One of the most important things about reselling, and truly anything in life these days, is knowing how much money you are making every day.
Don’t let the numbers of your business creep up on you!
Most reselling platforms online provide you with electronic statements of all sales you make, including the important numbers like gross profit, net profit, fees, shipping cost, and taxes.
But instead of trying to decipher through all of those extra charts and numbers, most resellers keep track of their net earnings as they sell items by doing their own bookkeeping.
Keeping up with your numbers and “books” is super important to all businesses, especially ones in which making a reserve profit on each item is necessary.
Here is some truthful advice to start charting down your reselling successes, along with my prefered methods of bookkeeping that keeps my numbers clean and my business running smooth:
Chart your numbers
Having a chart of what you make on each website, per each item, is extremely helpful when going back to do monthly or yearly numbers.
You can use software like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, etc…
Above is a photo of my own business chart, I list each website profit separate, along with each expense I have made, sorted by each month of the year.
Here is a free downloadable Word file here for your use:
I prefer using this method as it allows for me to see net profit and loss for each month, along with keeping me accountable for over-spending or other large fees that are taken off on other websites.
Again, the downloadable and printable statements provided by selling websites give your gross profit, net profit, fees, shipping cost, and taxes, which is super important, but if you’re wanting to look up some “real” numbers quickly, charting this out on your own with only the net profits is the way to go!
Write it down
To write down my net profit per each item in a monthly/weekly planner is the first step in my bookkeeping process.
As someone who prefers handwritten notes, this is perfect for me to have and I constantly go back to my planner to reference what sold, the prices, the date of sale, and what platform it sold on.
Some people start their process on their COG chart, (cost of goods chart), but I use the planner method to fill that in over time.
On the date sold, I put the item description, the net profit, and what website it sold on.
After the month is over and all numbers are finalized, I go to my net earning chart, shown above, and put all of my totals in for each website.
Why all the fuss over keeping clean books?
Because it’ll keep the headaches away while validating your worth as a successful business.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that you won’t have to dig through a year’s worth of sales numbers during tax time for your complete expense reports and you’ll have a better grasp on your business!
If you want your taxes to run smoothly, chart down all expenses! Even the selling/sales fees for each website you sell on! (preferably in a separate document)
Tax preparers need this information in order to file your taxes correctly. I would know, I had to spend an entire week redoing my paperwork because I didn’t include this information the first time I submitted.
It’s easier on everyone if you file the important information as you go, and don’t assume that the selling websites will provide it for you.
Also, tracking your progress and profits along the way will give you a clear view of what works and what doesn’t for your business.
Maybe you bought more shoes one month versus the rest? You held a sale one month and made double your average? You spend more money one month versus another? Etc… What you need to know, is how your business is changing and evolving. What worked and what didn’t.
By charting each month, you will be able to spot those differences easier and make corrections or decisions based on the factual evidence: the net numbers.
One of the basic conceptions of “successful businesses” is knowing that you’re making a profit. Keep your numbers clean and you’ll be able to validate your conceptions in your own personal business.
Not only does it make your business look good, but it’ll boost your confidence and squash any irrational thoughts of failure you may have.
Getting started on organizing your numbers can be stressful, but don’t give up!
Just take it one month at a time, and try to be as organized as possible.
To this day, I still have to backtrack and redo numbers sometimes! It’s frustrating, but knowing I can fix it and being extremely accurate is worth it, in my opinion.
If you want to start out easy, download this template and fill it out for yourself:
And if you’re like me and enjoy handwriting, here’s some planners to consider purchasing to keep records of sales with:
By visiting and purchasing from the items linked above, I earn a small commision for each purchase made. So, thank you for supporting this blog and my small business. ❤️
If there is any other method that you have used and prefer over these to keep sales straight for reselling, please do comment and tell us your experiences below! Let’s learn and grow, together!
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns on how to start bookkeeping for your reselling business, reach out to me by email at revive.me.shop@gmail.com , or by social media:
