Income Statement Breakdown (Part 2): Cost of Goods Sold

Over the next few blog posts, we’re breaking down the income statement so you can understand how it works, see how it impacts your business, and find new opportunities to improve your business because of it. Last week we covered the Revenue section. We started that section with Gross Sales and finished it with Net Sales.

Now we’re looking at the second section of your income statement, Cost of Goods Sold (sometimes called “COGS”). Here, we’ll add up all the costs associated with creating your product or service, and then we’ll subtract it from the Net Sales amount you came away with in the previous section.

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Tags: Accrual, Business Week, Cafeteria, Cogs, Cost Of Goods Sold, Gross Sales, Income Statement, Measurement, Money, Net Sales, New Opportunities, Raw Materials, Stools, Two Different Ways

Handling Credit Card Processing Fees (or PayPal Fees) in QuickBooks

There is always that never ending problem, where you just don’t get all of your income

Many merchant accounts (these are the people that permit you to accept credit cards) just take a monthly debit out of your bank account at the end of the month, these are easy to account for, you simply enter a withdrawal in your account register for the amount debited and categorize it as Merchant Processing Fees, which should be a COGS or an Expense (this varies by where you are located and your industry, check with your accountant if you are unsure).

However, what about those merchant accounts that take the percentage before you even get the money, similar to Paypal? This makes it more difficult to track, however, I do have an answer.

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Tags: Accountant, Accounting, Cash Receipts, Chase Paymentech, Checking Account, Checkout, Cogs, Credit Card Processing, Credit Cards, Google, Invoices, Lump Sum Fees, Matter Of Fact, Merchant Account, Merchant Accounts, Monies, Paypal Account, QuickBooks, Three Ways, Worry