So some of you already know this but if you don’t,  I’m kind of a nerd!!!   I love an excel spreadsheet, I mean after shopping and eating – my next favorite thing to do is play with Excel … I know, it’s weird.    Along those same lines … I LOVE QUICKBOOKS … I loved working with it at my store and was borderline (well actually probably not borderline) obsessed with entering everything and keeping up with my paperwork.    This seems even more crazy when you realize that I was pretty poor most of the time (until I hired my Management One Affiliate) and did not have a ton of money  — so why would I want to look at my checkbook all the time?!?!?!

Well, the main reason (besides just being a nerd) is because I wanted to know at ALL times how much I had or didn’t have and where every penny had been spent.     I am constantly amazed at how many business people cannot answer the question … What are you monthly expenses?   There are a few reasons for this …..   A) They do nothing to track these things, B) leave it up to someone else and never look at the information the third party provides to them, or C) they have paid someone to do it who has done it incorrectly and therefore the info they are looking at isn’t correct.

We spend most of our time with our clients talking about inventory and the balance and flow of said inventory – but since Inventory is usually your single biggest expense in a retail operation – all of this goes hand in hand.     You need to have a handle on your inventory and what is coming in when but you also need the same grasp and knowledge of your other monthly expenses.        If you are a store that is struggling with cash flow and someone is doing a cash flow projection for you based on sales and receiving numbers but you give them an incorrect number for you other expenses – there is no way that cash flow can be correct and it’s not the fault of the person presenting it.

There are multiple ways you can track your expenses but I really like QuickBooks for this task.     It seems daunting to start using it if you haven’t but the knowledge it can provide is crucial to your business.    But ….. Don’t try and set it up and get it running by yourself if it makes you nervous!!!    One of the benefits of working with The Project: Retail is that we have experts (nerds) that can help you get started and make sure you doing things correctly to get the most out of your QuickBooks and in turn provide us with the most accurate information.     Send us an email if you have any questions or want more information about this service.

TRUST ME …. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A NERD TO TAKE ON THE TASK OF TRACKING YOUR MONEY!!!!!