Few simple questions

vinylpimp

Hello all,

I am new to this forum, I have read some really good advices on here from other threads, so I thought I will ask some questions myself, hopefully you will able to help!

- Currently we have a Royal Mail account, where we get an invoice every month or so for the spent the previous. I would like to know for my book-keeping, should I register the daily spent on each day, or just mark down the invoice amount when it due/ leaves my bank account?

- We use Paypal extensively, we notice some of the payments appear on different date on the sales report comparing to the CSV download of transcations, which one do you use? Also when a sale is refunded in full, can we disregard it?

- On Paypal I often get paid in different currencies, do I have to register the exchange rate for the day and convert them to Pounds? Or can we use a fixed rate. Either way, which rate must I follow?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Firefox1975

Simple answers :-

Use the values incurred in the Month the bookeeping relates to.

i.e March charges but received on an April invoice - use March's charges in the month of March.

Use the date of shipment of the sale.

Yes, disregard as long as they don't overlap a Month / Year End. (Even then, you should disregard but this may have VAT implications or impact on your taxation so just be wary of these type of transactions)

Fix the exchange Rate for the Month - so just take it as it is on day 1, then have another look on day 1 the following month. Use the same website every month and reference it in your book keeping. Unless there is a calamity within the month that will be fine.

Thats the simple answers without involving accruals etc. The majority of your questions revolve around cashflow and book keeping, which are two different aspects to running business accounts.

Hope it helps. Good on you for doing it yourself!:)