How best to track inventory.

Jinx86

Ive come to the point with my ebay store and collecting that I have many coins coming and going. Mostly I want to be able to track my costs vs my sales for tax purposes. Problem for me is entering every coin into a spread sheet and adding correct info once sold/traded. For this years taxes I have a pretty accurate numbers for what I sold but when It comes to purchases all I have is the receipts that were written/printed out for me. Also for when I buy coins by the pound or BV and pull better dates how do I show profits?

So how do others out there do it. I have 100+ coins I buy a week and typically sell 100 lots of ebay a week if not more.

LanceNewmanOCC

<< <i>So how do others out there do it. I have 100+ coins I buy a week and typically sell 100 lots of ebay a week if not more. >>



get receipts for everything and write out the things you don't get receipts for although they may not qualify at the time of an audit

and/or this

tally everything into 3 categories. 1. purchases 2. sales. 3. expenses and take it all to a CPA and they should help you break out those 3 categories even further. if you have no experience i don't recommend you tallying it all yourself. you may miss vital tax benefits etc by doing it yourself.

all refunds, consignments, your returns etc will ultimately fall into those categories. go through your checks, credit cards etc. leave no stone unturned.
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Jinx86

Guess I have some Excel work to do....So what do I do with the thousands of coins I already have? Stop buying for a few days and enter them all in one by one till I get caught up?

I have a spread sheet for my personal collection that is quite detailed.

LanceNewmanOCC

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as far as the IRS goes you just need track/report your purchases/sales/expenses, actually they probably only care about your sales but that is getting off the point.

you only need track the coins you have for your personal edification and/or insurance. if you got receipts at the time of purchase and get receipts at the time of sales then the rest kind of takes care of itself. you will probably need an estimation of your inventory at the end of the year too but i'm not getting into that one, especially in a public forum where their prying eyes can see what i say.
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Kove

Intuit QuickBooks

Once you learn how to use it, it is a huge timesaver. Moderate upfront investment for long-term savings.

BillJones

When I was a dealer I had mostly a specific ID, perpetual inventory system. I tracked each coin from the time it was purchased until the time it was sold. For very low priced items I had something like "50 Indian cents G-VG @ $25." Therefore they were carred in inventory at 50 cents each, and at the end of the year if only 20 were left the inventory would show "20 Indian cents G-VG @ $10." I did not bother to keep specifica track of all the cheap stuff. This involves a lot of work, but my business was small, and this system allowed me to calculate net income whenever I wanted to do it.

Another easier way to do it is to have periodic inventory system. You take a physical inventory at the begging of the year. You would need to list every significant item in detail. Cheep stuf could recored in bulk, like the Indian cents. During the year you record each purchase. This can be done on an Excell Spread sheet. At the end of the year you take another physical inventory. The year end calculation is this:

Beginning Inventory + Purchases - Purchase retruns and discounts (if any) = Cost of goods available for sale

Cost of good available for sale - Ending inventory = Cost of goods sold.

Sales - Cost of goods sold = Gross margin.

From the gross margin you deduct your operating expenses to get to net income.

One key is you have record your purchases and file the recepts properly. If you have all of this stuff you should have no trouble with the IRS if you get called in for an audit. Sometimes you can use cash, but it's best to conduct business with checks as much as possible because this provides you with traceable records. It's also easy to lose track of cash and have it stolen.

llafoe

Only buy/sell expensive coins... that should limit your inventory substantially!

Jinx86

<< <i>Only buy/sell expensive coins... that should limit your inventory substantially! >>



Limits my cliental substantially also...

mrpaseo

<< <i>Only buy/sell expensive coins... that should limit your inventory substantially! >>




So ahhhh.... Buy one coin at a time, sell it before I buy another one...lol. That should slow the process...

j/k

ricko

llafoe.......very funny..but also quite accurate......Cheers, RickO

mozin

I use the software database called Filemaker Pro. It is not hard to learn the basics with this software program.

Manorcourtman

<< <i>

<< <i>So how do others out there do it. I have 100+ coins I buy a week and typically sell 100 lots of ebay a week if not more. >>



get receipts for everything and write out the things you don't get receipts for although they may not qualify at the time of an audit

and/or this

tally everything into 3 categories. 1. purchases 2. sales. 3. expenses and take it all to a CPA and they should help you break out those 3 categories even further. if you have no experience i don't recommend you tallying it all yourself. you may miss vital tax benefits etc by doing it yourself.

all refunds, consignments, your returns etc will ultimately fall into those categories. go through your checks, credit cards etc. leave no stone unturned.
. >>




^^^This^^^ 3 categories. The CPA does his magic after that.

ldhair

If you want a program that can handle this try Coin Elite. You would have to enter every coin.
Coin Elite