Bookkeeping for Booksellers Is Really Getting Popular As A New Year Approaches

Bookkeeping for Booksellers Is Really Getting Popular As A New Year Approaches

10/14/06

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Earlier this year I developed a Microsoft Excel Workbook, 19 tabbed and linked spreadsheets, that keep all the records for online booksellers, but I didn't anticipate that it would be so well liked. I mean, I knew it was a real time-saver, it provided me with all the in-state retail sales tax information I needed to easily calculate my retail sales tax obligation, and that it showed me at a glance just how my online bookselling business was performing, but I didn't anticipate its overwhelming popularity with my customers. I am being told by customers regularly how much they appreciate the time it saving them and that they can instantly see how well they are doing just by looking at the graphs and charts. I guess it should not surprise me since I use it myself for the same reasons, but it does, and it is a pleasant surprise.

I think one of the reasons it is getting popular is that so many booksellers are trying to get ready for 2007, and they want to be set up and ready to use it from January 1, 2007.

Of the many customers using it, I have only had a few questions, three to be exact.

1) Would I be willing to unlock the spreadsheet to allow some customization? Partially yes, but all no because I have Ebay seller plans for it and I put too much work into it to have it changed and sold by someone else.

2) Would I consider unlocking a few of the spreadsheets to allow customization and add two unprotected sheets to allow a customer to set up a couple of their own graphs? Yes, this customer was in California and was very experienced with spreadsheets. They wanted to add a few columns to account for additional regional taxes and graph this information too.

3) Can I use the spreadsheet in Open Office? No, it is too big for Open Office, it requires the version of Excel that I stated as a requirement. I have been trying to help this particular customer find a cheap copy of Excel, but is she doesn't find one, I will accept her CD as a return. (Since writing this, I have learned that she now has Excel).

What amazes me is the lack of any questions about how to use the spreadsheet or how to make entries. I did have one such question regarding where to make an entry and whether or not it should be the list price or what the seller received from Amazon, and I didn't mention
it above, but apparently it is even easier to use that I anticipated because everyone is using is with the instructions without problem. As the developer, I certainly expected more questions than I got.

With 2007 coming soon, now is the time to consider making use of this easy to use tool. The way I set this workbook up, all you have to do to use it year after year is open it from the CD, change the year and save it on your hard drive with a different name than the previous year. It is a one-time purchase that you can make use of year after year. I do not know of any other software available anywhere that will provide you with so much information at such an inexpensive cost. You have monthly, quarterly, and annual reports and graphs. You can see in an instant what the average selling price of your books is, whether your inventory is growing or shrinking, how many books you have sold that fall within discrete price ranges, how many books you are shipping via Media Mail, Priority Mail, First Class Mail, and International Mail. There are 55 graphs of different performance measures. I think some people underestimated how many ways an engineer could torture data, but since buying my software, they have been pleasantly surprised.

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