagging — each expense lands on the correct IRS line (Line 22 supplies, Line 9 car and truck, Line 8 advertising, and so on)
• Mileage logging at the 2026 $0.725/mile rate
• CPA-ready CSV export — totals organized the way your tax preparer or software expects

It answers the one question Tiller leaves to you: "What do I actually put on Schedule C?"

Side by Side

The Two Gaps That Matter for a Freelancer

1. The receipt gap. Tiller works from your transaction feed, so it captures the charge — "AMZN Mktp $43.18" — but not the itemized receipt the IRS actually wants to substantiate a deduction. A bank line proves money moved; it doesn't prove what you bought or that it was a business expense. CentSense captures the receipt image and reads the line items, so the documentation is there if anyone asks.

2. The mileage gap. For many freelancers, mileage is one of the single largest deductions — and Tiller doesn't track it at all. A spreadsheet of credit-card charges can't tell you that you drove 412 business miles in March. CentSense logs each business drive and applies the $0.725/mile rate automatically.

Those two gaps are exactly where freelancer audits focus, and they're the part a transaction feed structurally can't fill.

The "I'll Just Build It in the Spreadsheet" Trap

Tiller's flexibility is real, and a disciplined spreadsheet user can create Schedule C categories, write categorization rules, and roll up year-end totals. The question is whether you will — every week, all year, including the receipts the feed never imported and the miles it never saw.

This is the same trade-off as a spreadsheet vs. an app generally: maximum control, maximum manual upkeep. CentSense trades some of that open-ended flexibility for a structure that's already the tax form — so there's nothing to build and far less to maintain.

Who Should Use Which

• Use Tiller if you love spreadsheets, want a single workbook for your entire personal financial life, and are happy to build and maintain your own tax categories.
• Use CentSense if you want self-employment taxes handled — receipts captured, expenses on the right Schedule C line, mileage logged, and a clean export — without building anything.
• Use both if you want a complete personal budget in a spreadsheet and a separate, tidy business-tax record. Tiller for personal cash flow, CentSense for the deductions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tiller and how is it different from CentSense?

Tiller is a service that automatically imports your bank and credit-card transactions into a Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet every day, then gives you templates to budget and report. It's built for people who love spreadsheets and want full control over their own categories and formulas. CentSense is a focused Schedule C tool: it scans receipts with AI, tags each expense to the exact IRS tax line, logs mileage at $0.725/mile, and exports a CPA-ready CSV. Tiller gives you raw transaction data in a spreadsheet to do with as you please; CentSense gives you a finished, tax-categorized record. One is a flexible feed, the other is a freelancer tax workflow.

Can Tiller categorize expenses for Schedule C?

Only if you build it yourself. Tiller imports transactions with generic descriptions and a customizable category column, but it ships with personal-finance categories like 'Groceries' and 'Dining,' not Schedule C lines like 'Line 22 Supplies' or 'Line 9 Car and Truck.' You can manually create tax-line categories and rules in your sheet, but the mapping, the upkeep, and the year-end totals are your job. CentSense maps each expense to the correct Schedule C line automatically from the receipt itself, so the tax structure is built in rather than something you assemble in a spreadsheet.

Does Tiller scan receipts or track mileage?

No. Tiller works from your bank and card transaction feed, not from receipts — so it captures the charge ('AMZN Mktp $43.18') but not the itemized receipt the IRS wants, and it has no receipt-image capture or AI extraction. It also has no mileage tracking; logging business miles at the $0.725/mile rate isn't part of what Tiller does. CentSense is built around exactly those two things: photograph a receipt and AI reads the merchant, amount, and tax line, and a mileage log records business drives. For a freelancer, receipts and mileage are usually the two largest, most-audited records — and they're the gap Tiller leaves.

Which costs more, Tiller or CentSense?

Tiller is a subscription priced around $79 per year (with a free trial) for the transaction-import service and templates. CentSense has a free tier with 10 AI receipt scans per month, and the Solo plan is $5/month ($60/year) with unlimited scanning and mileage logging. The prices are in the same ballpark, but you're buying different things: Tiller buys you an automated spreadsheet feed you then structure yourself; CentSense buys you a ready-made Schedule C record with receipts and mileage already categorized. For a freelancer who'd otherwise spend hours reclassifying transactions, the difference is in time, not dollars.

Can I use Tiller and CentSense together?

Yes, and some people do. Tiller is excellent for a full personal-finance picture — every account, budget, and net-worth trend in a spreadsheet you fully control. CentSense is the business-tax layer: it turns receipts and mileage into a Schedule C-ready export for your CPA or tax software. A freelancer who wants both a complete personal budget and clean business books can run Tiller for personal cash flow and CentSense for the deductions. If you only want to solve self-employment taxes, CentSense alone covers the receipts, mileage, and tax-line categorization that Tiller doesn't.

Authoritative References

• IRS — About Schedule C (Form 1040)
• IRS — Standard Mileage Rates
• IRS — Recordkeeping for businesses

Related reading: Expense tracking: spreadsheet vs. app · What makes a receipt IRS-valid · Best expense tracker for the self-employed

Skip the Spreadsheet-Building. Get a Tax-Ready Record.

Tiller hands you transactions and a blank canvas; CentSense hands you a finished Schedule C. Scan a receipt and AI tags it to the right tax line, log a drive and it applies the $0.725/mile rate, and at tax time export a CPA-ready CSV — no formulas, no category rules, no manual reclassifying. Free tier includes 10 AI scans per month; Solo is $5/month.

Start free →

This guide is general education for U.S. freelancers and Schedule C filers in 2026. Product details and pricing for third-party tools can change — verify current features and prices with each provider. It is not personalized tax advice; consult a CPA or EA for your situation.