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On COVED-19… As stated by NY Governor Cuomo. (Not that he says anything useful very often.) We are not going to stop the virus and many will get it. But slowing down the spread to gain time to learn and prepare. To also not have the medical support system slammed and overwhelmed.
So we are having the 20-30 something age group party on and travel around, that happens to be the age group of our first 3 cases in western NY. The bars having virus parties selling shirts etc. Friends being sent home to self quarantine are going on ski trips like its just a few days off on vacation. But those are the people who can get you killed.
I use managed payments along with quickbooks online. It works totally great!! BUT I pay $75 per month for the QuickBooks. It quickly upgraded to “advanced”. I do run other business ventures and send invoices.
Bank accounts are linked along with PayPal. Use the newer PayPal “Connect to PayPal” app. (Don’t use the PayPal Sync app. Sync is old and does not include all transactions.) Apps are something you install into your online account from the apps link. Seeing you use a Mac, I highly recommend installing the QuickBooks desktop application which makes having it on your desktop all the time a breeze.
I set up an “ebay sales” income category and the pattern of the name sent to the bank account makes it select the accounting category.
QuickBooks Online also has phone app. And now does automatic milage. You might think milage for an ebay store is not important but this feature alone pays for the $75 per month for quickbooks online advanced.
One tip: Quickbooks allows photos and PDF’s to be attached to transactions. The PayPal transactions include a HTML link to the page of the transaction with lots of information. Like the package ID’s for ebay labels etc. On a Mac, I print to PDF files and attach them to the QuickBooks transaction. This way if the info goes away in PayPal you still have it in QuickBooks.
Another Tip: Pay ebay shipping through PayPal. You can choose to have ebay take the payment for labels out of the payout money but then it won’t get to quickbooks.
So QuickBooks basically runs the office. Its not just a spreadsheet record, it now handles sales tax calculations by state (ebay does this, but what about outside ebay?) Then I see the accountant I just bring my laptop.
I no longer get customer data for every sale on ebay imported into QuickBooks after moving away from the PayPal Sync App. I don’t need customer data in QuickBooks anyway. I let ebay handle customer support info.
Quickbooks now reminds you when your state sales tax is due and what to pay.
And the number one reason to use QuickBooks over the other guys? They are very actively updating the software all the time and making it better. Its worth the extra money to have an IT support staff always working on it and making sure stuff works.
Tip for sending the wrong shoes: I store my items in labeled bins. Bins are numbered and recorded in listing SKU. A lot of people do this. But for quickly finding the correct item – every time. My listing number is tagged on each item. So if you have 2 pair of shoes that are nearly identical – you verify the listing number before packing the item.
I sell industrial switches. They all look alike but the rating for each may be different. Listing number on each item has worked well – now that “Good Till Canceled” keeps the listing number the same forever.
For those tech savvy people with a label printer, the QR Code containing the URL with the listing number (http://www.ebay.com/itm/nnnnnnnnn) can be read and decoded in the ebay app like any barcode.
I have decided to use only one market place for physical item sales. I joined ebay in 2003. I am trying UpWork as a marketplace for services. (So far unsuccessful.)
Why I switched? I like the new system from an abstraction Software Engineering prospective. I am that early adopter kind of person anyway, a risk taker. Arn’t we all? When the old system was failing, well it was time! Im a trained software guy with 30 years experience! Old systems fall out of support and fall apart. Don’t simply hang on to the bitter end with any old technology.
What can’t you sell and why? Gold, Cars, Gift Cards, Adult Sexual Items… The new payments company is in Europe and they have some different views on what a bank transaction system is willing to broker. My problem is ebay does not let you choose other payment methods for those items. Perhaps one day ebay will in-house the whole thing and open the market back up. You can already see items scroll off ebay that were huge sellers only a few months ago.
(gold coins, gift cards were tops! Now gone!)What else? PayPal gave you your funds instantly. You could be broke walking around the grocery store and have new funds by the time you reached the checkout line. Saved me many times! Managed Payments takes days. 1 day to clear from the buyer. 1 day to aggregate all your daily sales. 1 to 3 days for your bank to clear the transaction from ebay and post to your checking account.
Accounting: PayPal registered each sale to my Quickbooks system. The customer information was entered for me. ebay payments will register 1 transaction per day into my Quickbooks system. No customer info will be entered. Frankly I don’t care to have all that customer data in my quickbooks. It did help me with sales tax, but now that ebay is handling all sales tax for me, I am welcoming simple. I will just have an “ebay sales” Income category that will automatically register in Quickbooks through my bank. Shipping still happens through PayPal and is automatically an entered “Shipping and Delivery” expense category.
I should download the tax transactions from ebay for reference in case of an audit. Just to show that everything is correctly handled.On customers: ebay believes the people you meet on ebay are ebay’s customers… Not yours! payments extends this abstract idea along with the handling of taxes. Payments further insulates you from the bigger picture. It’s an object-oriented design.
What is NOT working! Apple Pay is nowhere in sight! I keep hearing about it but… No. I would have to use my Apple Card as a mastercard… Not sexy at all.
