How to Keep Crypto Records for Tax: A Simple Spreadsheet Method

Here's a quick test. Without opening any app, could you say how much naira your crypto brought in last March, and what you paid for the coins you sold? Most people can't. The information exists, but it's scattered across three apps, a bank statement, a few WhatsApp chats and the screenshots folder on an old phone.

That's fine until someone asks. It might be an accountant, a bank, a loan officer or the tax authority. At that point, rebuilding a year of transactions from memory is miserable and often impossible.

This post won't tell you what tax you owe or which rules apply to you. That's for the tax authority and a qualified adviser. What it gives you is records good enough that whoever does the maths has the numbers. For background on how crypto taxes work in general, read crypto taxes: what you need to know and our older piece on crypto tax reporting in Nigeria.

The columns

Open a blank sheet in Google Sheets, Excel or any spreadsheet app on your phone, and add these headings:

Column	What to write	Why it matters
Date	The day (and time, if you have it) the transaction happened	Values and rules can depend on when something happened
Type	Buy, Sell, Receive, Send, Swap or Transfer	Different kinds of transaction can be treated differently
Coin	BTC, USDT, ETH and so on	Each coin needs its own running total
Amount	How much of the coin moved	The basis for every calculation
Naira value	What it was worth in naira at the time	Shows gains, losses and income in your local currency
Fees	Network, trading or swap fees, in coin or naira	Fees change the real cost and the real proceeds
Platform	The app, exchange or wallet involved	Lets you find the original record again
TXID or reference	The blockchain transaction ID, or the app's reference number	Proof that the transaction happened
Notes	Who paid you, invoice number, rate source, anything odd	The context nobody remembers a year later

Keep one row per transaction. If a single sale involved a fee, put the fee in the same row rather than a separate one.

What it looks like filled in

The figures below are invented to show the format, using a made-up rate of ₦1,500 per USDT. They aren't real rates.

Date	Type	Coin	Amount	Naira value	Fees	Platform	TXID / ref	Notes
03/03/2026	Receive	USDT	500	₦750,000	None	KWIQ	7c1e…a9f2	Invoice 014, client in UK
05/03/2026	Sell	USDT	200	₦300,000	₦0	KWIQ	App ref	Rate from app confirmation screen
12/03/2026	Transfer	USDT	100	₦150,000	1 USDT network fee	Exchange to KWIQ	4b8d…22e0	Own wallets
20/03/2026	Buy	BTC	0.002	₦200,000	₦1,000 trading fee	Exchange	Exchange ref	Long-term holding

Notice the Transfer row. Moving coins between your own wallets isn't a sale, but recording it explains the movement and captures the fee.

Where to find each piece

• App and exchange histories. Many exchanges let you download your transaction history as a CSV file from a statements or reports page. Where an app doesn't offer a download, copy the details from its history screen or take a screenshot.
• Confirmation screens. Before you confirm a sale on KWIQ, the app shows the rate and the naira amount. A screenshot of that screen is a neat record of the naira value at the moment you sold.
• Block explorers. Paste a TXID into the right explorer to see the date, amount, address and network fee. Our guide on how to track a transaction with a blockchain explorer shows how.
• Bank statements. They show the naira that actually arrived, which should match your sell rows.
• Invoices and contracts. For crypto you were paid, the invoice explains why the money came in.

The 20-minute monthly routine

Doing this once a year is painful. Doing it once a month takes about as long as a cup of tea.

1. Pick a fixed day, such as the first Sunday of each month, and put a reminder on your phone.
2. Make a folder for the month (for example 2026-03) in Google Drive, OneDrive or email, and save every export, statement and screenshot into it.
3. Add a row for each transaction from every platform you used.
4. Fill in the naira values. For sales, use what you actually received. For crypto you received, use your chosen rate source and note it.
5. Paste in the TXIDs or references. Leave nothing blank. If a reference is missing, write why in the notes.
6. Check your totals. For each coin, does the sheet's running balance match what your apps actually show? If not, a row is missing.
7. Back it up. A sheet that lives only on your phone disappears with your phone.

Knowing what you paid

Many tax questions come down to the difference between what you paid for a coin and what you got for it. If you bought at several prices, the average cost calculator works out your average buy price from your Buy rows, and the crypto profit calculator shows the gain or loss on a sale. Neither is tax software, but both help you sanity-check your sheet.

Mistakes that make records useless

• Recording only sales. Without the buys and receipts, nobody can tell what a sale actually earned.
• Forgetting fees. They're small one by one and noticeable over a year.
• Mixing personal and business crypto. If you run a business that takes crypto, give it its own sheet.
• Closing an account before exporting. If you stop using an app or exchange, download your full history first.
• Trusting your gallery. Screenshots get deleted, phones get stolen. Copy everything into the monthly folder.

The same records also help if your bank ever asks where a payment came from. Our post on crypto income and your bank account covers that side.

This is general information, not tax advice. For your own situation, speak to a qualified tax professional.

Start with this month

Open a blank sheet tonight, add the nine headings, and fill in just this month's transactions. Next month it'll take twenty minutes. If you want your sales, swaps and naira withdrawals in one place to make the job simpler, download the KWIQ app, or create a free account on the web if your phone is short on space.