@davewil1964 wrote:
Surely you keep your own profit/loss records?
OP the short answer is that ebays figures do not reduce when a sale is cancelled. ie. item will show as still sold.
I use the ebay 30 day and 120 day figures as the basis for tax my reporting. I figure these are the figures ebay are going to be forwarding to the ATO. I just make a note of any transactions that are cancelled each month and note these on my report to be reconciled by my accountant. I figure this is going to give me very accurate figures and takes very little time. I use an average % over the full years sales for paypal fees.
I use a seperate credit card for my ebay postage which keeps perfect records of postage costs, and only buy stock a few times a year by the pallet load or trailer load., so keeping track of stock purchases is simple. Stock is stored in a shipping container and once levels start to drop, I find a couple more pallet loads. Very simple and very effective.
I record ebay total monthly sales, ebay monthly fees, any stock purchases and adjustments in a small note book. A seperate page for each store, each month. It takes maybe ten minutes per month and maybe an hour or two to reconcile at the end of the year.
I add a small amount to postage for self insurance and whenever a problem arrises I just refund. No arguing, just give them their money back and move on. It doesnt happen often and it is very rare that I think I,m being scammed. You can waste a lot of time and energy arguing with buyers and all of my accounts have 100% positive feedback, powerseller status and very few defects which further helps sales.
This system is much quicker than keeping seperate cash book records for every transaction and I have not had any problems with the ATO or the accountant since using this system.
I can understand why some choose to use a cash book system, but really I,m not concerned with chasing every last dollar. I work on turning over the most stock I can in a limited period of time with minimum inputs and maximum profit mark ups. I rely on bulk turnover to make enough money that I can afford a bit of wastage along the way. Chasing every last dollar takes A LOT of time and personally I dont find it cost effective.
This is the only way I can make houly wages from ebay which are comparable to those of full time, average wage employment. If I start getting bogged down with small details and systems that are not efficient use of time, my average sales and profit per hour drop considerably and I only end up making a few dollars per hour. KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.
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