book keeping.

I thought I had a good plan on keeping my books straight at the start of the year. Well...I was WRONG!!!! They where so mixed up it was hard to really see what was going on so a few months before the end of last year (2011) I was working on finding a new way and was going to build my own books like I did for that year but...add a few things to them to make it work better.

Long story short...that was not going to work either...it would either take way to much of my time to do...and or not have the info I need WHEN I need it.

So....i started to see what was out on the market and at first...was looking at scrap yard programs...none of them seem to fit what I wanted. Yea they followed the scrap...but I want to follow both scrap, money and the time spent on each things to make sure I keep things good on my pockets.

Quickbooks....yea..quickbooks.

I use the inventory to track my scrap and what I paid for it and a running cost per pound.

Time charts to keep logs of all of that and what was over all done per that day using the jobs part of quickbooks

P&L's are very easy to read and has alot of info on one page...you can really see whats going on fast.

I love the accounting system that will help keep track of whats in your bank, cash box, credit cards and loans.

And so many other things....so if you had not had time to look into quickbooks you may want to..I think it was worth it and very helpful

Just tossed a few lines and hope it will be of help to another person.

I've been looking into Quick books for a while. I'm interested in their version with the cash register and POS system. I wonder how easy it is to import my records from MS Money?

Today was one of my tax days for the store. Month end, Quarter end and Year end paperwork.

IRS-941 Monthly payment and Quarterly Report
IRS-940 Annual payment and Report
IL-501 Payment
IL-941 Quarterly Report
Annual W-2 Filing
Annual W-3 Wage Report Filing
Illinois ST-1 Sales Tax Monthly Report
Wisconsin ST-12 Sales Tax Annual Report (Yup, have to file in two states. So much fun)
IDES Quarterly Report

Now to start on the 1120S Annual filing for the company and the personal returns. I really hate the paperwork end of the business. I really need to turn over some of it to the accountant, my admitted problem is I hate turning over anything to an outside person.

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Originally Posted by Midnight

I've been looking into Quick books for a while. I'm interested in their version with the cash register and POS system. I wonder how easy it is to import my records from MS Money?

Today was one of my tax days for the store. Month end, Quarter end and Year end paperwork.

IRS-941 Monthly payment and Quarterly Report
IRS-940 Annual payment and Report
IL-501 Payment
IL-941 Quarterly Report
Annual W-2 Filing
Annual W-3 Wage Report Filing
Illinois ST-1 Sales Tax Monthly Report
Wisconsin ST-12 Sales Tax Annual Report (Yup, have to file in two states. So much fun)
IDES Quarterly Report

Now to start on the 1120S Annual filing for the company and the personal returns. I really hate the paperwork end of the business. I really need to turn over some of it to the accountant, my admitted problem is I hate turning over anything to an outside person.

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Hey Midnight, is all that just for your scrapping business or another business?

My scrapping isn't to that level yet. It's for a retail store.

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Originally Posted by Hypoman

Hey Midnight, is all that just for your scrapping business or another business?

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If you have gmail or use google voice for your number try using GOOGLE DOCS doc.google.com http://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=....docs#document I have found some google stuff there

I've been using Quickbooks Simple Start for three years. It's free and easy to use. A lot of features I don't even need.

Being that I'm a one man show I started keeping the books the old fashioned way. I have a little composition book where all my weigh slips, fuel tickets, and receipts for any other pertinent expenses go. I keep a running tally of loads, expected payout and what the yard does pay me. At the end of the year I simply go through my book for the final tally and check against the weigh slips, etc. For now, it's simple, easy and does not consume a lot of my time. Besides, I got tired of running everything through the computer for years. As a sole proprietor it is a lot easier since I have no employees, or other weekly or quarterly filing requirements.

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Originally Posted by Midnight

I hate turning over anything to an outside person.

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Right there with you...I've always kept my own books and filed the 940's,941's,W-2's,1099's,FUTA all that happy crap at the Federal and State level. I did start using Turbo Tax about 8-10 years ago and that's a big help. I tracked everything on a daily basis and then totals by job and quarters of the calendar. My fiscal years start on Jan 1 to avoid confusion.

Yes it is a pain to do yourself but knowing at any given time where you stand has always been a comfort to me.

I should add that I have been my only employee for the past 1/2 dozen years or so, simplifying things quite a bit. It just became to hard to compete when the labor I was using preferred beef over beans, and was legal.

I have used google docs but still it did not have as much info.

If you are getting scrap for free then your recording is simple. With me buying and selling I have to keep paper work on each person and what they sold me like any other scrap yard but on top of that I also have to keep track of how many pounds I have on hand..where my money is going (food, labor, scrap, shop, tools, reapirs and so on) so trying to keep track of it at the start of last year was simple as I only had a few things I had to put into my book but now i can have as many as 50+ line items i have to record....that takes a good bit of time!

With quickbooks I can record them fast an easy but have great reports as well to help SHOW me where the money is going.

Another thing you can find...are people who will charge you from $200 to $400 a month (yes a MONTH) to keep up with your quick books...you send them all you sales slips, buy slips and anything else and they will record it all and at the end of the year do your taxs...now I am not going to do that as I can handle right now...but I think I maybe using something like that sooner or later.

I'musing Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions

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Originally Posted by easyrecycle

I'musing Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions

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I am using the same..well version 9.0 so now sure what version yours is.

Never thought of using it for scrapping, but it is a good idea. What did you classify your company in the program as?

Thanks KZ, you just reminded me that I forgot to do my 1099s. They are a pain. Well the form isn't hard, but determining which version of the 1099 for the specific transactions can be. There are about a dozen different types and the IRS was even stumped when I called on one.

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Originally Posted by KZBell

Right there with you...I've always kept my own books and filed the 940's,941's,W-2's,1099's,FUTA all that happy crap at the Federal and State level. I did start using Turbo Tax about 8-10 years ago and that's a big help. I tracked everything on a daily basis and then totals by job and quarters of the calendar. My fiscal years start on Jan 1 to avoid confusion.

Yes it is a pain to do yourself but knowing at any given time where you stand has always been a comfort to me.

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quickbooks...have been putting that off for years. Simple excel spreadsheets worked for the longest time but they don't work together as well as quickbooks goes.

You might have just talked me into it! :)

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Originally Posted by IronPirate

quickbooks...have been putting that off for years. Simple excel spreadsheets worked for the longest time but they don't work together as well as quickbooks goes.

You might have just talked me into it! :)

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excel sheets are GREAT if you are doing things on a small scale...but when you are spending a few grand a week/month you want to keep very good paper work so you KNOW what is going where.