I have a successful e-commerce retail site which has blossomed from 15k its opening year, to anticipated sales approaching 100k this year. Its becoming a accounting nightmare, the days are long, emails are numerous, & phone bills above average.I also have a fulltime job, which insures family finances are stable.
My dream is to initiate the business for my children to have as they approach a responsible age, as well as financial dependance when I decide to quit the 40 hr work week.
My problem is disciplining myself in regards to accounting. I find myself wadding receipts in my pockets after office supplies are bought, not printing online purchase receipts, just all around terrible accounting and bookeeping skills! Come tax time, im going to be in a world of hurt if i dont get things turned around.
My only accounting records are with Quicken Invoices for customer purchases. It includes products purchased, sales tax, and shipping fees, as well as dates and payment methods, receipt/transaction ID's. What do i do for storage fees, vehicle use, office supplies, postage, etc. How do you just keep track of everything, and get the packages out in a timely manner???

I think you need to upgrade to the full version of Quicken, you'll be able to track those expenditures there. Frankly, QuickBooks is the way to go IMO.

Have you thought about getting help? Maybe someone to answer emails and do your bookkeeping? Not that I'm thrusting myself down anyone's throat.... But have you ever thought of getting a virtual assistant? A VA can handle your emails, do your bookkeeping, enter purchases into your databases, even help you communicate with your customers better. A VA is not like an employee, you wouldn't have to pay any taxes or benefits or anything like that, and you only pay for the time that person works...so if you only need 1 hour a day, you can just hire them for that hour.

Like I said, I'm not trying to sell myself on you, I just think that what you're talking about is a terrific example of why people decide to work with VAs. You're going to wear yourself out!

Even though it's a teeney, tiny, intsy, bitsy plug for herself, I will back up Jennifer's plug and say you need help.

Whether it's a flesh and blood bookkeeper, maybe part-time, or outsourcing your bookkeeping as per Jennifer here, some sort of staffing will give you leverage.

It sounds like your skills should be kept focused on growing the business, not the mundane operations as entering in "Check # 1034 for $450 on account # 84982" Office supplies can be ordered online easily now and you could even delegate that if you don't have time to fish the Office Depot or Staples website.

BTW, as a business owner, I'm terrible with this aspect of the business too. All the more reason to get help to organize you.

Also, remember, there's internal accounting, which it sounds like you are using Quicken for that and there is what I call tax accounts (your bank accounts). At the end of the day, if you have 50 sales and you took in $1000 in revenue and you paid out $500 in overhead, that is what is tracked by Quickbooks. You don't have to get complex with this - sometimes a one-write system works OK, esp. if you don't have employees. But yes, Quickbooks is the industry standard that your accountant will look at at the end of year to see what you made and what you spent to prepare your tax return.

But I'll say this - I'll swear to God that Quickbooks doesn't work very well at all, if you don't have somebody (you or an assistant) pushing the computer keys and inputing information.

In fact, the program just kind of seems to sit there. If it were an employee, I'd fire it.