Anyone know a good accountant?

[retrogeekaustralia]

Hey guys, im just wondering if anyone knows a good accountant who has experience in eBay selling. I have seen one before but i don't feel i was taken seriously and didn't give very helpful advice, she gave me a basic run down of things to record but i feel im still pretty lost.

At the moment i am just using a spreadsheet to record all my sales and expenses, however over the last 12 months it has grown quite a bit and it's becoming very time consuming and i know there got to be a more efficient way of doing what i am doing. I'm also not all that confident that i am recording everything properly.

I live in the Illawarra region so if anyone here knows of anywhere close that has experience with eBay selling that would be great, i would be willing to travel to Sydney if it meant i was going to get some worthy advice.

[wishuponastarcelebrationsandgifts]

Sorry I cannot recommend an accountant in your area but a good bookkeeper should be able to help you. They don't need to know a lot about ebay specifically to give you advice about proper record keeping. If you are well acquainted with any of the local business owners perhaps ask them whether they utilise a bookkeeper and if so if they could introduce you.

Depending on how comfortable you are using accounting software (Xero, MYOB etc) you could explore these as an alternative to spreadsheets.

What is right for you will depend on exactly what it is that you are now finding difficult to manage. I haven't used Xero myself, but believe it integrates with Paypal. There is a monthly fee to use it. MYOB used to run their own short courses on how to use their software which were quite good years ago. Even with MYOB there are various versions. The cheaper ones don't have inventory management. If you sell a lot of different items you may find this quite useful.

Perhaps consider contacting the ATO as they used to run regional seminars from time to assist small business owners with information on record keeping etc.

I would suggest settling for an accountant/bookkeeper that you feel comfortable with. They should take you seriously and should also try to help you. It is extremely unprofessional for them not to ensure they have provided you with helpful advice that suits your needs.

[retrogeekaustralia]

Thanks for your advice, I appreciate your input. I guess my biggest question is wether I need to be recording each individual sale or not in my spreadsheet, currently I am manually entering each sale into my income worksheet but my business is low value high volume so this is very time consuming. Would it be sufficient enough to just record say my total income for each month from both my paypal and bank account? Or am I required to be doing it the way I currently am?

Im not currently registered for gst so I don't currently print any invoices for my customers but I will likely go close to the threshold soon. In saying this will I just end up just having to go back to recording each sale individually once Im registered? Or can you still use a total sales income for determining my gst owed?

[retrogeekaustralia]

I guess this is also the reason I'm mainly wanting an accountant who has dealt with ebay before, I'm fairly sure I know what i need to be recording, im more looking for someone who can tell me how to record that data most efficiently. So someone who has examples of other ebay sellers would be able to give me some good suggestions.

[wishuponastarcelebrationsandgifts]

Most accountants will tell you each of their clients uses different methods for record keeping. Some may want very detailed information and others may not. Similarly some may be proficient in using accounting software while others may be more inclined to turn up with the old box of paperwork and let their accountant sort it out for them. So long as you use a consistent method that enables you to understand how you have recorded your transactions that is fine.

You are not required to necessarily document each individual sale but you will need to be able to trace it back to the payment you received. In the event that you are audited the issue will be whether you declared all of your income. You may find it easier to consolidate the day's/week's/month's sales into 1 transaction etc. rather than record individual sales. Perhaps make sure at the end of the month the transaction(s) you have recorded reconcile with your paypal and bank accounts as this will provide you with a method to check for accuracy. Also remember to keep a record of bank and paypal fees.

Check your sales totals each month to make sure you haven't gone over the threshhold for GST. You won't need to go back to recording individual sales if everything you sell is to Australian buyers (ie includes GST). You can simply calculate the GST by dividing your total sales figure by 11. eg 1000/11 = $90.90 which is the GST you collected on your sales of $1,000. If however you also sell to overseas buyers and there is no GST on those transactions, then you will need to keep a record of these sales separately.

