Simplify Your eBAY Accounting

Accounting used to be one of my least favorite parts of my ebay business.  I would save all of my invoices, and once every week or two - type in hundreds of names, addresses, email addresses, $ amounts, item #'s - You get the idea, it was long and tedious, and absolutely no fun.

About four years ago, as my business was beginning to grow I discovered ebay Accounting Assistant, and QuickBooks Pro.  It was $200 for the program, but over the long haul it has been well worth it.  I have upgraded three times, to where I am finally using QuickBooks Pro 2007, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Customer Manager, and the latest version of Ebay Accounting Assistant.

Downloading eBAY Accounting Assistant

For those of you who haven't tried it - Ebay Accounting Assistant is a simple download available on ebay that allows you to import all of your sales data, ebay, and paypal fees into QuickBooks, where you can manipulate the info anyway you choose.  Getting started takes about 15 minutes as the wizard walks you through setup, and lets you choose the data you want to import, and which accounts you want it tied to.  Other nifty features allow you to import paypal fees on a real time basis, and ebay fees on a monthly basis.

You can download Accounting Assistant by visiting ....ebay accounting assistant

Importing data into QuickBooks is also very simple.  You can choose to import everything since your last import (reccomended), or you can pick a time period to import from.  I would suggest waiting no more that two or three days between imports if you are selling any kind of volume.  I waited two weeks once, and the process took nearly 1/2 hour.  Once your data is imported - you need to perform some minor updating.  All paypal payments are inserted automatically, but if your customer is paying by cash, money order, or some other method - you need to record method of payment, and date payment was received.  After that you click on export, and all of your payment info is transferred to QuickBooks Pro.  How cool is that?

Find Help, If You Are Having Problems

If you're having trouble getting started, or something is not going just the way you hope, visit ebay accounting assistant help page at ... accounting assistant help

If you're still doing book keeping by hand, or on a simple Excel Spreadsheet - Try This.  For $200 I saved nearly five hours per week for the last four years.  Not a bad trade off.

And, did I mention - Tax time is a breeze when you add in Turbo Tax Business.

Did you find this guide helpful, if so please rate it below.  I spend a lot of time researching and writing these guides, and need you help to keep them up to date, and accurate.  If you have any suggestions, or concerns - please contact me, and if the info is accurate I will include it in the next update of this guide.