January is a pretty dreaded time for small business owners. Business taxes are due by the 31st, and not a day later. If you are late, each additional day is an additional fine. That $$$ adds up.
So, being the procrastinating type B personality that I am, I’ve waited until January to begin calculating my totals, counting up my receipts, and going through all of my PayPal transactions. Holy crap it’s a lot of work.
There are 2 reasons why I have sworn NOT to wait until January in 2012:
Reason #1: avoid having to deal with the tremendous mountains of receipts and paperwork all at once.
Reason #2: be aware of my profits/losses and where my business stands at all times. If I’m losing money or making money, I want to know. As I explained in my most recent article for Handmadeology, it is all too easy to let those little fees add up and not realize that you are in the red. I didn’t last year, and I intend that to change this year.
To assist myself in completing this goal, I’ve made up some spreadsheets to fill out as the days and weeks progress. I set them up for WA state because we have different tax rates for different zip codes, so it’s a lot to keep track of for tax time. These may not fit your recording needs exactly, but free to lovingly rip them off from me anyways if you want, just click the thumbnails below to enlarge:
Tagged: accounting, business, etsy, expenses, filing, profit, taxes
Megan's Beaded Blog 
I file my business taxes as a Schedule C with my normal taxes due in April. But I’m in Iowa and maybe WA is different?
I chart my paypal fees every month. I’ve found if I wait any longer that it is just crazy! And since I pay my sales tax quarterly, I update my sales spreadsheet then as well.
Just this year I’ve started using a Profit Log much like your spreadsheets above. I want to know where I stand for each sale. I plan to update this monthly or possibly twice a month.
You are definitely on top of things! Way to go!
Great idea! I only started this as a hobby, to make little money on the side but this will help tell me for sure if i’m actually doing something right!
But tax time is so much FUN! In my state we have to pay my yearly sales tax by the end of Feb (done) but I have till April to do my biz taxes (unless I have an employee). However for the sake of not procrastinating I try to keep up with sales/expenses as they happen all through the year so all I have to do is quickly sum up the year at a glance for my CPA, print and done during the first week of Jan! Now I just gotta wait for all our personal tax paperwork to show up in the mail so I can actually make my appointment….
Unfortunately my sales are so bad that the state changed me from quarterly to yearly for sales tax. I can appreciate the irony there. But I’ll keep on plugging away because I am forever the optimist! Great spreadsheets btw!
I’m not sure what the amount is to have to file quarterly in my state, but I do know that I’m no where near it! lol
[…] a problem with that, in fact, my problem is a LACK of these things. I have to FORCE myself to keep track of my accounting so it doesn’t pile up for me at end of each month (or year). I usually wait until my crafting […]