3 Easy Steps to Organize Sales and Expenses for your Etsy Shop

I’ve been an Etsy Shop keeper for …oh…6 days now!  I am, obviously, in no way an expert by any means.  However, I’ve come upon a situation that I can’t seem to find an article for.  How do I organize the “bookwork” aspect of my new Etsy business?  I want to make sure I keep on top of organizing my expenses and sales right from the get go.  {Because, you know, when I make my millions, I want to make sure I can file my taxes properly…  tee hee.}

Since I couldn’t seem to locate any advice on this subject, I decided to just go “old school” for now.  {Please feel free to let me know if you have a better idea!} I’ve learned from past experience that looking for that “missing receipt” is just no fun at all!

I’ve done a little selling of both Pampered Chef {kitchen products} and Close to My Heart {papercrafting products} in the past.  Both companies were absolutely wonderful in explaining how to keep track of the paperwork part of  business.

I adapted ideas from them to do what I’m doing now.

It’s really simple.

1.  Label 12 file folders with the months of the year.  I put an (E) in front to indicate it was my Etsy things.

colored folders

 

2.  Place an Income and Expense sheet in each folder. {I found mine here.}

 

income and expenses colored

 

3.  Write down transactions (income and expenses) when they occur and place all applicable receipts for that month in the folder.  It makes it easy to find receipts for transactions if you need to refer to them in the future.

 

colored recipts

Obviously, my “business” is teeny tiny right now, and there isn’t a very large “profit”, to say the least.  As your business grows, I’m sure you will want to revamp this simple system to something more appropriate to the revenue you receive.

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3 Comments

  1. Ritajoy, thank you, thank you, thank you! These are some of the very questions I’ve pondered. Do I have an etsy shop? Nope! Have I considered it? Yes… but with reservations. Maybe as the “dust” settles I will post more of my lovelies (even if it seems like everyone else has been doing the same thing…)

    Have a wonderful day!

  2. Rita, this is JUST what I needed! Thank you so much for sharing your system! I think it will work well for me as well! Now I just need to get some more orders… 🙂

  3. this is great!! i made a spreadsheet to track my expenses/profit but it’s not working so well for me 🙂 i’m a visual person so seeing the folders will be much better for me. also, it’s a great reason to buy some cute new folders 🙂

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