eBay

thewinterfox · ‎12-21-2022

I opened a store a few months ago and it's going well. Up until now, I've been tracking each individual sale using a spreadsheet I found, just to make sure everything is going as planned and I'm actually making a profit from it. I've gotten to the point where I feel like it no longer makes sense to do it this way and that I should just be tracking monthly data instead of each individual sale. Every YouTube video on the topic clearly mentions the need (or at least the convenience) for accounting software for their store. I wanted to continue using my spreadsheet for the remainder of this month and during the holidays, figure out what software to go with for the new year. Unfortunately, the one everyone kept mentioning (GoDaddy Bookkeeping) no longer exists and before it made its exit, apparently was pointing people to turn to Quicken. I've heard a lot of people say to stay away from Quicken, so I have decided to try something else. But what?

The current programs I'm considering are: Zoho, Sage, and Xero. I've read that a lot of eBay sellers like to use A2X, although I have no idea what it is. Just that Xero integrates well with it. I have no idea what any of them are, to be honest. Pros and Cons. If someone could recommend a good website or YouTube video that breaks down the differences between them, that would be great.

This is all completely new territory for me. I'm not familiar with accounting software at all. I'm not familiar with accounting at all. What I'm looking for, is software that will essentially do for me what I'm already doing on my spreadsheet. Date of sale, item description, item numbers, ebay fees, transaction fees, gross sales, shipping costs, cost of the items, profit per item, and overall profit.

One final thought. The costs of my items is beginning to vary and it's going to to become difficult going forward, to remember what I paid for each item at the point of sale. Is there a way to enter this info into ebay (or the accounting software) at the time of listing the item? It was easy to keep up with when I started 3 months ago and every item cost the same.

Sorry if this sounds very elementary to some of you. This is not something I had ever really planned to get into, but it's going well and I'm enjoying it, so any advice would be appreciated.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎12-21-2022

You sell 1,2,3 items a day so it should be easy to continue what you are doing. Acct Software makes sense for those selling 50,100 or more items a day.

If you are using a 'spreadsheet'- I assume excel? Make 13 tabs- 1 for each month and 1 for a running YTD total. Use the 'sum' to total each column at the bottom.

1st Column- the item

2nd- sold for (with shipping)

3rd- Shipping label cost

4th- shipping material cost

5th- Fees

6th (sum of Column 1 minus Col 2,3,4,5)- this will give you the profit

At Bottom, totals for each.

Again- create 1 sheet, 12 tabs and copy/past the 1st page on to the next 11.

13th and final sheet totals the items at the bottom for each month (allows a 'To Date Year To Date' glance, until the year is over.

luckythewinner · ‎12-21-2022

One final thought. The costs of my items is beginning to vary and it's going to to become difficult going forward, to remember what I paid for each item at the point of sale.

Why do you have to "remember" what you paid for every item you sell? The IRS does not accept "I remember paying" as proper documentation of cost of goods sold 🙄

I attach my Cost of Goods Sold documentation to every item in my inventory. When the item sells, that documentation is put into a "Cost of Goods Sold" folder. I do not bother to track individual results - it is too much work and provides no benefit to me. I just total them up as I need the know the total. (which is once at the end of the year).

onefootflipper · ‎12-21-2022

Item by item records is the exact wrong way to do it particularly for a used item seller / garage sale picker. As is accrual accounting which is what you seem to be using.

You see Youtube people mention accounting software because they are getting paid to do so.

I have higher sales volume than most of the Youtube sellers that I watch and I see no need at all for any accounting software more basic than a free spreadsheet program.

You want to be doing cash accounting on schedule C, where the item or lot of items is "written off" at the time of purchase, not at the time of sale.

You document your own cash purchases, the IRS does not expect cash register receipts or invoices to be very common for people in our sort of business.

thewinterfox · ‎12-21-2022

Hence the reason I said this was brand new territory for me. Thank you for your well thought out suggestion and welcoming eye roll. I will take it all into consideration moving forward.

thewinterfox · ‎12-21-2022

Thank you! It sounds like I should just continue doing what I'm doing for this upcoming year and re-evaluate again next year.

luckythewinner · ‎12-21-2022

@thewinterfox wrote:
Hence the reason I said this was brand new territory for me. Thank you for your well thought out suggestion and welcoming eye roll. I will take it all into consideration moving forward.

