Ebay Business - Record Keeping/Accounting Questions

Create123

I started up an online business selling clothes via eBay and etsy in October and I was keeping all my records on an excel sheet. I had an appointment with the council this week and showed them my accounts and they said it didn't show enough information.

SO how do i go about keeping accounts? She suggested getting a ledger and writing them all out. But is there an easier way? Does anyone know a good format for excel that is acceptable? All the money i receive comes through Paypal so is there something i can do on there? I think i read somewhere that you could download all of your Paypal activity onto your computer to keep as records?

I buy some of my stock on ebay so would a print out of the item page be sufficient proof for purchases?

As you can tell I'm in over my head with it a bit as I've never had to keep accounts before! Any help would be very gratefully appriciated!

Mistral001

Create123 wrote: »

I started up an online business selling clothes via eBay and etsy in October and I was keeping all my records on an excel sheet. I had an appointment with the council this week and showed them my accounts and they said it didn't show enough information.

SO how do i go about keeping accounts? She suggested getting a ledger and writing them all out. But is there an easier way? Does anyone know a good format for excel that is acceptable? All the money i receive comes through Paypal so is there something i can do on there? I think i read somewhere that you could download all of your Paypal activity onto your computer to keep as records?

I buy some of my stock on ebay so would a print out of the item page be sufficient proof for purchases?

As you can tell I'm in over my head with it a bit as I've never had to keep accounts before! Any help would be very gratefully appriciated!

Ledgers are just a record of what you bought and sold. An exercise book for cash in and one for cash out is all that is required ("cash" refers to all money not matter how received and not just cash). This can be done on a spreadsheet as well but you need to like data inputing for that. Information from Paypals transactions reports can be copied into excel and used if you are familiar with MS excel.

In any case it is a good idea to print of your transactions report on Paypal every month and have it like a bank statement for future reference.

Why ledgers are considered so important by finance people is that they contain all the information they need to know in one place. So if you buy for sell things using other methods other than paypal you put those down in the ledgers as well.

InsideInsurance

Create123 wrote: »

I had an appointment with the council this week and showed them my accounts and they said it didn't show enough information.

SO how do i go about keeping accounts? She suggested getting a ledger and writing them all out. But is there an easier way? Does anyone know a good format for excel that is acceptable?

There is absolutely no benefit of using paper over electronic records, really it is the reverse.

Without seeing what you have created yourself and hearing what her complaint was it is difficult to point you in the right direct. Generally speaking you should be recording what you are buying, when and where, likewise what you are selling, when and where and include a breakdown of costs/ income by category

What was the meeting with the council actually about?

Pennywise

Create123 wrote: »

I had an appointment with the council this week and showed them my accounts and they said it didn't show enough information.

Are you sure that's what they said. I'd be very surprised if a council worker wanted to see your basic book-keeping records. They're more likely to want to see your profit & loss account, which is a broad summary of your revenues and expenses, and therefore profit, for a particular period. I think it's more likely that what you showed them was just the basics which they couldn't work with as they need to see summaries and totals - you can hardly expect them to start adding up your records and making your profit & loss account themselves.

When you say "keeping all my records on excel spreadsheet" - what exactly did they comprise - they should be full lists of all incomes and expenses transactions, line by line, each item dated, each item analysed to the various income/expenses headings, all columns totalled and balanced and cross referenced against bank or paypal bank accounts.

Create123

Mistral001 wrote: »

In any case it is a good idea to print of your transactions report on Paypal every month and have it like a bank statement for future reference.

Money coming in and money out?

Thank you for your help!

It was a meeting about housing benefit. Apparently everyone that is self employed has a meeting about what work they do and how and to hand in their books. They needed to see accounts from the 22nd oct to the 13th feb.

She said she wanted to see all the records i had. I had a excel spread sheet (in date order but not dated so maybe that would help!) with money in (all from paypal) and money out and it had columns about where the money out was going. Postage, packing materials, stock etc. I also printed off all my paypal activity in case she wanted to see that to check if my excel spread sheet was accurate. And i took all my receipts too because she asked for them as well.

Is there somewhere i can get an excel spread sheet template from to cover it all?

Mistral001

Create123 wrote: »

Money coming in and money out?

Is there somewhere i can get an excel spread sheet template from to cover it all?

You could try the ebay forum if all your business is done through ebay and all payments made by paypal.