How do the ebayers out there use quicken to track purchase, sales, shipping, and profits? Obviously, you would need to separate items bought for resale from the items purchased for personal use. Say you bought a box of books at a garage sale for $20, how would you record the purchase and sale in Quicken.?
Any tips would be appreciated.
Don
If you buy things for resale on eBay, you will need another special account to track those. Call it Resale COGS. COGS is an accounting term which stands for Cost of Goods Sold. They represent the cost of the stuff you are trying to sell. Transfer into this account everything related to your resale -- cost of the item, your eBay fees, shipping, and the money you receive from the buyers. Once in a while, enter an adjustment to zero out the account. This adjustment is your profit.
For example, suppose you bought something for $50 with a $30 mail-in rebate. You sold it for $50 on eBay. You eBay fee is $5. Shipping cost you $6. How do you enter your transactions?
credit card: charge $50 (split) transfer to Rebates $30 transfer to Resale COGS $20
credit card: charge $5 (eBay fee) transfer to Resale COGS $5
cash: spent $6 (shipping) transfer to Resale COGS $6
checking account: deposit $50 transfer from Resale COGS $50
Your Resale COGS account now has a balance of -$19. This means you had a profit of $19. Zero out the account by entering:
Resale COGS: deposit $19 Resale Profit (this is a category, not an account): $19
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