Many of the teacherpreneurs I know will say things like, "I'm a teacher, not a business person!" But I have realized - even if it took me awhile - that we tend to do better on TpT when we start treating it like a business. Which is why today I want to share with you how to track income and expenses as a TpT seller.
Scroll down to watch my video, get my FREE income and expense spreadsheets, and see another helpful link that helps me track other important business items.
Please remember, I am NOT a business expert. I am NOT an accountant. And I can NOT possibly fully understand your business. This is what works for me, and I want to give you the editable tools to tweak my system to make it work for you.
My Income and Expense Tracking Video
Here is an eight minute video walking you through the system I use. I'm also writing a bit about it below, but I think it'll be better to see it. Watch it on 2x the speed if you're short on time. :)
The BIG Secret
Set up a new email address. Yes, I know....NONE of us want another email to check. But this email serves a purpose. It houses ALL of your business money so you can focus more on other things. And you do not use it for ANYTHING else. The only emails coming in this way are for YOU, your bookkeeper (if you have one), possibly your tax person, and maybe the IRS if you were to ever be audited.
As income comes in or money goes out - forward that email, take a picture of that receipt, or log those miles traveled. This way you can quickly and easily put the information into an email and send it over to that new email address.
Then once a month you can log into your email, put everything into the appropriate places on the spreadsheet, transfer them over to your year-end data, and you're done.
At year end, I print the last page and send it to my accountant.
For the last three years I have had all my business taxes ready to go by January 5th - other than waiting for official tax documents I need. But at least everything that I have to do is done!
Here are free downloads of my Google Spreadsheet for my income and expenses. You may have to tweak the categories a bit to ensure they make sense for YOUR business.
I also own this item from TpT. I do use many aspects of it, but the income and expenses part were too much for me. I'm all about keeping things as simple as possible! But Kristen has done an amazing job of creating so many ways for TpT sellers to analyze data and plan with this great download.
If you have any questions about my system, feel free to ask them below. I will do my best to answer them!
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Thanks for being here!
~Heather aka HoJo~
