As 2011 comes to a close, those of us who work from home in ecommerce have our own end of year celebration. The fact that the year is ending and we are ready to start a brand new one means we survived the economic hardships of the past year. We persevered a tough year and are getting ready to start anew in 2012. But first, there are those tedious little tasks that are a necessary part of doing business. It’s time to make sure our inventory is done and our books are up to date. For the newbies, this can be quite intimidating, but the best recommendation I can make is to start off with a system. Though the first or even second year can seem a daunting task, it’s best to bite the bullet and set up your system right off. From there it can only get easier to manage.
I have used Quickbooks for many years, not just for my online business, but also for my husband’s business for the past 15 years or so. There is a huge learning curve with this program, but it is top-notch once the program is set up and in place. This is not what I am recommending to you though, unless you feel comfortable with learning this rather complicated program.
I am recommending a program called Outright. It has to be the best (in my opinion) program for tracking not only your eBay sales, but also it will import all your information from PayPal too. At this time, it is free for everyone and I can’t recommend strongly enough that you sign up for it and get it set up. The program is actually very simple to set up. You will have to set your categories up for expenses, but once this is done, the program remembers where these transactions belong. The best part is it updates automatically, you don’t have to enter any figures manually, and no transactions are lost. Another great perk is that you it will actually compute your Schedule C so all you have to do is either give it to your accountant or if you do your own taxes, enter the figures into your forms.
Key features (per Outright.com):
Automate your bookkeeping tasks in less than five minutes for FREE. Outright:
• Automatically organizes all of your eBay sales and expenses, including all listing, final value and PayPal fees.
• By connecting to your PayPal account, Outright can import more than a full year’s worth of history the first time you use it, and continuing for as long as you have an Outright account.
• Shows you quick snapshots of how much you’re making, who your best customers are, sales by state, and where you’re spending the most.
• Provides accurate quarterly estimates of what you owe in taxes, helps you track sales tax and keep your tax records organized and up to date.
Oh and did I mention, this is a FREE application. You can find it and sign up for it on your eBay account under applications or you can go directly to the website http://outright.com However, if you sell on eBay, I strongly suggest signing up from there as it will be much faster to connect your accounts and get you on the road to easy, accurate bookkeeping.
Pink Hills Vintage is owned and operated by Deborah Anderson. Like the name suggests, you'll find Vintage Items, mostly clothing that is so much fun. Deborah's store has to be one of the classiest sites with fantastic photos I have seen. I've known Deborah for a few years now. We met through Virtual Online Learning and are connected on Twitter & Facebook. You can follow her at http://twitter.com/pinkhillvintage and like her business page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PinkHillVintage. I know you'll find Deborah warm, always engaging, and at the ready to offer assistance. And while you're here, go ahead and check out her eBay store.
