The Ultimate eBay Spreadsheet!

If you’ve been looking for an easy way to keep track of your eBay sales and fees, then you’ve found it!

Easy Auctions Tracker is the Ultimate Excel spreadsheet solution for eBay sellers and Trading Assistants. This spreadsheet doesn’t calculate your fees, it actually COLLECTS your transaction information from your eBay account for you!

Easy Auctions Tracker is fully automated and has been Tested & Certified by eBay as a compatible application. By using this spreadsheet, you will be able to quickly collect and record your transactions (sold items and unsold items) without the need to manually enter the information.

With the simple click of a button, Easy Auctions Tracker is able to collect all the information for a entire month’s worth of sales from eBay’s servers for you. No need to know the item numbers of the sold items, just select the month & year then click the “Get All Items” button.

As an accountant and tax professional who works with eBay sellers, I can say that this spreadsheet will make your bookkeeping and thus your tax preparer’s job much easier! Which will mean less time and lower fees for you.

I was excited to find this worksheet and recommend it for eBay sellers who want to track their sales and associated fees in a spreadsheet, but don’t want to spend hours entering the information manually.

You can check out the worksheet at EasyAuctionsTracker.com.

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Attn: Online Business Owners! Do you want to learn how to minimize your online business taxes?

My free report '5 Tax Saving Tips for Ebiz Owners' includes tips to help you get all the deductions and credits you're entitled to, so you don't overpay Uncle Sam!

Get QuickBooks Pro FREE at Staples.com

Today Only (December 22) you can get QuickBooks Pro 2009 (normally $199) for FREE at Staples.

You get $40 off at the store, plus a $159 mail-in rebate. I believe you can purchase this online at Staples.com also.

Go to Staples.com and look for details in the upper right area of the screen.

PayPal and Ebay Must Report to the IRS

Buried deep in the housing act that was just passed is a provision that requires credit card processors – including companies like eBay and PayPal – to report annual gross receipts of it’s merchants to the IRS.

Credit card processors will be required to file Form 1099 for each merchant that has at least $10,000 in gross sales and 200 transactions.

Companies have until 2011 to comply with this new law.

The purpose of this new law is to raise revenue for the housing recovery package and to close the tax gap that exists.  The IRS estimates that it loses billions of dollars in tax revenue from small businesses who under-report (or don’t report) income.

While I’m worried that this new law will cause the cost of business for small and online business owners to go up (in the form of higher eBay fees, higher PayPal fees, etc.), I also think that all small business owners should pay their fair share of taxes (I pay my taxes, why shouldn’t all small business owners?).

So here are some tips to help online business owners comply with the new tax law, without paying too much to Uncle Sam:

• Treat your business like a business.  Register a business name, hire an accountant, keep good records.  The more you can do to treat your business like a business, the less likely the IRS will reclassify your business as a hobby.
• Keep separate accounts and records – have separate eBay, PayPal and checking accounts for your personal and business activities.
• Report your income!  Even if you don’t receive a 1099 from eBay, PayPal or the other companies that will be required to file one, you should still report all of your profits from your online business.
• Learn what’s deductible and what’s not deductible – you’d be surprised how many people do not deduct business expenses because they don’t know they can.
• Don’t be afraid of the home office deduction, and other deductions that have been labeled as a red flag.  Being a small business owner is a red flag, but that doesn’t mean you should go out of business, or worse, not report your income!

To read more about the new IRS rules, and how they affect online business owners, please visit Online Sellers Face New IRS Rules in today’s WSJ.

Bookkeeping for eBay Sellers

n I was catching up on my blog reading, when I ran across Bookkeeping for an eBay Business at The Auction Rebel. 

Gary has been making a living on eBay for over 8 years, and he offers some great advice for eBay sellers on his blog, The Auction Rebel.

Recently he posted a series of articles on bookkeeping for an eBay business…

Bookkeeping for an eBay Business – Part 1

Bookkeeping for an eBay Business – Part 2

In these posts, Gary shares why a good bookkeeping system is essential, some rules for a good bookkeeping system, how to keep track of automobile expenses and inventory, common expense categories for eBay sellers, and more.

As a CPA, I found these two posts very informative, and have bookmarked them for future reference.

If you are selling on eBay, and you don’t have a good bookkeeping system in place, I encourage you to read Gary’s posts.

QuickBooks Basics – Free Teleclass at Teleclass.com

I know many of you use QuickBooks to keep track of your income and expenses for your business.

I just saw a free teleclass at www.teleclass.com on QuickBooks
Basics.  I’m a little rusty on QuickBooks myself, so I’m signing up. 

Here are the details if anyone is interested in joining me…

101410. QuickBooks Basics: Bookkeeping Essentials
(Other) 

Section: 1

One Tuesday, October 30, 2007, from 3-4pm Eastern/NY.  Tuition: Free

Led by
Gabrielle Fontaine

, PB

Gabrielle Fontaine, PB is a freelance Professional Bookkeeper and
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. She specializes assisting
Internet savvy entrepreneurs get control of their financial records and
maximize profits. Gabrielle also publishes the business-boosting
monthly online newsletter, Smart Money Choices. For more information,
visit http://www.bookkeepingdirect.com

gabrielle@bookkeepingdirect.com

http://www.bookkeepingdirect.com

Class Description:
Here are just a few topics you will learn in this class:

What a Chart of Accounts is and why it is the backbone of your business records

How QuickBooks makes it easy to track the money flowing into and out of your Chart of Accounts

A rundown of all the basic bookkeeping terms and what they mean to you

Cash and Accrual basis – why knowing the difference can have a dramatic affect on your tax bill and your business planning

How to use two key financial reports to measure the present health of your company and build future profitability

Putting it all together to understand the behind-the-scenes "adjustments" your accountant makes to your financial records.

Preclass Instructions:

When calling into the audio portion of this class, you will need to enter
Bridge ID: 145412

Gabrielle’s Teaching Style:
This class is in webinar format, using web-based visual and telephone audio. It is lecture style, with Q & A if time allows.

Click here to register for this class.