The eye roll was not intended to be welcoming. It was intended to raise an alarm bell about how important source documentation is when justifying costs to the IRS.

caldreamer · ‎12-21-2022

EBAY has reports that track EBAY sales & EBAY fees. Go to PAYMENTS, REPORT, TRANSACTION REPORT (enter time period). I have to warn you though....it is very difficult to understand because report is about 40 columns wide (gives you more information than you need).

You need to create your own spreadsheet to track your "cost of goods, mileage, office supplies" and other expenses. Because you acquire many things at yard sales you need to create list showing (date your purchased item, description of item & amount you paid) and keep as proof for IRS. You should also keep "mileage log" (date/destination/miles) to prove your mileage. Also keep receipts for all office/packing materials.

You also need to create spreadsheet for all "inventory" that you acquire. You need to show "date of purchase, cost you paid for merchandise, description of item, date sold). Assign a Inventory# to all items you have to sell and when you sell that item (enter date sold & deduct cost of goods). You keep a running total (year after year) of all inventory bought & sold. IRS requires you to show "beginning inventory Jan. 1, 2022" (total cost of goods on hand) and also show "ending inventory Dec. 31, 2022" (total inventory on hand).

Jan. 1 - BEGINNING INVENTORY on hand $20,000 (your cost of goods)

COST OF GOODS (items sold 2022) -5,000

Dec. 31 - ENDING INVENTORY 15,000

You report "gross sales" as shown on 1099 to IRS. When you file income taxes as a "business" you can deduct business expenses (EBAY fees, costs of goods, mileage, office supplies, shipping cost to send items to your customer, customer returns, etc). You pay income taxes on the "net amount" after all deductions.

stephenmorgan · ‎12-21-2022

@thewinterfox wrote:
What I'm looking for, is software that will essentially do for me what I'm already doing on my spreadsheet. Date of sale, item description, item numbers, ebay fees, transaction fees, gross sales, shipping costs, cost of the items, profit per item, and overall profit.

One final thought. The costs of my items is beginning to vary and it's going to to become difficult going forward, to remember what I paid for each item at the point of sale. Is there a way to enter this info into ebay (or the accounting software) at the time of listing the item? It was easy to keep up with when I started 3 months ago and every item cost the same.

Most of this information is available in a eBay Transaction Report. There are 33 items of data available. This is way too much information to print out on one sheet of paper. You need to be very well skilled at using a Spread Sheet so you can reduce the information by deleting rows, columns of unneeded information and use abbreviations to reduce column widths so that you can make a meaningful report that will fit in one page width.

You mention about entering cost of item. There is a way to do this on a individual item, meaning one item per listing. When creating a listing there is a box for Custom Label (SUK). You could use this box for your cost of the item. This entry is only viewable when signed into the account so others will not be able to see it. When you download a Transaction Report this information will be on the report. As long as it is in number format you will be able to use formulas and do calculations in a spreadsheet just like any other numbers.

If you are using multiple quantities listings then as long as all the prices are the same it is a simple formula to calculate multiple purchases of the same item after you download the Transaction Report into a cell on the spreadsheet.

It were using variation listings then using the box my not work unless all items were the same price.

