Amazon launches Amazon Spark, a social sharing platform that shortens the path between product discovery and product purchase. When I was a kid, my sisters and I used to wait with breathless anticipation for the new editions of our favorite catalogue. At age 8, it was the American Girl doll catalogue–we marked the pages of…
Hate Doing This Small Business Task? You’re Not Alone.
It’s time to admit it: You hate tracking your small business finances. There, you said it. Breathe. You hate keeping receipts. You hate going through your monthly expenses and identifying them one by one. You hate matching your invoices against your revenue reports. You hate the nail-biting moment of calculating your profit and loss, wondering…
Jumping Into Ecommerce Just Got a Lot Easier
How’s this for a wacky statistic? Ecommerce is growing 23% year-over-year. 51% of Americans think shopping online is the best way to shop. Yet 46% of American small businesses do not have a website. What gives? [Tweet “51% of Americans think shopping online is the best way to shop. Yet 46% of US small businesses…
Ask Marilyn: What to Do with a Financial Windfall
When was the last time you got lucky? …No, not like that. Keep that information to yourself. We’re talking about “getting lucky” as in an unexpected windfall. A check from grandma. An unexpected inheritance. A winning lottery ticket. Buried treasure unearthed by your dog. Last month, one of our TBL Profit Planners emailed with a fun puzzle…
Accounting for Your Amazon Settlements the Right Way – Guest Post from A2X
Our pals at A2X are changing the game when it comes to automated accounting for Amazon sales and fees. We reached out to them to ask about an area that befuddles many an online retailer: cash accounting vs. accrual-based. As you’ll see, this can have a BIG impact on your business’ financial reporting…which means another BIG impact when tax…
Amazon Wins $1.5 Billion Tax Battle with IRS
Whew! We made it through another tax season, Profit Planners. Whether you had an assist or went the DIY route, we hope you spent the last week breathing deeply, letting the stress melt away, and enjoying the things in life that are free. (We hear these are the best things.) I have to say, the…
Woo-Hoo! Xero Hits 1 Million Subscribers!
You know that feeling when your sports team takes the championship. When your local school district receives a national recognition. When your neighbor’s high schooler gets accepted to a prestigious university. It’s that feeling of sharing in somebody else’s win. That’s how we felt last week when we heard that Xero had reached 1 million subscribers….
Don’t Miss This Easy Online Business Tax Deduction!
Profit Planners, rejoice! There’s a new deduction in town. Actually, it’s not that new. It’s been around since 2013. But it remains one of the most ignored deductions available to online business owners. Consider this statistic: Although an estimated 26 million Americans have home offices, just 3.4 million taxpayers claim home-office deductions. For those suffering from audit paranoia, Forbes…
Amazon Sellers — You Need This Tool!
If you haven’t discovered the joys of A2X yet…well, today might as well be Christmas for you. This nifty online tool integrates your Amazon financial data into your Xero chart of accounts. Just like magic. No more individual transaction entries. No more untangling the mess of seller fees. Just your two biggest sources of financial data, playing nice together…
Setting Up Your Online Store – A Xero Guide
Happy Monday, Profit Planners! Last month, our accounting software crush Xero reached out to Marilyn for a little help with creating a step-by-step guide for new online retailers. As always, our fearless leader delivered the goods–a simple checklist for getting the bases covered, along with a 3-step process for deciding which format works best for you. (If you’ve ever wondered…