Business owners, how do you track your expenses & income?

[BlakeIC]

I am curious, as I will be placing orders for inventory very soon and when I launch I want to be able to keep track and ensure I am turning a profit


edit: Did some more searching around, i think I might go ahead with godaddy books and mileiq for mileage deductions

I would still love to hear from others

 

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[Ubermensch]

I am curious, as I will be placing orders for inventory very soon and when I launch I want to be able to keep track and ensure I am turning a profit


edit: Did some more searching around, i think I might go ahead with godaddy books and mileiq for mileage deductions

I would still love to hear from others

Research accountants or bookkeepers, if you want someone to do it for you.

Research accounting software if want to do it yourself.

 

[Eos]

I was researching accounting software a few days ago...

WaveApps is a free accounting service which seems adequate for the startup phase.

https://www.waveapps.com/

 

[Get Right]

Quickbooks for 15+ years

 

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[BlakeIC]

QuickBooks has everything you need.

That said, you should have a basic understanding of accounting principles, how they're applied and how to translate them to your accounting entries. For example, you should know the difference between an "expense" and a "cost of goods sold," as the difference will have a direct effect on taxes -- and whether you get penalized during a tax audit.

Also, you'll want to understand the value of the different financial statements. Understanding how a P&L works versus the information in a balance sheet can make the difference between successful cash flow forecasting and running out of money in the middle of your project.

Quickbooks for 15+ years

Appears quickbooks has free trials, will give them a shot

Thank you

 

[JordanS]

I use quickbooks online. I pay an accountant from upwork a few bucks to do monthly/weekly book maintenance. They send me monthly/weekly reports so I can make sure everythings correct, and to get an overview of my business.

 

[Silverhawk851]

Quickbooks ideally

Freshbooks for a close #2

and if you're an excel whiz, really helps with creating some templates to use.

Honorable mention :

https://ifttt.com/recipes - awesome for automating and connecting different apps

Best of luck

 

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[Evelio]

I found that most accounting softwares are too complicated and have to much crap i dont need as a small business owner. Quickbooks has a relatively new option called Quickbooks Small Business: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/smallbusiness/

That might be just was you're looking for. Also take a look at mint.com

 

[BlakeIC]

I found that most accounting softwares are too complicated and have to much crap i dont need as a small business owner. Quickbooks has a relatively new option called Quickbooks Small Business: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/smallbusiness/

That might be just was you're looking for. Also take a look at mint.com

I currently use mint for personal, didn't realize they were the same company

 

[eekern]

Read this book: Profit First

The author makes a great job explaining why the old model
income - expenses = profit is a terrible way to run a business.

 

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[Mike Kavanagh]

If you're trying to go cheap I used excel/google docs/open office back when I was doing the hustling stuff.

You just need to set it up with all the equations you need.

For example- (cost of item) + (ebay fees) + (shipping fees) = total cost of item
Sold Price - TCoI = Profit


But if you have employees/dealing with larger profits Quickbooks is the way to go.
The time you'll save is worth the cost.

 

[BlakeIC]

Read this book: Profit First

The author makes a great job explaining why the old model
income - expenses = profit is a terrible way to run a business.

with your ref

 

[Rudynate]

I use Freshbooks (FB) for invoicing and tracking expenses. I have a bookkeeper who imports the data, along with bank account data into Quickbooks (QB) to reconcile the FB numbers with the bank accounts and manage my trust account.

 

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[JAMES-L67]

Made my own Excel spreadsheets, work well for me. Only moving relatively low volume at the moment so it's manageable

 

[JordanS]

Also, if you are a single person business just check out the quickbooks self employed. I think it is cheaper and makes it really easy to pay taxes. Quarterly tax payments build in, and then everything easily exports to turbotax.

 

[lovecharm]

Quickbook and we also have a very good local (delaware) accountant.

Our business is a bit complex as it includes importing and local sales, so a competent accountant with local tax knowledge is a MUST.

 

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[eekern]

with your ref

Fun fact about the book I recommended, he actually gave a shout out to this forum and @MJ DeMarco