What is the best way to track contractor payments?
Use a dedicated contractor payment tracker that records each payment request, approval status, payout date, and year-to-date total per contractor. This keeps payment history and year-end reporting review in one place without treating an amount threshold as a complete filing determination.
Most businesses that pay contractors track payments in one of three ways: a spreadsheet that's always out of date, a folder of invoices no one can find in December, or a bank statement they hand to their accountant and hope for the best.
None of these tell you, right now, whether a payment went through. None of them flag which contractors are approaching the year-end reporting amount screen. And none of them consistently preserve the operational audit trail a team needs to review payout activity later.
Every contractor gets a profile: contact info, W-9 status, agreed rates, project tags, and a full payment history. Find anyone and see everything they've been paid in seconds.
Contractors submit payment requests. You approve them. Kelvaro tracks the status — pending, approved, paid, flagged — so you always know where every dollar stands without checking your bank account.
Kelvaro monitors each contractor's year-to-date total against the 2026 $2,000 federal amount screen and keeps documentation status visible for year-end review. The amount screen does not by itself determine whether a Form 1099-NEC is required; payment type, payee, backup withholding, and other current IRS rules still matter.
One-click CSV export of all contractor payments, organized by contractor, date, amount, and project. Your accountant gets clean data; you stop getting emails asking for records.
The most reliable systems share three traits: they capture payment requests at the source (not after the fact), they track status in real time rather than requiring manual updates, and they connect payment history to tax records so W-9 status and year-end reporting screens are visible. Kelvaro is built around these three principles.
Yes. Kelvaro accepts CSV imports for contractor names, contact info, and payment history, so teams can move existing contractor records out of spreadsheets without re-entering them one by one.
QuickBooks is an accounting platform. Kelvaro is focused on contractor operations and the workflow between payment requests, approvals, payout tracking, and recordkeeping. Teams can use Kelvaro for contractor workflow while continuing to use their accounting system for accounting.
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