Lessons
Intro & Overview of Bookkeeping
20:03 2Why Bother Bookkeeping?
17:50 3Your Sustainable Wage
12:26 4Cash vs. Accrual Accounting
12:17 5Chart of Accounts
13:12 6Understanding Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
17:28 7Marketing and Selling
07:27 8Product Development
33:22Covering the Bases: Labor and Insurance
04:41 10Sales Tax: Consumption, Sales, & Service
10:48 11Understanding VAT
10:43 12Sales Tax: Retail & Prepaid
05:09 13Bookkeeping for Income
13:17 14Understanding Inventory & Equity
32:13 15Bookkeeping for Expenses
19:25 16Updating Your Inventory Effectively
27:16 17Tracking Your Expense Receipts
18:58 18Keep Business & Personal Separated
06:51 19Product Profitability
21:23 20The Value of Your Materials and Outsourcing
22:54 21Product Choices and Marketing Spheres
15:06 22Demonstrating Your Market Knowledge
23:29 23Documenting Money Flow
33:38 24Identifying Profit and Loss
25:50 25Budgeting Forecast and Goals
25:47 26Cash Flow Forecasting
25:32 27The Four Ps and the Importance of Pricing
07:24 28Pricing Formulas
08:18 29Pricing Etiquette Don't
16:12 30Return on Investment (ROI) of "Free"
18:59 31Focusing on Free
08:31 32When to Reinvest or Take Money Out
07:36 33Personal Finance
24:01Lesson Info
Marketing and Selling
Let's move on to marketing and selling this is the next big category that I like to look at uh especially as a creative professional these air probably your next biggest set of expenses um selling fees unless you own your own store you're going toe probably pay a lot of selling fees um you've got selling fees if you sell on marketplaces like etsy or if you use um e commerce tools like a big cartel or shopify stuff like that um craft fair fees that's another big one if you show a sight on your own but with the cost of developing that site counters selling fees here uh, well in general I put web expenses under the advertising and promotion but if you wanted to separate it out such that say um your domain name and your web design were under advertising and promotion and the you know, the plug in that you bought just to handle the e commerce part of it was under your selling fees I suppose you could do that. Um here's the lovely thing about the chart of accounts except for a couple of smal...
l categories um and this will very little bit from country to country depending on like what's taxable and what's not it doesn't really matter where you put stuff it doesn't matter which account you assign to your expenses or your income as long as it makes sense to you so if it makes sense to you to put the cost of that website underselling fees as opposed to advertising and promotion that's totally fine no no like government officials going come like banging down your door and say you miss categorize that that should be in advertising and promotion and you put it in selling fees if to you it's a selling fee and you want to track get as such go for it you can do that uh in most cases it's really up to you it's whatever is most useful to you and what you want to look at in order to make decisions for your business uh merchant service fees is the next item down I talked about that a little bit earlier to um that covers payment processing so like we talked about papal charges merchant service fees at sea when they do they're directs check out charges merchant service fees it's usually around two and a half to three and a half percent um a few something like square uh to collect payments of craft shows that kind of thing they always take a little bit off the top for processing those credit cards um and that stuff can add up I mean, if it's two and a half percent of everything you sell that's not nothing um that's worth tracking for sure and when you added on top of the selling fees and then next down the list the commissions like let's look at this for a second you've got let's, let's take etc for example and we're gonna cover this in way more detail in the bookkeeping for etc uh class you've got a twenty cent listing fee for your item and then when it sells uh you've got let's say they customers paid with direct check out you've got um I think it's three and a half percent for the merchant service fee another three and a half percent for um thie commission that they take and so then you've got, you know, seven percent plus of everything that you're selling your losing right off the top right so that's something that you would definitely want to track and make sure that you're building into your pricing um and building into all of your calculations um commission's come up most often I think in those online marketplaces these days he used to be that some craft fairs would charge you a commission on everything you sold either instead of or in addition to the booth fee I didn't really know of many that do that anymore because how on earth do you track that right? Like how do you track people down and be like, well, I know that you sold three hundred dollars more than you said you did so I want my cut um but if you were to pay for example, a sales rep to take your products around to retailers, try and get them in stores. They take a commission for sure. S o that would also be part of your commissions. Can result. Verifies what I imagine. People who perhaps all too sore for using their work. Absolutely that's. A great example. If you sell in a gallery or in a consignment shop, for example, a lot of craft or sell on consignment. Um, that outlet will take a commission and that's part of your selling expense, right? Advertising and promotion. We talked a little bit about this. This is a pretty broad category. Um, some examples here would be like we mentioned business cards if you sponsored an event, uh, if you took place in a took part in a trade show, for example, um, any of that stuff, if you, um, you know, participated in a craft fair, you could put the craft fair booth fee either under your selling fees or under your advertising and promotion, much like your business cards. Um, it's kind of up to you. How you want to categorize that. And then there are other marketing and selling expenses under there, too. I've put his examples registering intellectual property, so if you put a copyright or a trademark in place on your work or um I don't know, maybe even a patent if you figure it out like a really cool way to work with metal or like a brand new way to print on fabric um yeah, that would work too. Yes, display cases and all that stuff be under advertising and promotion or would that be a selling fee or I guess you answered and said it it's just a song is your consistent with it and like, if you hire photographer to photograph your work as well, is that still, I guess it's advertising promotion let's go too the next page? Because I think I would put most of those things in one of these other expense categories actually again, it's up to you. How you want to categorize this? However, this makes sense to you. Um, if you think of your display cases as a marketing expensive, that is like an integral part of your marketing plan. Tto have these display cases be part of your business? Go for it? Absolutely put it part of your marketing, uh, account as opposed to, like, your office supply account. Um, if it's part of your marketing plan yeah, categorize it that way. Um, if it's just sort of a standard, you know, retail fixture, uh, then you might want to put it under your if it's really expensive, you might want to put it under the assets section that's for really big capital purchases, like equipment. Um, so if it's a really big, fancy, expensive display case, you could stick it under there. Um, if it's more run of the mill, not something that you have is part of any, um, deliberate marketing plan, probably office expenses.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Aleks
There is so much fantastic information in this course that I had to purchase it even though I watched the free broadcast. It's real hands-on stuff, not a general description of what bookkeeping might be, but an actual guide to manage your business' finances. Thank you for all the insights and workbooks! I highly recommend this class.
Bekah Kitterman
Months after watching the live broadcast of this course, I am still so glad I bought it. I find myself coming back to it over and over again just to refresh my brain on how to manage all of my numbers. I'm new at having a business and doing my own bookkeeping, and this course has been extremely helpful as a tool to help me set things up well and keep me on track. Highly recommend especially for those new to business and bookkeeping or intimidated by taking care of your numbers!
Carla Sam
Wow, this course was jam packed full of insightful information (not just about book keeping!). Lauren was great at simplifying the process! Even though I watched most of the 2 days free broadcast, it was a wise investment to purchase the course and now I can re-watch at my leisure and fully take it all in. Thanks Lauren! :D