Booking Keeping

[Tony_1985]

Hi Guys,

I have been weighing up the pros and cons of starting my own online shop or going down the route of using eBay as my online shop.
I have decided to go down the eBay route due to the amount of potential customers. I will be selling diecast models, trains, cars, bikes, planes etc etc

I want to do everything legal so I don't want to start trading on eBay before I'm self employed. What I want to know is, how hard is book keeping for a eBay business? Is it really as simple as keeping 2 folders "money in" & "money out"

Thank you for taking the time for reading this,

Tony

 

[faradaykeynes]

Hi Tony, I would suggest have your own shop as well along side ebayshop. Zencart is very user friendly e-commerce platform to build e-commerce sites. If you need any help, i would be happy to help.

To Registering for Self Assessment and National Insurance contributions if you are a self-employed sole trader, here is the link https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortfor...me=&location=40&origin=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

I have a very simple FREE excel sheet to keep record for SA return, feel free to download & use it

 

[Rohit]

First question are you intending to set up as a sole trader or limited company?
Don't forget the tax implications, burden of administration i.e. paperwork and compliance will vary significantly between the two.

Secondly, are you intending to work part-time or full time on this business? Either way you will need to register with HMRC as the earlier post indicated.

Now to address your question, booking keeping isn't hard at all although you may still need the services of an accountant for example to submit your annual returns, self-assessment etc. But it really depends on you as to how much work you would want to put in this business.

Many people tend to do their own book-keeping and some even file returns when due. Again quite a lot of people would solely focus on growing their business and let their accountants get on with the dirty work.

It really depends on how much hassle you would want. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot do your book-keeping and produce a trail balance which an accountant could then use to produce some statutory accounts etc. Alternatively these days you can buy specialised software which does this automatically.

If you are aiming for high turnover, I strongly suggest you get in touch with a good accountant. Alternatively I would not worry about it and DIY.

If you do decide to get an accountant, you may also want to utilise their specialist services for example consultancy, tax & business planning. I get so many clients regularly asking me to produce yearly sales and cash projections, margin analysis, future tax planning, monthly management accounting etc not just submitting accounts to company's house or filing tax returns.

Regardless of the above, you must aim to keep good accounting records such as receipts, invoices, purchase orders etc. Failing this would have severe consequences for both yourself and the business. Please do let me know if you need any specific help on book-keeping?

 

[Joyous]

Hi Guys,

I have been weighing up the pros and cons of starting my own online shop or going down the route of using eBay as my online shop.

Online traders that I know advise having both as eBay drives “ridiculous amounts of traffic” to their shop.

I want to do everything legal so I don't want to start trading on eBay before I'm self employed.

There's no legal reason why you cant start trading even if you're already employed. You need to make sure that you register as self employed within 3 months of the start of trade.

What I want to know is, how hard is book keeping for a eBay business? Is it really as simple as keeping 2 folders "money in" & "money out"

The thing I’ve learned from my online trader clients is that once things really get going their sales tend to be low value but high volume, in which case 2 folders marked money in and money out probably won’t do it.

Bookkeeping for an eBay business is not difficult provided you do it regularly and don’t let it pile up. If you’re keeping a lot of stock you may need to consider a system that can manage stock movements. It would also be useful to have a package whereby you can upload data from PayPal or whatever other payment provider you’ll be using.

Thank you for taking the time for reading this,

Tony

You're welcome.

Regards

Joy