Does anyone keep track of their time and expenses incurred during caregiving?

being paid for your time requires a contract with parent and then you maintain a log of hours just as you would for any job. this would be reported as earnings just like any other job and you could be paid weekly monthly or however you both agree. paying yourself from estate is going to create even more of a tracking burden - a log showing hours worked and no heir in the estate forgetting everything you did over a long period of time - rebutting your claim.

Out of pocket expenses would be handled differently. You provide receipt (and keep them in a folder or something) and get a check or cash (with receipt book) to get paid back. Easy method for this is group all the receipts together with a note on top saying check number that paid you back. This is a good idea for the simple reason that if someone looks at check book and sees a lot of checks written to you, the evidence of what it was for is already bundled together.

I do.
I am the person being cared for. I will be 91 in June. With a lot of help I can "live by myself" I do not want to be a burden and right now I can afford help. I have a paid caregiver who comes 20 hours a week. I have a cleaning lady who comes once a month and deep cleans my condo. When my grandchildren, who are grown, help me, I pay them good wages. The same with my Son-in-Law. My daughter does not want to be paid, so I purchase food and pick up the check when we eat out. I also buy clothes for her. As I said, I have a deep dislike of being a burden to my family. So, I do keep track of the time people help me.

It is reasonable for you to be paid for your time, your work, and your expenses.
Although, You shouldn't be paying out of pocket expenses, the person you are caring for should be paying directly for anything they need.

As AlvaDeer recommends, you should see an elder law attorney.
Is the person able to pay their bills and make purchases? Or is there a POA who manages their finances and expenditures?

If you choose to be paid monthly for caregiving services, you should make a written agreement stating exactly how much you are to be paid, and have an accounting firm prepare the payroll for you. It is so important that you are paying all necessary taxes and have legitimate income to report to the IRS.
The person you care for, or their financial agent, pays the accounting firm to provide the payroll service. And the accountant makes sure everything is legal, and state and federal taxes are being paid.

Alternatively, if the person is your family member and you expect an inheritance from their estate when they pass, and you don't expect anyone to challenge the inheritance, then you can simply wait and be reimbursed for your services at that time. But, it would still be a good idea to have that written up in a will, to include an agreed upon compensation. Otherwise, you could make over-exaggerated claims after the person dies, which would be challenged by other family members! Even if your claims for compensation are reasonable, it opens the door to family dispute! And the executor would have no legal standing to pay for such compensation after-the-fact, if it is not clearly stated in the will.

The person could even "gift" you the money now as an advance on your expected inheritance. That, too, should be written in the will, if there are family members who may question later! They inevitably will!
When in doubt, save yourself future aggravation or possible legal troubles by documenting, documenting, documenting!

It's helpful to ask your relative if they can get a credit card in your name off their own credit card account. (My mom suggested this instead of reimbursing after I picked up parents' groceries, clothes, medical supplies, etc which could be $50-200 each time and obviously adds up over years (& were mostly regular expenses of living so why would I start picking up those expenses, unless parents unable of course?) and it was so much more convenient for both of us than having to get reimbursed all the time.

You/family may prefer to show receipts regularly or find it unnecessary. Probably depends on your family culture and any history or preceived history of any party taking advantage of the other financially. We didn't do that in my family - trust was just assumed and I typically left the receipts around plus all the purchases were apparent.

If caring for family/anyone for a long time, to the point you're no longer available to work a paid job, then you're actually hurting your own finances directly (obviously) but you're also no longer paying into Social Security and will have big fat zeros for each year you're not working. SS takes your top 35 years of earnings in figuring out your ultimate social security check that starts at age ~65. So unless you already have 35 good years of income (or can complete 35th year after your caregiving is over), your sacrifice of time caregiving continues through your retirement years (ie smaller monthly SS check).

I had not given ANY thought to how SS checks post-65yo were figured and assumed it was just an average of total earnings over the years - so thought some great years of earnings would and could make up for some zero earnings years. So it turns out that only X number of dollars earned are taxed for SS - so even if you had a fabulous year and earned say $200,000, only the 1st X number of dollars (don't recall the number) gets taxed for SS. (ie Only the first X number of dollars are subject to FICA withholding. I'm sure that was explained by HR some time, but in 1 ear and out the other since didn't register as relevant when working/no thought of not working any time soon. So, not having paid into SS during years not working for pay. eg, family caregiving, it makes sense that you wouldn't be eligible for SS benefits for those zero years - not unfair, just would have helped to have realized that!)

So, based on above, if spending a LOT of time, especially if full-time and for years - not a few months with a family member dying of cancer for example - to explore possibility of getting paid a modest amount if the family member and/or other close family of the person who needs help have the money.

And if they don't, then it's potentially still worthwhile for them - or at least other family like siblings (not necessarily the person needing the care, say a parent) to know what you're providing and that it IS a significant sacrifice - not to do so to lord it over thom how great you are, but merely to be transparent and ideally it would inspire them to help in other ways, maybe provide respite care so you can get a break. Of course that doesn't always work out, but it's still good - in many families at least - to let them know, as many (especially, to be honest, men) can be pretty oblivious and then definitely won't step up to help. I think one has to feel things out a bit. But if the family member needs help, even if nobody else will help, if it needs doing and you can do it, it's best to help and be glad you can help as it is rewarding, especially to help parents, who did so much for you, in their hour of need! (I know some didn't have wonderful parents so that's a lot harder. Still, some relationships heal in the twilight of the parent's life...and even if not, one can always be proud of one's efforts even when not adequately appreciated, esp if the person has no other options.)

