Bookkeeping for Ecommerce Sellers with Inventory: Easy Guide

What is Inventory and Why Does it Matter?

Imagine you have a toy store. All the toys on your shelves are your inventory. When you sell a toy, it leaves your shelf. When you buy more toys, they go onto your shelf. For online sellers, inventory is all the products you have ready to ship to your customers. Keeping good track of your inventory is super important because it helps you know how much stuff you have, how much it cost you, and how much money you made when you sell it.

Counting Your Stuff: The Inventory Game

It's like counting your toys every day. You need to know how many of each item you have. You also need to know how much you paid for each item. This helps you figure out how much money you have tied up in your products. Many online stores have tools that help with this. You might also use a special spreadsheet or a tool like QuickBooks to keep track. When you buy new stuff, write it down! When you sell stuff, write that down too!

• When you buy a product to sell, write down the date and how much you paid for it.
• When you sell a product, write down the date, how much you sold it for, and that it's gone from your 'shelf'.

Those Pesky Fees: What They Are and How to Track Them

When you sell online, there are usually some fees. Think of it like paying a small rental fee for your online store, or a tiny tip to the company that helps you take credit card payments. These fees can add up! You need to keep track of them because they are money you spent to make a sale.

• **Selling Platform Fees:** This is what places like Etsy, Shopify, or Amazon charge you to sell on their site. It might be a small amount for each sale, or a monthly fee.
• **Payment Processing Fees:** When someone pays with a credit card, there's usually a small fee. PayPal and Stripe are examples of companies that charge these fees.
• **Shipping Fees:** If you pay for shipping labels, these are also fees you need to track.

Sales Tax: The Money You Collect for the Government

Sales tax is money you collect from your customers and then send to the government. It's like being a piggy bank for the government! Not all states have sales tax, and the rules can be different depending on where you and your customer live. This can be tricky, so many online selling platforms have tools to help you collect the right amount. It's super important to keep this money separate because it's not yours to keep. You owe it to the government!

• Know if you need to collect sales tax in the states where you sell.
• Use your selling platform's tools to help collect the correct sales tax.
• Keep the sales tax money separate from your other money.
• Send the sales tax money to the government when it's due.

Putting It All Together with Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is like having a diary for all your money. You write down every time money comes in and every time money goes out. For online sellers with inventory, this means writing down when you buy products, when you sell them, how much you paid in fees, and how much sales tax you collected. LedgerDude helps you keep this diary neat and tidy. We can help you capture your receipts, keep track of your monthly money, and even sync with QuickBooks to make it super easy.

• Use LedgerDude to capture pictures of your receipts for things you buy to sell.
• LedgerDude helps you see how much money you made and spent each month.
• You can sync your LedgerDude account with QuickBooks to keep all your money records in one place.

A Simple Money Rule: Keep Business Money Separate

This is a big one! Imagine you have two piggy banks: one for your allowance and one for your lemonade stand. You wouldn't mix them up, right? It's the same with your online store money. Have a bank account just for your business. This makes it so much easier to see how well your store is doing and helps you keep track of all your inventory, fees, and sales tax.

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