How do you do your book keeping?

[jstolpe]

I am failry new to vending and would like to know how most of you keep records for you machines. What do you mark down when you go service a location? And then how do you figure out your profit from there? Im looking for a more efficient way of doing this to speed up my process.

[pp47021]

I use to do it the old fashion way when I first started...i just kept it all in my head. Then I upgraded to a pencil and paper method. Next I invested some time and started making my own excel spreadsheets which worked good until recently when I bought a route with 65 bulk locations. That route combined with my other route pushed me over the edge and I started using vendtrak. It cost me $29 a month but it is a great system. I track my expenses, commissions, income, mileage, meters for my soda machines and any thing else you can think of. Use whatever works best for you a lot of this depends on the size of your operation and what you need to be efficient and effective.

[amc-vending]

I use quickbooks premire, it will track your sales, inventory, and profit and loss statements

[musser]

I use quickbooks premire, it will track your sales, inventory, and profit and loss statements

And if you use quickbooks its a snap at the end of the year, just take a copy to your cpa and let them do the magic you are paying them for.

[Greatdane]

I too use quick books. Every receipt and invoice is scanned and attached to each transaction. One thumb drive = boxes worth of receipts. Any questions and a click of the transaction shows documentation. No more unsupported deductions for me. I keep quick books backed up in numerous locations for audit safety.

With quick books I have each location as a Customer/ account and keep track of inventory out, restocked and money taken in.

Makes it a snap to keep the mileage log book and costs to maintain each site. This is not my main income and am incorporated. I Don't want to get double taxed so I do not take a salary but can get reimbursed at the fed rate of .55 cents a mile using my personal vehicle only available for route service and sales. The milage is deducted from each sites receipts. You really can tell really quick which sites are not cutting it when it takes 56 miles round trip to the furthest site.

Greatdane

[ronsidney]

I use my iPhone and a spreadsheet on it..have all my locations in a list and every machine i have is numbered,,so when i enter a location i see the number on the machine and open that corresponding file/spreadsheet...I then either enter the counter numbers if its a crane or merchandiser etc. and it tells me the money in/prize out /commission owed etc...or when i weigh the money i put total in spreadsheet and it does the commission etc..

as far as my home books i use quickbooks also..I use grand totals and don't break it down so much like they mention above as a old vendor told me he got in big trouble for that because he wasn't 1099 folks and a audit showed he was supposed too etc..I just enter bank statements and deposit all my money in that account,every expense i use a check or debit card and i pay my other "personal" account a salary every week that my living expenses etc. all come out of..

The person i mentioned about getting audited said this.. His auditor asked him how he paid his location for rent or commission and he had record of how he was paying rent to location,,some of them where higher than the 600(i think thats amount) and he hadn't issued the 1099 for those stops ,,he was unable to claim that amount as a expense and had to pay straight income tax on it plus penalties..

Another vendor i know had same issue as that is favorite question of IRS in a audit of a vending company and He said " I don't pay them anything,,I open the machine and they get their money out and I get mine." and he got off squeaking clean as he was not issuing payment so he wasn't responsible for a 1099..

ron

[tincanprop1]

Does anyone else keep tally sheets for each machine to keep track of what sells?

[SeaTurtle Vending]

My full line accounts I track by location, not specific inventory. It is easy to tell what sells and what does not.  My bulk accounts are setup on an excel spreadsheet. I have each head set up as either sales tax exempt (food under a quarter-charity) or not (bb, toys, etc)

 

For milage I keep track of miles used and do a percentage of all car expenses at the end of the year. Talk to an accountant. there is so much more. Being an S-corp I can do so many different things that become business expenses instead of me being paid, which means a series of taxes, and then paying for it. It saves significant money at the end of the day.