How do you track income and expenses?

[JSPhoto]

Just curious how you track your income and expenses from photography, whether it's old fashion ledger book, software, combination of both. I use Quickbooks Pro, but only because I got a heck of a deal on it, it's not something I would buy normally.
I will say it makes the taxes a lot easier, one quick look and I know what I made or spent. Now if I can just catch up entering all these reciepts sitting in front of my monitor

JS

[mjs1973]

Last year I was able to keep pretty good track of my photo income in my head. That should give you a pretty good Idea of how much I made. I'm not a pro, but this year I started a simple spread sheet to keep track of photo income. As for expenses... well I don't want to know how much I spend. I do have most of my reciepts, but I have never totaled them. Perhaps this year will be dif. depending on what I bring in with photography.

[JSPhoto]

I'd forget that day so I keep track of everything....must be old age ...hahaha
As for expenses, last year was over $10,000...but I got some nice new gear

JS

[Photo-John]

I'd say, if you're making money, you're a pro. And you should write off your expenses. Unless you don't intend to ever make a profit.

[Photo-John]

I keep check stubs from clients and total them up at the end of the year. I like getting a 1099 because that helps, too. And since I do some barter, I'll include that on my taxes, too. I also invoice for all the work I do, so I can use those invoices to track my income. There are usually a few holes that I have to fill from memory.

For expenses, I just save all invoices and reciepts and at the end of the year I categorize and total them using Excel.

I keep thinking about getting some real business software and keeping a running total. But I suck at actually inputing the data. I know it would make my life easier, though. I'm curious about photo-specific software people might be using. I know there is software that will track photo jobs, do invoicing, and basically help you manage the business of photography. I'd like to hear from someone using software like that.

[racingpinarello]

I download every bank statement into Microsoft Money and as I reconcile, I assign an asset expense, or a business expense. My personal expenses are also designated so I can keep a budget.

At the end of the year I have copies of my bank and credit card statements and a report from Money for the government.

When I went to see my tax person he said that I was the most prepared that he's seen. Money is a great report because it will subtotal and break it our for you as well. It takes some work on the front end and you have to reconcile your accounts but you should do it anyways because of fraud.


For income I also track that through my bank statements, and have it match up to an invoice. For barter, I include that as a reduction to expense as an estimate/job sheet.
Loren

[shutterman]

Quickbooks.

I have beena quicken user for years and years (for personal stuff) and when I started making money off the photo stuff going to quickbooks was easy. At tax time I make a copy for the accountant and email it over to her and she takes care of the rest.

I also try to keep every receipt/bill etc but I love the quickbooks.

[masdog]

I have Peachtree, which is a hold-over from when I tried running my own computer consulting business. I really don't know how to use it, but my accountant(grandfather) prefers that I use it since that is what he is comfortable with.

[JSPhoto]

Some interesting responses, which is one reason I put the question up. The other was as Photo John points out, there are some photography specific software programs for us to use and I too would like to hear about those who are using them. I really like Quickbooks Pro but it really isn't that great for this business. It gets really interesting when doing the varied types of things I do and keep it all straight. I have some ideas but have yet to find anything that would do everything I'd like. Most seem to be light on customer data, calendar & scheduling capability and so on.

JS

[racingpinarello]

Most seem to be light on customer data, calendar & scheduling capability and so on.

JS

With the premium/small business Microsoft Money you can invoice and have a/r included. I have it tied into my Microsoft Outlook for my scheduling (you can designate your appointments by type/color).

Then I can download all of this data on my Treo 600 to have a mobile way of keeping track of my appointments, contacts, etc.

disclaimer.... I don't work for Microsoft.

[JSPhoto]

With the premium/small business Microsoft Money you can invoice and have a/r included. I have it tied into my Microsoft Outlook for my scheduling (you can designate your appointments by type/color).

Then I can download all of this data on my Treo 600 to have a mobile way of keeping track of my appointments, contacts, etc.

disclaimer.... I don't work for Microsoft.

My problem with MS Money is:
1: subscriptions
2: data on line

too many chances for hackers to get into my financial matters, and I do not trust MS enough to trust them with my financial matters.

JS

[racingpinarello]

My problem with MS Money is:
1: subscriptions
2: data on line

too many chances for hackers to get into my financial matters, and I do not trust MS enough to trust them with my financial matters.

JS

Well, from my own interaction with MS Money is that I don't subscribe to anything. My bank interacts with MS Money or Quick Books and all of my data lays on my drive in an encrypted file. I pay $7.95 a month to US Bank to pay all of my bills online through US Bank and MS Money. I save about $10 in postage since I have a lot of bills for my wife, me, and the photography business.

Anybody, if they want, could hack into a home computer so the drive that I keep my financial files is turned off when I don't use it.

What type of subscription are you talking about that would make you pay a monthly fee? Also the data content being online? I certainly don't want you to use something that you are not comfortable about, but I don't want others to turn down a viable option if it may work for them. Maybe we are talking about two different programs.

Loren

[adina]

I use quickbooks. It's what my accountant is familiar with. All my $ info goes in there. All customer info is entered, but is also in my $80 red leather planner from Franklin Covey. I make a lot of calls from the car or the coffee shop, so it's nice not to have to log on and pull all that up. Dh wanted to know why I got the planner instead of a pda, but I like to have that paper and pencil still.


Once I really get going, I might look at www.photoonesoftware.com but am not that far yet.....

[freygr]

Just curious how you track your income and expenses from photography, whether it's old fashion ledger book, software, combination of both. I use Quickbooks Pro, but only because I got a heck of a deal on it, it's not something I would buy normally.
I will say it makes the taxes a lot easier, one quick look and I know what I made or spent. Now if I can just catch up entering all these reciepts sitting in front of my monitor

JS

I use two very different program to keep tack of my income and exspenses. 1) a DOS Database program (rbase)(and old). 2) a Spead Sheet. I havn't make that much so it really hasn't been a problem. But last year 2005, the income jumped from a few hundred to a few thousand so it may become a problem. I just may have to write that database program if I can find the time..... ;)

GRF

[JSPhoto]

DOS! wow, hadn't heard that one ina while Haven't used DOS in so long....and it's probably been 10 years since I used an actual DOS program.

JS