Bookkeeping, inventory, Quickbooks and such for metalsmiths

[TwoSilverMoons]

T'is the season for taxes. I am still trying to figure out what is the easiest (ha!) and most efficient way to handle my bookkeeping. Until now I had all my raw materials in an Excel spreadsheet, item by item. I also used the spreadsheet to calculate my cost for each finished item. Most of my work is custom, so I do not have much finished goods inventory. This process is very work intensive and less then optimal to get a good snapshot of my business numbers until I crunch the total numbers.
So I just bought Quickbooks hoping it would help me out. Turns out its inventory feature is meant for goods that are bought and sold unchanged, so it is not suited for my purpose. At least that is my understanding after going thru the tutorials.

Have you found a good way to use Quickboods for tracking your raw materials and costs of sold goods, or is it really best to track this outside of Quickbooks?

[tessjordandesigns]

I'd be really interested to hear what other people are using as well. I have yet to find a good system. I've been using an excel sheet too but there has got to be an easier way!

[TwoSilverMoons]

Thank you, Tess. I was wondering if I was the only one interested in this.

I did purchase Quicbooks Pro, but it seems it is not suitable to track inventory for metalsmiths. There is a manufacturing version that costs $399, so definately too much for me.
I will make use of my free one hour consulation, but want to read my "Quickbooks for Dummies" book first. I will definately share what I have learned about the usability of Quickbooks for what we do.

My plan B for inventory is also Excel spreadsheets, and I am also hoping there is a better way than using something self-made.

[cgwhitfield]

Having started all this in the Stoneage, before PCs, I calculate the cost of metal by the square inch or lineal inch when I get the invoice. Makes it very quick to calculate the material costs for a given item. And it's as accurate as it could sensibly be.

I've also made a graph that shows the cost (from my supplier) of the various shapes and sizes of sterling I use representing different market prices. So, while I may make something from material bought 4 months ago (at a much lower price these days) I can easily calculate the replacement cost of that material, and arrive at an appropriate price.

It's all on paper. It's faster.

Everything I sell is either wholesale (invoiced) or on etsy (invoiced) so I have an accurate record of every finished item sold. Keeping it simple.

This is for my own purposes. For inventory of materials I simply weigh it all and calculate the replacement cost at the time of inventory.

[Former_Member]

"Inventory" You just HAD to use that word, didn't you?
Thank-you, though. I have never done one for metals, it's time.
I will not at this point solemnly vow to transfer all of my notes to an excel sheet until I figure out what data I want to track.

[cgwhitfield]

I swear I'd be jumping to the computer if I thought it would save any time or make it easier/better, but I've observed others. It may be easier/better for bookkeeping of course, but not for inventory control for the purposes of tracking your cost per item.

It's just not possible, or necessary, from a business management point of view to come up with an exact to the penny cost for the materials for an item. Which box keeps track of the filings you've left on your bench? Tracking material costs closer than 5% for an item is pointless. I think.

Besides, a file card with the material costs takes a couple of seconds to 'boot up'. With a lot less data entry.

[Former_Member]

Yup, file cards.
In pencil and highlighter.
In a napkin holder.
( With a handpainted goofy cat's face)
Thatsa me.

[Former_Member]

I've been interested in figuring this out myself, as a new seller here on Etsy and (hopeful) future wholesale-r.

cgwhitfield and MissToryDesigns, I'd love to hear how you guys organize individual file cards!

Thanks! :-)

[Former_Member]

This is essentially what I have on my cards:
Date, customer name and contact info,name of product sold, cost inputs ie weight of silver, cost of other materials, approx time to make, cost to customer, shipping costs, date shipped, paypal transaction ID
I seem to be adding new "fields" all the time.

[Former_Member]

Awesome! Thank you so much, MissToryDesigns!! I was doing something similar but I like to hear that this system has worked for you. I like the idea of the cards, seems like it will take up less space than my original idea--and the space thing is my issue! My studio is about 20 minutes away from my 'office' i.e. my bedroom, but I think with the cards I can do the 'office' stuff in my studio space. :) Thanks for the tips!!!

[cgwhitfield]

I do it a little differently to suit what I'm doing. Have patterns, measurements of blanks that will give various sizes, time and materials used on 4 x 6 file cards, stock numbers noted. A few larger paper patterns are scattered around in various forms, don't really need them much. This is how I started with the store (after realizing slowly the future need for a reference), and how the wholesale stuff works. The prices are in a catalogue so they pretty much have to stay the same for a year, although this year may need an update during the year. I'll check material costs if I think it's necessary.

For the etsy stuff, a lot of which is also wholesaled, I print out each etsy invoice. On this I write anything pertinent to that customer - sizing info, delivery info, whether or not I've contacted the customer by convo or email. Maybe a phone number. Keeps it all in one place, goes to the workbench when I'm making it, and then gets dumped in a file in more or less chronological order so it can be found fairly easily if, as happens, there's a repeat order. That way any notes I've made for that particular customer are easily found.

May look disorganized but it works for me. Entering all this into a computer program would seem very time consuming for no advantage.

[TwoSilverMoons]

Tracking everything on paper is starting to look really, really appealing. I have just spend hours trying to figure out how to do all this in Quickbooks and am seriously wondering if it is worth the trouble. It would have been nice to get more detailed numbers to know how my biz is doing, but the price/time effort seems rather steep.