As for issuing a tax invoice if all of your items are very low value you don't need to issue a tax invoice unless your buyer asks for one and their purchase is for $82.50 or more (inclusive of GST).

There are a range of publications on the ATO website that you will probably find quite helpful. You can download them or order them online. These include publications on record keeping:

http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.aspx?doc=/content/76494.htm&m=0

Perhaps have a read of these before you see an accountant as they may answer most of your questions and save you some money.

[jensmanchester-australia]

senic - I have used spreadsheets, myob, quickbooks and Xero at different times.

I changed to Xero a couple of years ago and it was the best thing I did. It works really well for ebay sellers as it integrates with Paypal and bank accounts and it is really easy and simple to use.

If you check out the xero website there is a list of xero certified accountants who can help set it up for you and get you started if you think it would be suitable.

It is cheap and a huge time saver. It now takes me about an hour each month to do all the bookwork and come tax time all the reports etc you need are there ready for the accountant.

[retrogeekaustralia]

Thanks wishupon you have been really helpful! I''ll definately read though some more on the ato website like you suggested.

jens - I have been very tempted into Xero, it does look like a very good option. It didn't really seem too expensive to me although last time i was looking into it looked like there was an extra fee to integrate ebay with it which i thought was a little too much for what im making at the moment. Do you think it would be necessary to integrate with eBay, or would just a bank feed and paypal feed be sufficient for everything?

[jensmanchester-australia]

Senic - I don't integrate with ebay through Xero. I just use the Paypal and bank feeds.

[davewil1964]

Me. It really isn't hard.

Stock cost

Fees

Income

Costs

eBay, bank statements and Paypal will provide you with the income/expenditure side, AP the postage, your own purchases stock cost. Plus, of course internet and office costs, plus all the ancilliaries.

I use a spreadsheet, but that is because I never seem to find the time to build an online selling program. Especially one that I could sell. The latter requires heaps of extras - like 'Help'. And about a million error traps.

[rusty-shed]

Hi, I run a separate Ebay business to this one which turns over $74,000 per year. I simply access end of month sales data and 120 day sales data from summary page. I keep a record of these for sales on my tax return. I also check feedback results and click on the icon for silver power seller details. This gives me exact 12 month sales totals in U.S dollars. This is the figures I present for taxable sales. Every month I record purchases offline in a notebook, and all online purchases are paid with Paypal. Go to Paypal account. click money sent icon, 5 minutes with the calculator to add them up, all done. At the end of the financial year, go to current listings and add up the totals at the bottom of each page. Estimate average mark up percent, plus unlisted stock on hand. Stocktake done. I only charge actual post cost, plus packing materials, so other than keeping receipts in a black bag each year in case audit, nothing to record there. All up it takes less than two hours to record all data for tax using these methods. ( all methods approved by very experienced accounting firm, which lodge my tax for this business plus a couple of other businesses I run ) I have 1600 - 1700 listed items and 2000 sales per year. GST.- DONT DO IT !!! if you can possibly avoid it. Keep sales under $75,000 per year.( GST Threshold ) All of that tax comes straight off your profit margin unless you are not charging full price now. To take home the same profit you may need to sell $100, 000 just to make the same amount of money. ( and do all of the extra packing and listing for free ) The workload for GST is a real pain in the butt, and the tax office gets grumpy if you are a day late or not quite right. I have run separate GST registered businesses since the system came in and still hate it. ( I reduce new listings and bump my price up if I sell too much in a month ) If you want to sell more than $75,000, start another account in a partners name. This way you can sell $150,000 before needing to charge GST. I have found the answer to making serious money on Ebay ( $1000 profit for 2.5 days per week ) is find a nieche product with very high profit margins. Something you already know about, and high value items. ( minimum $20 and the more expensive the better)  Its hard to make money selling $2.99 kids clothes against 500,000 similar listings. My business has only been going 2 years and I gave up my day job after 12 months. In spite of all the wingers on Ebay forums, it can still be done. All the best to everyone in the Ebay community, hope this helps.