Monday, January 21, 2019

How To Make Amazon Bookkeeping Less Daunting

By Jose Jones


Accounting is an arduous and tedious task. This is especially true for people who lack training and therefore might not enjoy it at all. It can also be overwhelming and stressful especially if left until there is a deadline looming. It is definitely time-consuming. It takes a lot to gather all the data and assemble it as it should be. Amazon bookkeeping is not a walk in the park. One must arm themselves with the fundamentals of it before they DIY. Without said knowledge, it is also easy to be misled by the software on the market.

Just like regular businesses, e-commerce traders still have to pay taxes. Taxes have to be filed on time. The authorities announce the dates months in advance. That is why there is a penalty for late filing. It is assumed to be due to either ignorance or laziness. Taxes also have to be filed properly. If one is doing all of the things on their own with nary a knowledge of accounting principle then it is guaranteed that they will make a mistake. Often, a fatal one.

Another great reason is that doing the books regularly allows one to have a consistent view of the growth. One can keep an eye on the curve. They can then decide if the rate of growth is favorable or if it needs a little burst of energy. It also allows one to pull resources from unprofitable endeavors.

The first action is to look at the performance of this business before looking at overall health. Performance is all about profits and losses. Growth patterns and movement trends. Comparisons can also be made from a profit and loss statement. This one is pretty straight forward actually.

The statement of financial position or as it commonly known, the balance sheet is also very handy. See one may have all the expenses and profits in the first document. However, this second document offers a more comprehensive look at the business. Where the first document is akin to checking how high the temperature is, the second is all about diagnosing the underlying illness.

The key to ensuring comprehensive coverage of all relevant data required for this exercise is ensuring proper record keeping. There should be some sort of journal that one refers at the end of the months when doing their accounting. Receipts must also be properly stored. If one has to get cloud space to store these bits then it should be done.

It is tempting to wait until a few days before the tax deadline to get this done. However, that is probably the worst thing one can do. Here is no telling what is lurking behind the numerical curtain. The exercise could prove more time consuming than expected. Then one would either have to rush through or they would leave it unfinished.

Imagine a few years down the line the business is audited? Or imagine there are greener pastures to move on to which warrants selling of the business? How will new managers get the backstory? This way, former mistakes are avoided in the future. Therefore ensure these accounting records have been properly and safely stored. Safety is a big issue as in the wrong hands there is no telling what the documents can be used for.




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