[cgwhitfield]

Birgit, I'm all for keeping track of the health of a business. It starts with knowing the material costs for each piece. If that is known - and kept with few exceptions within a viable range - you can relax about the production part of it and focus on getting sales.

Monthly and quarterly numbers (money in/money out) will be so erratic it's not really helpful to know exactly, but if your material costs are in line and you're not being wasteful buying non-useful items, it will work out fine.

I have a percentage (over the years quite consistent) for all overhead beyond material, and also a percentage for materials depending on wholesale or etsy, that I can apply to sales figures, say for a given month, and come up with a meaningful figure for how much I made. Seems to be accurate enough to be useful.

[Former_Member]

Gosh CG, that's really important to keep track of the design! After 6 months memory lapse you have to re-invent the wheel from just a photo.
I don't have a printer and refuse to own another $%@!! for the time being so I' ve got to...where's the do list?...Print out documents.
And are there any copyright issues with printing out this thread?
There's a lot to chew on.

[cgwhitfield]

When I started there were only film cameras of course and I only have a very few photos to show for 12 years work, maybe 5? So I have lots of sketches, very rough and would mean little to anyone else, but if I look at one for a minute it all comes back.

I now reap the reward of knowing that a given style of ring using a certain material will take for example 59mm to arrive safely at a size 8. Spent too long recreating all that every time.

No idea if forum or team stuff on etsy is copyrighted. Wouldn't surprise me.

[TwoSilverMoons]

Thanks, CG. That makes perfect sense. Keeping this as simple as possible and spending the time on the important things, like selling and making sound really good.
I am still struggling a bit to find my overhead numbers, that is why I was keeping more detailed track of things. I had also hoped that after the initial setup time investment the software would actually help to do the bookkeeping stuff more efficiently. I am not yet convinced that it is worth it. I hope to come to a decision on this this week.

I am also keeping index cards with notes about projects I want to remake. My memory is so bad I would never remember all the measurements and steps to recreate a design :).

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the great ideas!!

Jenny
www.GalleonsGold.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/GalleonsGold

[TwoSilverMoons]

Is anybody using the spreadsheet from Handmadeology? http://www.etsy.com/listing/68298363/handmade-bookkeeping-spreadsheet-savings?ref=sr_list_1&ga_searc...

[Former_Member]

i got the spread sheet, looked at the inventory sheet today but couldn't figure out how to have multiples, it seemed be set up for one ofs... i emailed them a question about that
i started out with index cards when i recvd product. factored in the shipping cost, wrote the supplier product number, cost of silver at the time and then the amt and price of the item, divided the wire by inches bought since that's how i measure my earrings.
CC, so how do you figure the price of your sheet? would it be possible to get a copy of your sheet process comparing different price pts for silver?
I know I need to get this written out so i can quickly or not so quickly lol compute the sheet price
i struggled with how to get inventory uploaded to my godaddy shop i activated today and then figured out i do it on the product page. i was thinking i could import all my inventory at a time maybe that is for the future or maybe it just exports out to an excel sheet for me to use

so much to learn so little time and brain cells

[cgwhitfield]

GWC, it's just a piece of graph paper on which I plotted the cost per kg of sterling v. the market silver price that I had bought from the same supplier for about 7 years. It showed a remarkably straight line from a market price of about $14/oz to 30/0z. From there I can extrapolate for a given silvermarket price. The big but is that it will only be sensible for my supplier and the different price breakks/volume that I use. They don't have sales prices ever so there's a reliable consistency with their prices.

If you're getting various bits of silver from various places and in various quantities it's going to be hard to pin down or project material costs, but it should be doable close enough to be useful when pricing.

[Former_Member]

thanks cg.

[cgwhitfield]

GWC, in any case it's done in my indecipherably messy printing, pen and pencil combined, and is really only readable by myself. Noting that stuff on file cards may seem Stone age but it is a practical way of doing things.

[TwoSilverMoons]

Goldenwater, could you let me know if the inventory issue does get resolved and if the spreadsheet is usable for metalsmiths? I am still hoping I do not have to reinvent the wheel (= spreadsheet).

CG, now I will forever have to think about spreading the sheet when I think of Excel :).

[rainestudios]

well, a lot of folks have piped in about paper and pencil, and hardly any on doing things actually on computer, so I'll pipe up, even though I'm hardly on the ball.

I use quickbooks, and I like it just fine. I don't keep track of inventory on it or do that "assemblies" business, i just have the inventory non trackable so you don't have to enter in any quantities for products. It's great for running reports and keeping track of sales tax, and giving an birds eye view, and I can export customer addresses if I want to run a postcard campaign or something.

I do NOT use it to keep track of design notes, which I think is separate from bookkeeping. I use my design notebook for that. I also don't track my materials in it either. It's strictly a "tracking the money that goes in and out" program for me.

amy

[rainestudios]

Also, for other quickbooks users -- you may want to look into simpleport. It's a for a fee service that takes all your paypal data, arranges it to be friendly in quickbooks, and imports it all nice and pretty. Takes a little finessing, but it is an absolute godsend. Paypal in it's original form is a pain in the tookus to enter into quickbooks.

http://www.simpleport.com