Bookkeeping for retail

[RicSpooner]

We are a small manufacturing business who've recently opened a shop to sell our products (and competitors’ products) directly to retail customers.

Our existing bookkeeping via QBO has been very simple but the additional liabilities, expenses and revenue associated with the shop has added a layer of complexity I’m struggling to simplify.

I toyed with the idea of keeping a totally separate set of accounts for the shop, as though it were a separate business but there were too many unanswered questions in my head regarding how those accounts would be merged with the main company accounts at a later date. I also considered just providing the MD with a simple day/week end report of sales but this wouldn’t account for operational expenses for the shop, or track stock/sales in the way I require. I’m struggling to find a simple accounting solution that would allow me to track the incomes and outgoings of the shop.

The majority of expenses are paid for from the company bank account but I also use cash from the shop to make small purchases which must be tracked in some way. I would also like to have a system which allows me to easily create detailed reports of stock movement, margins, etc, without using a financial package (QBO etc) which might cause confusion later.

Can anyone offer advice or provide links etc which might help?

(This is my first post, I apologise if my question is unclear or deficient in any way.)

 

[@aiteoconsulting]

I'm not sure why using QBO instead of a manual system now would cause confusion later. More likely the other way around!

You can separate out business streams within QBO by using the Class or Location function. Typically the 'Class' category might be used if you have cost centres (such as HR, Sales, Central Management etc.) and then these costs would be allocated to a 'Location' - or a business stream.

But if you don't have detailed cost centres, you could use the 'Class' function to split out the Manufacturing and Retail costs & revenues. 'Class' is a little more flexible, as it's easier to split these out line by line on a journal.

 

[RicSpooner]

Hi, thank you for your reply.

Sorry, I should have explained that we are (trialing at least) two QBO accounts for reasons I won't go into here; that is what I meant by accounting as two seperate companies and the reason I anticipate problems in the future.when those accounts are merged (weekly, monthly, etc).

I really just want a solution that will allow me to record income and expenses, track stock, and produce reports about for the shop without it being a simple list of transactions.

Could I, for example, echo the current General Ledger catagories in a seperate excel sheet for the shop and then provide that information to the MD periodically without having to balance each entry? That seems simple enough but how would I differentiate, for example, between expenses paid for from shop cash-on-hand and those paid for from the company bank account...this is where it starts to confuse me.

If it were a simple case of tracking the stock purchases and sales then I could easily do that via an EPOS system, but I have other expenses like Advertising, Office Supplies, Utilities, etc for this location.

If I had easy access to an accountant I would obviously take advice from them, but for now at least, the advice I recieve here is my best shot at getting this right.

 

[@aiteoconsulting]

I still don't understand why you want to use a separate Excel sheet, when the Class and/or Location function will do what you want.

 

[RicSpooner]

Simply because I don't have access to the company QBO, which I understand isn't in the best shape right now. I want to make sure my end of things is properly accounted for and provide information back in the clearest, easiest to merge/import form possible. If I had access to the company QBO this would all be considerably easier, but that just isn't an option for me at this point.

 

[Blue Sky Accounts]

Are you selling things with bar codes on them?