How to Use Bookkeeping Services for Your Business

Leave a comment

If you ask any small business owner or self-employed person what their least favorite task is, what would they say? Unless you have an accounting background, bookkeeping is probably on the top of the list. Well, I have good news! There are some awesome online tools and services available to automate bookkeeping for your business.

QuickBooks Self-Employed Online

My most used bookkeeping service is QuickBooks online. QuickBooks Self-Employed has tools like transaction tracking, invoicing, mileage tracking, reporting, and tax help (for an extra fee).

  1. Profit & Loss: Connect the bank accounts you use for your business to track every transaction. You can manually sort each transaction or create rules to automate it! Don’t worry if you made a personal transaction, you can categorize as personal or business.
  2. Invoicing: For reselling, you might not need this tool, but don’t overlook it! If you have a second business or provide a service you can easily create an invoice and get paid through QuickBooks.
  3. Mileage tracking: This one is major! You might not realize it, but you drive around a lot for sourcing or even post office runs. All you have to do is download the QuickBooks Self-Employed app on your phone and it will automatically start tracking your miles when you get in your car (you do need to have a Bluetooth connection, however). You can deduct $0.575 per mile on your taxes.
  4. Reporting: This is key for your yearly taxes! If you have everything up to date, come tax time all you’ll have to do is run a few reports. Reporting available: mileage, profit & loss, receipts, tax summary, tax details.

QuickBooks is also beta testing a time clock so you can track your daily tasks or client work!

How I use QuickBooks for Reselling

A snapshot of my transactions and how it lets you sort them!
See where the “rules” are automatically applied.
  1. Profit & Loss: I connect the bank account that I use for expenses and my PayPal account for eBay income. My Poshmark income is reported when I deposit anything into my bank account (along with Mercari). I create rules so that frequent transactions get automatically sorted into categories. My sourcing transactions are auto sorted as “materials & supplies” in business expenses.
  2. Invoicing: I have a graphic design business that I use invoicing for! You probably won’t use this as a reseller, but it’s nice to have.
  3. Mileage tracking: Make sure you are logged into your app or the tracking won’t start! You can also add mileage manually if you missed a trip. Last year I was able to deduct $2,950.
  4. Reporting: For taxes, I just downloaded the documents I needed and filed online!

Click here to sign up for QuickBooks Self-employed for only $7/month!

Airtable

The second most hated task for a reseller? Inventory! Airtable is a website and app that lets you create “bases” for anything you need. It is basically a better version of a spreadsheet that won’t make you cry 🙂

I have one base for all of my inventory. You do have to set it up yourself, but just think through what your needs are! For me, I have the following in my inventory base for each listing: title (that I use in my listing), category (shoes, tops, bottoms, etc), inventory number, measurements, status (photograph, listed, sold), sold date, COGS, net earnings (income after fee), net profit (this is a formula).

I also have a base for my monthly stats! I record the following each month: Poshmark, eBay & Mercari sales ($$ and quantity), social media stats, active listings, and total listings created each day.

You can sign up for Airtable for FREE!

Let me know if you have any questions or if there’s something I didn’t cover in the comments!

**I am not an accountant and I always will suggest meeting with or hiring one just to check that you are doing everything right.

Check out my other blog posts about reselling and Poshmark!

Tips for Moving Inventory on Poshmark

4 Comments

Poshmark inventory can take a bit of time to move depending on the item. I usually let a regular $20-40 priced item sit 2-3 months before moving on to additional steps. Higher-end items with big price tags can take longer to sell and are worth letting sit for even up to a year, but don’t fret! This is my process for moving inventory I know was a bad buy or just isn’t selling on Poshmark:

  1. Send Your Lowest Offer
  2. Relist the Item
  3. Sell to Consignment Stores
  4. Send Items to ThredUp
  5. Re-Donate

Send Your Lowest Offer

In the current buying climate I send 20-30% offers to every liker as they come in. In the past I would wait and only do it on Wednesdays or Saturdays all at once. Your game plan will probably change depending on what’s working for you! Right now people want higher discounts than 10% and quick sales.

Your mindset will most likely change after a few weeks or months on the lowest amount you will take for your item. If you send your lowest offer and no one accepts, I would move onto the next steps!

Relist the Item

Relisting means completely deleting the old listing and creating a new one. You can copy the listing with Poshmark’s new “copy” feature (located in the old listing by the delete button) and keep the old photos. Or you can rephotograph the item if you think it is necessary! I suggest you check the pricing and make sure it’s still competitive!

Reasons to relist are that the item has been sitting for several months with no action or you want to “reset” the listing. In this case, we want to hit the reset “button.” If you’ve sent out your lowest offers, relisting will give you a fresh start with new likes!

**Hot Tip: if you have current offers out on an item, but want to delete it just change the size of the item –>list–>edit–>delete. This cancels out any active offers.

Sell to Consignment Stores

So you’ve tried it all and Poshmark is just not on your side? There is still hope for moving your inventory! Consignment stores are a great way to move your items quickly and get some cash.

This is how I handle consignment:

  1. Think about where you are taking your items before pulling them. Certain stores take certain brands. For example Plato’s Closet is more teen & mall brands while Style Encore is career and mature brands. If you are unsure, call the store ahead and ask what kind of brands they accept. All will say they only accept styles from the last 2 years, but no harm in trying!
  2. Don’t take 4 giant bags at a time. Rumor is that some stores will only accept a certain amount of your items no matter how great they are. Split it up between stores, locations, and days.
  3. Mark your items as “not for sale” instead of deleting them. The consignment store won’t take every item. This way the item won’t sell while you are moving it, but you can mark it for sale if they don’t take it.

**Hot Tip: only take unflawed items and remember that if it’s a designer bag or shoes they might ask for proof of purchase. A Goodwill receipt is probably not what they want to see 🙂

Send Items to ThredUp

ThredUp is a true consignment system where they only pay you when your item sells. This is my last resort for moving stale inventory because the payout is usually minimal depending on the brand and style.

That isn’t to say you can’t make big money on ThredUp! You just need to do research on brands that sell well on the platform.

Most of my regular cleanout items have a 15% payout which is just a few bucks. This is fine if you received the inventory for free or if it’s your last step before donating it back! $3 is better than zero.

ThredUp Luxe payouts are much higher. 80% has been my highest for Manolo Blahnik booties.

Here are some recent solds from a ThredUp Luxe bag! Remember, you only need one “Luxe” brand item in the bag to reclaim your items for free.

**Hot Tip: you can also consign with The RealReal. I suggest finding some ThredUp pros on Instagram or YouTube if you are wanting to learn more!

Re-Donate

And your item has come full circle! Sometimes a bad buy is just a bad buy. Just remember this mistake when you are out sourcing!

**Hot Tip: you can write off your donations. Do your research or ask a financial professional how.

Do you have any tips for moving inventory? Tell me in the comments!

You can find the clothing rack pictured along with my fave reselling supplies here!