recordkeeping

[gran1031]

I need help with setting up my recordkeeping for a small operation. I'm having difficulty getting all info pertaining to each item, like which shipping charge in paypal goes to which buyer or item.

[mam98031]

It may be best for you to find a local CPA with Ebay site experience to guide you.  While we can certainly assist you here, it may not be all inclusive and you will have state and federal requirements to meet.  So paying a professional for an hour of their time is likely to be money well spent.

Play around in the PP site.  They have reports available to you.  Some can even be downloaded and then you can work with it inside of a worksheet program like Excel.

On the Seller Hub in Ebay, under Orders.  There is a report you can download and capture your sales information.

Make sure you keep all your receipts for any items you purchased for resale.  Also any supplies you may purchase to run your little business to include shipping supplies.

[gwzcomps]

Record keeping is hell. If you want it done right and accurate you have to manually track it. I finally broke down and spent a week designing a spreadsheet so I could track my sales numbers in semi real time. I have my ebay stuff divided into 3 areas on my spreadsheet

Area 1: ebay sales numbers breaking out sale price and any shipping costs in one row
Area 2: Paypal shipping label charges. Copy and paste the history from the Paypal downloaded spreadsheet into my own, with formatting that matches their formatting. You will have to manually edit out the non shipping transactions.
Area 3: eBay fees for the month along with the totals broken out by month from the other areas.

I see no advantage of tying the shipping cost to the transaction personally. It is only beneficial if you want to do a nitty gritty profit analysis. It isn't worth the time it takes to manage it unless you can find a good automation tool that manages the numbers properly. The GoDaddy tool is junk and not worth paying for.