Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Keeping track of sales

I'll be honest. I did not open up shop because I loved balancing numbers. I've never considered myself business minded. Keeping track of numbers is a bit of a challenge for me! I just like to make pretty things, haha!

But as January rolled around and a new year started, I knew I wanted to keep better track of things. With the help of my super talented husband, I created a spreadsheet to help me do just that! I thought I'd share that here in case any of you were wondering if you've made a profit yet.... (Note: these are all fake numbers I input for this example!)




You might notice a few things:

*All the numbers in red show the money I've spent (fake numbers though, remember?). Excel will do this automatically if you just put a minus sign in front of the number.

*You may or may not want to add a column on the left side for the value of amount of products you've given away for promotional stuff.

*Materials: Save your receipts, or have a little notebook handy to track how much your spending on your materials so you can input that stuff into the spreadsheet later. ALSO!! I don't count materials that I consider as an investment. For me, that would be rubber stamps, because I can reuse those over and over. For you, it might be your rotary cutter. If you want, you could create another column for start up costs.

*The right side of the spreadsheet is for money coming in. I sell advertising on my blog so I have a column for "Blog Sponsors". If you don't do this, don't add it!

*If you have other ways that money is coming in (like craft fairs), add a column for that too.

*Take your total profit (on right) and subtract your total spent (on left). Then try not to weep! Especially if you're in the beginning stages of your business, it will take a while for you to see all of your hard work and investments pay off!

Did I leave anything out? Is there a fool-proof way you track your business related stuff? If so, please enlighten the rest of us!!

Also, if you'd like a copy of this template, just shoot me an email (sarah at yesteachercrafts dot com) and I'll send it to you free of charge. Because I like you!

20 comments:

  1. Maybe this will motivate me. I have been avoiding this for so long!

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  2. The hard part for me is remembering to fill it out! It'll be months later and I'm trying to remember what I did and where I "filed" all of that paperwork in the mound of stuff on my desk! ;)

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  3. You are so organized. I'm jealous. Organization is not my specialty. Haha.

    My son has also noticed girls recently. I think that's where the clothes drama is coming from. But I post about that soon. hee-hee.

    Have A Wonderful Day Friend!

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  4. i so need to do this...i spend way more than i make. i know that for sure;0
    gina

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  5. wow this is great! thanks for posting!

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  6. Thanks for this!! I started doing this...then I stopped. Ugh!! Sometimes there are things I just *don't* want to do!! But this looks really easy!! thanks Sarah!!
    xoxo

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  7. oh my gosh!! i NEED this!! i don't keep track of anything, soo bad!! emailing u now!! :)

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  8. I need to do this SO BAD! Thanks for providing a helpful example on how to go about doing it - I keep an excel sheet to keep track of the items I've sold, what needs to be made, shipped, custom orders, etc. But, I really need to go through my HUGE box of receipts and be better organized! haha

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  9. hi I'm Erika and I'm terrible at math.

    I still count on my fingers.

    You (and the husband) are brilliant! Thanks for this!

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  10. I am the worst bookkeeper! This looks simple enough that I might could keep it up...maybe, hahna!!

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  11. Wooooow. My mom and I were JUST talking about how much I need to keep better track. You rock!!

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  12. I'm with Kelli on this one. I got so excited to track everything once I (finally) set up all my worksheets... then I move on to the next project and forget to keep it up... and then I'm scrambling. It does feel really really good though when everything is current!

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  13. i secretly love spreadsheets...then again, i'm a super nerd. but i love what you have here. simpler is better i think. :D

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  14. i still need to do this. i have all my receipts and have things written down in a notebook but would like to get it on excel. thanks for the inspiration!

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  15. I would so love a copy of this, I'm in need of keeping better track of business things :)
    Thanks,
    sparklesandbugs@hotmail.com

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  16. Over from Three's 4 me. That's awesome. I'm a spreadsheet, list making mad-woman! Love it!

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  17. So smart...and I love me some spreadsheets! Thanks for sharing.

    Best,
    Emily from Nap Time Is My Time

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  18. Hi Sarah, I am dropping in via Three's 4 Me Small business month challenge. And must I say you are organized! I am looking forward to reading everyone's challenges...also I have an idea for free promoting small business over at my blog if you are interested:)

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  19. I should start this right away huh? Im going to try this out. thanks for the reminder- its probably pretty important :)

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  20. WOW this is so amazing and informative!!! This is EXACTLY what I need!!

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