Information on Transaction Report

Transaction creation date

Type

Order number

Buyer username

Buyer name

Ship to city

Ship to province/region/state

Ship to zip

Ship to country

Net amount

Payout currency

Payout date

Payout ID

Payout method

Payout status

Reason for hold

Item ID

Transaction ID

Item title

Custom label

Quantity

Item subtotal

Shipping and handling

Final Value Fee - fixed

Final Value Fee - variable

Very high "item not as described" fee

Below standard performance fee

International fee

Gross transaction amount

Transaction currency

Exchange rate

Reference ID

Description

thewinterfox · ‎12-22-2022

Thank you again for your very welcoming and thoughtful responses. It's people like you, who make us feel right at home. Cheers!

thewinterfox · ‎12-22-2022

Thank you so much. I'm going to look more into this. Accrual vs cash is completely foreign to me. So far, I'm just trying to keep track of everything coming in and out, and what I'm paying vs what I'm selling it for. I'm sure there is a much better way to do it, which is why I'm asking about it. I'm still confused about writing off my purchases vs reporting my income from the item's sales.

thewinterfox · ‎12-22-2022

Thank you!

thewinterfox · ‎12-22-2022

This is great. I've seen the custom label box, when creating listings and had no idea what it was used for (or could be used for). This seems to be a great idea!

onefootflipper · ‎12-22-2022

@thewinterfox wrote:
Thank you so much. I'm going to look more into this. Accrual vs cash is completely foreign to me. So far, I'm just trying to keep track of everything coming in and out, and what I'm paying vs what I'm selling it for. I'm sure there is a much better way to do it, which is why I'm asking about it. I'm still confused about writing off my purchases vs reporting my income from the item's sales.

Cash accounting is definitely what you want to do. That is where the cost of the item is accounted for as soon as you acquire the item, not 2 years later when it sells, not never if it never sells, etc. You can also keep your bookkeeping simpler by creating categories for your stuff. The hobby shop I used to sell at tracked all the used stuff in their system this way. Splitting it between a half dozen broad categories that covered all the used items they were willing to deal with. You absolutely do not need to write down every item in detail. I purchase lots sometimes where there are literally thousands of items and I might not even know what I have until a year later when I finally dig down to the bottom of it.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎12-22-2022

@stephenmorgan wrote:
@thewinterfox wrote:
What I'm looking for, is software that will essentially do for me what I'm already doing on my spreadsheet. Date of sale, item description, item numbers, ebay fees, transaction fees, gross sales, shipping costs, cost of the items, profit per item, and overall profit.

One final thought. The costs of my items is beginning to vary and it's going to to become difficult going forward, to remember what I paid for each item at the point of sale. Is there a way to enter this info into ebay (or the accounting software) at the time of listing the item? It was easy to keep up with when I started 3 months ago and every item cost the same.

Most of this information is available in a eBay Transaction Report. There are 33 items of data available. This is way too much information to print out on one sheet of paper. You need to be very well skilled at using a Spread Sheet so you can reduce the information by deleting rows, columns of unneeded information and use abbreviations to reduce column widths so that you can make a meaningful report that will fit in one page width.

You mention about entering cost of item. There is a way to do this on a individual item, meaning one item per listing. When creating a listing there is a box for Custom Label (SUK). You could use this box for your cost of the item. This entry is only viewable when signed into the account so others will not be able to see it. When you download a Transaction Report this information will be on the report. As long as it is in number format you will be able to use formulas and do calculations in a spreadsheet just like any other numbers.

If you are using multiple quantities listings then as long as all the prices are the same it is a simple formula to calculate multiple purchases of the same item after you download the Transaction Report into a cell on the spreadsheet.

It were using variation listings then using the box my not work unless all items were the same price.

Information on Transaction Report

Transaction creation date
Type
Order number
Buyer username
Buyer name
Ship to city
Ship to province/region/state
Ship to zip
Ship to country
Net amount
Payout currency
Payout date
Payout ID
Payout method
Payout status
Reason for hold
Item ID
Transaction ID
Item title
Custom label
Quantity
Item subtotal
Shipping and handling
Final Value Fee - fixed
Final Value Fee - variable
Very high "item not as described" fee
Below standard performance fee
International fee
Gross transaction amount
Transaction currency
Exchange rate
Reference ID
Description

You do NOT need to be 'very well skilled' to remove a column; simply right click that column at the top and in the drop down, click 'delete' (or hide- which is better).

You can also 'choose' at the top of the report, the items you want on that report- so you don't have all 30 there. I just click 'orders' 'fees' and 'returns' and get rid of the rest as they are seldom needed.