The complete record-keeping system for parents who hire their kids.
A full year of weekly logs, monthly summaries, and payment records for parents hiring their child in a family business. Designed so the work of staying organized takes less than a minute a week.
If you run a business and you're hiring your child, you already know record-keeping matters. But between running the business and raising the family, the documentation is usually the first thing to slip. Most parents start the year strong, then drift by spring.
This book is the system that holds it all for you. Designed by a doctor of psychology who understands why good habits get abandoned, every page is built around one principle: the easier the entry, the more likely you are to do it consistently. Checkboxes instead of blank fields. Ranges instead of exact numbers. A weekly log that takes under a minute. A structure you can return to even after skipping a week, without feeling like you've failed.
The goal is clarity and calm. A practical, repeatable record that becomes part of your routine rather than an interruption to it.
Check off what your child did, estimate the time, and initial it. Each weekly record is designed to take under a minute, so it becomes a habit instead of a chore.
At month's end, the Monthly Summary and Payment Record pull your weekly entries into one clear view and close the loop, so nothing stays open-ended.
The Contribution Overview and Year-End Summary give you and your tax preparer a clean snapshot of the full year, ready to hand off.
The book is undated, so you can begin any time of year.
I built this book because I needed it. As a business owner and a mother, I wanted a simple, consistent way to document my child's contributions to our family business. Not a spreadsheet or a folder of loose notes, but a system I could return to weekly without overthinking it.
My training in clinical and counseling psychology shaped every page. I know that when a task feels heavy or ambiguous, people avoid it. So I designed each entry to take less than a minute. My background in finance shaped the architecture underneath, so that when tax season comes, everything is already in order.
This book is designed for parents in the United States and references US tax rules (IRS guidance, W-2 requirements, family employment tax exemption). It is intended for documentation and organization only, and does not constitute tax or legal advice.
A small set of companion sheets that pair with the record book or stand on their own. Enter your email and they'll arrive in your inbox.
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The book handles the paperwork. These answers cover the questions that come up first, when parents are deciding whether to bring a child into the business at all.
There is no federal minimum age for hiring your own child to work in a family business you own (a sole proprietorship or a partnership where the only partners are the child's parents). The work has to be real, age-appropriate, and paid at a fair rate. State labor laws vary and may set additional limits, so check your state before you start. Most tax preparers see families begin around ages 7 or 8 with simple tasks like filing, shredding, or modeling for photos, though younger children can be paid for legitimate contributions like appearing in marketing materials.
A child employee can earn up to the standard deduction amount for the year without owing federal income tax. That figure changes annually, so confirm the current limit with your tax preparer. The wages must be reasonable for the work performed, which means comparable to what you would pay someone outside the family for the same role.
You need documentation that shows the employment is real: a role description, time records, task records, payment records, and proof of the work performed. Photos, saved files, and voice memos all count as proof. The Hire Your Kids Record Book gives you a complete year of this documentation in one place, structured so it takes under a minute a week to maintain.
Yes, but the tax treatment differs by business structure. A single-member LLC or sole proprietorship qualifies for the family employment tax exemption, meaning wages paid to a child under 18 are generally exempt from Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment taxes. An S-corp or C-corp does not qualify for these exemptions. If you're not sure how your business is structured for tax purposes, ask your tax preparer before setting up payroll.
Any legitimate business task that's age-appropriate. Common examples include filing, shredding, sorting inventory, packaging, stamping envelopes, modeling for product photos, appearing in marketing videos, giving product feedback, running errands, cleaning the workspace, and light data entry. For older children, work can include social media management, content creation, customer service, bookkeeping support, and drafting documents. The book includes an age-based task list from ages 5 through 17.
Usually yes, if you're running payments through payroll properly. A W-2 documents the wages and creates the formal employment record that supports the tax treatment. Whether one is strictly required depends on your business structure and the amount paid, so confirm with your tax preparer. The Year-End Summary page in the book is designed to give your tax preparer everything they need to prepare the W-2 or confirm none is required.
Because the IRS treats a family employment relationship as a real employment relationship, with all the same documentation expectations. If questions ever come up, the strength of your position comes down to whether you can show consistent, contemporaneous records: a defined role, work actually performed, hours logged, payments made on a regular schedule. Reconstructing this from memory at tax time or during an audit is stressful and often incomplete. Keeping simple records week by week means the documentation exists before anyone asks for it, which is exactly what the Hire Your Kids Record Book is designed to make effortless.
These answers reflect general information as of publication. Tax laws vary by state and change over time. Always confirm your specific situation with a qualified tax professional.
If you're ready to build a system that holds itself together, the book is waiting on Amazon.
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