IF get paid to enhance SS check down the road, it needs to be formalized (w/SS withheld) to work

You must keep accurate records if you want to (potentially) be reimbursed.
Keep receipts.
See an attorney if needed.

If you aren't the POS or have some other legal responsibility in this regard, talk to whoever does - or see an attorney.

Gena / Touch Matters

I do. My sister and I track our mileage going to and from our mother's house (back when we were cleaning it out and selling it); and now I track my mileage going to and from her MC care facility (an hour away) for well check visits. We use the IRS reimbursement rate for mileage just like an employee would do at a company. We save our receipts and create a formal expense report that we send to each other (as well as our step-brother, who will inherit 1/3 of the estate when our mother passes) every quarter or so, then we receive a check from our mother's bank account. We're very transparent with one another and have learned good communication (we've been doing this for about 20 months) surrounding this. I'm thankful it works well for my siblings and I since our mother is quite heinous. Truthfully (and I know some of you can relate), our actions regarding our mother's care are done out of obligation and not love.

Unfortunately, there's no way to track the time we've spent on her care; chiefly because her will states that we are not to be compensated for our time in caring for her once she becomes incapacitated. I'm self employed, a consultant paid by the hour by my clients, so when I have to take a day off to deal with my mother's care it can literally cost me hundreds of dollars that I'll never get back. I was bitter about it at first but now I just suck it up, lol.

It is your responsibility to care for your parents,not the government.You should care for your parents without regard to time or expense. Be grateful you have the opportunity to give back to those who gave you life.

I did. My husband's mother came to stay with us in her final days after being released from the hospital. She had terminal cancer and wasn't able to care for herself. My husband was authorized on her checking account and paid the bills for her home from that, but it was just easier for us to pay out of pocket for incidental items she needed (depends, Ensure, etc.) I kept all the receipts for items we purchased for her as well as a portion of food costs (we bought a number of things specifically for her). Husband was her executor also, so after she passed, we reimbursed ourselves along with other expenses of the estate that we paid out of pocket. This was all overseen by an estate attorney. Probably worth mentioning that her only beneficiaries were my husband, niece and nephew and we are all very close, so nobody was going to object to any of it.

I have to ask is this a family member or are you working for an agency?
If this is a family member you should have a contract indicating the hours you are working and what you are doing. And how much you will be paid per hour.
If someone else is POA for finances that is the person that will be reimbursing you. Or should be. Do not spend any of your own money. A preloaded card can be used if necessary.
Do not expect to get anything after they die, you will be on the bottom of the list when it comes to payments. That is definitely not the way to be reimbursed.

If you can not come to some agreement as to how to be reimbursed and or paid now walk away. It will be almost impossible to be paid after the fact.

Are you talking about out of pocket expenses? I was my mothers POA and I used her money for her needs. If I did need to spend my own, I kept the receipts and paid myself back once a month when I paid her bills. Then the receipts went into an envelope with the month, check#, and amount on the outside of the envelope.

There is no way to get payback after death if no agreement. I did get reimbursed for paying for the utilities on Moms house after she died out of the proceeds.

To begin with you should not be spending a cent of your own money on anything the person being cared for needs. If you are, then you should save all receipts and be paid back weekly for any money you are spending. Same applies for hours put in for caregiving services. Keep a record of the hours and you should be paid weekly.

If there's no formal contract in place for how you will be paid and when, you should seriously get one done.

If you do not have a signed care contract it goes according to the will or trust. First off you should not be paying for anything out of your pocket, all items should be paid directly from the person you are caring for.

If you want to be repaid in the future have an attorney, make out a caregiver contract so that everything is legal and that you will be repaid in the future.

An estate needs to be settled exactly according to what the will says. So unless a will specifies that your running total is to be reimbursed out of the estate proceeds, you won't be able to do that.

I have been involved in a lot of hours of hands on care--but I never kept track of my hours unless it was for 'paying clients' and I was required to provide a daily log of time spent and activities done. But that was a JOB.

Caring for my parents and my FIL? I just needed to do what needed doing and really never thought about the time incurred.

As far as being reimbursed monetarily for funds you've spent? If I shopped for mom and the total was around $20 I just told her not to worry. It didn't matter! My dad required only a very few 'items of worth' that needed to be purchased and sometimes I bought them, but mom was able to do that. My FIL sort of reimbursed me, but it wasn't an issue.

Had I been causing my own family to go without, I guess it would be one thing, but it never was a problem.

My MIL simply gave my SIL (who was her primary CG) an envelope with a bunch of $100 bills in it and SIL kept a tally and reimbursed herself. After MIL passed, SIL handed this envelope to my DH. She said she had just had it 'filled' and so there was $1500 in it. It went into the checking acct and eventually, DH will do a final disbursement and he's done with the estate.

Depending on your personal financial status, perhaps you cannot afford to do a lot for your folks and that's OK. Just keep receipts and such.

To be paid for your time? I think you need to see and Eldercare atty for advice and legally setting this up.

Alva is right, you can't wait until after your LO has died to be 'made whole'.

You should see an elder law attorney to work out a care contract for shared living costs (don't use the word "rental" or you will be taxed on that income. You will need to work things out according to a POA document in all likelihood. You cannot take, otherwise, any funds for yourself out of the senior's funds as this is called self-enrichment. You will not be able to recover anything from the estate on death. If you buy things for the elder, whether supplies, food, etc. you will need to keep solid receipts and basically if you are POA you are, if they cannot, responsible to account for every penny into and out of accounts.

Do see an elder law attorney. That IS paid for by POA and by the Principal (the parent being cared for). You need to know both your rights and obligations under the laws of your state.