posted on November 5, 2005 06:37:27 AM new
That title shoud be: How do you manage your record keeping?
I have been selling on eBay for years, and as my volume has increased, so has the time spent in record keeping. I am curious as to how others are dealing with record keeping. I have been looking into software on eBay, but none seems to do everything I want done.
Right now I use Turbolister for listing, keep a spreadsheet with all the sales information, and enter the financial information into Microsoft Money. I also keep a shipping log spreadsheet for DSI. I would love to be able to just enter all the information once.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
[ edited by jemsgifts on Nov 5, 2005 08:55 AM ]
posted on November 5, 2005 07:01:22 AM new
depends on how profitable is your ebay business?
if you are selling low margin items and it is always the same old same old stuff within certain price range and stable shipping costs,just figure an average sales price and average cost and average shipping per item.
No need to fuss over it,unless you think it is going to become another General Motors paying UAW workers 65 dollars an hour.
posted on November 5, 2005 07:53:03 AM new
This is a Frequently Asked Question, and if you look around on this site and other places, you'll find lots of answers, all as different as the people who posted them.
The point is that five minutes spent recordkeeping is five minutes you don't have to devote to selling.
Selling is the whole reason you have an eBay business in the first place. That is, unless you're one of those frou-frou dabblers who lavishes excessive care and prettification on their auctions and their oh-so-necessary eBay store but never seems to sell much of anything. Clearly they are on eBay only to "express their creativity". They need not be taken seriously.
For accounting I keep it simple. I receive thousands of units each month. Some of them get sold pretty much as-is. Some of them get combined with other units to make value-added lots. Some of them get scrapped. After years of hunting for the "right" accounting system, I concluded that I do not have a conventional retail business at all; I have a manufacturing business, eBay is my factory outlet, and the units that arrive in bulk are the raw material.
That said, no one expects a manufacturer to track every widget all the way through the fabrication process, unless you're Boeing or Airbus.
Why does a small business keep records?
Well, for one thing, the government requires it so that you can pay the piper. But you don't have to keep spreadsheets. The best book on the subject I have ever read, hands down, is Bernie Kamaroff's _Small Time Operator_. Time spent reading this will not be wasted.
Some of your sales are to people in your home state, so you must remit sales tax. But do you really have to track it to the penny? Nope. After years of compiling individual CA sales, I concluded that my percentage of California sales stays pretty uniform from year to year. I add a little extra for variance and voila! It takes about 10 minutes to do the yearly sales tax return. Five of that is in trying to find my checkbook.
posted on November 5, 2005 04:19:03 PM new
Click back to the main page of the EO. In the left hand column, find the link for "Reports" (New). Click on that and see if it has what you want. I suspect they will be adding new features as users call for them.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on November 6, 2005 11:33:09 AM new
I created a database using filemaker pro 8 years ago, and still use it today. I can pretty easily find out my sales history over the years. As far as finding out postage, supplies, etc - I use one credit card (though I now ship enough that endicia won't let me pay with a credit card) and get a year end statement (along with a few round trips to anywhere I want) - The thing about designing the database program is that it does what I want because I designed it, but I realize not everyone can do that. I suppose excel might do many of the things.
posted on November 6, 2005 07:57:22 PM new
Pay attention to Fluffy's advice. She's one sharp cookie. The only complaints I've seen about Fluffy are her successful feeBay selling model and her lack of tolerance for the common sense challenged.
