Hello, need some help... I run a web store (drop shipping).. Heres how I normally handle orders: Receive order through shopping cart Review order and charge credit card Send order to drop shipper Receive invoice from drop shipper Im having a hard time deciding the best way to handle the book keeping. Im currently using Quickbooks.. Do I need to record each and every order and referenced invoice separately? Or should I simply record monthly totals from my CC Processor statement and total drop shipper invoices? (Im talking hundreds of orders per month.. This has been very tedious to this point) What do you guys do? I dont know what kind of records I need to keep... Please someone advise Thanks
It is best to check with an accountant or tax specialist in your area on what is best. Accounting practices for income tax purposes generally vary from country to country and state to state so it is best to check and see what works for your jurisdiction. Entering every transaction can be a full time job if your site is successful so personally, I would enter total of transactions daily. That way, you are only doing data entry once per day. Credit card processors also generally cut off daily so they can submit the days transactions in batch mode for settlement. Retail brick and mortar stores with a basic cash register/till generally just print off a total sales reading at the close of every day and use that total in their book keeping. You should be able to do the same for your online business. Not to mention, daily records will allow you to see which days you perform the best and perhaps offer specials on the days that do poorly. Entering data monthly won't give you that flexibility.